Page 64 - Biblical Counseling I Textbook

Study Section 11: Learning a Method for Helping People (7 I’s)

11.1 Connect

If you enter any ministry, you will find yourselves involved in counseling others. It would behoove
you to learn some strategic ways you can help others learn to deal with their problems and help
them walk with Christ. Today and in the next lesson we will be learning seven words that being
with the letter “I” that perhaps you can memorize that will help you know how to assist those who
need your aid.

The word, “AVAILABLE” does not start with an I, but it forms the foundation of how to begin to counsel others.
As people come to you for advice or assistance, you need to be there to help them. It takes time and wisdom
from God to become an effective counselor. It also takes a knowledge of God’s Word so you can share God’s
ideas with them on how to solve their problems. Let’s learn the seven “I’s” as a foundational method on which
to base your counseling ministry. Let’s learn together….

11.2 Objectives

1. The student should be able to explain how important Involvement is when helping people through
the counseling relationship.

2. The student should be able to define what the investigation process is and why it is important in a
counseling relationship.

3. The student should be able to explain what the interpretation process is and why it is so important in the
counseling relationship.

11.3 Learning a Method for Helping People (7 I’s)

Involvement
Involvement is really just the development of a helpful relationship. You may already have a
relationship with the person you are helping, but there may be many opportunities to help people
who are relatively unknown to you. In either case, developing and maintaining a healthy
relationship is key. God is in a relationship with us that is built upon trust (our trust for Him) and
that flows out of love. Obviously, this relationship is essential and is even the focus of our counsel, but we must
also develop a similar kind of relationship with others if we are going to be effective as an instrument of change
in their lives. In other words, there must be trust, and there must be love. The following are ways to cultivate
this kind of relationship in a counseling context:

Put away your pride (Jam. 4:6; 1 Pet. 5:5-6).
• Do not think of yourself as a professional or even as “pastor”.

• Remember that you are vulnerable (Gal. 6:1; 1 Cor. 10:12-13)
• Resist the temptation to see yourself as their “helper” (1 Cor. 3:4-7; 2 Cor. 3:4-5).
• Do not allow them to look to you as their “helper” (John 14:16).

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