Biblical Counseling in Action

Pastor Stefan Nitzschke is joined by J David, a police officer and biblical counselor. J shares why he became a police officer, how he got into biblical counseling, and his path through seminary and ACBC certification. J shares how he processes the brokenness that he encounters daily as a police officer as well as his advice for biblical counselors struggling with mire that they encounter. 

Jonathan Smith, Director of Technology at Faith Church and author of #RUHooked, shares insights on technology and parenting. He encourages parents to teach their children how to use technology responsibly, not just let them fail and figure it out on their own. He also encourages parents to be an example to their children, using technology responsibly themselves. You can learn more about this topic by checking out his book and by visiting faithlafayette.org/parenttech.

We are joined by Dr. Charles Hodges, practicing physician at St. Vincent Family Medicine in Indianapolis and Executive Director of Vision of Hope in Lafayette. Dr. Hodges has been practicing medicine for 48 years. Dr. Hodges shares his fascinating story of how he became involved with biblical counseling after becoming bored with doctoring. Being both a doctor and biblical counselor, those two often intersect - occasionally he’s able to use his biblical knowledge in the medical room and share the love of Christ with his patients. Other times, he’s able to use his medical knowledge in the counseling room concerning things like depression, OCD, bipolar disorder, anxiety, etc., but in a position to help people with what medicine can’t fix - sharing the sufficient principles of Scripture that give hope and help. Dr. Hodges also explains his involvement in editing the second edition of The Christian Counselor’s Medicine Desk Reference, a resource to help pastors and counselors answer questions and offer solid biblical advice for counseling those with medical issues.

Pastor Rob & Stephanie Green join us to discuss their book “Tying Their Shoes” – a Jesus-focused parenting resource. While other parenting resources exist to help expectant parents prepare for what’s around the corner, the Greens know the gospel is the best resource to ground couples in their relationships with the Lord, with each other, and with their children. They discuss the blessings and challenges of parenting and provide biblically focused training as parents prepare for their new little one. You can purchase “Tying Their Shoes” here.

We’re joined once again by Pastor Rob Green. On our last podcast with Pastor Green we talked about pre-engagement counseling, but this time we are going to discuss pre-marriage counseling. Pastor Green wrote “Tying the Knot” as a resource for pastors and counselors to use for pre-marriage counseling. His goal in this book was to emphasize Jesus on every page – Jesus at the center. You can learn more about this book and purchase it here.

Long-time members of Faith Church, Jerry & Rita Jamison, join the podcast to delve into Faith Church’s history in Biblical Counseling. They recount how Faith got introduced to Biblical counseling and how greatly the church body and ministry was impacted in those early days and still now decades later. You won’t want to miss this peek into the past.

Pastor Rob Green joins us again, this time to discuss pre-engagement counseling. You read that right, pre-engagement counseling, not pre-marriage counseling. This may be a new concept to you and Pastor Green unpacks why it is a beneficial type of counseling to couples. Pre-engagement counseling differs from pre-marriage counseling because there are different goals and questions that need to be addressed. Pre-engagement counseling asks “should we pursue marriage?” It is an intermediate check point – Should we take the next step, or should we end the relationship?

Today we’re joined by Isaac Madison who is one of our former seminary interns. Isaac just finished a three-year missionary assignment in Japan and is now back in the US raising support with the goal of returning to Japan. Isaac shares with us how his counseling training has helped him meaningfully apply Scripture and help others do the same. His counseling training has even ignited a passion to receive even more training to be further equipped to counsel others.

We’re joined by Dr. Dale Johnson, Associate Professor of Biblical Counseling at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Executive Director of the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors. Dr. Johnson is passionate about teaching and informing people about biblical counseling, especially pastors. Dr. Johnson is burdened for pastors to see the church function in a way that cares for souls. In these roles, he is able to do just that by both “catching” and training pastors before they go out in ministry or after they’ve been in ministry and realize that they need more training.

We’re joined today by Dr. Charles Ware to discuss the topic of Grace Relations. Dr. Ware explains why he chooses to use the term “grace relations” instead of our culture’s term “race relations.” Dr. Ware believes that the term “grace” gets to the root of the problem. He advocates using the Bible to transform what we say about this topic instead of listening to society. We need to view these issues from God’s Word instead of the lens of the world. For further information on this topic check out his book co-written with Ken Hamm – One Race One Blood.