How to prepare to counsel someone.

Walking with someone in their struggle is not easy. If you are in the role of counselor, mentor, or friend and are asked to speak into someone's life what can you do to prepare for those conversations?Recently I was invited to speak at the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation's national conference on this very topic.  I spent time looking at what the most important things you can focus on as a biblical counselor.  In this talk I covered the following:

• Why Prepare?
• • We are ministering the word and it deserves appropriate handling.
  • We are ministering to people and they deserve appropriate handling.
• Why we don’t prepare?
  • We don’t fully realize our need.
  • We don’t fully realize our call.
  • We are busy, distracted people.
  • We have been successful without it.
• What does preparation look like?
  • Focused time in the Word.
  • Looking at who God is.
  • Looking at who you are.
  • Prayer.

So much of our time in preparation might look very different than we think. In my talk I bring to light vital things that keep us ready to care for people. These are things that bring hope to us as caregivers as well as to those we care for. The teaching audio is available along with many other helpful messages at CCEF.org