Counseling each other with the Wisdom of God

BIBLICAL COUNSELING

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

- Hebrews 10:24-25

Unit 4: A Practical Guide for Effective Biblical Counseling

To prepare for Unit 4 please read:
A Practical Guide for Effective Biblical Counseling – Utilizing the 8 “I”s to Promote True Biblical Change
by Wayne Mack

For any questions, please email Tami Ruble at [email protected]

Introduction to Biblical Counseling

In the early ’70s in an effort to find answers to mend their own struggling marriage, Bill and Linda Heard began searching the scriptures to find God’s way of solving problems, reconciling the differences between them, and building a strong, Godly marriage. The only books and materials on marriage that were available at that time were by secular and Christian psychologists, which often contradicted what the scriptures had to say about marriage and family. So, Bill and Linda decided to find what they needed to restore their marriage from the scriptures, and that turned out to be a great blessing.

As a result of diligently working to conform their marriage to God’s Word through the power of His Spirit, they were able to begin helping other couples through marriage counseling from the Bible over 40 years ago. The need arose to have materials for couples to use on their own, so they began to develop worksheets for this purpose. When they began teaching marriage and family seminars, Bill and Linda put together a packet of information to help answer some of the questions about the biblical structure of marriage and relationships. The goal of this workbook, which represents the most recent edition of their worksheets, is to explain God’s Biblical principles in a format that people can understand, and use over and over in their own lives, and in helping others.

Bill and Linda Heard were both raised in Lookingglass, Oregon; a rural farming and logging community near Roseburg. Bill attended the small, non-denominational church there and made a profession of faith at age thirteen. Through his high school years, he taught Sunday school and helped with the music ministry. He attended Portland State University, majoring in veterinary medicine. Linda made a profession of faith at age eighteen, and she and Bill attended church and Campus Crusade for Christ meetings together. They were married in 1968. They have four children and ten grandchildren. Today they attend Covenant Life Fellowship where Bill is an Elder.

In the late ’70s and ’80s, Bill obtained formal training in counseling from the Christian Counselors and Educational Foundation in San Diego, California. Later he received more training from the Institute for Biblical Counseling and Discipleship in San Diego, from the Biblical Counseling Foundation in Rancho Mirage, California and from the Institute for Christian Conciliation in Billings, Montana.

In 1989, Bill and Linda founded the Biblical Counseling Center in Roseburg, Oregon, to help meet the counseling needs of churches in the area. Bill has counseled hundreds of couples, families, individuals, and has also mediated for businesses, churches, school boards, and Christian organizations. Bill’s goal is to demonstrate to the Body of Christ that it is the church’s responsibility to counsel its own members, and that biblical counseling is much more effective than the world’s psychological counseling methods. To that end, Bill has taught for years a “how-to, hands-on” biblical counseling class to educate and build teams of competent biblical 5 counselors. Bill now works with pastors to develop biblical counseling teams to effectively counsel and disciple their own congregation from the Word of God.