After decades of having these conversations in the counseling room and side by side over coffee with friends, we were compelled this year to create a podcast resource to inspire, equip, and train you to use your everyday conversations to connect others to the love of Christ.
Because we learn better together, we want to encourage you to gather and discuss the podcast. Simply sign up for our emails to receive 3 conversation starting questions, visuals, and handouts for each episode.
S4 Ep. 6 / Depression
Depression is a common but complex struggle that all of us will encounter in our own lives or in the lives of people we love. Looking at it holistically they address our physical and spiritual lives, the influence of other people, and the influence of the enemy.
S4 Ep. 5 / Guilt
The Holy Spirit’s job is to convict us, but that conviction is an open invitation to repent and lean back into our relationship with God. Condemnation drives us away from Him and leads us into despair, but conviction is a gift that leads us into a better understanding of God’s Law and our relationship with Him.
S4 Ep. 4 / Anger
Anger is an all encompassing response - we feel it in our bodily responses, our mental value judgements, and our emotional reactions.
S4 Ep. 3 / Anxiety Part 2
It’s important for us to acknowledge that a lot of the time anxiety is inviting us into grief - but it can be easier for us to feel anxiety than engage in the grief underneath. Maybe we need to begin to ask ourselves what grief is the Lord asking me to enter into and lament before Him
S4 Ep. 2 / Anxiety Part 1
Anxiety is one of the most common struggles that we all face today. And it can be no small thing. We experience anxiety as a whole person so it impacts our thinking, feelings, body and behaviors. In this episode Alex and Brenda discuss how anxiety affects us holistically and how to address these different factors so we can truly move towards turning our worry into worship. This doesn't mean that we won't face anxiety! But we can have more tools and frameworks to be able to navigate it as it comes, both in our own lives and as we walk with others we love.
S4 E1 / Wisdom for Life's Common Struggles
This season of Conversational Counseling is all about offering wisdom for life's common struggles. In this episode Brenda and Alex begin with introducing the six topics that will be discussed throughout the season that are common to us all.
S3 Bonus Episode/ Marty Solomon Conversation
On this episode of Conversational Counseling we are thrilled to have Marty Solomon, creator and executive producer of The BEMA Podcast join us!
We talk about the theme in the story of the Bible of God's desire to restore relationship after disruption and so much more!
S3 Ep.7/ Miserable Counselors: Key elements of everyday ministry
Let’s be honest, sometimes as we walk with one another, we just miss it. None of us are perfect and sometimes we get on people’s nerves and even outright hurt them.
S3 Ep. 6/ Ministry of Words: Key elements of everyday ministry
Before we speak, we really have to remain humble enough to recognize that we don’t have all the answers. But when the time does come to speak up, how do we know what to say? What to not say? It’s so nuanced and unique in each situation.
S3 Bonus Episode/ A Conversation with Dr. Curt Thompson
On this episode of Conversational Counseling we are thrilled to have Dr. Curt Thompson share the incredible science of the brain, the Scriptures, how important physical presence is, cultivating community, telling our stories more truly, paying attention to our bodies, suffering, transformation, and more!
S3 Ep. 5/ Asking Questions: Key elements of everyday ministry
Many of us can think of someone who is just really good at asking questions. It can seem like an unobtainable skill, yet it’s really something we can all grow in!
S3 Ep. 4/ Listening: Key elements of everyday ministry
So often, when trouble comes to those we love, we are tempted to be quick to give advice. But the Gospel calls us to listen before we speak. And in our listening, to really seek to know and understand the other person rather than to just try to get information and facts out of them.
S3 Ep. 3/ Ministry of Presence: Key elements of everyday ministry
If we’re going to care for someone, we have to be present with them. But it’s not just being a body in the room, it’s being truly present. Really being an embodied presence so they feel like they’re in the presence of Christ.
S3 Ep. 2/ A Model of Personal Ministry: Key elements of everyday ministry
Ministry is to us, before it’s through us. Until we know how to receive it from the Lord, we’re not going to be able to let it flow through us to other people. As we pause and slow down to think about how Jesus moves towards people, what He asks, what He says, we start to learn how to share the same type of ministry care with others.
S3 Ep. 1/ Preparing Our Hearts: Key elements of everyday ministry
This season of Conversational Counseling is all about equipping you with frameworks to be able to minister more fully to those around you in your everyday life, the ones right in front of you.
S2 Bonus Episode / Sherri Tate's story of forgiveness
Season 2 was all about forgiveness, and we have a special treat for you in this bonus episode... Our dear friend and colleague Sherri Tate shares part of her own story and how the Lord brought her to a place of genuine healing and forgiveness after experiencing compound trauma and abuse.
Sherri bravely shares her story of suffering and even her own sin, graciously dispels myths perpetuated by those within the church that harmed her, and offers a long view of forgiveness full of freedom and redemption that has come and holds hope for the future still.
The stories shared in this episode are not explicit or graphic but they do involve murder, domestic violence and sexual, verbal, emotional, psychological and spiritual abuse so take caution if these are a part of your own story or if you have children who might be within listening distance.
S2 Ep. 6/ Restore: It's bigger than forgiveness
This season has been all about forgiveness, both what it is, but also what it isn’t. This episode is about restoration. We have to orient vertically to the safety we have in Christ. He's the only one who ultimately is not going to let us down. It's only from that place of safety, that we're going to be able to venture out into the risk of any relationship.
S2 Ep. 5/ Reconciliation: It's bigger than forgiveness
This season, we’re talking about forgiveness, both what it is, but also what it isn’t. This episode is about reconciliation. Reconciliation is where we’re clearing away the rubble and beginning to repair the ruins of the relationship and the hearts that are involved.
S2 Ep. 4/ Overlooking or Confronting: It's bigger than forgiveness
This whole season, we’re looking at forgiveness… both what it is, but also what it isn’t. Our conversation on this episode is about discerning when to overlook and when to confront.
S2 Ep. 3/ Release: It's bigger than forgiveness
In this season, we’re looking at forgiveness, both what it is but also what it isn’t. This episode, we talk through what it looks like to release someone from personal vengeance and bitterness.