Theology You Can Counsel With

Counseling Skills and Tools

Counselees ask hard questions: why God allowed something, whether He still loves them, why prayer feels empty. This course prepares counselors to answer from doctrine, pastorally: God's attributes, Christ's mediation, the Spirit's role, sanctification, and the church. Each unit starts with a counselee's question and works toward a faithful, usable answer.

1.5 hours

16 units

3 sections

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What You'll Work Through

Each unit is a conversation, not a page to read. The tutor asks you to explain, apply, and work with the material until it holds.

Chapter 1: Why Doctrine Answers the Hurting

Section 1.1: Theology at the Bedside

Practical theology as the counselor's aim, not systematic lecture
The gospel-gap: spoken theology versus lived theology
Wrong views of God produce wrong living, so counsel corrects doctrine gently

Section 1.2: "Why Did God Allow This? Does He Still Love Me?"

Open in the text: God's sovereignty joined to His goodness (Acts 4:24; James 1:17)
Answering 'Why did God allow this?' without a pat answer
God's love proven at the cross, not in circumstances (Romans 5:8; Romans 8:28-29)
Correcting a distorted picture of God the Father as a cruel taskmaster

Chapter 2: Christ, the Spirit, and the Answer to Empty Prayer

Section 2.1: "Can Jesus Really Understand Me?"

Christ's full humanity: He shared our real experience
Jesus as sympathetic High Priest (Hebrews 4:15-16)
Answering 'Can Jesus understand me?' pastorally from doctrine

Section 2.2: "Why Does Prayer Feel Empty?"

Empty prayer often signals unbelief or a hidden idol, not God's absence
Anchor a counselee's felt distance from God in Romans 8:26, the Spirit's intercession
Lead the counselee to lament vertically rather than abandon prayer

Chapter 3: "Why Am I Not Changing?" and "Why Do I Need the Church?"

Section 3.1: Sanctification and the Slow Work of Change

Answering "Why am I not changing faster?" with the doctrine of progressive sanctification
Distinguishing God's part from our part in sanctification to relieve legalistic exhaustion

Section 3.2: The Church as God's Means of Care

Answering "Why do I need the church? I can follow Jesus on my own" with the church as God's means of care