From Tito Mercado:

For the past two weeks I have had the joy of teaching a biblical counseling course and will continue to do so over the next two weeks. During this time, I have learned two things: 1. I have far more content than I can reasonably cover in four classes; and 2. I immensely enjoy our class interactions. As a result of these two factors, I will have to be more committed to working through the remaining content of my notes a bit more judiciously, reserving time for questions until the last segment of class time.

Having said that, I remain pleased with the content I was able to cover in the first two classes. My goal in the first class was to define biblical counseling and offer a sort of apologetic for biblical counseling and why we so appreciate the work of the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation (CCEF), as they have sought to thoughtfully and more thoroughly consider the nature of human behavior and suffering through the lens of Scripture. CCEF remains committed to serving and equipping pastors and lay leaders, as well as would-be counselors, in how to carefully communicate the hope of Christ and his gospel to those who are suffering in manifold ways.

The goal of the second class then was to speak of that suffering and the hope of Christ in a larger, more general way. In doing so, I appealed to my listeners that we must not only be able to rightly understand and handle the word of God, but that we must be able to rightly understand and handle the souls of individuals whom the Lord gives us to care for. As “ministers” of God’s word to one another and to those around us, whether in our families or otherwise, we can reveal, or “incarnate,” something of the nature and love of Christ in a way that will help those who suffer gain a larger perspective of God’s love and work in their lives, even as we pray for them in the midst of their trials.

Far from being able to deliver every person from every one of his or her troubles, the biblical counselor seeks to faithfully and with compassion understand the nature of each individual’s struggles and offer solutions that faithfully represent the truth of the gospel and of God’s word. As we do so, our hope is to communicate such truth in a way that helps our listeners make the connections of the storyline of his or her life with the storyline of Scripture. As they make those connections, they may not escape the inevitable sufferings we will all experience at one point or another, but they may be able to better grab on with faith to the hope of Christ in the gospel.

So, we will press on to some of the more practical aspects of how we can study Scripture and study people in our goal to minister the word of God to others. We will learn how to ask helpful questions and look for the “entry gates” of peoples’ lives and circumstances, gates that can serve as the open door for God’s grace to more fully inform another’s perspective.

For some of you, expressing the nature and love of Christ will come more naturally as an outflow of relationship and loving affection. For others, you will enjoy the aspects of learning and putting into practice good doctrinal instruction and a regimen of well-thought-out principles that will give a counselee the tools he or she needs to think and walk with growing maturity through painful times. We need both of you if the this particular expression of the body of Christ is to grow in its maturity. We must benefit from others with different dispositions and temperaments so that we, as counselors, might grow in the very things God is using us to communicate to others. God, grant us the humility and ability to do so.