Small Town Summits has enjoyed a remarkable, blessed year, with six Summits (one in each of the New England states) centered around the theme “Called to Counsel.” Partnering with the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation of New England (CCEF-NE), together with the many hundreds of pastors and laypeople who have attended the Summits, we’ve considered God’s call upon every Christian to offer counsel to their fellow Christians.

What is counseling, anyway? The three main goals of counseling laid out by Jeremy Pierre and Deepak Reju in their 9Marks book The Pastor and Counseling are: 1. Address a problem; 2. Display the relevance of the gospel; 3. Help people grow in Christlikeness. That important work is sometimes done in a formal environment with the guidance of a licensed professional counselor. It’s also done informally, from one Christian to another, in the course of everyday life. And it can occur everywhere in between, as we receive guidance from a mentor, small group leader, pastor, or someone else. In our Summits, we’ve focused on the informal, Christian-to-Christian end of that spectrum of counseling. In that sense of the word, we’re all called to counsel.

This is very good news for small-town churches. Sometimes we feel overwhelmed by the complicated problems of our people and our church’s lack of resources to address them. In The Pastor and Counseling, Pierre and Reju say, “Small churches, especially those in rural areas, often have very few resources in their community to draw on for help. A pastor and church are sometimes the only available resources.”

That means it’s crucially important for us to equip God’s people to counsel one another. As our STS Partner Dan Crichton said at our Rhode Island Summit, “My prayer is that you will believe that what you have and where you are is what you need to hold fast to your call to make disciples of Jesus and to provide biblical counsel.” God has given us his Word and placed us within local churches. His Word is the catalyst for our transformation and his church is the context of our transformation. Of course, this doesn’t mean there’s no place for professional counseling. But it does mean that God will powerfully use his Word and his church for the sake of his people.

This is clear from the Bible. Hebrews 10:19-25 provides a particularly helpful picture of the catalyst and context for personal transformation.

“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

There are three exhortations in these verses: “let us draw near” (verse 22), “let us hold fast” (verse 23), and “let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works” (verses 24-25). We know the author of Hebrews considers these exhortations extremely important because he places under them the massive, mighty foundation of Jesus’s high priesthood in Hebrews 5:1 – 10:18. Because Jesus is our high priest (5:1 – 10:18) therefore we’re to draw near, hold fast, and consider how to stir up one another to love and good works (10:19-25). Clearly, these exhortations matter.

Let’s focus on the third one. The English Standard Version translates it: “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:24-25). Unfortunately, that translation makes it sound like the author is urging us to figure out a technique – how to do something (namely, how to stir up one another to love and good works). But the direct object of the verb “consider” is in fact “one another.” The author literally says: “let us consider one another, unto the stirring up of love and good works.”

The word translated “consider” means “to observe,” “to contemplate,” “to discern.” It’s the word Jesus uses when he tells his followers to consider the ravens and the lilies (Luke 12:24, 27). The author of Hebrews uses this word only two times in his book, once to urge his readers to consider Jesus (3:1) and the other time, to urge them to consider one another (10:24). We’re meant to study our fellow believers carefully.

The truth is that none of us are as good at understanding other people as we think we are. In How to Know a Person, David Brooks says, “We all go through our days awash in social ignorance” (page 14). He cites an expert who finds that “strangers who are in the midst of their first conversation read each other accurately only about 20 percent of the time and close friends and family members do so only 35 percent of the time” (page 14). Really knowing another person isn’t easy!

So, we must devote ourselves to careful observation and consideration. Our purpose in doing so is the stirring up of love and good works (verse 24), and that requires being around one another in Christian community as we await Jesus’s return (verse 25). The author of Hebrews clearly believes this to be the task of all Christians. The “us” of verses 24-25 isn’t a select group of trained professionals or a super-spiritual elite. Rather, it’s all believers. Moreover, the pronoun “one another” in verse 24 (“consider one another”) is reciprocal, which means this isn’t one group of Christians doing the considering and another group of Christians being considered – it's all of us considering one another. We’re all counselors and counselees.

The catalyst of personal transformation (in the language of verse 24: “unto the stirring up of love and good works”) is God’s Word. Recall that it’s the truth of Christ’s atoning, high priestly work that grounds the words spoken by one Christian to another. And the context of personal transformation is the local church, the gathered people of God, who observe and consider one another in order to encourage and exhort one another.

This means it’s the sacred responsibility of every Christian to know some other Christians in our church deeply enough (and to be known by them, in return) that we can speak into their lives (and they into ours) in transformative ways. God calls us to display the relevance of the gospel and help one another grow in Christlikeness, stirring up one another to love and good works, encouraging one another, counseling one another.

Years ago, I spent months working through some tough stuff with a Christian brother. He wasn’t easy to deal with and I was pretty tired. I also felt I had done all I needed to do in speaking with him. But when I discussed it with our other elders, who knew me well, they disagreed. They told me I should pursue another conversation. I didn’t want to, but they held fast. I grudgingly agreed. I’ll be honest – I was irked as I left that meeting. But it was the right thing to do. Those men knew me and the situation. I trusted them and knew they loved me. I received their wise counsel. That is an incredible gift. You don’t need to be a big church in a big place to have that gift. It’s available in any church that anchors itself in the Word and fosters true Christian community. God’s Word is the catalyst, and Christ’s church is the context, for personal transformation.