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.
S5 Ep. 8 / Tim Challies: A Story of Immeasurable Suffering and Incomparable Hope
We’re honored to share time here together with Tim Challies. Tim’s firstborn and only son, Nick, died at college in 2020 after suddenly collapsing while playing a game and there is no diagnosis still to this day. When we look on at the suffering of others, it’s so easy to feel the weight and think we could never make it through something similar ourselves.
S5 Ep. 7 / When All Hope Seems Lost
There are times when we just can’t see a way out. When all hope really does seem lost. Even very committed Christians can face very, very dark times. Oftentimes we’re afraid to talk about emotions, especially big emotions, that come with suffering seasons. In our process of lament, there are times when all we can do is protest. But it’s so helpful to remember that when we protest, we’re still oriented towards God.
S5 Ep. 6 / How Can I Suffer Well and Help Others?
Suffering well might sound like a contradiction, but it is the process of going to God over and over again and allowing him to change us through the process of suffering. As believers we can be confident in who God says He is and that He will do what He says - but in seasons of suffering those truths can be harder to hold on to. We want to be careful to not minimize suffering, or that suffering well means we walk through hard things perfectly. It does not have to be big and glorious. Suffering well can just be putting one foot in front of the other in daily life.
S5 Ep. 5 / What is God Doing in My Suffering?
We all know people who have suffered profoundly and now they walk with Jesus deeply. We can hold on to hope that one day we will be able to tell our story without pain and shame, solely to put the glory of Christ on display. Until that day, we can continue to run to God in our suffering and trust that He sees us, hears us, and is near to us in it all.
S5 Ep. 4 / How to Write a Lament
Through the practice of personalizing a lament we can lay all of our pain and messiness before the Lord who will never stop loving us or get tired of us bringing all of our struggles and deep hurts to Him.
S5 Ep. 3 / Carol Collier on Lament: How to Cry Out to God in Suffering
The reality of lament, is that we’re saying what is true… that we were not made for death and decay and pain.
S5 Ep. 2 / Where is God in my suffering?
Wrestling with God as a believer is not necessarily a sign of unbelief but it’s really a sign of desperate faith.
S5 Ep. 1 / Why do I suffer?
We suffer because we live in a fallen world. None of us escapes the impact of pain and sorrow and even outright evil. And honestly, this is probably one of the hardest things to reconcile for anyone who believes that there is meaning in this life. Sometimes we just desperately just want to know why...
S4 Ep. 9 / Perfectionism
Have you ever felt like you are constantly striving for something that is never quite good enough? Or maybe you just feel like you're always falling a little short? If so, then this episode might be especially for you. This week’s common struggle is perfectionism. Whether we can see it in small areas or all throughout our lives, perfectionism can quickly become exhausting, exacting and exasperating! However, the gospel provides freedom from the many things that can drive the perfectionism in all of us.
Bonus Episode / Elyse Fitzpatrick
In this episode we talk about how we can know all the right things and be doing them well, but miss the gospel. For the listeners that feel full of questions, this podcast is for you. If you are the person who has worked really hard to do all the right things and find the right answers, then this episode is most definitely for you. Listen now and hear Elyse talk about her journey and how the trajectory of life changed when the profound beauty of the gospel truly reached her heart.
S4 Ep. 8 / Fear of Man
We were created to be known and know others deeply - but people pleasing distorts that into an inordinate desire for approval or inordinate fear of disapproval. These desires and fears can lead us into patterns of overcommitment, excessive worrying, over sensitivity, and over achievement.
S4 Ep. 7 / Bitterness
Bitterness can cause us to feel powerless and will begin to shape how we view the world around us, how we see the past, and how we anticipate the future. If it continues we can begin to lose hope and forget that God is writing the story and we can trust Him in it.
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.