Equipping Home-Group Leaders For Biblical Counseling At Emmanuel Baptist Church, Mount Vernon, Washington

Abstract

Using Scripture to counsel people within the church is not a new phenomenon, but in recent decades “biblical” counseling has become a source of controversy within the overall Christian community. Since the leadership of Emmanuel Baptist Church committed to implement a biblical counseling ministry, they believed that one of the most effective ways to reach the congregation with an understanding of such a ministry was through home-group leaders. Therefore, the purpose of this project was to equip the home-group leaders of Emmanuel Baptist Church with a functional understanding of biblical counseling and its dynamics within the church body with a view to implementing those dynamics among their individual home-groups. Chapter 1 presents five specific goals that were associated with this project, along with a description of the ministry context of EBC. The rationale behind this project was presented in light of that context. Chapter 2 offers a biblical and theological basis for pursuing a biblical counseling ministry within a local church. Some basic practical issues related to implementing a biblical counseling ministry within a local church are addressed in chapter 3. Solutions to various challenges were sought from other churches that have successful counseling ministries. In addition, suggestions from leaders in the biblical counseling movement were presented. Chapter 4 describes the procedures associated with this project during the fifteen weeks of its duration. These procedures involved a thirteen-week class for homegroup leaders, a week of data analysis from surveys taken among class attendees, and a week of reflection upon strengths and weaknesses of the project. Findings of this project are presented in chapter 5. In general, the results were encouraging in that the class attendees gained new insights about biblical counseling and expressed more confidence in using the Bible in connection with personal counseling. Also, future plans with respect to continuing training and ministry implementation at EBC are described in chapter 5.