As families gather together to enjoy fireworks in early July, many fear that relational fireworks might appear too. Family gatherings, congregation church meetings, city council meetings, and children’s playoff sporting events all have the potential for relational fireworks. How do you prepare yourself when you have to be there, but you fear the relational hurt that often accompanies volatile situations? … Read More
A Plan for Better Discipleship
A pastor at one of our Launch partnership churches, Michael Wallenmeyer, recently shared a quote he picked up at a conference, “If the disciples we are making, aren’t making disciples, are we making disciple of Jesus?” This mission is at the core of why we train churches to biblically counsel, or as we often call it “intensified, personalized discipleship.” Does … Read More
Four Disadvantages of Outsourcing Counseling
In my seminary’s counseling class, professors challenged the pastoral training class to find a good counselor or psychologist and outsource the vast majority of their counseling once they became pastors. The professors explained that the risks, frustrations, and relational pitfalls of counseling people would far outweigh the benefits that a pastor devoted to counseling might see. For many in the class, … Read More
How to Be Light in the Darkness
I had a great talk with a friend who leads a family-strengthening organization who was quite disappointed in recent developments in our home state of Illinois. Despite rallying churches and families to seek to pass moral laws, our state is seemingly unconcerned with what God thinks about many moral issues. That he was disappointed was not a surprise to me. What … Read More
How does God view you?
How does God view you? That question shapes many of our actions and reactions in life. We often find ourselves counseling with individuals who have these kinds of thoughts stuck in their head over and over again. Thoughts about God: He is ashamed of me. He is angry with me. He is so disappointed with me. He is frustrated with my choices. … Read More
Helping Churches Arrive at Healthier Place
You’re invited to our 3rd Annual Biblical Counseling Conference in greater Chicago! It’s been a rough year for many churches in Chicago this year. Scandals involving abuse of power, financial mismanagement, sexual impropriety, and cover-ups have all hit the news. Sadly, many are beginning to wonder if all churches are like this. “We have much work to do.” As a … Read More
Gun Control and Conflict Resolution: Learning to know your own heart
If you want to plunge a social gathering into chaos and hurt feelings, bring up the topic of gun control. While all sides agree that the horrific shootings we see are all too common, the preferred solutions couldn’t be further apart. Our perspective tends to reflect how and where we were raised on an issue like this. From birth to … Read More
The Bible Addresses Contemporary Issues
I had the privilege of speaking to several churches lately on the topic of suicide prevention and biblical counseling. As a counseling center, we are committed to bringing God’s word into the darkest corners so that the light of Christ shines brightly. In recent months, we have featured articles on PTSD, OCD, Abuse, and Suicide in our resource center. We … Read More
How is the warmth of your relationships?
Last week in Chicago we set records for cold weather, and the hero of my week was my new gas furnace. Despite having -50° wind-chill, our family stayed warm during the 48 hours straight that we stayed inside. One of life’s realities is that relationships, like a heater in the brutal cold, take work to stay warm. If we ignore … Read More
