Counselling with “By This Name”

As a church counsellor, Stephen* encounters Christians in all manner of difficulties—couples facing marital problems, people who are suffering depression, others with addictions of all kinds, even a few who are suicidal. While the challenges that his clients face come from many diverse sources, one common theme he’s discovered is a lack of understanding of who God is. Stephen is discovering that more and more, people today—even Christians—do not know much about God. Their knowledge of God’s character—his sovereignty, holiness, power, love—is very limited, or worse, incorrect. As a consequence, their lives are filled with little hope. They have a low view of God.

Additionally, many clients believe that they can make themselves right before God. They strive to act right, speak right and live right. They fail to understand the power of sin in their lives and how, on their own, they cannot lead lives acceptable to God. They have an unbiblical view of their human nature.

Stephen has found that what his clients need is the right biblical worldview. They need to understand just how great God is—that is he is far bigger than all their problems. They need to understand man’s sin nature and how God views people. They need to grasp the significance of the salvation God offers through Jesus Christ—how man can be reconciled to God and find real hope. And, his clients need to understand how this salvation is appropriated through a personal faith. As part of his counselling, Stephen offers to take his clients through a study of the gospel message using By This Name. He finds that with a proper and solid foundational understanding of God and the gospel, his clients find real hope.

In his office, Stephen has all the visual aids that are part of the Worldview Rethink curriculum sorted and packed into boxes. Each box corresponds to sections of the book. All he needs is to pull out the right box and the correct visual aids are ready to be used. We were so impressed with his method of organization that we asked for a photo. And he gladly sent us the following picture.

Stephen realizes that his clients’ source of hope and the key solution to their problems is an solid understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ. An understood gospel is a powerful gospel—it saves!

(* Name changed as per GoodSeed policy.)