Council of Counselors: Singleness / Borderline Personality / Sexual Abuse Prevention / Chronic Pain Care / Decision Making Trait

This is a weekly post that highlights resources from other counselors that I have found helpful. The counselors may be from the biblical counseling, Christian psychology, integration, or secular counseling traditions. By linking to a post, I am not giving it my full endorsement, I am merely indicating that I believe it made a unique contribution or raised an important subject for consideration.

Singleness: My Only Companion by Ekemini Uwan

I have always been reluctant to contribute to the cacophony of opinions about singleness. There is no shortage of blog posts or think-pieces that explore this topic. Sometimes it is spoken of as if it is a chronic condition in need of a cure or a gift that most Christians don’t want. Often it is framed as suffering. Others speak of it with contempt or an eventual resignation that this will always be their lot.

• Laura McGee from the Bridgehaven counseling team wrote a 5-part series on singleness.

Borderline Personality Disorder (Podcast) by David Powlison

Alasdair Groves sits down and talks about Borderline Personality Disorder with David Powlison.

• A discussion of Borderline was part of my post this week on Mass Shootings, Mental Illness, and Local Church Ministry.

Is Your Church Ready? by Deepak Reju

The stats are staggering. And the safety of our children is at stake. So what’s your church doing about it? Deepak Reju’s new book, On Guard: Preventing and Responding to Child Abuse at Church (New Growth), is a brilliantly helpful resource aimed at instructing and empowering churches to respond to this quiet crisis. With 25 endorsements from a diverse range of leaders, On Guard is widely praised and tragically needed. After introducing us to the issue, Reju presents eight practical strategies for protecting against abuse and three for responding to it.

• A church needs to both do everything it can to prevent abuse and know how to ensure proper reporting is handled if prevention fails –  When Prevention Fails: A Sexual Abuse Response Policy for Churches.

Four Tips for Supporting a Family Member with Severe Illness or Pain by Esther

I am so thankful for all of the caretakers out there and all of you who support a family member with chronic illness and pain. Thanks for what you do! As you play this role, here are a few quick tips for how you can best provide support. And stay tuned for next weeks post. I know chronic pain and illness has a huge impact on you as well, and I’ll be talking about ways people with pain and illness can support you in return. For now, here are four quick tips.

• If you want to know more about ministry for long-term suffering, consider this article “Gospel-Driven Counseling for Suffering.”

• Humility is a vital life skill for anything. If the article above helps you see humility’s value for decision making, then this one (Why Humility Is Doubly Important in Marriage) will help you see humility’s value for marriage.

What I’m Reading

On Guard: Preventing and Responding to Child Abuse at Church by Deepak Reju. In On Guard, Deepak Reju examines why child predators target churches and offers eleven straightforward strategies to protect children from abuse and to help young victims recover if it does happen. While On Guard does provide practical help for building a child protection policy, it provides much more. Full of pastoral wisdom, On Guard recognizes that the church s response to abuse must be more comprehensive in line with her calling than a simple legal policy or clinical analysis. On Guardmoves church staff and leaders beyond fearful awareness to prayerful preparedness with an actionable plan.

Church, be on guard! Child abuse can happen anywhere, and we need a plan for how to prevent and respond to it. What s yours?

Tweets of the  Week

Meaningful Meme

On the Lighter Side

Because, “A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones,” Proverbs 17:22.

I want an i-Fetch and a pack of Corgi.