Christian Leadership Life Coaching

The Christian Leader's Support Group

2010-03-01T09:21:00.000-08:00

_____________________________

“I’m so busy—I have to take the time..!”
The Christian Leader’s Support Group
by Phil Brewer

Your Relational Support System. Ideally, you have a loving family, some good friends you can trust, and respectful regard in your ministerial milieu. But whatever the quality of your support system, you may want to consider organizing a support group of four or five peers. Friends and family are precious treasures and constitute part of our relational wellness. But your own support group, with its focus, accountability, honest feedback, mining of biblical truth, active listening, heartfelt prayer, sincere empathy, and shared vision offers profound benefits. The adventure of a functioning support group run in an atmosphere of courtesy, mutual dignity, and edification awaits you.

Seeking Candidates. Look for persons of like precious faith—who love God, whose lives are dedicated to faithful stewardship of the gospel of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 4). Look for men who basically share (or feel compatible with) your world view and Christocentric vision. And homogeneity of gender (all men or all women) seems to work best.

Caveat: Discouragement. A good support group takes time. You must resolve to do some ‘research and development’ before your ‘engineering’ is improved. One or two may drop out, or not show up in the first place. But lay all before God in your earnest prayer for a functional support group, be persistent, and He will bring it to pass.

Caveat: “Clones.” Cloned sameness (while appearing to double strengths) may also double weaknesses. Healthy heterogeneity can enrich the gather-ings: an intelligent youth pastor or dedicated music minister enjoying wisdom of older senior pastors; a first time church planter comparing notes with veterans; a liturgical or mainliner with an independent charismatic or classical Pentecostal. Godly representation from different ethnic and multicultural backgrounds can bless your koinonia and bring valuable perspective. A counselor, a chaplain, or parachurch leader can spice up the conversation.

Seek Wisdom. Pray for the Holy Spirit’s guidance to build a group of men/women who are rational, sensible, mentally healthy, and generally easy to get along with. (Someone who is chronically hostile, contentious, inappropriately suspic-ious, emotionally immature, a crank, a 'concrete thinker' who can't think abstractly, a grievance-collector, has a one-issue theology or simplistic hobby horse--usually needs more in-depth therapeutic ministry than the typical support group can offer.) 'High maintenance personalities' require 'high maintenance engineers' (life coaches!).And pray earnestly that your group will be focused: listening—observing, paraphrasing, understanding.

Transference Issues. Even though a pastor can’t have this luxury in his congregation, don’t build anyone into your support group whom you consistently feel uncomfortable or nervous around—or just don’t like. If you have sincerely brought this before the Lord, you may simply have a ‘transference issue’ and should just pray for that person from a distance. A support group can be chilled by transference issues (which often have nothing to do with his or your spirituality). For example, you may remind him (without realizing it) of a Little League coach he didn’t like, or he may remind you (unconsciously) of that prof who gave you a low grade, or that vicious ‘Diotrephes’ type church boss (cf. 3 John) who sabotaged your last pastorate and got you voted out! The typical support group doesn’t provide an appropriate arena for figuring out why you don’t like someone.

Phase One: Proactivity. Seek the Holy Spirit’s management. Make in-person and phone inquiries. Get Email addresses. Scan or snail mail this support group information to persons who may be interested. Invite four to six motivated persons to coffee. Agree to pray corporately regarding the support group. Stay in contact via Email and/or phone with those showing interest.

Phase Two: Organizing. Get together for an early breakfast discussion with the committed. Suggested maximum is six members per support group. Set the date for your first meeting. In the first support meeting, agree on a standard (albeit flexible for holidays or emergencies) time of the month and day of the week. Choose a ‘round robin’ location at the different homes, off-ices, (or comfortable and private church rooms) of group members. A full breakfast, or just snacks and beverages, may be offered as each member hosts the support group on his particular month. Suggested meeting time is from 8:00am to 1:30pm, one day a month—e.g.: second Thursday of each month. Of course, your group may choose a different schedule.

Phase Three: Management. Over the years several standard questions have proved helpful. Each member should try to manage his time in dealing with each question, while at the same time feeling relaxed enough to express himself candidly and fully. A support group member also has the privilege of deferring on a particular question (perhaps “all is well” in that category or he just may not want “to go there” at this time). One question might take forty-five minutes to go around the circle. Another question might be dealt with in a shorter period of time. In some meetings a particular member may need more focused empathy and time from the rest of the group. If profound issues emerge which seem beyond the scope of a support group, the member may want to talk privately with a qualified Christian consultant. Generally that life coach shouldn’t be in the same group, I think. While the support group has a very healing and encouraging purpose, it may not be able to function as psychotherapy or group therapy. Christian trust, based on absolute confidentiality, of course, is a must. Priority requires a prayerful sensitivity to the Holy Spirit’s leading (e.g.: “themes” for the day) and proper orchestration (i.e.: no domination of time by one of the members).

Phase Four: Suggested Support Group Questions.

(“During this past month…)

1. …What has God been saying to you in His Word? (devotional Bible study and prayer-journaling—not just Sunday’s sermon if a pastor)

2. …How have you been using your time? (schedule, pacing, recreation)

3. …How are your relationships going? (family, friends, staff, ministry)

4. …How are things going personally? (stress, motivation, decisiveness, inertia, effectiveness, frustration, worry, anger, thinking, obsessions, perceptions, confidence, creativity, calling, hope, humor, health)

5. …What spiritual leadership principles have you learned--or desire to? (Are you growing in leadership-effectiveness & problem-solving?)

6. …How may we pray with you?” (wellness needs: physical, mental, spiritual, relational, economic, career-satisfaction--ministry, calling)

Support Group ‘peer-feedback’ can help one realize things like…

1. Life (& ministry) is a marathon not a fifty-yard dash (pacing, more time with the 'strong' than 'weak', sabbaticals, 'time-out'--not just 'time off').

2. Clearly defined boundaries, limitations, and 'compartmentalizing'--stall burnout.

3. Religious institutions were made for man (not vice versa) (“The sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath”). Don’t be too 'religiously-pre-occupied'.

4. One must not derive too much self identity from 'role-image: “...have a life.”

5. Idealistic expectations can be blunted and lowered (accurate reality-testing).

6. Creativity, self-care, healthy humor, being flexible—help maintain wellness.

7. Difficult people and problems can be coped with (or seek God and move on!).

8. "The battle is the Lord’s"--become a Satisfied-Satisfier instead of a Frustrated-
Satisfier. (Frustrated-Satisfiers can backslide into Frustrated-Frustraters).

9. Your own handicaps & perceptual distortions may be managed and corrected.

10. Inspiration & encouragement from your group is available during blah times.

11. Support during personal struggles--e.g.:loneliness, alienation, sickness.

12. Build an enduring close friendship or two perhaps from your Support Group.

13. Develop insight re: how you come across to others (e.g.: facial expressions, mannerisms, habits, personal hygiene, communication style). Do you need voice-coaching to help you project properly with intercostal diaphragmatic breathing—because you preach with an effeminate, high, squeaky-squawky voice--torturous to listen to? [Many leaders have no insight regarding how tedious it is to listen to their perhaps good material—because of poor voice projection and lame rapport! Sadly, others may just be boring--blunt 'affect', emotionally cold, with impoverished and uninteresting no listen-no study-no pray lives--droning on-and-on--superficial and self-absorbed--with no depth of rich humor, satire, irony, paradox, or metaphor. Some are judgment-impaired magical thinkers--or secret-lifers*--some feel compelled to be on TV.]

14. Not trying to do God’s work--without God’s power. Like it or not (cf. Acts) the effective Christian leader must walk in the Spirit (as the leaders go--so go the people). The Spirit stops 'policy wonks', 'control freaks', 'toadie collectors', and attention-seekers. The Pneumatic (Spirit-empowered--Zech. 4:6) minister of Christ must not only have a healthy Christology but experiential knowledge and practice of a sound Pneumatology. (Who is in charge here?)

15. An honest Support Group can be an arena for the soul-healing confession--that artificial charm, secular market-driven purposes, programs, and the strange fire of carnal charisma have failed miserably to reach souls in the stewardship of Jesus Christ. My dear minister-Father told me about the deacons in a rural Kentucky church, who, when asked, “What is the anointing of the Spirit?” replied, “We don’t know if we could define what it is…but we sho-do-know-what-it-ain’t…”

EMMAUS
Christian Leadership Assistance Program
Philip C. Brewer, Director
(e) CounselPro@gmail.com
(Online LifeCoaching): http://christianleaderlifecoaching.com

Copyright © 2002-2003-2004-2005-2008 by Philip C. Brewer All Rights Reserved

Executive and Christian Leader Life Coaching via Skype.com

2009-07-10T04:22:00.000-07:00

Skype.com name: CounselPro

Limited Online Appointments Available for confidential Online Christian Executive Life Coaching.

{Competent Christian Life Coaching could be analogous to 'preventive medicine': offering proactive, pedagogic, and a priori help--before a personal, relational, or career crisis or emergency occurs.}

Are you a Christian executive or businessperson?

Are you a Christian leader? Pastor? Associate pastor? Para-church leader? Missionary?--or staff member in a Christian ministry organization..?

{Christian leaders often seek sponsorship by their denominational headquarters, organizations, or mission agencies. Past consultation has included Southern Baptist, Assemblies of God, The Episcopal Church, Southern Baptist, Missionary Baptist, Freewill Baptist, United Methodist, Mennonite Brethren, Plymouth Brethren, the Church of the Nazarene, charismatic Catholic, independent charismatic churches, Youth With a Mission, Church of God (Anderson), Church of God (Cleveland), Pentecostal Church of God (Joplin), and Pentecostal Holiness.}

Have you considered the benefits of convenient and confidential Online life coaching?

(Or do you know someone (in the above categories) you'd like to refer? Who might benefit?

A Convenient Online consultation (or regular coaching with an experienced and credentialed Christian life coach) is just a Skype.com call away.

My commitment is to be your competent, compassionate, coach and consultant.

(Emergencies requiring professional psychiatric and/or psychotherapeutic intervention, psychotropic or other medications, or danger to others or self, are referred to professionals in your area--and/or are advised to call 9-1-1.)

Issues may involve stress, indecisiveness, ineffectiveness, inertia, career frustration, ethics and character, misconduct, compulsivity (e.g. gambling), grievances, relational difficulties, personality traits, chronic anger, anxiousness, or obsessiveness.

Executive Life Coaching Appointments are arranged initially at convenient times via e-mail contact to CounselPro@gmail.com.

Light vs. Darkness

2009-03-05T23:12:00.000-08:00

Light vs. Darkness
"What is truth..?" --Pontius Pilate

(People ask me:)
"How can I know who is speaking the truth to me (and what is Truth and what is Falsehood and Deception)--in my everyday conversations, and in the written, radio, TV, film, (media) news, polemics, politics, and propaganda..?" "And how can I know that what I am thinking and believing is the Truth--and not a Lie, not some 'doctrine (teaching) of devils' and evil deception--that, even though it might sound convincing, reasonable, and logical at first, will lead me, nevertheless, into the'broad way that leads to destruction'...the 'road to hell' that is paved with the proverbial 'good intentions'...?

I reply: "First of all (lay aside your past political brainwashing, your 're-education camps', the propaganda and secular philosophies of your past) is your mind redeemed? Are you transformed in Christ by the renewing of you mind according toRomans 12:1-2..? "Are you liberated by the Holy Spirit of God from the unsaved, perishing, sin-enslaved paradigms, world-views, and near-sightedness of sin-sick humanity--and the sin-virused soul...?"

I always remind folks that they must have more than some solipsistic emotional experience or cerebral 'aha' to become a regenerate born-again Christian--(Study John) because the Bible states that "The carnal mind cannot perceive the things of God." One must be sure that his unregenerate-non-born-again-sinful nature and the god of this world (Satan) has not cognitively and spiritually blinded his (spiritual) eyes.

A man or woman must be wooed, coaxed, drawn, convicted by the Holy Spirit. And s/he must respond in faith, trust, wholehearted and sincere belief in Jusus Christ--the Anointed One of God. There must be an authentic I-Thou Encounterwrought by the supernatural empowerment and 'connection' of God, the Holy Spirit--this is not some rhetorical--some philosophical-some psychological change of attitude, some baptist signing of a membership card, some political shift, some genuflecting, religious mumbling of a Christianized four-spiritual-laws formula--or result of a 'heaven-chilp implant.

Salvation of the soul is a divinely-wrought supernatural miracle. It cannot be culterized, tribalized, philosophized--or psychologized. (Sadly, this is why mega-churches and the so-called Emergent Churches are bursting in attendance. (You preach the truth of "Narrow is the way and strait is the gate, and the reality of persecution that comes to any true believer in Christ--and you'll not get a big crowd of twenty-something boppers...in fact they'll run away from you...as even the disciples did at first from Jesus when they realized, 'Hey, this guy's gonna get himself crucified...!')

And I also ask, "In your psycho-social support system--who are your cronies--who do you hang around with and feel comfortable with..? Do you try to get your fellowship with sinners...? i.e.: Are you (Psalm 1) "Sitting in the seat of the scornful..?...Standing in the way of sinners..?...Listening to the counsel of the ungodly..? Remember, the Bible states that"There is no fellowship (participation in the Holy Spirit) between (spiritual) light and (spiritual) darkness." And the Biblealso states, "Evil cronies have a corrupting influence."

1. Affirm and confirm your belief in Jesus Christ and trust in His Sacrifice on the Cross for the remission and cleansing of your sin, and confirm your sincere hope in Christ's Resurrection from the grave and defeat of Satan, Death, and Hell.

2. Pray: Seek the Heavenly Father God for the gift of the Holy Spirit (John). The Father will bestow the authentic gift of the Spirit--not a 'scorpion' or 'stone'--but a 'nourishing fish'--the 'true Bread' of the Holy Spirit.

3. Ask God for wisdom according to the Book of James: "If a man lack wisdom, let him ask of God."

4. Pray--seeking God that Jesus Christ will baptize you in the Holy Spirit--so that you may have the mind of the Holy Spirit--with which the Bible says is life and peace (Romans). (The Father is the Giver of the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ is theBaptizer in the Holy Spirit.)

5. Study Jesus' instructions about the Holy Spirit in the sixteenth chapter of the Gospel of John. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. The Holy Spirit will lead the sincere seeker of Jesus Christ into all truth. The Spirit will convict and convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Falsehood and lies and deception will not stand in the light of the truth of the Holy Spirit.

6. Study the principles Jesus laid down in Matthew: e.g.: "A bad tree cannot produce good fruit." Apply these principles when you hear any street-corner philosopher gab, any social engineer speak, any politician, any 'conspiracy theorist'present his views, any media pundit or talk show host, or even TV preacher--pontificate.

7. Listen carefully--sometimes (especially with a politician on TV) turn off the sound--look at his non-verbals, his facial expressions, his eyes... But seek always for 'the mind of Christ...for the 'mind of the Holy Spirit'...for the Spirit of Truth--to discern between truth and error, deception, falsehood, and lies. We live in a world of psychopathy (cf. the writings ofMeloy and Hare).

8. And don't forget, God is on His Throne. Jesus Christ is Lord. All things are Christ's. 'Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord'. All things are ours in Christ. Yet, until Christ returns for the community of the redeemed, we still live in a fallen, sinful world dominated by evil control freaks and of 'people of the lie'.

(excerpt: unpublished work-in-progress):
What Is Truth?
The Question of Pontius Pilate
Copyright 2009 by Philip C. Brewer
All Rights Reserved

LIFE COACHING & ULTIMATE CONCERNS

2009-02-11T16:40:00.000-08:00

Blog Discussion: LIFE COACHING PRINCIPLES
The Priestly Solution: Part One

Ultimate Concerns, Intercession, & the Efficacy of Earnest Prayer

"Who shall free me from the body of this death..?" --the Apostle Paul

"And you shall seek Me, and you shall find Me, when you shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you..." --the Prophet Jeremiah

The human personality is not a closed system--but an open system--and synergistic--made to interact interpersonally with others--and created to engage in the ultimate concerns of prayer.

One may infer from the symbol of Christ's Cross that horizontal communication, community, and communion hangs on the core truth of the vertical--every human being's God-bestowed ultimate concern for vital faith (the only saving faith --which clings to and trusts in its Object, Jesus Christ--because vital faith is not some metaphysical force--or even trust that one's chair will not break under him as he sits down) in communication , community, and communion with God the Father--in the wisdom, power, and love of the Holy Spirit.

Yet it is the rare Christian individual, couple, or family--who listens and responds wholeheartedly--when I prescribe a regular practice of intimate prayer timestogether every week.

I usually get a "Huh?" look--as they twitch impatiently waiting for me to get out of the way so they can watch American Idol, True Crime road chases, or listen to late-night-talk-radio conspiracy theories.

One-dimensional shallowness is pandemic.

And even among the so-called intellectual community, there is a rabid, mindless willingness to turn to Pop culture and then often on to Naturalism, Metaphysics, Eastern Mysticism, Middle Eastern Mysticism, Occult Mysticism, Pantheism--or even (within Christian aberrations) to Charis-magic--or cults like Peoples Temple.

"Demas has forsaken me--having loved this present world..." ---The Apostle Paul

Secular Naturalism (which rejects all supernatural implications or resources--when generating solutions for problems of living and problems of loving) is a closed system philosophically, psychologically, and, of course, spiritually. Naturalistic solutions can only be generated via the closed-system tools of Rationalism, Empiricism (truth is revealed by the five senses), Reductionism, Materialism, and Pragmatism (if it works--it's right).

Naturalism can only flail about in self-absorbed conspiracy theories, Collectivism, or some version of human and social engineering (because so many want to be taken care of by a centralized nanny or papa-fuhrer government)--reaching out for totalitarian and Orwellian solutions . Naturalism also appeals to Christ-rejectors who entrench themselves in any version of smug evolutionary theory--whether Darwinian or otherwise.

Metaphysics (Gnosticism, the mind sciences, EST, TM, Emersonian Transcendentalism, Transpersonal Psycholog y, Rosacrucianism, and their ilk) while housing many doctrines of devils--may appear to reach out beyond the solipsism of the human self --but hangs somewhere in the intellectual ghetto between navel-nuzzling Naturalism and tree-worshipping Pantheism...and remains a closed system--a bridge to nowhere.

Eastern Mysticism ( sacred cow worshipping gurus--with the cow's holy dung rubbed into their hair, Hinduism, Buddhism, Shintoism, Korean and Chinese Folk Religions--and their ilk)--is a faux open system--in truth only a door to the Occult. (Hey--dial 4-1-1 and ask the Bangalor operator if I'm right and she'll tell you I am.)

Middle-Eastern Mysticism, another gateway to the occult--includes the Jewish Cabala, and--surprising to many, the Muslim Religion. (Islam--actually a psycho-social, interpersonally-reinforcing-modernity-resisting-atavistic-radical-ludite movement--also bridges across to a form of Pantheism--because Allah is actually considered to be the Moon God--a pantheistic entity--not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Occult Mystici sm (OM) is a 'bridge' to an evil somewhere with its lies of Spiritualism, Necromancy, Fortune-Telling, Palm-Reading. Tea-Reading, Tarot Card Reading, Ancestor Worship, Soul Travel, Ghost & Monster Quest, Astrology, Primitive Tribal Religions (put your Dream-Catcher Mitt on Chief Running Bare...), the American Hollywood Star System--ad nauseum. Albeit an open system--OM is a devilish back-door-left-open system--a gateway to the Dark Side.

Pantheism (held together by its own separate philosophical glue) is a spiritual detour (away from Christian theology) offered to the superstitious-but-ultimately-concerned soul. The latest come-on from Pantheism (after the heaven-through-chemistry drug, LSD, psilocybin, crank, coke, opiate movement) is the Earth Mother Worship (planet-saving-tree-hugging-Earth Liberation Front, Vegetarian,Vegan,Veggie Tales, Globalist, global warming , etc.) Movement.

Walt Whitman, the great American poet, was known to remark that if only one person grasped the meaning of one of his poems--that was who he'd written it for. Christian Life Coaching often fails to connect to the counselee's heart and mind because the counselee (client) may not possess the gravitas--the profundity of understanding--the substantive qualities of personality--the emotional, intellectual, and spiritual depth --which are the essential requirements of effective Life Coaching--in my approach. Not that failed attempts at Life Coaching is pearl-casting--or teaching pigs to sing--and honestly that's not necessarily why I don't do prison or drug-rehab ministry--but I do exit stage left as quickly as possible from the shallow and the insubstantial-of-spirit.

(excerpt: unpublished work-in-progress)
Life Coaching & The Psychology of Ultimate Concerns
Copyright 2009 by Philip C. Brewer
All Rights Reserved

PRAY FOR THE OFFICE OF PRESIDENT

2009-01-22T13:33:00.000-08:00

The Office of President

Once again, as a new president is elected, I am studying the Life of the Psalmist David in the Old Testament scriptures--and reviewing David's relationship with Saul (cf. I, II Samuel).

Even though David was well aware of the pathology in Saul's personality--Saul's danger-to-others and danger-to-self, and Saul's rebellion against God--David still honored the Office that King Saul held.

In the books of I, II Samuel we find that rebellion against God is tantamount to the sin of witchcraft. One may find out that his commander-in-chief is toxic, engages in power abuse, and perhaps must be impeached or censured--but to destroy the Office of executive authority would, of course, be anarchy.

Consider the bloodbaths of the French, Marxist, Maoist revolutions ("The revolution devours its own children.") and you see the occult spiritual (Rwandan or Red Guard type) rebellion of anarchy, tearing down of government, and toxicrebellion.

As a counselor and life coach in my community for many years, I've had to listen to many a church member complain about his or her pastor. I've always directed them to a study of the life of David, his relationship with Saul, and, and even though he had to flee from Saul--David's respect for the Office of King.

From a clinical-assessment-of-failing-leadership viewpoint, it is interesting to me to study the life of King Saul as his mental and spiritual health deteriorates. As his carried-and-buried anger and narcissistic entitlement build--his paranoid auspiciousness, jealousy, and delusional grandiosity metastasize like a cancer. He descends further into Occult Mysticism,as he consults the Witch of Endor--seeking ungodly counsel--(consider a similar melt-down with Hitler)--sinking deeper and deeper into depression--until he becomes a homicidal maniac and then self-destructive. Working in a 5150 acute psychiatric unit I saw this life-pattern embodied in distressed people--a news anchor, a clinical psychologist, a professional football player, the head of a hospital, a minister, a teacher, an administrator, a politician.

From my youth in the JFK days to the present I've always prayed for the Office of the U.S. Presidency--whether or not I liked the policies, personality, philosophy, or practices of a particular leader. For example, even though I thought the Seventies were horrible years, and I was literally allergic to everything about Jimmy Carter, I still prayed for the Office of the Presidency. LBJ, I also thought was atrocious, and thought that JFK, Nixon, and Clinton each dishonored the Office of the Presidency they held. Personally and with presidential gravitas, I believe Reagan honored the Office of the American Presidency, but I also really liked his personality, philosophy, and policies. Ford, and the Bushes, I believe, honored the Office of the Presidency--even though they made many mistakes and can be criticized for shortcomings regarding the effectiveness of their leadership, decisions, and policies.

I believe that God will take down any leader who dishonors his Office ("Vengeance is mine says the Lord.").

To point out shortcomings of a U.S. president if his tenure in office reveals them, does not dishonor the Office of the Presidency--it is because we do honor and respect the Office that we have the human right to address characterological flaws and failings of politicians and leaders--or to be afraid of their thinking if we find that they hold dangerously despotic, social-engineering, Smother-Mother-Government, or terrorist-appeasing world views--or want to trash our country's borders, language, and culture.

(excerpt: unpublished work-in-progress):

SAUL, DAVID, & PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE
Human Rights vs. Rebellion
Copyright 2009 by Philip C. Brewer
All Rights Reserved

CULTBUSTERS!

2009-01-16T23:11:00.001-08:00

"Hey...it's Kooks & Kool-Aid--or Your Kin..."
Cultbusting / Rescuing / Debriefing / Exit Counseling
"Who ya gonna call for God's sake...?"

Yeara ago, I started CULTBUSTERS!

I'd done a lot of Cult Exit Counseling (Children of God, The Way, The Walk, Moonies, Scientology, Mormons, the Mind Sciences & Modern Gnosticism, JW, 7th Day, Eastern Mysticism, Authoritarian Mind-Control, Charis-Magic Faith, EST, Faux Faith Healing, Eighth Street Commune, A Course In Miracles, Latter Rain, NLP, Transpersonal Psychology, Emersonian Transcendentalism, E. W. Kenyonism, Peoples Temple, T.U.L.I.P.ism, Papalism, Mariolatry), Dominion Theology, Superstitious Animism, Earth Mother Worship, PMA, Charismatic Clairvoyance, Late-Sixties-Early-Seventies-Radicals-Masquerading-as-Evangelicals, and Aberrations of Deliverance and Demonology (illustrated by the faux guidance of the book, Pigs In the Parlor by Frank & Ida May Hammond),

I'd read books by the following: Margaret Singer, Ph.D., e.g.: Cults In Our Midst, Dr. Jacques Ellul, e.g.: On Propaganda, Walter Martin, Ph.D., e.g.: Chaos of Cults, Ronald Enroth, Ph.D., e.g.: Churches That Abuse and Youth, Brainwashing, and the Extremist Cults, Robert J. Lifton, Ph.D. Mind Control, Brainwashing, and Totalism, Dr. Farah, e.g.: From the Pinnacle of the Temple, and other books, e.g.: How to Cult-Proof Your Kids, Toxic Faith, and The Subtle Power of Spiritual abuse--and had seen The Amazing Randy (albeit an agnostic magician himself) expose the faux healer, Peter Popoff, on The Tonight Show.

These days CULTBUSTERS! exit-counseling would include The Emergent "Millennials" Church Postmodern Aberrations, The Secret, Recycled Latter Rainism, Revivalist Charis-Mystical Subjectivism, Kansas City Prophets, Mega-Church Millenial Paradigm-Shiftrers, Pop Culture Groupies, Radical Fundamentalists, the Prophetess Movement, Intimate-Connection Spiritual Dancing, Eco-Green Radicals, Marxist-Maoist Lib Theology, Prosperity Gospelers, Gangbangers, and contemporary Thought Reform Authoritarians.

In the intial years there was no 'Deprogramming'' a la Ted Patrick...all of these folks were 'ego dystonic' in that they each signed off with notarization that they had each desired in compis mentis that they wanted out--desired a complete break from and mental healing from--their respective cult. They would have ten Marathon Days (10:30am--3:30pm) of voluntary Christian-based-but-professional psychotherapy, counseling, and life coaching. I saw very few 'reversions' and little recidivism after the ten Marathon Days, along with a follow-up treatment program.

After years of this (with no financial remuneration on my part), I thought about starting a fee-scheduled (or economically-sponsored) 'rescue, exodus, and spiritual wellness intervention program' named CULTBUSTERS!

A busy traditional counseling practice caused me to set this plan aside.

Now...I'm considering a jump start of CULTBUSTERS!

I still need to get it organized and get all the legal clearances, etc....a little like bounty hunters--or even car repo companies have to do...yet, our approach would be one of dignity, therapeutic wisdom, and professional respect for the individual--and for human rights.

There would be, of course, a Fee Schedule and up-front Retainer Fee, special insurance, and appropriate qualifiers and disclaimers--operated under a non-profit organization.

What think ye...? Would you consider joining me in this important work...? There is a great need for Life Coaches--trained to do Cult-Exodus Intervention.

(CULTBUSTERS!...It's a dirty job...but somebody's gotta do it...!)

____________________________
"We Bust Cults Best...!"
CULTBUSTERS!TM
Spring Your Kin...Before They Drink the Kool-Aid!
"Who ya gonna call for God's sake..?"
P.C. BREWER & ASSOCIATES
Copyright 2009 by Philip C. Brewer All Rights Reserved

GOING SANE: YOUR MEANINGFUL LIFE TASK & THE LOGOS IN LIFE COACHING

2009-01-16T20:46:00.000-08:00

Dr. Viktor Frankl (Man's Search For Meaning), the Jewish survivor of a Nazi Concentration Camp, and later psychotherapist and founder of LogoTherapy (think "Logos") focused his counselees on discovering The Meaningful Life Task. (As a Christian Life Coach, I utilize this concept and also teach the person to center on its synonymous parallel, the Call of God--think "Jonah.")

Truth (as Harry Blamires wrote) is a rock--not a consensus. Every thoughtful person desiring to live the reflective life (the all-too-rare-it-seems-nowadays) reader, thinker, and truth-seeker will hopefully come to grips with the profound meaning of The Logos, encapsulated in The Anointed One--the Christ. Man needs the Rock upon which (Whom) to cast his anchor.

In my too-short-two-year study of First Century Greek, I began to uncover, in the Gospel of John, the Word--the Logos of God ("In the beginning was the Word (Logos), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."). The Logos, Who holds the universe together by His power, the Logos, the central, organizing force--Who also cerebrally leads the sincerely-seeking thinker into His clear thinking--His Logic--into His boundaried arena of 'reasoning together' walling out toxic irrationality (thought disorders), red herrings, rabbit trails, virulent anxiety, mood swings, impulsivity, tribal customs, illusionality--even delusionality.

There is a super-rationality in The Call of God and its consequent Meaningful Life Task which is (albeit a 'going sane' spiritually) may appear 'crazy and foolish' to the uninitiated--to the pagan or spiritual philistine onlooker living outside the system of the Christian's purpose, raison d'etre, and Call. For a follower of Jesus, this is not the disorder of integrity and disease of responsibility of the schizophrenic or schizotypal--but the sensible, ordered thought process of "Christ in you the hope of Glory."

Studying the history of scientific researchers, inventors, writers, artists, composers--some may not have discovered the Logos--but I find the key to their creative sanity to have a common denominator--their centering on a meaningful life task--the wisdom of an organizing focus (",..this one thing I do..." --think the Apostle Paul).

Jesus called His disciples to meaningfulness Pneumatologically (think the Holy Spirit and the Book of Acts) because God created the human personality to be a Pneumatic instrument--dynamically Wind-powered--Holy Spirit driven. The human personality is not to be driven by ideas, ideologies, or templated concepts (think Marx--or perhaps even Warren..?) but by the mind of Christ and the "life and peace" of the "mind of the Spirit." In Dementia, we see a breakdown of Executive function--planning, organizing, prioritizing. Executive functions (cognitively) lie within the domain of the Holy Spirit's work in the human mind.

"In Him e live and move and have our being." --the Apostle Paul

All one's necessary wisdom and knowledge rests in Christ, our Lord and Savior. But without the mind of Christ the psyche remains deceived, irrational, anchorless. Powerless without the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, the human being cannot discover his meaningful life task, his reason to be--cannot achieve the escape velocity to defeat the gravitational pull of sin and evil.

One cannot 'go sane' cognitively and spiritually and find his meaningful life task--without the mind of Christ.

(excerpt: unpublished work-in-progress):
GOING SANE:
Your Meaningful Life Task
& The Logos in Life Coaching
Copyright 2008-2009 by Philip C. Brewer
All Rights Reserved

A History of Therapy: "Still Crazy After All These Years"

2008-12-20T20:13:00.000-08:00

By SCOTT STOSSEL
Published: December 19, 2008
Does psychotherapy work?

AMERICAN THERAPY
The Rise of Psychotherapy in the United States
By Jonathan Engel
351 pages. Gotham Books. $27.50

Depends on what you mean by “psychotherapy.” And by “work.”

The answer matters. In trying to ascend from (as Freud once put it) “hysterical misery to ordinary unhappiness,” millions of Americans attend weekly therapy sessions of myriad kinds, at costs that can exceed $10,000 a year. Large professional edifices — psychiatry, psychology, social work, among others — are constructed atop the notion that psychotherapy works. If it were to be conclusively demonstrated that therapy doesn’t work, therapists would be put out of business; that’s effectively what’s already happened to Freudian psychoanalysts.

Jonathan Engel, a professor of health care policy at Baruch College, begins “American Therapy” by asserting: “Psychotherapy works. Multiple studies conducted over the past half-century have demonstrated that two-thirds of people who engage in psychotherapy improve.” But then, intentionally or not, he dedicates the better part of this fascinating book to complicating that proposition.

For starters, there’s that one-third of patients who don’t get better with psychotherapy; by definition, it doesn’t work for them. And then, perhaps more damningly, there’s the one-third of patients who have been consistently shown to get better without any treatment at all.

And then there’s this: a survey published in the early 1970s found that whereas a majority (59 percent) of people who had visited a professional psychotherapist for mental distress reported having been “helped” or “helped a lot” by the consultation, much larger majorities of people who had consulted a clergyman (78 percent) or a physician without specialized psychological training (76 percent) or — get this — a lawyer (77 percent) reported the same thing. Of course, psychotherapy did develop some pretty wacky offshoots in the 1970s — primal scream therapy, rebirthing therapy and Z-therapy (which seems to have involved, among other things, poking and tickling the patient) — so maybe it’s not surprising that people got more psychic relief from their lawyers than their therapists. But while a 1974 paper by a Johns Hopkins psychiatrist criticized the “charlatans” who “preyed on the gullible and the self-deluded,” these kooky therapies were actually surprisingly effective; many of the patients who underwent them reported themselves cured. This would certainly seem to undermine the claims of mainstream professional psychotherapy to specialized knowledge of any particular usefulness. If someone can poke and tickle a neurotic patient to health, why should an aspiring psychotherapist bother to get a graduate degree? Is psychotherapy just a high-priced placebo?

Engel describes an experiment that seems to have been animated by these very questions. In 1979, a Vanderbilt University researcher named Hans Krupp divided 30 patients with psychological problems into two groups, one to be treated by trained psychotherapists, the other by humanities professors with no psychological expertise. The result? The two groups reported improvement at the same rates. “Effective psychotherapy,” Engel writes, “seemed to require little more than a willing patient and an intelligent and understanding counselor who met and spoke regularly and in confidence.”

A University of Pennsylvania study found that the most successful therapists — regardless of whether they were Freudians or behaviorists, cognitive therapists or Z-therapists — were honest and empathic and connected quickly and well with other people. (Krupp’s humanities professors may have fared so well because they were chosen based on how well likedthey were.) Studies like Krupp’s rattled the foundations of the field and, as Engel puts it, “shook therapists’ confidence in their own rectitude.” But, as Engel takes pains to remind us, if twice as many distressed people improve with therapy as without it — as studies consistently show — those are still pretty good odds for psychotherapy.

The question of effectiveness is only incidental to Engel’s main goal, which is to tell the story of how, over the course of less than 100 years, psychotherapy went from being an obscure treatment for upper-middle-class Jews in fin-de-siècleVienna to being a staple of mainstream American medical practice and a fixture of our popular culture. Mining both medical journals and the popular press, Engel spins a richly textured tale of psychotherapy’s rise.

Naturally, the story begins with Freud, a thoroughly unlikely candidate to become the progenitor of anything distinctly American. He visited the United States only once, in 1909, and found the country rather barbaric. Practical-minded Americans, for their part, would not seem to have provided a receptive audience for his arcane theory of mind, with its id, ego and superego, and its references to Oedipal crises, castration complexes and penis envy. But the most eminent American psychologists of the day — G. Stanley Hall at Clark University, James Jackson Putnam at Harvard, Adolf Meyer at Johns Hopkins and, later, Harry Stack Sullivan, of the Washington School of Psychiatry, among others — embraced and promoted Freudian theory. Psychoanalysis, Engel observes, “seemed to be compatible with a strain in the American zeitgeist,” and the psychoanalytic establishment here “rigidly stood by the Freudian canon for decades” after his death.

For several decades after Freud’s visit to America, psychotherapy remained at the margins of American culture; mental illness was still a little discussed, and highly stigmatized, phenomenon. World War II changed that: when 12 percent of draftees — nearly two million men — were rejected for “neuropsychiatric” reasons, it profoundly altered the American perception of mental illness; psychiatric problems became, in some sense, normal. William Menninger, who was serving as chief psychiatrist of the United States Army, noted that “people are beginning to see that damage of the same kind can be done by a bullet, bacteria or mother-in-law.” After the war, terms like “repression” and “inferiority complex” began cropping up in movies and best-selling novels. “Where the public once turned to the minister, or the captain of industry, or the historian or the scientist,” one social critic observed, “it is now turning more and more to the psychiatrist.” (Engel writes about the fascinating battle lines drawn between psychiatrists and the clergy during this time, with their diametrically opposed notions of guilt.)

When Time magazine put Freud on its cover in April 1956, the psychoanalytic moment in America had arrived, and for the next several decades psychoanalysts largely dominated the mental health field. But even as Freudians occupied the top echelons in the psychiatric institutes and the medical school residency programs, and the psychoanalytic idiom was tightly woven into the culture, more and more studies were calling into question the effectiveness of the psychoanalytic enterprise. In 1975, the behavioral psychologist Hans Eysenck declared (controversially) that “Freudian theory is as dead as that attributing neurotic symptoms to demonological influences, and his method of therapy is following exorcism into oblivion.”

The death warrant may actually have been written earlier, in the 1950s, on the first prescriptions for Thorazine, an anti-psychotic, as “the drug which emptied the hospitals.” Though Freud himself anticipated the age of biological psychiatry (in 1938, he wrote “the future may teach us to exercise a direct influence, by means of particular chemical substances, on the amounts of energy and their distribution in the mental apparatus”), the realization that drugs could so successfully treat some forms of mental illness thoroughly discombobulated the psychoanalytic profession. If drugs worked, that implied an organic, or medical, basis for neurosis, which in turn challenged some of the basic assumptions of psychoanalytically oriented therapy. If mental illness was due to some physical anomaly in the brain, wasn’t the best way to treat the illness by directly addressing that anomaly, with a pill? By the mid-1960s, the psychiatric establishment was moving definitively in a pharmaceutically oriented direction.

Meanwhile, the advent of even better drugs like Prozac (which went on the market in 1987), and the proliferation of cognitive therapies, in which the patient works with a therapist in a focused way to change maladaptive ways of thinking, further diminished Freud’s standing; repeated controlled studies clearly showed both drug and cognitive therapies to be effective in ways that psychoanalysis, with its hours on the couch, has not been shown to be.Though some Freudian analysts continue to practice today, Engel writes, they resemble “nothing more than a fanatical Essene sect, living apart in the wilderness where they could continue to seek truth in the master’s writings.”

Engel describes how factors like changes in the structure of health insurance shaped (and often distorted) psychiatric care, and his book is studded with fascinating tidbits like this one: in the mid-1960s, two buildings on the corner of 96th Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan had as many analysts as Minnesota, Oregon, Delaware, Oklahoma, Vermont, Wisconsin and Tennessee combined.

Engel gestures at, but doesn’t directly address, some of the most interesting questions prompted by the rise of psychotherapy. Is the enormous growth of the field over the last century simply a case of supply surging to meet demand, or does the volume of neurosis fluctuate over the years? Are anxiety and alienation always symptoms to be treated, or are they sometimes appropriate — even healthy — responses to the vicissitudes of late modernity? Is psychotherapy an art or a science, a subcategory of humanism or of biology?

But the story Engel does tell is plenty interesting and his conflicted view of Freudianism well worth absorbing: the most influential school of therapy in American history may not have worked very well as a treatment — but it did revolutionize how we think about the human mind.
-------------------
Scott Stossel, the deputy editor of The Atlantic, is writing a book about anxiety.

CITY GATE WISDOM: Secular Prophets...?

2008-10-18T10:46:00.000-07:00

Life Coaching Principles: Those Who Sit At the City Gates (cf. Proverb 31): (i.e.:'City Gate' Wisdom vs. Ministerial Wisdom)

The Christian Bible student, who seeks the 'mind of Christ' and the 'mind of the Spirit' (see Paul's epistles) lives and walks in the gifts and wisdom of the Holy Spirit--and then examines, reflects upon, analyzes, observes, weighs 'what is going on in the city'.

When appropriate the 'intimate-knower-of-Christ' (Philippians 3:10) (a 'Christian leader' by very nature of his being part of the Priesthood of Believers) 'sits' (in his conversation, writing and art) with the elders at the city gates' as a consultant in practical, political, and public policy matters.

Otherwise, the person who is transformed in Christ minsters as part of the community of the redeemed.

The Christian lives out (and loves out) the characterological fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5) and the Spirit's giftedness. (The spiritual gifts describe the Giver--not the recipient, of course.)

The person in Christ does not look first to secular pundits and commentators--but, of course, looks to and meditates upon God's Word in biblical scripture, and devotionally and worshipfully looks to Christ Jesus--daily asking the Heavenly Father for His wonderfully enlightening and empowering (2 Timothy 1:7) gift of the Holy Spirit--and the Spirit's 'best gifts' for application to the current or appropriate need and circumstance.

The thoughtful Christian does not allow propaganda, thought-reform, mind control, demagoguery, the Media, political 'spinning', 'winds of doctrine' (cf. James), secular philosophies (Collectivism, Naturalism, Pantheism, Metaphysics)--to sway, influence, or truncate his/her reasoning, thinking, or ideation. 'City Gate' elders (perhaps 'secular' voices given a platform by the Lord God) can, I think, help us sift out truth in the public, media-driven, political arena.

It is the foundational work of the Holy Spirit in the mind and heart of the believer-in-Christ Jesus--to glorify Christ by having a nourishing personality, godly behavior, being a lover of Truth, holding heavenly priorities--and demonstrating God's power over the world, the sinful nature, and the devil.

But in the midst of 'wicked and perverse generations--proverbial 'generations of vipers'--of political storms--of anti-privacy, anti-Individual, 'collectivist' 'thought police', of encroaching totalitarianism, of fascist authoritarian governments--you may find a sane and sensible voice here and there. A voice which doesn't clash with The Christian mind (cf. Harry Blamires, The Christian Mind).

For example, even though they're not perfect, I think you'll find--in the following persons below--sane, sensible 'city gates' wisdom regarding American politics (not necessarily, of course, Christian theology!).

These observers, social commentators, political pundits offer (to me) good 'city gate knowledge and wisdom'--in varying degrees of quality. Mark Steyn (click on his Site link below), Mark Levin, Matt Drudge, Michael Savage, (Historically, I will read John Milton, William Shakespeare, Carl Sandberg, Francis Schaeffer, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, C.S. Lewis--even George Orwell).

Please let me know other good ones whose ideas and thinking you value and appreciate in the midst of the cacophony and noise of American politics and mass media maelstroms.

(exxerpt: unpublished work-in-progress:)
CITY GATE WISDOM
Are There Secular Prophets In the Land?
Copyright 2008 by Philip C. Brewer All Rights Reserved

http://www.steynonline.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

Life Coaching: Behind-the-Lines Support for the Growing Church..!

2007-02-22T00:35:00.000-08:00

The competent, caring, and professional Life Coach, who also has ministerial and local church experience, can provide vital behind-the-scenes encouragement and support to staff, and therapeutic nurturing for struggling newbies in a fast-growing new church plant.

The Christian Leadership Life Coach must have a sincere testimony of transformation--of regeneration in Christ by the Holy Spirit, biblical knowledge, characterological integrity, profound empathy, understanding, and knowledge of the full spectrum of individual and systemic struggles. He is a cultivator of wellness--as he studies, and therapeutically intervenes--with individual personalities, couples, families, and the community of the redeemed.

My Online or in-person Marathon Day LifeCoaching counselees are, as a rule, generally clergy, Christian leadsers, missionaries, or Christian executives. Payment is made via Google Pay with credit card--or by sponsorship by the Christian leader's mission agency, denominational headquarters, church, or other supervision. Appointment times and payment is usually arranged in advance--with often two-hour sessions set up. Several sessions over a two-day period in a given week can be arranged if needed. (Online LifeCoaching is most frequently arranged on Mondays and Tuesdays).

Please contact me at CounselPro@gmail.com for the fee schedule and time available if you and/or your directing leaders are interested.

(Confidential Online LifeCoaching for Christian Leaders): http://christianleaderlifecoaching.com

e.g.: Different Kinds of Coaching: Mature Adult Life Coach

2007-02-13T23:01:00.000-08:00

Life Coach Training: Limited Openings!

2007-02-08T02:10:00.000-08:00

Due to time and energy constraints, a maximum of five Life Coach Trainees per year will be accepted into the EMMAUS Christian Leadership Assistance Program for Life Coach Training and Certification.

Applicants will apprentice under Philip C. Brewer, Life Coach, in one of three programs: Level One: 50-hour express training; Level Two: a 100-hour, and Level Three: 150 hour training program. The cost is $150.00 per hour for either of the three programs.

Level One yields certification for a Life Coaching practice in an area of special expertise and specialization. Level Two grants certification in Executive Coaching and Personal Mentoring--including leadership-coaching of Christian leaders, pastors, and missionaries. In Level Three, qualified graduates, receive the (1) Master Life Coach Certificate and (2) the Life Coach Trainer Certificate.

In all three levels mental status examinations and personality inventories will be incorporated. And personal therapeutic, mental health, and personality issues will be thoroughly discussed, with the goal of healing past woundedness and preparing the trainee for competent, professional and objective Christian Life Coaching.

Contact: CounselPro@gmail.com

Christian Life Coaching: In Office

2007-02-08T01:45:00.000-08:00

Philip Brewer hosts a limited number of 5-Hour Marathon Day Life Coaching sessions for pastors and parachurch ministers.

In-depth professional support can be had by the Christian leader who is facing challenges in areas such as leadership, stress, burnout, personality issues, mental health, conduct, relationship conflict and crisis--or dilemmas of career and calling.

A limited number of Marathon Day sessions are scheduled each year at Philip Brewer's counseling center. A minimum of five and a maximum of ten 5-hour (10:30am-3:30pm) Marathon Day Interventions are scheduled for each individual or couple.

Contact: CounselPro@gmail.com

"Tele-Coaching:" Your Missionary's Point of Need

2007-02-08T01:15:00.000-08:00

"...I will send a comforter."

Consider strengthening your laborers for Christ, via a telecoaching sponsorship of your representatives on the field of mission.

Philip Brewer, fourth-generation minister, Christian counselor, and Life Coach, will provide your missionary families with competent, compassionate, and Christ-centered therapeutic support--in confidential, online, virtual-office sessions.

With three years of experience as a clinician in an acute psychiatric unit, thirty years of private practice as a family therapist, and twenty of those years also heading EMMAUS Christian Leadership Assistance Program--coaching Christian leaders, parachurch leaders, pastors, and missionaries, Philip Brewer offers his ministry gifts, life skills, and extensive therapeutic experience to complement your mission program.

Philip Brewer works with mission agencies and boards and denominational administrators, setting up hourly (preventive and remedial) online counseling sessions--sponsored by respective ministry headquarters-- to encourage, support, and edify Christian missionaries working Abroad and in the Third World.

Contact: CounselPro@gmail.com