Practicing Christian Leadership, Mentor's Guide, MG11

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P R A C T I C I N G C H R I S T I A N L E A D E R S H I P

Effective Counseling Preparing, Caring, and Healing

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Welcome in the strong name of Jesus Christ! After your reading, study, discussion, and application of the materials in this lesson, you will be able to: • Understand the practicing Christian leader as one who provides counsel to the people of God by providing effective spiritual direction through a careful, relevant application of the Word of God. • Correlate the concept of Christian leadership to that of God’s physician of the soul and spirit, i.e., a Christian counselor is God’s Physician, that is, in the same way a compassionate physician cares for the body of a patient, so a spiritual counselor seeks to care for the soul and life of the person he cares for. • Trace the importance biblically of the relationship of the Holy Spirit to that of the godly counselor who uses the Word of God to meet the deepest needs of his people. • Argue how the Word of God can outfit us for the task of biblical counseling, along with the Holy Spirit and good advice from others. • Envision the Christian leader as shepherd, as one who provides care for and seeks healing for the flock of God during their times of trial and distress to reestablish them on their faith journey with the Lord and his people. • Recite the ways in which the Word of God sees tribulation as an inevitable reality for all God’s people, and the unique role that pastoral care plays in interceding for them, protecting them, and caring for their specific needs in a responsive way. • Outline some of the special problems associated with offering care to souls in distress, i.e., the problem of evil, of care giving, of anger against God, and of vengeance and forgiveness. • Define the connection between Christian leadership and godly counseling.

Lesson Objectives

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