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Joe is quick to emphasize that effective counseling must be anchored in the biblical foundation of who God is and who He made us to be. “Psychology comes from the Greek word, psyche , which means ‘soul.’ We cannot understand the nature of the soul apart from a biblical anthropology. God created us [to be] dependent on our Creator, so we cannot understand who we are, humanly speaking, apart from a growing understanding of God.” Biblical counseling functions as a short-term, intensive care system for people dealing with acute difficulties in their lives. “Some suffering is because of bad choices, and some is because people have been sinned against,” Joe shares. “Still other issues in counseling arise because of the results of a fallen world.” Biblical counseling points these people back to the grace and truth of Christ when deep suffering or sorrow blurs their view of the gospel. Ultimately, the counselor seeks to guide the counselee to a place where they can get back into the river of relational and intentional discipleship. Breaking discipleship down into three categories does not imply that every discipling relationship will look the same; rather, this categorization serves as a helpful baseline to assess the discipleship taking place in peoples’ lives. By implementing relational, intentional, and intensive discipleship on campus, Bible Institute staff are hopeful that students will spark a movement of discipleship in their own local communities. "Discipleship is meant to happen in the local church,” Drew Burtis says. “We just want to be a resource to them. We provide a method to teach [students] disci- pleship and its importance in the life of a believer. Then, we send them back to their local churches.” As important as discipleship is, it is far from being easy. It takes initiative to reach out to younger believers and intentionally invest in their lives. But if we want to reverse the loneliness epidemic and show Gen Z what Christ- centered community looks like, it must be through biblical discipleship. Whether through a casual coffee day or a focused Scripture study, God can use a willing heart to raise up the next generation of Christian leaders.
1
Relationship Discipleship
2 Intentional Discipleship
3 Intensive Discipleship
SOURCES
1 Weissbourd, Richard, Milena Batanova, Eric Torres, and Virginia Lovison. Loneliness in America: How the Pandemic Has Deepened an Epidemic of Loneliness and What We Can Do About It. Making Caring Common Project, n.d. 2 The Deloitte Global Millennial Survey. Deloitte, 2019. 3 Viars, Steve. “The Discipleship River.” Journal for Biblical Counseling, 2022, 58–60.
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