P&R’s series edi­tors work inde­pen­dently to acquire man­u­scripts that meet their vision for the series. Gospel for Real Life series edi­tor Brad Ham­brick has an MDiv in bib­li­cal coun­sel­ing and a ThM in applied the­ol­ogy from South­east­ern Bap­tist The­o­log­i­cal Sem­i­nary, as well as years of coun­sel­ing experience.

The Gospel for Real Life series

P&R. How did you come to be the edi­tor of the Gospel for Real Life series?

BH. I served as the edi­tor for the Jour­nal of Coun­sel­ing & Dis­ci­ple­ship (JCD) with the Asso­ci­a­tion of Bib­li­cal Coun­selors (ABC) for sev­eral years before ABC (www.christiancounseling.com) began a book­let series. We wanted to syn­chro­nize our small pub­li­ca­tion efforts, so I was the nat­ural per­son to serve as the edi­tor for the Gospel for Real Life book­let series.

P&R. Are you cur­rently accept­ing proposals?

BH. We invite authors with whom we have pre-established rela­tion­ships to write in the GRL series. If some­one is inter­ested in con­tribut­ing to the series, I would advise they first sub­mit arti­cles for con­sid­er­a­tion in the JCD to allow us to build a relationship.

P&R. What is your hope for this series? How can the series be used?

BH. We want this series to advance the skill­ful­ness with which the church is equipped to care for the strug­gles of life—from mun­dane to com­plex; and from infor­mal to for­mal coun­sel­ing min­istry. This is why we address both pop­u­lar and clin­i­cal sub­jects in the series.

We want to unpack four core val­ues in the way we address any sub­ject in this series: (1) the neces­sity of the gospel, (2) the neces­sity of the Scrip­ture, (3) the cen­tral­ity of the local church, and (4) a bal­anced view of sin and suffering.

We want these book­lets to pro­vide brief, easy-to-read overviews of how the gospel speaks to real life. We believe these shorter for­mat book­lets are par­tic­u­larly effec­tive for coun­sel­ing home­work and prepar­ing pastor/teachers to grasp a sub­ject when it is rel­e­vant to a sermon/lesson.

The smaller size is less intim­i­dat­ing and there­fore cre­ates a hunger for more learn­ing for read­ers. In a coun­sel­ing or dis­ci­ple­ship con­text this is vital for devel­op­ing an ongo­ing rela­tion­ship God will use to facil­i­tate change.

P&R. What have you learned while work­ing with this series?

BH. God has blessed his peo­ple with incred­i­ble riches. Through the gospel God pro­vides par­don for sin, com­fort in suf­fer­ing, and a foun­da­tion for our iden­tity. When we live the gospel in the con­text of authen­tic Chris­t­ian com­mu­nity, God pro­vides free­dom from the most com­plex sin and heal­ing for the most harsh suffering.

Through Scrip­ture, God pro­vides not just answers (although there is rich instruc­tion, guid­ance, and per­spec­tive), but reveals him­self as One who is for/with us in the midst of life’s hard­ship. With the priv­i­lege of edit­ing each book­let comes the oppor­tu­nity to see new facets of God’s trans­form­ing power. There is great encour­age­ment in start­ing to read a book­let where the title is intim­i­dat­ing but to be walked through “real life” pain to a “real life” Sav­ior, Redeemer, and Friend. Each author does this with his/her unique voice and expe­ri­ence work­ing with hurt­ing peo­ple with the Scrip­tures. The result is that the size of our doubt at the begin­ning of each sub­ject becomes the incre­ment by which our faith grows by the end of it.

. . .

The Gospel for Real Life series

Visit Brad’s blog at www.bradhambrick.com and learn more about the Asso­ci­a­tion of Bib­li­cal Coun­selors at www.christiancounseling.com.