A biblical framework for pastors, counselors, and friends seeking to care for others with wisdom and love.
A friend feels rejected. A counselee is angry. A church member's child is ill. You want to help, but where do you begin? Author and counselor Michael R. Emlet outlines a model of one-another ministry based on how God sees and loves his people primarily as saints, while bringing comfort to the sufferer, and faithfully speaking truth to the sinner.
Filled with everyday illustrations as well as counseling examples, Emlet demonstrates what it looks like to approach fellow believers simultaneously as saints, sufferers, and sinners. Emlet unpacks Scripture and draws on his many years of counseling experience to help counselors, pastors, and friends love others wisely and well.
As part of CCEF's Helping the Helper series, this guide for ministry provides an overall framework for wisely helping any person by loving others in the same way that God loves us.
Part 1: Understanding People
Chapter 1: Operating Instructions Required
Chapter 2: What’s True of Every Believer You Meet?
Chapter 3: Jesus Christ, the Ultimate Saint, Sufferer, and “Sinner”
Part 2: Loving Others as Saints
Chapter 4: Scripture Speaks to Saints
Chapter 5: How God Loves Saints: A Biblical Example
Chapter 6: Ministry Priorities for Loving Saints
Chapter 7: How We Love Saints: Everyday Examples
Chapter 8: How We Love Saints: Counseling Examples
Chapter 9: Barriers to Loving Others as Saints
Chapter 10: When Not to Start with the Good
Part 3: Loving Others as Sufferers
Chapter 11: Learning the Hard Way
Chapter 12: Scripture Speaks to Sufferers
Chapter 13: How God Loves Sufferers: A Biblical Example
Chapter 14: Ministry Priorities for Loving Sufferers
Chapter 15: How We Love Sufferers: Everyday Examples
Chapter 16: How We Love Sufferers: Counseling Examples
Chapter 17: Barriers to Loving Others as Sufferers
Chapter 18: Incarnating the Comfort of Christ to Sufferers
Part 4: Loving Others as Sinners
Chapter 19: Scripture Speaks to Sinners
Chapter 20: How God Loves Sinners: Biblical Examples
Chapter 21: Ministry Priorities for Loving Sinners
Chapter 22: How We Love Sinners: Everyday Examples
Chapter 23: How We Love Sinners: Counseling Examples
Chapter 24: Barriers to Loving Others as Sinners
Part 5: Remaining Balanced in Ministry
Chapter 25: A Ministry Balancing Act
Chapter 26: What Happens When We Are Imbalanced?
Chapter 27: Where There Is No Suffering or Sin
Acknowledgments
Scripture Index
| Contributors | Michael R. Emlet |
|---|---|
| ISBN | 9781645070511 |
| Format | Paperback |
| First published | January 2021 |
| Dimensions | 140mm x 215mm x 11mm |
| Weight | 0.26 kg |
| Language | English |
| Pages | 198 |
| Publisher | New Growth Press |
In this Scripture-saturated book, Michael Emlet uses real-life counseling interactions and insights gained from years of counseling and training counselors to demonstrate how we can love, listen to, grieve with, challenge, and accept the people around us in ways that befit the gospel of the grace of Jesus.
Dr. Michael Emlet has given us a treasure. He's primarily focused on how we relate to others through the triple lens of saint, sufferer, and sinner. He's particularly strong at blending those lenses together. The result? You can begin to look at and treat people as fully human. His experience as a counselor grounds his thoroughly biblical insights in real life. This immensely helpful book isn't just for counselors it's for all of Jesus's followers.
As Christians, we know we are called to love our neighbors as ourselves, but it can be hard to know what it means to offer love to our neighbors on the ground in concrete, daily ways. In this deep, rich, and practical book, Michael Emlet draws on Scripture and years of experience as a Christian husband, parent, church member, and counselor to help us more faithfully and fully love our neighbors, our spouses, our children, and all whom God brings into our lives. Through this exploration of what it means that we are all simultaneously saints, sufferers, and sinners, which is shaped by the wisdom of the Bible on every page, those who read this book will come away better equipped to fulfill the Great Commandment in the quotidian moments of everyday life and ministry.
