Have you ever talked to a self-condemning person? You would think such a person would welcome relief. However, these people are driven by a strong need to condemn themselves. Trying to understand this problem raises several questions: What is self-condemnation? Where does it come from? Why do people condemn themselves? How do you deal with self-condemnation? When do you know it is gone?

Creation teaches us the importance of boundaries. Gravitational fields keep galaxies, stars, and planets in place. Water is kept within the bounds of its shores. All living creatures have a way of marking territory. God set the boundaries for creation. When God created Adam and Eve, He defined boundaries for them.

Are you a shepherd or a CEO? The CEO mentality appeals to many pastors. Some think it offers more validation, carries more weight, and sounds more relevant than “pastor.”

Previous articles in this series described the vision and basic counseling skills the 21st-century pastor must acquire to face increasingly complex problems in the local church. Saving the lost and healing the saved denote the church’s evangelistic and pastoral care missions. In the second article in this series, I described the essentials of a helping relationship along with various attending, listening, and responding skills. This article, and the concluding one to appear in the next issue of Enrichment, will present two important behavior change models: Praying Through to deal with past hurts, and Putting Off the Old Self/Putting on the New Self to deal with besetting sins and temptation.

Often, we laugh when we hear someone talking to himself. Somehow we have been left with the impression that normal people do not do this. However, the Bible has much to say about conversations we have with ourselves. Here are five important truths about that ongoing conversation.

The previous article in this series asserted that the 21st-century pastor must stay anchored and grounded in the changeless truths and principles of God’s Word to face the increasingly complex counseling problems in the congregation. Evangelism (saving the lost) and pastoral care (healing the saved) constitute the dual responsibilities of the church. Personal qualities of the pastor/counselor were examined along with a simple structure for the counseling relationship.

Pastoral ministry in the 21st century compels the Assemblies of God pastor to reflect on what is truly important for soul care in the church. Changing family structure, incessant time pressures, and a plethora of parishioner problems often leave the pastor feeling overstretched and overextended. More than ever, the 21st-century pastor must stay anchored in the timeless and changeless truths and principles of God’s Word. Why? People will continue to look to their pastor as their first source of help instead of the mental health professional.¹ As God met our greatest need by becoming incarnate in the world, the Spirit-filled pastor uses the gifts of communication to faithfully serve others and administer God’s grace (1 Peter 4:10).

The important things to know about your anger are — Why are you angry? How you are going to express it? These questions pose the moral issues surrounding anger. Anger became the tool of Satan in tempting Adam and Eve to break through the boundaries God had set for them. And, it was at the heart of the world’s first murder. (See Genesis 4:1–6.) So, you see, uncontrolled and misdirected anger can complicate or even destroy someone’s life.

Years ago the Lord gave me this working definition of marriage: Christian married love is a persistent effort on the part of two people to create for each other the circumstances in which each can become the person God intended him or her to be — a better person than he or she could become alone.

Depression is America’s number one mental health problem. The average age of onset for major depression has decreased every decade since World War II. Young people in their teens and 20’s are 10 times more likely to suffer from major depression than were their grandparents 50 years ago.

It's one thing when you read about it in a newspaper, it feels like a distant and unlikely reality in your own world. But when a person from your staff "falls" in moral sin, everything that makes sense seems to become clouded. A friend is bruised, hearts are broken, and leadership is in jeopardy.

Working on my doctoral program was like working three full-time jobs. After graduation, I was exhausted. It was time to rest. But then the phone call came. It was 11:07 p.m., and I heard one of my closest friends screaming in the background as her brother told me there had been a car accident. My friend’s daughter Mattie had been killed.

One of the pressing needs of the church today, especially as the Holy Spirit lovingly and graciously brings more and more people to a saving faith in Jesus Christ, is for more and better pastoral care of God’s people. Larry Crabb, well-known Christian psychologist, recently emphasized that he is “about one central thing: to see more of God’s people shepherded.”