Why Outbreaks Like Corona Virus Spread Exponentially, and How to "Flatten the Curve"

After the first case of covid-19, the disease caused by the new strain of coronavirus, was announced in the United States, reports of further infections trickled in slowly. Two months later, that trickle has turned into a steady current…

This article was written by Harry Stevens and published by The Washington Post on March 14, 2020.

Anxiety, Waiting, and the Coronavirus

Writing about events while they are happening is always a bit dangerous. It’s easy to encourage over-reactions and reinforce unhelpful panic in our hearts. That said, the COVID 19 coronavirus provides us with an opportunity to think about how we respond to anxiety. Specifically, I want to think about how we can handle the particular strain of anxiety that comes when we are waiting for a threat that is gliding toward us, its fin visible above the surface. Thankfully, Scripture knows the fear of impending danger intimately and speaks to it repeatedly.

So let’s seize this occasion to refresh our collective memory on how Scripture navigates this particular eddy within the larger current of anxiety. What is our comfort when a significant threat looms but has not yet begun to erode the shore in earnest? Let’s look at an unfamiliar portion of a familiar Old Testament passage to get our minds moving in the right direction.

Waiting to Plunge Into the Flood

After they left Egypt, the people of Israel wandered in the wilderness for decades. When they finally arrived on the doorstep of the promised land, they faced one last obstacle to entry: the Jordan River. You know how the story goes. The priests carry the ark into the river and, once their feet get wet, the waters part and the people walk through on dry ground. God repeats the miraculous provision of deliverance their parents had experienced a generation earlier at the Red Sea.

What we can easily miss is a little detail in the first two verses of Joshua chapter 3, and it’s this: the people had to camp and wait at the river’s edge for three days (3:2). Without knowing what was coming next or how they would cross. What’s it like to sit in your tent watching a river at flood stage churning by (3:15)? What’s it like to watch your children playing outside, knowing that they are going to have to somehow cross this engorged river, dark with flood-stirred sediment? What’s it like to look at your sheep, donkeys, and the precious heirlooms you carried all the way from Egypt that represent your life savings, and wonder if you might lose it all? How does it feel to know that God is calling you to keep moving forward, that he is promising to be with you, but that all you can actually see is a river whose depth you do not know, but of whose fatal power you can be sure?

It’s an easy parallel for us to make today, isn’t it? A virus is seeping across the world and has reached our shores, and we don’t know how treacherous it’s going to be. God is calling us to continue forward in love of neighbor and service to his kingdom, but all we can see are public surfaces potentially covered in germs and neighbors who may be walking vectors of disease.

Because of these parallels between then and now, it’s striking to reflect on what God didn’t do at the Jordan. He could have—but didn’t—pick his people up in a mighty whirlwind and deposit them on the far side of the river the moment they got there. He could have—but didn’t—part the Jordan so that it was waiting when they arrived, perhaps with the ground dried and a scattering of grass and lilies down the center of the people’s path. He could have—but didn’t—simply ask them to swim and float across, seeing to it that everyone made it safely and every sheep and gold earring was accounted for. These would have been equally miraculous and equally effective ways of carrying his children to their new home.

Instead, God chose for his people to wait and watch the flood, inviting them to trust him with all that crossing that flood might mean.

Waiting Well

God often calls us to wait in the presence of our enemies, doesn’t he? He often comes to our aid later, and in different ways, than we would like. We most like to hear the stories about dramatic rescues and incredible miracles of rescue from dire situations. But we most like to experience stories where God provides in boring, safe, and predictable ways, like full bank accounts, good health, low risk ministry success with high buy-in from the congregation, and so on.

God knows we need to be reminded of our dependence on him over and over again for as long as we live. Few reminders are more vivid or visceral than waiting by flooding rivers. Or spending nights in a lion’s den. Or watching for heart stopping moments to see if Xerxes would extend his scepter. Or waiting in the Garden of Gethsemane while your rabbi pours out his soul and sweat in anguished prayer, knowing there are dangerous men who want to arrest him and you. God knows that these reminders of our dependence are frightening and place profound strain on us (even when things turn out well in the end). That’s why he shows us that we can trust him and wait on him. He has been his people’s helper over and over and over again across the millennia—and he will help us now no matter what may come.

How then do we wait on him well, specifically in the face of a global pandemic? Certainly not by pretending that everything will be ok. We don’t know if COVID 19 will end up as a minor inconvenience to our stock portfolio, or if we will end up in a quarantine zone, or fall ill, or lose a loved one. Waiting well in the face of our anxiety about a coming danger means taking seriously the reality of the danger. Our God takes our lives and our sufferings very seriously indeed, and “he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone” because he cares for us and for the things we care for (Lam 3:33). And when through the deep waters he calls us to go, he makes sure that the rivers of sorrow do not overflow, for “though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love” (Lam 3:32–33).

I’ll close with one last thought about how you and I can wait on the banks of this river, even as its flood is swelling:

Pour out your anxieties to your Father in Heaven. Do not churn fruitlessly inside your own heart with worries about school closings, travel plans, economic downturns, or the potentially infected surfaces you’ve touched! When you are afraid, turn to him. Cast your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. In fact, let handwashing or rubbing on hand sanitizer become a moment in which you consciously entrust yourself and the future of everyone you care about into his hands.

To spend our time frantically strategizing about how we’ll cross the flooded river is so instinctive, even though it is also foolish and needless. So do wash your hands, and do what is wise about working from home, or calling your doctor. But don’t let yourself for a moment forget where your true safety lies. After all, you don’t know what tomorrow will bring, but you do know the one who parts raging rivers…and who has already parted the last river for you, blocking its flow with his blood-soaked cross! That final crossing you will indeed find already open and waiting for you. And on the far side of that river you’ll fear and wait no more.

This article was written by Alasdair Groves and originally published on the CCEF website on March 11, 2020. He serves as CCEF’s executive director, and also as a faculty member and counselor.

Shepherding: Exploring a Rich Biblical Image

As pastors we are called to “shepherd the flock of God.”  That calling has a deep, rich and long scriptural history.  One that is a beneficial, might I even say necessary, study for every pastor.  This paper explores the rich biblical imagery of shepherds and sheep from God’s shepherding care for His people, to Jesus identifying Himself as the Good Shepherd, to the NT call to be under-shepherds of the great shepherd.  Under shepherds that God calls to do so “after my own heart.”…

Love in the Time of Coronavirus: A Guide for Christian Leaders

At this extraordinary moment, local leaders — people who lead groups of 10 to 1,000 people — have perhaps the greatest opportunity to shape culture in the United States that they have ever had. This is a guide for those of us who are Christian leaders at this moment…

This article was originally written by Andy Crouch and published on The Praxis Journal on March 12, 2020.

"What Do You Think About the Coronavirus?" - an Interview with Mark Prater

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Benjamin Kreps:

Hey everyone. Welcome to the Mark Prater podcast where we aim to connect our global family of churches with our Executive Director. So Mark, in the news right now the biggest story (I would guess) for all of us is the Coronavirus. So, Coronavirus: Big fan? Or not so much?

Mark Prater:

Not a big fan of Coronavirus.

Benjamin Kreps:

Okay. That's good to know. We want our guys to know your position on this. Correct?

Mark Prater:

Yeah.

Benjamin Kreps:

So what do you, when it comes to the Coronavirus and the fact that there are all kinds of strategies being deployed, when it comes to people who lead public organizations? What kind of suggestions would you make? Maybe some guidance to bring to bear for our pastors as we're thinking through how to lead locally in our churches through this season.

Mark Prater:

Yeah. Thanks. Thanks for asking. It seems like it's a very timely topic. We just had a conversation as elders here at Covenant Fellowship and decided to send out one communication, and there'll probably be others, depending on how the virus spreads.

The reason we did that here is because we had a confirmed case in the county the church is located. It was close to home for us. If you're a church or a pastor that's in a state or a city that hasn't had any reported cases yet, you might take a different approach. But we sent out a communication before our last Sunday service that basically said: If you or your children have been sick in the last 48 hours, stay home.

We do have a livestream, so they could enjoy the service livestream. We let them know that we have instructed our facility staff to disinfect doorknobs and handrails and the facility. And then we said, look, when you see each other on Sunday, greet each other with a kind word, but refrain from shaking hands or hugging at this point.

And then within our service, our liturgy typically includes a call to worship, then we sing, and then after singing we do a pastoral prayer, and after the pastoral prayer, before we do announcements, we just ask folks to greet one another. And so we just told our church ahead of time in the email and said: On Sunday we're just going to eliminate the "greet one another" for a period of time. And then we're just letting our members know that we're just going continue to monitor this and we'll keep them updated.

Benjamin Kreps:

I saw one pastor in a video for his church inform them that during the greeting time (there would be a greeting time) but instead of handshakes he suggested peace signs or air hugs. So I don't know if you guys were calling your church to have air hugs instead. (You're just canceling the whole greeting time so you don't have to worry about that part.)

It seems wise to me that a pastor communicates to the church something of how the elders are thinking about this. What was the response from your church? Good? Positive?

Mark Prater:

Overall positive. That same day I got an email from a member saying, I'm so glad you're thinking about this. She's actually an attorney for a big law firm in Philadelphia and she said, I'm going to send you what our law firm sent out to all of our attorneys. And it was helpful to read their communication. So overall it was positive.

Benjamin Kreps:

Any pushback?

Mark Prater:

We've heard from a few folks [saying the email] was kind of a strong communication. I didn't think it was, but it's just good to know that and hear that.

Benjamin Kreps:

Yeah. Well, communication seems wise. And we're certainly working on our strategy this week to send something out as well.

In some ways, this crisis is (to my way of thinking) overblown, in regards to how many people are actually affected compared to the population, even though it's growing. But our people, some of them are experiencing anxiety and worry. They perceive it as a crisis. The media is certainly enjoying the boost in ratings, I would guess, during the season.

So what encouragement would you have for us as pastors when it comes to leading our church through anxiety and crisis when it's very public and in the news and we're trying to navigate through that? (So leading, communicating, but also helping to encourage our folks?)

Mark Prater:

Well (and you kind of referenced this), given that our media today does sensationalize things, I think we have to assume there are people sitting in our churches on Sunday who are anxious about this.

It's best to point them to God, obviously, which our pastors do very well. But in particular what comes to mind is Philippians 4 where it says: Do not be anxious about anything, but in prayer and supplication, bring your requests to God. And then, as you know, verse 7 goes on to talk about how the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds.

So one way to apply that is, if you have a pastoral prayer in your liturgy at your church, pray against the spread of the Coronavirus. Pray that it would stop. Pray for people to be healed, but then also pray for peace for any members who are experiencing anxiety. I think that can be a great way to care for your church.

Benjamin Kreps:

That's great. So let's make sure we make this official: Not a fan of Coronavirus. Not a fan. Not a fan of anxiety. We have you on the record.

Mark Prater:

You got it.

Benjamin Kreps:

All right. Hey Mark, thanks. Thanks for your thoughts on this and for everyone watching. Thanks for watching and we'll be back soon, right here on this podcast. See you later.

Mark Prater is the Executive Director of Sovereign Grace Churches and has served as an elder at Covenant Fellowship Church since 2002.

4 Guidelines for Addressing “Mindfulness”

A businesswoman in my church approached me with a question about a training program for upper level management in her company. She had been given a book called Search Inside Yourself, written by Chade-Meng Tan, an executive at Google whose official corporate title is “Jolly Good Fellow.” Meng was one of Google’s earliest engineers who matriculated into a role in corporate culture oversight with the search engine giant. Meng’s current job description is threefold: “Enlighten minds, open hearts, create world peace.” Along with all other senior level staff, my friend was being required to read the book as a continuing training project. She wanted to know what I thought of it.

This gave me the opportunity to look more closely at something that I’m seeing as a pastor with increasing frequency. Meng’s book is one of the more well-known popular treatments of what is known in the therapeutic world as “mindfulness.” If you aren’t familiar with mindfulness, you will be. It is the current shelf-filler in self-help literature. As I talk with folks in my church who work in the mental health field, it is also one of the rising stars in therapy for a broad range of mood and thought disorders. It is also growing as a recommended self-care tool for therapists.

Mindfulness: What Is It?

What is mindfulness? There is no standard definition, but the following from Psychology Today captures most of the features of mindfulness as it is understood at popular and therapeutic levels.

“Mindfulness is a state of active, open attention on the present. When you’re mindful, you observe your thoughts and feelings from a distance, without judging them good or bad. Instead of letting your life pass by you, mindfulness means living in the moment and awakening to experience.

Mindfulness comes out of Zen Buddhist meditation principles. The key components of mindfulness from the above definition are a conscious effort to focus on the present moment, withholding judgment on any thought feeling or sensation of that moment, and then learning to think and act out of the reality of that moment rather than allowing instinctive but unproductive emotional and thinking patterns to drive your responses to life situations. The basic tools of mindfulness are meditation exercises and relaxation techniques.

Mindfulness has cache in the psychological community as an evidence-based practice with studies showing measurable benefits of its use as both a therapy methodology and as training for therapists. Mindfulness has been most closely linked with Dialectical-Behavioral Therapy, but has also developed into specialized treatment regimens in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). According to the professionals I interacted with, it is “a hot thing” in the mental health community these days.

Mindfulness: Where Is It?

The purpose of this post is to help pastors and biblical counselors to biblically, wisely, and constructively engage this trend as it engages our churches and people. And it most certainly does and will engage us.

You will encounter it like I did through the question of a church member who has to deal with it as a workplace requirement. What Google does, other businesses tend to follow, and Google does mindfulness. You’ll engage it through the parents in your church where the concept of “mindful schools” is growing as an educational model. You’ll engage it because there are growing “Christian mindfulness” networks and resources that seek to screen out the eastern philosophy of mindfulness and replace it with Christian concepts. And you’ll engage it because there will be Christians who see the devil in the Zen underlying mindful practices and who will let you know about it.

But mostly you will engage it because at one level it “works.” Yes, at its functional level, mindfulness works. We live distracted, over-stimulated, multitasking, stress-fueled lives. And we experience the short-term (sleep disorders, anxiety, etc.) and long-term (health consequences, relational estrangement, etc.) effects of that kind of lifestyle. So, it would stand to reason that something radically different from that way of doing life; something that can be done anywhere, at any time, without any cost and requiring very little natural skill would be beneficial. It should work if for no other reason than to interrupt our bad habits with a conscious and focused alternative “time out.”

But just because it works, is it wise and worth pursuing? I want to offer four guidelines for addressing the issue of mindfulness in a pastoral setting. Knowing how to engage mindfulness with biblical wisdom and clarity is important if we are to help people tossed around by the latest waves in popular psychology.

Mindfulness: How Do We Wisely Address It?

First, let’s not try to baptize, rebrand, or reboot mindfulness as a biblically-derived practice. I’ve seen some well-meaning Christians attempt to locate mindfulness in the practices of the Christian mystics—an attempt that tends to overlook the less orthodox aspects of that tradition.

And while there are plenty of places where biblical thinking and responsiveness to life situations call us to govern our minds and emotions, the fact that the roots of mindfulness practice remain in the Zen worldview can’t be reconciled with biblical faith. At the heart of Zen mindfulness is the understanding that we are connected to the cosmos in a holistic way and that meditation actuates that connectedness. That is Zen reality. But in truth—biblical truth—we are distinct individuals created as image bearers, not of the cosmos, but of a Personal God who is the determiner of the reality we engage. Zen is an escape from true reality, not an engagement with it.

Second, let’s advocate and encourage what the Bible does warrant as better than mindfulness. Dwelling on negative past experiences: mindfulness says don’t do it; biblical faith says we have been born again to a living hope (1 Peter 1:3-5). Worrying about the future: mindfulness says don’t do it. Biblical faith says the future is in the hands of a wise and loving God who works all things out for ultimate good (Romans 8:28-39—there’s a cosmic reality worth pondering!). Mindfulness says focus your mind in the moment: biblical faith says think on things above, where Christ is (Colossians 3:2-3). Mindfulness says don’t judge your thinking and feeling; biblical faith says it has already been judged, and you have been given the mind of Christ and have been filled with the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:14-16). Mindfulness says being in the moment is the way. Jesus says, “I am the way” (John 14:6).

I could go on and on, but you get the point. The problem with mindfulness in its fully-orbed expression is not just that it points in the wrong direction; it sells the depth of human experience far short when compared with the riches of knowing Christ. The message of the gospel is good news that mindfulness can never match.

Third, let’s help folks discern fad from substance. As always, once something that has some credibility on a therapeutic level emerges into the self-help world, it goes over the top. Claims of effectiveness get wildly overstated and substantiation for those claims rests primarily on testimonials and misapplied “scientific studies.” A few celebrity practitioners and authorities will flood the market with books, seminars, and high concept multi-media. We can serve our folks by gently helping them distinguish the fad and hype self-help economy that targets the felt needs of people while offering little more than jazzed up, effectively-packaged common sense. This acquired discernment will help them with mindfulness and whatever next big thing comes down the self-help pike.

Fourth, let’s guide people compassionately toward biblical wisdom. In the more conservative Christian cultures in which most of us serve, anything that smacks of mysticism or Eastern philosophy will and should hit our radar as a concern. But too often at the street level of our churches we become known for what we’re against, and that can limit our opportunities to guide people toward biblical wisdom. We can’t help people learn to drive if they won’t let us in the car. Besides, if someone has been helped by mindfulness practices, then we won’t serve them by telling them they haven’t been helped. We’re better off helping them to see what is actually helpful about what they are doing. Stripping the Zen components away, mindfulness might be most akin to exercise.

I like to come home from the office and jog. Is it because I love running? No, it’s because the act of running forces me to only think in the moment (in my case, surviving my run). I go into the run with the cares of the day; I come out with a clearer head and various clinically confirmed physiological benefits that come from physical exercise. Mindfulness activities like controlled breathing and focus on clearing the mind of distractions essentially do the same thing. Let’s be committed to careful listening and wise counseling as we talk about this issue with folks we serve.

Winston Smith and Cecelia Bernhardt offer some great practical insights for counselors who are engaging clients on mindfulness in a podcast here.

This article was originally published on the Biblical Counseling Coalition website on May 13, 2015

3 Differences in the Ministries of Pastoral Counselors and Vocational Counselors

BCC Staff Note: You’re reading Part 2 of a multi-part BCC Grace & Truth blog series on Biblical Counseling in the Local Church. Read Part 1. We asked a number of experienced biblical counselors who provide biblical counseling leadership and equipping in local churches to write on “a topic you consider important to local church biblical counseling.” We’re confident that their varied perspectives and topics will add greatly to your insight into biblical counseling in the local church.

Working Together or Suspicion? 

One thing I’ve appreciated about the biblical counseling movement as it has developed over the past few years is how local church pastors and vocational counselors are finding common ground. Pastors are becoming more envisioned and skilled in counseling and counselors are becoming more holistically pastoral in their approaches. And both obviously share common conviction that true biblical change is nurtured and walked out in real local church community.

However, there often seems to be an undercurrent of suspicion and even competition between vocational counselors and pastoral counselors that I fear hinders effective soul care in the Christian community. As a pastor embedded in the local church, I confess that when I hear someone say they are meeting with a counselor (even a biblical one!), my heart response can be, “So, you don’t think God’s provision for care in his church is sufficient for YOUR problem? Oh well; good luck out there.”

But the suspicion runs the other way as well. I’ve talked to a number of counselors who just assume that people come to them because they are being failed by their local church. As one counselor said to me, “pastors just farm people out to us to get them fixed and back into service.”

One thing that inhibits a more cooperative engagement between pastoral counselors and vocational counselors is a lack of understanding of how each engages the counseling process from a different perspective. I think we could all benefit from thinking through the differences in pastoral counseling and vocational counseling, and learning how to work with those differences, not against them. The following are a three differences in pastoral and vocation counseling based on my experience, conversations with vocational counselors, and counseling observation classes I’ve taken.

Difference in Role

A vocational counselor’s relationship with a counselee is determined by mutual agreement that is expressed in a context of formal meetings, usually on a fee basis. For the most part the ‘ministry’ of care and counsel occurs within the scheduled meeting times. The initiation of counseling is in some sense voluntary by the counselee based on a specific “presenting problem” that then becomes the focus of the counseling experience. The benefit of this is that focus can be maintained on a specific problem area in a person’s life and progress can be managed along those lines. A downside is that the counselor has very little ability to help a person in the context of their life and relationships.

A pastor’s role in a person’s life is determined by their mutual participation in a local church and is expressed in a shared life of community among God’s people. Usually a relationship exists before counseling ever occurs, and will continue after any counseling goals are accomplished.  The benefit of this is that a fully orbed relationship allows both formal and informal ministry to a person in their life context at point of need, not just in scheduled appointments. A downside can be that people don’t always arrive at pastoral counseling on a “voluntary basis” and this can make common goals for counseling a challenge to establish.

Difference in Preconception

A pastor has access to a significant amount of insight into a person’s life through observation and interaction in the life of the church. Data is more than abundant; the challenge can be approaching a person in counseling without preconceived ideas of what change should look like for them.

A vocational counselor typically depends on developing observations about a person based on what is shared and revealed in counseling sessions and homework. This can leave very important data beyond reach. But a benefit is that the counselor usually brings fewer preconceptions about a person and their problems into play because they simply don’t know enough to develop them.

Difference in Relationship

A person in formal counseling will relate to the counselor on a professional basis and will evaluate the competency of the counselor based on very professionalized personal interactions. A counselee doesn’t really ask about the character of the counselor; as long as the counselor is relatable, skilled, and knowledgeable in the area of their concern.

A person under pastoral care will evaluate the competency of the pastor based not only on personal experience in counseling, but observations of the pastor’s life outside the counseling experience as well. A pastoral counseling relationship can be either positively or negatively affected by situations that have no connection to the specific care a person is receiving in counseling.

Join the Conversation

You may not agree with some of my distinctions. I’d love to hear if you think differently, or if you see others. But  I believe both pastors and vocational counselors need to understand each other’s arenas of impact in order to do the ministry of biblical counseling among God’s people.

This article was originally published on the Biblical Counseling Coalition website on June 5, 2012.

How Do We Help Family and Friends of a Person Struggling with Depression?

BCC Staff Note: You’re reading the first in a four-part BCC Grace & Truth blog series on biblical counseling and depression. Few issues are more painful. God’s Word provides us with wisdom for addressing depression with compassion so we can care well and wisely.

Helping the Helper

An experienced counselor once told me something that really made sense. “You can’t counsel someone who is not there.”

The advice came as I was telling him about a situation where someone was asking me how to help a friend battling depression. This well-intentioned person wanted answers he could bring to his friend that would spring him from his debilitating struggle. He wanted info to pass on, some insight that would unlock the depression problem. However, the long, slow, aching experience of depression defies quick fixes and easy cures. And it frustrates everyone involved.

One of the foundational principles of biblical counseling is that we are helping people embedded in some type of relational context. With depression counseling, in particular, I’ve learned that much of my ministry over time will be to the relational network around a depressed person. My help to a depressed person is sometimes most felt by those friends and family members who either by circumstance or choice find themselves groping in the darkness of a loved one’s depression.

So how do we help those who are trying to help with depression? Here are some ways we can serve.

Recognize and acknowledge the different stakes in the experience.

All those close to a depressed person want to help, but not everyone for the same reasons. Some are there because they choose to be; but many are there (spouse, parents, children, etc.) because they’ve been thrust into a circumstance they can’t resolve. Where people see themselves in relationship to a depressed person has a profound effect on their resolve and investment in the care required over time.

Perspective is crucial and information is key.

We all have different ideas of what depression is, how it works and what makes a difference. A shared body of good information and perspective on the physical, mental, situational, and spiritual aspects of depression can help immensely in communication. For Christians, this should include (perhaps most importantly) sound biblical handles on what may be happening, and a consistent gospel lens so that faith, hope, and love are not casualties of the trial.

Depression ministry is siege warfare.

My friend Barb Hyatt is a counselor with many years ministering to depressed people. She hit it right when she told me that, “It can be depressing caring and living with a depressed family member.”

The unforeseeable future and the lack of any evidence of change in a depressed person’s outlook will be discouraging. Relational attrition—the loss or withdrawal of people from the front line of care—is almost inevitable.

Help the person’s relational network balance the hard fight of ministry so that no one is feeling the full weight of care alone. Help those who are tempted to just “back off” find small ways to express care and stay invested in the process. Maybe most helpful, gather together regularly in prayer for the struggling friend—and for each other.

Be a safety net.

Family and friends can function as a safety net for a person in depression. They need to consciously see this as part of their role. If a person has been prescribed medication, are they taking it appropriately? Are there side effects or drug interactions that might be affecting the person? How is the person sleeping?  Do you see any changes that seem like a further downward spiral? Are they withdrawing? Does the person struggling have someone (a pastor, a counselor) whose function is to specifically help them deal with their depression? How is that relationship working?

And, most crucial, if someone begins to use language that says they want to give up or end it all, what should you do? Do those around that person have a plan or a protocol they’ve all agreed to follow if concerns about suicide become an issue? Do they know what to look for and how to respond? Counselors can provide significant linkage and support in the safety net of a depressed person’s life.

Listen and converse.

My counselor friend Barb had some great thoughts on this: “Your presence and love and acceptance are most important. Try to understand what he or she is thinking and feeling. Ask questions to clarify, not simply to challenge.

You can validate that they are feeling very sad or are in severe emotional pain. You cannot change their thoughts or feelings. It will help him or her to verbalize thoughts and feelings, and may lead eventually to alternate views. You don’t have to tell them to hope, but you can say you have hope for them.”

Be okay with small normals.

In a sense, depression is one part of normal human experience—sadness—overtaking a life. Ultimately, the lifting of a depression may not look like “happy.” It may look like an ability for other aspects of “normal” to increasingly express themselves in a depressed person’s daily life.

Family and friends can encourage this. Talk about normal things, watch movies, listen to music, take walks, encourage small steps, recount shared memories. Depression says, “You are not worth the space you take up.” Relationship says, “You are important to who we all are.” That is the normal they need to hear from us.

Join the Conversation

If you are counseling family and friends of a person struggling with depression, how aware are you of the social and relational network of the person you’re trying to help?

What is your role there? How can you serve the many who are seeking to live with the one?

If you’re not doing this valuable ministry, who can help them care well in the cloudy shadows of depression?

This article was originally published on the Biblical Counseling Coalition website on January 29, 2014

Pride Still Matters in Ministry

I just came back from a week of teaching biblical counseling to a group of pastors-in-training.  Some are church planters; some will be serving as staff pastors; some are awaiting assignment.  It was a privilege and joy to work with them on both the theology and the practical ministry of biblical counseling, and they were eager and grateful for the training.  There are times when ministry is really fulfilling, and this was one of those times.

Then an interesting thing happened in my devotions the next day.  I’m reading through Augustine’s Confessions (just because I’ve never actually gotten through it), and I happened to drop into a section where he addresses the issue of pride.  I haven’t thought about pride much lately.  There was a time in my ministry where biblical counseling meant identifying where pride was lurking in the human heart and calling for repentance.  Over time I began to realize that pride is so common in our hearts that it really didn’t move the level of insight very far to point it out.  But now I wonder if I sometimes get too sophisticated in how I help people discern what’s happening in their lives.  Do I ignore pride even if it seems to be the elephant in the room?  Do I ignore it if it is the elephant in my own room?

When the Elephant in My Room is Pride

The Bible is pretty clear on pride.  Pride is not from God but from the world (1 John 2:16).  Pride will bring us down (Prov. 29:23; 16:18) and bring disgrace (Prov. 11:2).  Jesus said that it is one of the defiling expressions of a heart opposed to God (Mark 7:22).  It is one of those pervasive heart problems that can drive a life like few other struggles can. It can even drive good things we do in ministry.

Coming off a week that I’d count as a ministry high point, Augustine’s own ponderings on pride are a timely adjustment on the love of ministry success.  Augustine was a man of profound gifts and abilities that he used to serve God’s people.  Yet he was aware of the allure of ministry success, and maybe even more so of the tricky tendency to find self-worth in the gifts that make ministry possible.  He located in his heart a particular pride that drove him to use his gifts to increase his esteem.  Augustine laid this before the Lord in confession this way:

If a person is lauded for some gift that you have given him, and he derives more joy from being praised than for possessing the gift which earns the praise, he too is accepting praise which in your sight is a sham. Even the one who extols him is better off than the one so esteemed, for the former at least appreciates God’s gift in a human being, whereas the other prizes what humans give him more than the gift of God.

Read that again slowly.  What Augustine is identifying is the tendency to find satisfaction in the esteem others place in our ministry.  We talk about valuing the Giver more than the gifts.  But Augustine takes it one step deeper.  We can actually value the praise of others for our gifts in a way that drives how we use them.  Oh, this is a tricky, slippery slope for me.  I know how to say humble words, how to give praise to God for any human praise that comes my way.  But if I’m doing what I’ve been trained to do, what I’ve been gifted to do, pride in my heart begins to expect plaudits and to want those affirmations. For me to feel fulfilled in ministry my flesh needs the esteem of others.

Hankering for Praise

Sometimes the only way I can see this in my life is when I’m not affirmed for what I’ve done in ministry. Augustine says it this way:

If a good life characterized by noble works inevitably and rightly entails being commended, neither the good life nor the resultant commendation can be renounced. Yet only when something pleasant has been withdrawn can I be sure of my ability to live without it, either contentedly or perhaps with reluctance… a hankering for praise will garner every little tribute of approval it can beg, to bolster some fancied pre-eminence of its own. This is a real temptation to me.

And to me as well.  And to you.  The further we go in ministry, the more we’re susceptible to the kind of pride that can access the approval of others through the skillful deployment of our gifts and talents.  You don’t need to be a bishop (like Augustine), a preacher, or church leader to experience this.  Counselors and shepherds of people can know how to wield words and wisdom to “garner every little tribute of approval.”

I am truly grateful for the blessing of God that allows my gifts and experience to be used for his glory.  I’m equally grateful for the words of Augustine so well placed in my path by the Holy Spirit the day after a ministry success.  I’m thankful for the regular failures and ineptitude in ministry that remind me that getting good at this is not the answer.  And I’m needful of the gospel call in passages like 1 Peter 5:5-7, which reminds me that there is provision of grace under the mighty hand of God even for pride-challenged people like me.

Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

Join the Conversation

How do you navigate success or affirmation in your ministry?  Would you have an awareness of the snare of pride?  How do you guard yourself against using your gifts and skills for your own esteem?

Note:  The quotations above are from The Confessions, translated by Maria Boulding (New City Press, 1997).

This article was originally published on the Biblical Counseling Coalition website on February 15, 2017.

A Culture of Evangelism

Culture—the attitudes and behaviors characteristic of a particular social group.

All churches have a culture, attitudes, and behaviors that characterize them.  Scripture shapes that culture, by theology, by polity, by leaders, and by the relational dynamics among members.  Culture develops over time and can change over time.

I read a statement by David Platt in his introduction to Mack Stiles’ book Evangelism that had me thinking – “That’s the culture of evangelism I want to see in Sovereign Grace churches!!”  Here is what he said about his visit to Stiles’ church:

I stood literally amazed by the grace of God, not just upon one Christian passionate about sharing the gospel, but upon an entire community passionate about sharing the gospel.  As I looked around, I observed a contagious culture of evangelism across the church.  It is a culture of evangelism that is not ultimately dependent on events, projects, programs, and ministry professionals.  Instead, it is a culture of evangelism that is built on people filled with the power of God’s Sprit proclaiming the gospel of God’s grace in the context of their everyday lives and relationships.

So many things in this observation resonate with me.

• “An entire community passionate about sharing the gospel.”

• “A contagious culture of evangelism.”

• “A culture of evangelism that is built on people filled with the power of God’s Spirit proclaiming the gospel of God’s grace in the context of their everyday lives and relationships.”

I don’t know where all of our churches are regarding evangelism.  I assume some are doing well and some not so well and that most are somewhere in between.  But I suspect that every pastor would like to see their church grow in this all-important area.  And I hope that, like me, many of you read Platt’s observation and something in you said—“That’s what I want my church to be like.”

But a culture like that doesn’t develop by just having an occasional message or seminar on evangelism.  A culture like that only develops over time as we equip for, encourage and pray about evangelism.  

Here’s why I’m telling you all this.  Jim Donohue (who I think is SG’s most gifted evangelist) and I are teaming up to serve our pastors and churches to hopefully create just such a culture as I’ve been talking about.  Here are some things we are planning…

• Writing short monthly articles like this one to train and motivate our pastors and evangelists to better serve their churches.

• Identifying and training evangelists in our midst to serve in each of our regions.

• Developing materials for small groups that can be used to equip and inspire our members to consistent evangelism.

• Paul wrote to the Colossians about—“the gospel which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing – as it does in you, since the day  you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth” (1:5-6).

Our hope and prayer are that this is something that will be said of local churches in Sovereign Grace as, by God’s grace, our culture of evangelism bears fruit and grows.