How do we live a healthy life and lead others into spiritual, emotional and relational health and wholeness? That is the focus of this book. Trying to help others find freedom and wholeness is draining work. What do we do to become healthy and maintain our well-being? What are the practices and rhythms we need to engage in to be effective Soul Care practitioners? How do we create a culture where life-change flourishes? How do we minister in the power of the Spirit so that we can lead others into breakthroughs? Too often people are talking about the same problems that they were talking about several years ago but they aren’t finding a path to freedom. We need to help people get to the roots and not merely manage their dysfunction and sin. These are the questions and topics that this book will seek to equip you in as you seek to live and lead people into freedom and fullness in Christ.

Experience the Richer Spiritual Life You Long For In this world of frantic activity and constant entertainment, it can be hard to identify and embrace the rhythms that lead to true flourishing. Your spirit longs for a stronger connection to the divine, a clearer sense of personal spiritual growth, a closer relationship with your creator and redeemer. But how do you integrate this kind of inner growth into the realities of your outer life? If you long for a deeper experience of God as you journey through this life, Spiritual Practices for Soul Care offers 40 ways to help you put the spiritual disciplines into action each day. From prayer and meditation to serving and socializing to resting and healing, these simple, restorative practices will help you develop the kind of Christian walk you desire. If you have been frustrated by slow or stalled progress, or if you simply yearn to go deeper, now is the time to pause, take a breath, and awaken to your transformative soul care journey--starting today.

This transformational model (Matt 22:37-39) is focused on Community Relational Soul Care that has been lived out through generations of relational soul caregivers since 1910. This book will bring spiritual vitality full circle for today to heal hurting people. Scripture reveals Jesus Christ is the Helper, Advocate, and Counselor, to help His children gain wisdom for spiritual vitality. Dr. Larsen observed hurting people did not get fully healed after counseling. They fell back into old ways of living because they did not know their identity, had a relationship with Jesus Christ, experienced God, and were nurtured by His people. Relational soul caregivers mentor careseekers in and out of community (Matt 18:20) to restore God’s children in spiritual wisdom for the fulfillment of His plan. Relational soul caregivers are mentors who study God’s Word and have a relationship with Him. Some mentors have professional degrees, but they all share a collective focus on Jesus Christ, love one another, and help nurture others to spiritual vitality. Using this biblical model with acrostics RELATE (relational soul caregivers that nurture others spiritually, mentally, and emotionally) and RESTORE (restoring God’s children through the basic study of His Word in the Epistles 1, 2, 3, John), reveal examples of God’s people helping each other to spiritual vitality. Healing emerges in relationships with God, others, and God-centered self in Community Relational Soul Care.

As the postmodern world confronts a mental health crisis, therapy services providers and advocates are rising to the challenge, providing treatment, raising awareness, and reducing the stigma around seeking help. Their important contributions, however, need the collaborative leadership of the church because the crisis is not just psychological but psychospiritual. The church exists to minister in this psychospiritual leadership capacity, but, in an increasingly secular age, how can the church serve at the intersection of faith and behavioral science without compromising its orthodoxy and institutional identity? The Soul Care Birthright outlines how church leaders can reclaim their role as healers, applying insights from evidence-based psychology while embracing a theology of mental health that acknowledges the teachings of Jesus Christ. Drawing upon his background in mental health education and theological studies, Dr. C. Guy Robinson reveals a path to reconciling both disciplines in a way that best serves those who so desperately need soul care.

Soul Care explores seven principles that can lead to lasting transformation and freedom for all who struggle with a broken, damaged, and sin-stained soul. Brokenness grasps for the soul of humanity. We are broken body, soul, and spirit, and we need the healing touch of Jesus. Soul Care explores seven principles that are profound healing tools of God: securing your identity, repentance, breaking family sin patterns, forgiving others, healing wounds, overcoming fears, and deliverance. Dr. Rob Reimer challenges readers to engage in an interactive, roll-up-your-sleeves and get messy process -- a journey of self-reflection, Holy Spirit inspiration, deep wrestling, and surrender. It is a process of discovering yourself in true community and discovering God as He pierces through the layers of your heart. Life change is hard. But these principles, when packaged together and lived out, can lead to lasting transformation, freedom, and a healthy soul. Soul Care encourages you to gather a small group of comrades in arms, read and process together, open your souls to one another, access the presence and power of God together, and journey together into the freedom and fullness of Christ.

In this expanded edition of her spiritual formation classic, Ruth Haley Barton invites us to an honest exploration of what happens when spiritual leaders lose track of their souls. Weaving together contemporary illustrations with penetrating insight from the life of Moses, Barton explores topics such as facing the loneliness of leadership, leading from your authentic self, reenvisioning the promised land and more.

You speak God’s truth when you counsel. But do you also communicate His grace? The Christian counselor or pastor plays an important role in helping people process the trauma they’ve experienced. Too often, a client leaves the counselor’s office with feelings of guilt and shame. They feel the heavy burden of what they did wrong. But somehow, they’ve missed the grace of God that makes things right again. A counseling model that stays true to a biblical worldview will overflow with grace . . . not cheap grace, but real grace that acknowledges sin while offering a hopeful path to redemption and healing. In Grace-Based Counseling, professional counselors Richard Fowler and Natalie Ford offer a model that blends the truths of Scripture, the science of psychology, and the everlasting hope of the gospel. In this book you will find: New, grace-based counseling model Detailed application of the model, with case studies Practical toolbox with surveys, assessments, and counseling helps A Christian counseling model can’t just be about admonishment. That approach only leads to shame and human efforts that are doomed to fail. But when the gospel is brought to bear in the counseling relationship, real life change is possible. Then the counselor becomes an instrument of divine grace in the hands of a faithful God.

Leaders work hard to succeed, but often at the cost of their own souls. Stephen W. Smith helps leaders set aside the life-draining values of power and position and instead explore the life-giving qualities of building character. There is a better way to live than the craziness of our driven world. This is your invitation to journey inside and do the work within your work.

How do we develop a deep lasting intimacy with God? One of the problems with being a Christ follower is that we can substitute religious expressions and religious behaviors for authentic experiences and encounters without even know we are doing it. The longer we go to church the more we know the right words to say and the right things to do, but we can easily say those words and do those things without transformational intimacy with Jesus? We can start with significant, transformational encounters with God, and end up with dusty old religion. In Authentic, we will explore the following: -- What is religion and how do we avoid falling into its traps and snares? -- How does intimacy with God and people work? -- How do we develop depth with God and sustain it over a lifetime? -- What are the practices and attitudes that we can develop to help us draw near to God so we can learn to live an authentic spiritual life in Christ? We don’t want to settle for the counterfeit, when Jesus offers us abundant life.

"A personal, poignant, and powerful exploration of how educators can learn to lead with love, care, and vulnerability when working with marginalized youths"--