Lay Counseling: Equipping Christians for a Helping Ministry

by Siang-Yang Tan, Eric T. Scalise, Tim Clinton (Foreword)

This one of a kind resource provides pastors, church leaders, and non-professional counselors with everything they need to establish a program for lay counseling. This new edition has been thoroughly revised and updated in light of fresh research and outlines a practical training resource that can be used to train and equip lay counselors.

Filled with useful forms and questionnaires, it also provides a helpful and comprehensive survey of the programs and resources that are currently available.

Genres: Christian, Psychology, Counselling

320 pages, Paperback

Published October 11, 2016

About the author

Siang-Yang Tan is director of the doctor of psychology program in the Graduate School of Psychology at Fuller Theological Seminary. His Ph.D. is from McGill University.

-from the back cover of Coping with Depression (1995)

Reviews

[Sharon Mariampillai · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a copy from Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

This was an enjoyable read. It really helped me understand how to lead a ministry. This book is hard to get through because it is a textbook. I think all Christians would enjoy this book as it motivates you in the Christian faith, but if you are really into counseling or being a leader in the ministry. I hope that this author makes more books as I grow deeper into my faith. I recommend this book to Christians who want to go into counseling. It might give you great insights. Overall, a great read.

[Christi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have thought about pursuing a career in Christian counseling so I thought that Lay Counseling would be a good read for an inquiring mind. I have to admit that this book was extremely hard to get through because it reads like a textbook but the information it contains is wonderful. Any church leader or Christian counselor would benefit greatly from this resource.

This book has everything from the need for a lay counseling ministry to all the details that goes along with building a lay counseling ministry and everything in between. We as Christians are called to help one another and this book is a wonderful reminder of how to "bear one another's burdens."

If counseling doesn't interest you I would not recommend this book but if it does I would highly recommend it. There is so much information it's almost overwhelming if you read it straight through but if you read it a little at a time and use it as a reference it is invaluable.

[Patrick · Rating 1 out of 5]

The author tried to create a biblical counseling model, which he claimed new and effective. It pretends to be something different from conventional counselling, even superior. You can’t call your research legitimate only because you used a scientific research method. The result can still be flawed. This is not a proper lay counselling book, phd paper at most.