Equipping Yourself For Counseling

by Jack Hyles

(Loading your gun)

1.  Read magazines; you need to be knowledgeable on any subject.  (Read such things as the business section of U.S.A. Today, the Sports section, etc. ) Program the computer.

2.  Read newspaper editorials.

3.  Live in the Bible.  Read it more than you study it.

4.  Read history. (History has helped me more than anything outside of the Bible and biographies.)

5.  Read biographies. (Get their character, not their doctrine.  Don’t read theology by John Wesley; he was not a Baptist, neither was Finney.  Don’t read their sermons, read their lives.  Calvin was a great man, but he would have fought us; so would Luther.  Theirs was Reformation Theology.  Baptist doctrine goes back to New Testament times, not just to the Reformation.)

6.  Read geography; learn about the nation and the world.

7.  Listen to the radio.  Listen to music as background.

8.  Constantly claim wisdom. (James 1:5)

9.  Ask someone more experienced if you gave the right counsel.

10. When folks have problems and do not ask your advice, decide secretly how you would advise them if asked.  Do not advise if not asked.

11. Seek counsel yourself and write down the advice you get.

12. Read and re-read question and answer books.  (Wm. Pettengale’s book, Dr. Rice’s book.)  Read one every six months for general knowledge and spend more time on practical questions than doctrinal questions.  Learn what will help people.

13. Be around all classes of people; you can’t build a church on the Bus Ministry.  You are only doing as well as your drive-in crowd.

14. Be around all races of people.

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