Foundations of Biblical Counseling

   Biblical Counseling Center has a mission statement to equip local churches to do the work of discipling and counseling by its people and for its people based solely on the sufficiency of Scripture. We accomplish this through training and developing resources for lay counselors to prepare believers to care for one another (Gal 6:1-2, 9-10). As members of each church are trained to help one another, we move closer to how God intended us to function as a body! Then our world sees Christ in us and through us (Jn 13:34-35).

   BCC's most popular training resource is Foundations of Biblical Counseling. Most are afraid to get involved in the messy affairs of others because they don't know where to start and don't want to make things worse. But not doing anything often damages as well. Our Foundations of Biblical Counseling course in 18 lectures gives believers the confidence to compassionately help others in wisdom and truth.

   This course applies theology to counseling by examining God's mandate to counsel one another, the sufficiency of Scripture to address every issue anyone will face, and the doctrine of progressive sanctification. Understanding the basic elements gives a lay counselor confidence in how to structure a counseling session and why. The course then addresses anger, fear, and depression, emotions that any lay counselor will need to understand in order to biblically guide another believer through them. Guilt and forgiveness are also hot topics in counseling. Biblical concepts of the family are defined and communication principles that help relationships to succeed are identified.

   Foundations of Biblical Counseling comes with a 138 page notebook containing every lecture and plenty of supplemental materials that can be copied and used in counseling. Having this course on DVD allows the lay counselor to review the topics as needed. The course is also available online.

   Each of our training courses is approved by the National Association of Nouthetic Counselors (NANC) as well as the International Association of Biblical Counselors (IABC) to train those who want to be certified as a Biblical counselor. We have a total of four training seminars, required observation DVDs and also many mini-seminars addressing specific issues.

   Visit our online bookstore to see these courses that BCC has developed for training lay biblical counselors, as well as other training materials to help you as a follower of Christ and also as you disciple others to follow Him.

— reviewed by Jeff Temple, M.A