Relational Discipleship

Biblical counseling turns times of crisis into opportunities for true discipleship

The years since the pandemic began in 2020 have been times of uncertainty, insecurity, and chaos. Amid such turmoil, there is a dramatic increase of life challenges which impact everyone, including Christians. As believers, we should look at such seasons of crisis as times of great opportunity. People in crisis are open to spiritual things. What if a Christian friend from church called and invited you out for a cup of coffee. As you visit over coffee, your friend tells you that her anxiety is getting the best of her in the current chaos. She is struggling with various thoughts and speculations which are causing her to be very concerned about the future. She is feeling extremely discouraged. The thoughts have become so prominent they dominate her time and negatively impact relationships with her family and even the Lord. What would you say to her? Would you try to provide words of encouragement? Show compassion and tell her you were struggling as well? Would you give her some advice based on your experience or common sense? Would you offer to provide some help or service during her difficult days?

While any of these responses might be helpful, they would all miss the opportunity to provide biblical counseling. “But I’m not a counselor,” you might say. In reality, we are all counselors whether or not we recognize it or want to be. People come to us for counsel, and we provide it even though we might not consider it to be counseling. Our natural response to someone who comes seeking informal counsel is to share common sense advice or advice based on our experience. When we do this, we miss an opportunity to minister God’s Word.

Biblical counseling is, in essence, helping people find answers in God’s Word to their struggles. It is intentional, intense discipleship. Scripture has much to say about anxiety. When I first began to be intentional about ministering God’s Word to others, I started making notes in the blank pages in the back of my Bible. The first one said, “Anxiety—Philippians 4:6.” I recognized this verse would be very helpful in ministering to someone struggling with anxiety. I wrote it down in the back of my Bible because I knew I might forget it and so I could locate it when I needed it. I have since used the verse many times to help people struggling with anxiety.

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:6 NASB).

As you have coffee with your friend, you could do biblical counseling with her and walk her through the verse. You could tell her the Bible says to be anxious for nothing. Even though currently there might be many apparent reasons to be anxious, the Bible says we should be anxious for nothing.

The Bible is not just a book of “don’ts”—“don’t do this” and “don’t do that,” but the Bible teaches that to truly change, we need to follow the counsel of Ephesians 4:22–24. In short, put off, be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on. Philippians 4:6 teaches just this. Put off anxiety—“be anxious for nothing.” Be renewed in the spirit of your mind—“by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving.” Put on prayer—“Let your requests be made known to God.” Even if you have not had a formal biblical counseling class, you can counsel using God’s Word.

It is not enough to just teach this verse to your friend. Discipleship is relational. As you walk with her, continue to counsel her with Scripture following the directions of Paul in 1 Thessalonians: “Admonish (warn and seriously advise) those who are out of line [the loafers, the disorderly, and the unruly]; encourage the timid and fainthearted, help, and give your support to the weak souls, [and] be very patient with everybody” (1 Thessalonians 5:14 AMP).

Mid-America’s Expanding Impact in Biblical Counseling

Under the guiding hand of Dr. John Babler, we’ve seen major developments in biblical counseling at Mid-America. In addition to five fully accredited degree programs from BA to PhD, Mid-America offers two certificate programs. One, Counseling by The Book, was developed by Dr. Babler and is available online. Each fall and spring, Dr. Babler also offers the program live at Mid-America, enabling participants to fulfill an ACBC certification requirement in just four weekends.

LEARN MORE ABOUT MID-AMERICA’S BIBLICAL COUNSELING PROGRAMS.