Counseling the Suffering0
Posted In Blog
Summit’s Counseling ministry head, Brad Hambrick, offers the following resources for counseling someone who is suffering. While some of these resources are specifically tailored to those suffering with addiction, the same steps and general principles apply for many instances of suffering. As we ponder the Christian message on suffering throughout 1 Peter, put these tools to use in responding to your own suffering and to the suffering of your friends and neighbors:
“Too often we are more skilled at applying the Gospel to sin than to suffering. Also, we are often more concerned with helping someone break an addiction than teaching them to respond to the suffering from which they sought refuge in their substance or activity of choice.
At the recent conference “The Pursuit of More” sponsored by Converting Hearts Ministries, I had the opportunity to speak to “Counseling the Suffering within Addiction” (audio file at the bottom of this page). In this talk I sought to balance these tendencies by unpacking how the Gospel speaks to suffering.
In this talk I walk through the 9 steps of suffering (9 Steps (suffering)) used at The Summit Church in our Freedom Group ministries. We also have a corresponding 9 steps of sin (9 Steps (sin)). These steps are the skeleton for a series of seminars by which we strive to equip our church to overcome the struggles of life (1) by the power of the Gospel, (2) with the truth of Scripture, and (3) in the community of the church.
The first two in this series of seminars – which launch our Freedom Groups – are:
- “Overcoming Anger” (Sin Track)
- “Taking the Journey of Grief with Hope” (Suffering Track) — videos will be up soon
What you will find in this break out session from “The Pursuit of More” conference is the general overview of our 9 steps for suffering and how we seek to use these to allow people to apply the “Gospel in slow motion” to life dominating struggles.
At the link to this audio file you will also find other breakout sessions from “The Pursuit of More” conference on: “A Biblical Psychology of Addiction” by Sam Williams, “Peacemaking for Biblical Intervention” by Robert Jones, “Counseling Sexual Sin” by Carel Hardy, and a panel discussion by Kevin Jones.”