By Pastor Dan
As part of my responsibilities this year as we launch RELOVUTIONARY, the Lead has given me some specific material to read through as I seek to continue to grow in different areas of service to our Lord.
As you could imagine, there are many areas that would be appropriate, however, in the providence of God and after prayer and discussion it has been decided upon that I will begin by reading ‘Introduction to Biblical Counseling‘ by John MacArthur, Jr. [and yes, that is American spelling you see back there ;)]
In conjunction with this personal reading, I will also be completing a (Lord willing) weekly blog post mainly containing a quote of interest to me, and also which I think will be a blessing to pass on to all of you as well.
For this first post I want to share what could potentially be identified as the threefold thesis of the book. This should be helpful in laying out the intent of the authors from the get go, and also to give you an idea as to the tone of all that will follow in terms of the quotes that I share from the book as well.
I found this particular statement helpful because it immediately gave me insight into the direction of the book and into the particular type of material I could expect to find in the pages ahead. All-in-all this was a very helpful statement to have at the outset. I suppose it was also a bonus that I agreed with all three of the convictions which were stated? Anyway, here is the first quote (to beginnings!):
“This book is written based on the convictions that (1) God’s Word should be our counseling authority, (2) counseling is a part of the basic discipling ministry of the local church, and (3) God’s people can and should be trained to counsel effectively.” – Preface, Wayne A. Mack
With that said, you now have a better idea of what’s in store. Maybe you’ll be on board the ship with me. Maybe you’ll be fleeing the ship and hiding under a rock somewhere until there’s a new boat? I don’t know. All I do know is, I’ll be sharing a quote or so on Saturday each week. This is an important topic, one about which there is much disagreement when it comes to the relationship between the Bible and counselling. Much of that is discussed in this book quite early on. This is something we need to get right! I encourage you to chew over the post each week and seriously consider the different topics and statements for yourself. I’m sure it won’t hurt…it might even help! Win-win!
Until next week =)
Pastor Dan…signing….out!