Ready to Restore: The Laymans Guide to Christian Counseling

by Jay E. Adams

Jay E. Adams is a pioneer in the field of counseling. Here he has taken the most essential elements of counseling and packaged them in a nontechnical volume. The result is neither simplistic, nor superficial, but a complete, systematic course, useful for study groups, bible colleges, church leaders, and individual study.

Genres: Counselling, Christian Living, Nonfiction

111 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Jay Edward Adams is a Reformed Christian author. He has written over 100 books and these have been published in sixteen languages.
He received a Bachelor of Divinity from Reformed Episcopal Seminary, a Bachelor of Arts in Classics from Johns Hopkins University,a Masters in Sacred Theology from Temple University, and a PhD in Speech from the University of Missouri.
Adams' book Competent to Counsel launched the nouthetic counseling movement, a movement whose aim was to use strictly biblical counseling methods. He is the founder of the Intitute for Nothetic Studies.

Reviews

[Gaby Dj · Rating 4 out of 5]

a short yet succinct and thorough introduction to Christian counselling made applicable to every Christian!

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short read, but dense with information. As I’m not planning to become a counselor or on focusing much effort towards counseling, I didn’t labor much over the book and read through it easily. The book serves as an introductory-level textbook into “Biblical Counseling” and thus only covers the main points. Adams rightfully repeats in the Preface and conclusion of the book, “studying this book will not make you a biblical counselor ... but it is a first book designed to acquaint you to the subject.”

A major premise of Adams’ is that “All Christians must counsel”. That’s not to say that all Christians ought to become licensed practicing counselors, but rather that all Christians should be equipped to take biblical principles and apply them to our own lives and to assist others in doing the same. So that we may restore other Christians to full usefulness in the church. The book succeeds in its stated purpose, of providing a comprehensive book on biblical counseling in simple/non-technical terms for lay Christians. However, in an effort to keep the book simple, many of the chapters end with a statement along the lines of “read my other works listed in the Bibliography for more information on the subject”. The prevalence of those remarks begs the question, should I have just read one of these other books to begin with?

[Heidi Leatherland · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good one!

[Samm Ellingson · Rating 2 out of 5]

yikes. there was a bunch of stuff in here i would not recommend. It was interesting though. glad our counseling professor encouraged us to read it and critique the practices laid out here.

[Reid · Rating 3 out of 5]

Adams has been a popular Biblical Counselor advocating that Christian lay people encourage and equip one another from the Bible since the 1970s.

Adams puts together a brief overview of how he handles Biblical Counseling. This is written for the 'new-to-the-concept' Christian. Adams overviews a TON of stuff from how to take and initial inventory from the counselee to listing Biblical topics that one can address.

Adams says that the Holy Spirit is really the Counselor and only changes comes from Him and from a person's engaging the Bible as a believer. He says that real change happens when one's heart changes; lots of what Adams ends up listing in detail seems like it is meant to change the outward behavior. Have them "put off" sinful behavior and "put on" godly behavior he says. Actually it seems like he says this kind of thing a lot. It's frustrating. It seems like he tells people in detail how to act like Christians when that is the problem: people are sinners, who suffer, and can't get it together to change their behavior.

What's the value of the book? It seems like Adams has written so much that is helpful about Biblical Counseling and it is a pretty good overview of what to expect in counseling situations.

I think there are better 'second generation' Biblical Counselor books that give us novices more helpful input on the "head to heart" change required for true transformation.

I find value in the book, it isn't one of the best ones that I have found helpful.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was a pretty helpful book in some respects. It gave good advice on how to approach difficult situations and how to counsel someone when they are going through a hard time spiritually. However, although he attempts to make the book suitable for the layman and says that anyone should be able to counsel, he goes on through the book telling how much we need to be able to understand in order to counsel people in the right way. There were many times that he gave a brief synopsis of something that was in one of his other books preceded by an advertisement for that other book and an excuse that the full explanation would take up more space than was warranted in a book this size. At the end of the book he has a sizable number of pages dedicated to further reading. I think this is a good thing but it was presented in such a way so that one would come to the conclusion that Jay Adams must be the recognized authority on counseling. This may be true, but it doesn't seem right that Jay Adams is portraying himself that way.

[KC McCauley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book that sets a foundation for Nouthetic counseling. To sum it up: we need to restore people back to usefulness in the church. Our counseling is straight from the word of God and we are really giving them God's counsel. The ultimate goal of counseling is not to solve problems or situations, but to help others be obedient to God and see that He is the ultimate goal.

[Peter Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent basic introduction to counseling. It would benefit any Christian who is looking for a some guidelines on how to lead people to change. His 25 points in chapter 7 are worth the price of the book. I have Competent to Counsel, but have not read it yet. I would like to compare the two books.

[Andy]

0079

[Steve Hemmeke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Basic how-to-minister-to-people manual

[Victor Chininin · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent survey of the principles of biblical counseling for Christians. Very accessible and very useful.

[Steve Hailstone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good reminder to the Christian of his/her responsibility and equipping for counseling other Christians.

[Tim Woody · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great intro to biblical counseling. Very practical and thought provoking, this book definitely left me wanting to read more on the subject and maybe working through the Christian Case Book.

[Lanatra Magee]

this is was a excellent choice for anyone who's looking to help anyone through a problem biblically! if your looking into being a biblical counselor this book will be a great helpful guide to use!

[Tim Senter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this quick reference.