Yesterday, we said goodbye to the pastors who attended the Biblical Counseling training conference organized for Bethesda Academy, which Northeastern Baptist Church helped sponsor at the Rizal Re-Creation Center. The theme was “Equipping the Saints to Equip the Saints.” It was such a blessing to partner with Allyn VanDyk from NBC and John Lehman from Words Fitly Spoken as we shared the last three days with a great group of pastors and their wives.
My wife, Jennifer, participated with me in a joint session titled “Counseling Parents of Wayward Children.” She also taught a ladies-only session called “The Unflustered Pastor’s Wife.” My other contributions addressed idols of the heart, data gathering, assigning homework, and thinking Biblically about forgiveness.
Allyn did an excellent job with the opening session, “Why Biblical Counseling,” and hit it out of the park with a challenging closing workshop on “The Unhurried Pastor.”
Dr. Lehman led a two-session marriage workshop, conducted two role-plays with my wife and me, and taught a foundational session on “Seven Keys to Biblical Counseling” (Or “The Seven I’s of Biblical Counseling”). Our fellowship with these faithful ministry couples was rich and rewarding. We sang at the top of our lungs, and laughed and ate together.
For me, launching Shepherd’s Friend will take up my moonlighting hours for the foreseeable future, but it was hard to imagine that the Lord wouldn’t somehow make a reunion possible this side of Glory.
We give praise and thanksgiving to God for a long series of answered prayers that made this conference a reality. Allyn amazingly had a Kurzweil Keyboard there for me to play for our worship segments. That was so much fun!
