November 2025 | 7
SCBO Provides Biblical Counseling Services for Church Staff Ministers
By Ryan Strother, director of Convention Support
Ministry, while immensely rewarding, often carries bur - dens and challenges. Ministers are on the front lines of spiritual warfare, pas - toral care, and administrative responsibilities, all while striving to maintain their own walk with Christ and care for their families. The demands can be relentless, leading to burnout, Paid staff ministers and their immediate family members from cooperating SCBO churches are now eligible for biblical counseling services paid for by SCBO. Whether you’re part-time or full-time, if you’re in a ministry staff position, we’re glad to partner with you in this way. To be eligible, your church must have given through the Cooperative Program in the last calendar year. Ohio Baptists, your generosity makes blessings, like counsel- ing, possible for the ministers we serve. emotional fatigue, and spiritual dryness. Now, SCBO is coming alongside to help. We’re excited to partner with Fieldstone Counseling, a biblical counseling center in Ohio, and to contract with individual Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (ACBC) certified counselors in SCBO churches. Currently, three individual counselors are working with us. This collaboration allows us to offer a wider range of options for you. All counseling sessions can be virtual or in-person with no cost to the minister. When it comes to seeking counseling, there are often obstacles, especially for ministers, that keep them from seeking help. First, they don’t know who to talk to for fear that their conversation might be used against them. Second, counseling carries a stigma that implies weakness, and they feel that this should be avoided; and third, counsel- ing can be expensive. SCBO is trying to overcome these barriers. Recently, I have had conversations with pastors about the struggles they are facing. Whether it is challenges with their children, questioning God’s calling, struggling with feelings of being betrayed by church members, dealing with marriage issues, or turning to unhealthy ways of coping with ministry stresses, I hope that pro- viding counseling will help ministers understand their challenges and honor God in their responses. Biblical counseling is not merely offering advice; it’s a process of discipleship in which the counselor, guided by the Holy Spirit and the principles of scripture, helps you apply God’s truth to your specific circumstances. It provides a framework for understanding your struggles, identifying root causes, and developing practical steps
towards Christ-centered growth and healing. Chad Berry, lead pastor, New Liberty Baptist Church, Lexington, is an ACBC-certified counselor. He has seen the fruit of biblical counseling in those he works with in his ministry. “The process of biblical counseling teaches people how to read and absorb the scriptures,” Berry said. “I had a counselee who had grown up in church, but shared that they never learned to study the scripture on their own. Through the process of biblical counseling, this counsel- ee has expressed that they are now drawing more from the scriptures than ever before. “The second fruit of biblical counseling is seeing people embedded into the local church,” he continued. “We all As a pastor, I am usually the one seeking to provide godly counsel to others. I recently came to realize that it was my turn to seek godly, professional insight on some lingering questions in my life. Why do I often get “derailed” by innocent comments from others and go into a “funk?” How can I continue to minister to others while grieving the loss of my parents? Why do certain situations cause messages of inadequacy, discouragement, and defeat to flood my thoughts? How is my trauma from the past impacting me today? Am I distancing myself from those who love me due to my reluctance to pursue honest answers to these situations? These questions and more caused me to seek out professional Christian counseling nearly one year ago. Counseling has given me the language and tools that help me to identify the destructive messages of the enemy in my life, and to counter them with God’s truths. I have not arrived by any means, but I am making progress in these areas of my life that have been stagnant for many years. I humbly encourage you to take advantage of the opportunity to sit under the wisdom and insight of trained professional Christian counselors. You will not regret your decision to take this healing step. Biblical Counseling Makes a Difference in My Life Testimony By Keith Hurt, SCBO director of Next Gen
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