Karen Sleeman shares some thoughts on her first of two years taking our Certificate in Biblical Counselling course in association with CCEF and Oak Hill College.
What does life look like when the riches of Christ truly connect to our daily living? How can the gospel be lived out in a way that enables the body of Christ to be built up? What does it look like to love someone who is suffering and to point them to Jesus in a meaningful way? How can the gospel help us to engage redemptively with the world? These challenging questions are part of what I’ve started to grapple with during my first year of biblical counselling modules through Biblical Counselling UK at Oak Hill College.
2 Peter 1:3 teaches us that God has given us “everything we need for life and godliness”. It points us to a personal God who speaks into our struggle against the “corruption of sin” and into every human suffering. God’s gift of Christ and His Spirit can inform every aspect of life – the way we treat our colleagues in the workplace, the way we speak to a friend, the way we love our spouses, the way we raise our children. Even more so, the gospel Jesus brings reaches deeply into our own hearts and confronts our fears, our anxieties, and our frustrated desires; it re-captures our hearts to see God as more glorious than our own desires.
This course has provided me with a fantastic opportunity to embed and apply biblical truths alongside others on the course and to engage personally with the material. The certificate programme is undertaken part-time over two years, and involves watching lectures online, fortnightly group classes, and completing assignments which engage with the lectures and set reading. There are plenty of opportunities to apply biblical truths to our own lives and ministries. I found the workload to be demanding at times, but it has been well worth the effort.
The Lord has used this first year to work deeply in my own heart. Although I’ve known the gospel for many years, the modules I’ve taken so far have brought the gospel to bear in my own life in a richer and more intimate way. This has truly humbled me and, in turn, has helped me to help others more effectively. Rather than simply ploughing on with a pre-fabricated, one-size-fits-all gospel solution, I now ask “one more question” about the specifics of their life-situation. I look forward to more deepening and growing in the second year of the course.
Certificate in Biblical Counselling
We’re currently taking applications to start in September 2014.
The course is offered by Biblical Counselling UK in partnership with both CCEF and Oak Hill College and is now offered in four locations:
For more information go to www.biblicalcounselling.org.uk/training