For the Good of Your Soul and the Advance of the Kingdom...

I do love the ministry of the Christian Counseling and Education Foundation, based in Philadelphia, PA. I had the great opportunity of attending their annual conference this past weekend with some folks from my church. The theme / title was "Running Scared: Fear, Worry, and the God of Rest." Ed Welch was the main speaker, as he just released a book by the same title. Of all the great guys who work at CCEF, Welch is my favorite. His excellent books include Depression and When People are Big and God is Small, among several others.

These guys are true physicians of the soul. Some, who initially encounter the ministry of CCEF, might wonder what the big deal about biblical counseling is. On first brush, their counseling seems to consist of always going back to the Gospel and saying things that any average Christian might know or say. However, the depth and wisdom of this movement is only grasped, I think, by persistence and patience in seeing how the Gospel is not just the "simple" answer but is the resource that alone can be applied to any and every wound as a healing balm. Biblical counseling, in its truest form, is no mere dispensing of bible verses to a distressed person; it is nothing less than a restoration of Christ to counseling and counseling to the church (the slogan of CCEF).

Please, please check these guys out (see the link on the right).