Ready to Restore, New Edition: An Introductory Guide to Biblical Counseling by Jay E. Adams

160 pages | $12.99 $7.79 | SAMPLE CHAPTER | ebook: $8.99

Editor’s Foreword

It is altogether fitting that on the fortieth anniversary of its original publication, Dr. Adams’s classic work Ready to Restore is being produced by P&R Publishing in a new edition. The ten years following the publication of his groundbreaking book, Competent to Counsel, were breathless for Dr. Adams. The decade saw the explosive growth of the modern biblical counseling movement, the publication of twenty more books from his pen, and the establishment of the National Association of Nouthetic Counselors (now the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors). During this time, Dr. Adams traveled and lectured worldwide, taught at several seminaries, and moved his family to rural Georgia.

By the end of the decade, the movement had grown exponentially, and Dr. Adams concluded it would be wise for him to produce a concise summary of the basic concepts of nouthetic counseling that would be useful for both the classroom and individual study.

Although this is a new edition, the text remains much the same as the original. The changes are primarily cosmetic with the new interior design. I found a few typos and archaic expressions to correct, but these are still Jay Adams’s words. The primary revision occurs in chapter 16. There Dr. Adams urged his readers to continue to grow as counselors and listed a number of resources that students could obtain to continue their study. Those resources, however, consisted of a number of books that are now out of print and cassette tapes (remember those?) that could be ordered from entities that no longer exist.

Chapter 16 now lists resources for continued study that are easily accessible to the student of counseling today. We begin by listing the works of Dr. Adams himself, most of which were not yet written when this book first appeared. Then we have compiled an admittedly subjective list of the best helps written by men and women Dr. Adams knew and trusted.

It is our prayer that even now, after Dr. Adams’s faith has been made sight, this significant book will receive again the wide readership it enjoyed when it was first published forty years ago.

—Donn R. Arms

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Endorsements

“Returns counseling to laymen and women who are well-schooled in biblical hermeneutics, theology, and discipleship. It has all the foundational ideas that make biblical counseling effective.”

—John D. Street, Chair of the Graduate Department of Biblical  Counseling, The Master’s University and Seminary

“A very readable small book that will help you to cut your teeth on the basics of biblical counseling.”

—Lou Priolo, Pastor of Counseling, Christ Covenant, Atlanta

“The mainstay of many lay counseling training programs since it was first published.” 

—Jim Berg, Professor of Biblical Counseling, Bob Jones University

“You will be hard-pressed to find a better brief introduction to the biblical rationale and fundamental methodologies of biblical counseling.”

—T. Dale Johnson Jr., Executive Director, Association of Certified Biblical Counselors

“The essence of the biblical counseling movement. A primary primer for the encouragement and training of lay folks who do the work of this important ministry.”

—Howard Eyrich, Director of the Doctor of Ministry Program, Birmingham Theological Seminary

“This volume contains excellent information on some of the fundamentals of truly biblical counseling.”

—Wayne Mack, Director, Association of Certified Biblical Counselors—Africa

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