Equipping Biblical Counselors

As leaders in the biblical counseling movement, we have been amazed at increasing opportunities to care for more people in more places than ever before. Effective discipleship in churches is shifting from discipleship systems to discipleship conversations and personal care. Yet many churches feel uneasy about how to equip their church members to engage in effective discipleship conversations and personal care. Bob Kellemen’s Equipping Biblical Counselors addresses this gap as it helps church leaders care with competence, confidence, and compassion.

We are honored to write this foreword as a family because of the special friendship and ministry partnership between the Allchin family and the Kellemen family. Our relationship began when the teenage Bob started attending church youth meetings under the ministry of Pastor Ron and Sherry Allchin. While he was part of the youth group, Bob came to Christ and was discipled, then encouraged in his decision to pursue ministry leadership. Throughout the years, Ron and Sherry and Bob and his wife, Shirley, have enjoyed a friendship that has strengthened both couples. In recent years, Bob and Tim Allchin (Ron and Sherry’s son) have worked together on a number of projects to increase resources for churches looking to better equip leaders and to develop a culture of compassionate care. Both the Kellemens and the Allchins have devoted their ministries to equipping church leaders to effectively care and then to disciple others who will also care.

Equipping Biblical Counselors imparts a practical, biblical, user-friendly approach to our shared passion that church leaders should intentionally equip lay leaders to engage in conversations that reflect the wisdom and heart of Christ. More and more churches are realizing they must be effective in counseling if they are to be effective in discipleship. In the years since Bob wrote the first edition of his book, much has rapidly changed in our world and in the church, with greater needs and thus greater opportunities. A pandemic, political unrest, and changing worldviews challenge the church to have different discipleship conversations and to personalize the care offered. The message of the gospel hasn’t changed, nor has the need for redemption and reconciliation, but our conversations do change as we use Scripture to bring specific hope, comfort, and confrontation to a hurting world.

What makes this book unique is that it isn’t just another book about the merits or methodology of biblical counseling. Instead, this book equips leaders with an intentional process, developing counseling teams that will care for others with competence, confidence, and compassion. Dr. Kellemen has modeled each of these traits in the counseling conversations that have taken place in evangelical circles over the past few decades. He has networked with all the best leaders, learned from them, and compiled this volume that reflects the best practices of scores of biblical counseling ministries.

Competent Counseling Ministry
More than just another doctrine that the church should embrace, Dr. Kellemen has modeled a plan to develop competent counselors who succeed in helping others gain godly perspectives and personal care. Biblical counseling needs to be more than just an idea. It must become a culture of care leading to carefully developed opportunities for the gospel to meet people in their moments of greatest need. Poor planning and execution will undermine a gospel witness. However, Bob’s book helps to avoid the most common mistakes that a church can make. Within this volume you will learn best practices from a leader who has developed teams, and who is sought after as a speaker and writer in helping churches increase their quality of care.

Confident Counseling Ministry
In recent years, there has been remarkable growth in the desire for churches to reclaim responsibility to offer Christ-centered counseling. However, we still are often asked the same questions about where to start. Reader, if you want to start equipping your people to counsel and care for one another effectively, then this book is for you. Most seminaries provide little practical counseling training and even less training on how to equip leaders and people to provide competentcare. Equipping Biblical Counselors guides you with a practical “how-to” that produces confidence in a biblical strategy that works. Each church is a body with unique gifts and experiences that were given by God to serve one another. However, many church members lack confidence in how to share their story and to walk with others through trials. This book equips you with the confidence to equip others in how to counsel those in need.

Compassionate Counseling Ministry
Bob’s growing influence among church leaders flows from his personal compassion and his desire to demonstrate the love needed for counselors to be most effective. While expertise is important, it falls on deaf ears without love, and facts alone rarely motivate others to act on the counsel they receive. Dr. Kellemen demonstrates from both a biblical and research perspective why love and compassion make a major difference in the outcomes a counselor should expect. There are two extremes in counseling: 1) compassion without a commitment to the gospel and biblical wisdom, and 2) a so-called Christian commitment that treats those in need of help with little or no compassion. Bob’s writing and ministry both model how counseling the truth must be done with love and compassion.

Nearly four decades ago, Ron and Sherry Allchin made an investment in the life of a young Bob Kellemen. In recent years, the mature Bob has encouraged and collaborated with Tim Allchin in developing resources for biblical counseling leaders through the ministry of Biblical Counseling Center, where Tim is Executive Director. Bob has personally encouraged Tim and his family. As we all grow older, we often think about our life’s work and the impact we will leave behind for God’s glory. This book challenges leaders and their churches to be a community where disciple-makers are equipped to impact future generations. In a complex, chaotic, and hurting world, the opportunities for those who counsel with competence, confidence, and compassion are greater than ever before. Equipping Biblical Counselors will empower you to leave a legacy of impacting others for Christ by equipping future generations to do the same.
—Ron Allchin, DMin, Founder and Associate Director, Biblical Counseling Center, ACBC Fellow
—Sherry Allchin, MABC, Director of the Online School, Biblical Counseling Center
—Tim Allchin, DMin, Executive Director, Biblical Counseling Center