AABC 2015 Annual Conference April 16-18
Starting a Counseling Ministry in Your Church
Plenary Session #1
Why Should Counseling Be a Part of the Ministry of Your Church - Dr. David Tyler Plenary
Plenary Session #2
The Biblical Counseling Landscape Today - Rev. Donn Arms
Plenary Session #3
The Coexistent Relationship, and Interdependent Responsibility of Biblical Preaching and
Biblical Counseling - Dr. Dennis Frey
Plenary Session #4
Are You Qualified? - Dr. Lou Priolo
Plenary Session #5
Hearing the Critics, Answering the Critics - Dr. Howard Eyrich
Plenary Session #6
Questions & Answers - Lou Priolo, Donn Arms, Howard Eyrich,
Dennis Frey, Mark Hager and David Tyler
Speakers Notes and/or Outlines CD
Workshop Session #1
Albert Osden
The Counselors Need for the Holy Spirit in Counseling
We teach the Put Off/ Put On Dynamic in order to help people change. If not careful, we can become
behavioristic in our practice. Counselors need a good understanding of their need for the Holy Spirit t
o reveal truth and guide in the process of helping people mature in Christ.
Mark Hager
Fundamentals for Change: Establishing Biblical Presuppositions with your Counselee for
Counseling Success
The biblical counseling student will learn the major essential biblical counseling presuppositions that
every counselor should communicate and establish in the counseling relationship. These biblical
Truths and principles are necessary for the counselee to understand in the biblical change dynamic
so that the change process is effective for God’s glory.
Doug White
The Need for the Fear of the Lord in Counseling
Preserved for us by God’s inspiration, the book of Proverbs is a wealth of information observed by
Solomon and given to his sons to keep them from the path of death. We will examine the Proverbs
teachings on the development of the wise man and the fool and the destinations each path will take
them. We will see the urgent importance in humility and the fear of the Lord in keeping one on the
path of life.
Lou Priolo
Bitterness: The Root that Pollutes
It is something with which virtually all marriage and family counselors are familiar. It is something we
must all fight against in our own hearts. It is something about which counselees have many questions
(and much misinformation). It is something we, as biblical counselors, must be prepared to thoroughly
explain from the Bible. This workshop is designed to help counselors understand what bitterness is,
how it develops, what can be done to eradicate it from one’s heart and how to keep it from returning.
Workshop Session #2
Victor “Skip” Hessel
Honoring God During Marital Conflict AKA How to Have a Good Fight with Your Spouse
Conflict between spouses is common-place, nut there are best practices to honor God and your
spouse. During this workshop, attendees will learn about the primary causes of spousal conflict and
some practical remedies to handle the conflicts. The speaker will place emphasis on a “fight model”
that emphasizes a personal reflection, honoring God, and meeting the needs of your spouse.
Practical examples will be given on some popular conflict topics-money, communication, and more as
time permits.
Lou Priolo
Resolving Conflict in the Church (Part One)
It all begins with what is in your heart. Conflict, that is. It does not matter as to whether you are a
skilled orator or not. If you do not have certain peacemaking characteristics actively operating in your
heart, your ability to resolve conflict will be ineffective. This session will unpack what are arguably the
four most important biblical prerequisites for conflict resolution and demonstrate how their
counterparts (corresponding character deficiencies will hinder one’s peacemaking ability.
Donn Arms
Counseling Case Studies from the Gospel of John
Case studies are an important part of counselor training. This will be a survey of how Jesus
counseled individuals in the Gospel of John.
Albert Osden
The Need for the Holy Spirit for the Counselee to Change
We use the put-off/put-on dynamic to help people change. Counselees need to understand that we
are not behaviorist thinking that with shear willpower and Scripture memory people can change. Any
change that will last will come as the counselee changes by the power of the Spirit and learns to walk
in that power.
Workshop Session #3
Howard Eyrich
Multiculturalism and Diversity: Threats and Opportunities for Biblical Counseling.
As with any cultural phenomena, multiculturalism and diversity present us with threats and
opportunities. This workshop will help us recognize the threats and suggests how we can answer
them. The second focus will be upon the opportunities suggesting ways we can capitalize them in the
biblical counseling process. In other words, this workshop will consist of apologetics and practical
theology.
David Tyler
Counseling 101: All Counseling Issues Are Theological Issues
This workshop is for individuals that may be new to Biblical Counseling. All counseling is about
changing people’s lives, values, beliefs, relationships, attitudes and behaviors however, that is what
the Bible is about. All counseling issues are theological issues. You cannot separate Christian
theology and counseling.
Lou Priolo
Resolving Conflict in the Church (Part Two)
Not all conflicts are the same. In the Bible we find several varieties each with their own special
solution. The solution for one will not work for the others (and vice versa). If you would like to learn
how to identify and resolve the three most common types of conflict, come to this workshop.
Workshop Session #4
Donn Arms
Why Do YOU Want To Be a Biblical Counselor?
Part of this will include my personal testimony. Then we will seek to exhort counselors to counsel for
Christ honoring reasons.
Mark Hager
Counseling 101: Four Steps to Understanding the Process of Biblical Counseling.
Knowing where you are going in the counseling relationship is critical in promoting change.
Counseling continuity is needed to strengthen your relationship between their responsibility to change
and God’s grace to change them, and this class provides those simple truths. You will learn the
critical principles and timing of reconciliation and restructuring in the counseling setting. This class is
a great foundation class for those who don’t feel confident in leading a counseling session, or who
feel the counseling ministry is still a little confusing to them.
Albert Osden
Wives Counseling Their Husbands When They Won’t Listen
How do you counsel when they will not listen? Peter gives us an answer that Put God, as t
he one who holds the heart of the King in His hand, as the one that will change those who
will not listen
David Tyler
Understanding Homosexual “Theology”
The fact homosexuality is believed by some and under consideration by others to be equivalent to
heterosexuality demonstrates we are a civilization in moral crisis. I would argue the Church in its
handling or mishandling of the issue is evidence the church is in a crisis. However a cursory study of
church history will show there has never been a time when the church has not been in a crisis; from
within or without. Every disastrous event or immoral declaration and practice in every civilization has
required a response from the Church of Jesus Christ. This workshop will help believers to understand
homosexual “theology” in order to minister to friends and families.
Workshop Session #5
Dennis Frey
A Discussion On the Promotion, Practice, Perils, and Pleasures of Starting a Counseling
Ministry
"The title of this workshop tells it all. The presenter has, as we like to say, "Been there, and done
that." The focus will be on the nuts and bolts of beginning a counseling center in a local church.
Such as, how to fund it, who to convince of its value, how to protect the local church, how to protect
the privacy of those coming for counseling, who pays and gets paid, and much more. The workshop
may raise more questions than answers, but they will be questions that are better raised before rather
than after."
Mark Hager
Evangelism In Counseling: Maximizing Every Divine Appointment
Evangelism in counseling does not happen for you by default! On the contrary, it is very intentional for
those who recognize the need to be adequately prepared to share the gospel in every pre-counseling
situation. You will learn simple techniques and principles to clarify the gospel message to a unique
group of people; lost and hurt people who came to you for help! Additionally, you will learn valuable
visual illustrations that will impact your gospel presentation for both the spiritual ignorant, as well as
the spiritual arrogant.
Victor “Skip” Hessel
The Causes of Ministry Burnout
This workshop is a look at burnout from a biblical worldview. After discussing the phenomena left
undefined by the DSM V and other secular sources, the speaker will share causes from his personal
research and biblical responses. According to many sources, pastors, missionaries, and church
leaders seem to suffer greatly from this condition compared to other occupations. Identifying different
subtypes and the sinful conditions that cause them could help you help others.
Howard Eyrich
Developing a Church Counseling Program to Help Porn Addicts
Whether the commonly cited statistics of 1 in 3 men are involved with porn are accurate or not, the
reality is that when you preach or teach a SS class a significant number of your hearers are into porn.
Some participants may be simply purveyors the Victoria Secrets flyer (a gateway to more). The reality
is that every church is sprinkle with hard core addicts. A serious counseling ministry (or church) must
develop a means to ministry.
Linda Rice
Perfectionism: A Disabling Oppression – Women Only
Women often unwittingly pursue their ideal of spirituality, including their marriages, husbands, and
children’s lives. Perfectionism smothers relationships with the ones we love most. It stifles joy as it
weighs a person down with exhausting self-effort, frequent disappointments, fear of failure, and fear
of man, worry, and guilt. It can lead to eating problems, obsessions, procrastination, loneliness, and
other joy-robbing conditions. How can we help the perfectionist to glorify God with a joyful life?
Workshop Session #6
Linda Rice
Countering Influences of the World on Women – Women Only
The Bible tells us to not love the world. Yet each believer continues to receive pressures from both
habituated assumptions and the winds of worldly thinking blowing through the present Christian
culture. Worldly influences promise happiness but deliver troubles. Counseling is spiritual warfare to
free others from false beliefs that rob them of joy and hinder them from glorifying Christ.
Howard Eyrich
One Negative Rule that Determines the Context of Discipline
This workshop develops Ephesians 6:1-4 through the lens of the one negative rule that we should not
provoke our children. Participants will examine a variety of ways in which parents wittingly or not do
provoke children. This format is utilized to provide biblical counseling strategies counselors can
employ to help parents transform their parenting styles to avoid provoking children.
Mark Hager
Counseling Out of the Garden: Genesis 3
You will learn that the counseling issues and challenges you face in the counseling setting, all
predictably come from the Fall in the Garden! Unlike the psychological counselor who claims that the
evolution of counseling issues are motivated by cultural change, we know from the Scripture that
there is nothing new under the Sun. Counseling topics from the simple to the complex are discussed
in this class, and you will not be surprised by the fruit that the Fall has provide for the typical biblical
counselor today.
Johnny KIcklighter
Knowing the Will of God-Myths: Facts Regarding How to Discern God’s Will
This workshop looks at some of the myths surrounding how some try discern the will of God. It ends
with a discussion of six wills you can positively know.
Donn Arms
Counseling the Depressed Person
Many biblical counselors have gone off track in their approach to the subject of depression as
evidenced by recent books by Ed Welch, David Murray, and Robert Somerville. Let’s use the
Scriptures carefully as we open them to the depressed person.