Monday Basic Training

11 Mondays to a Changed Ministry

Our class meets for eleven weeks, but holidays are observed. Therefore, the length of the class will range from eleven to thirteen weeks depending on the holiday schedule. The training course begins at 9:00 AM and concludes by 9:00 PM.

This is a certified training Center for those wishing to pursue NANC Certification. For more information on NANC Certification please visit www.nanc.org.

Lectures

From 9:00 AM until 1:00 PM the counseling staff presents lectures on the most common counseling problems. Topics include:

• Understanding the reasons for biblical counseling and the basic methods for doing biblical counseling. Included are lectures on why counsel, the goal of counseling, what makes biblical counseling biblical, a comparison of counseling methods, and the 6 key elements in the counseling process.
• Ministry to people involves both helping them overcome their sin and helping them grow to be more like Christ through the trials and suffering that they face.  Thus, we have sessions devoted to help you understand how to minister to people that struggle.    
• It is also important to recognize that genuine change is change that occurs on the inside.  Thus, we spend a lot of time talking about the heart not simply the behavior that Scripture would command.
• We will discuss the most common counseling subject:  Marriage and the Family.  We will provide specific teaching on communication, husband/wife roles, parent/child relationships, priorities, and  sex.
• Introduction to counseling and common medical issues. Included in this section is a discussion of illness, counseling those with an illness, and how to counsel those on psychotropic drugs.
• Helping people understand and process their emotions properly is another significant counseling subject.  So we will discuss how to help people who are struggling with worry, guilt, sinful anger, fear of man, and depression.
• The implications of this course to pastoral ministry are far reaching including evangelism, helping your people grow, equipping them for ministry, and pastoral responsibilities.
• Discussion of written case studies with our staff

Observation

Our staff counsels from 1:30 PM until 9:00 PM in 5 different counseling hours. You will have an opportunity to observe about 20 hours of actual counseling sessions during the course.

Those who have taken the course before consider the observation time as a crucial part of helping them prepare for their own ministries.

Additional Assignments

In addition to the lectures and observations, we have a number of reading assignments that need to be completed as part of course in order to reinforce the lectures and expose you to important counseling material that can be used in your own ministry.