formation certificate
Dynamics of Biblical Change
with David Powlison & Alasdair Groves
sample lecture
The way that you counsel other people is determined by how you understand God, yourself, other people, life’s pressures, and change. This course addresses the depth, breadth, and balance of your understanding. How does Christ’s past grace, present grace, and future grace speak to our hearts and change how we live our daily lives? This course is about people. It is about how we face the troubles of life. It is about how we deal with our inner struggles. It is about how we change into Jesus’ image.
What to Expect
Course Work
- Each week you'll listen to lectures, read articles and books, and engage with other students through online forums and live small group discussions.
- You'll complete various projects and papers, demonstrating your understanding and personal growth in the topics covered during the lectures and reading.
- Your online instructor will give you feedback and interact with you throughout the course.
- Throughout the semester, you'll have the opportunity to participate in optional online engagements with your instructor.
- Self-counseling projects will help you to make firsthand, practical application of the concepts learned in class.
- Please note: you must have access to a computer to complete this course.
Course Objectives
- Demonstrate an understanding of the biblical view of progressive sanctification
- Describe and apply the Biblical Counseling model of change to your own life as well as to other situations
presented in case study format - Analyze the ways that the Biblical Counseling model of change might affect a church’s worship, preaching,
evangelism, missions, offices, youth ministry, fellowship, children’s programs, and equipping.
Course Schedule
- Week 1: Course Introduction
- Week 2: Understanding the Person
- Week 3: Understanding the Heat & the Three Trees Model
- Week 4: The Wisdom Found in Christ
- Week 5: Understanding the Situation
- Week 6: Practical Application
- Week 7: Influences on the Heart
- Week 8: Sin & the Heart
- Week 9: Sin & Transformation
- Week 10: Living with Personal Integrity
At a Glance
terms offered
Every September & March
course cost
$700–$750
course length
10 weeks
workload
6–9 hours/week
Formation Certificate
Dynamics of Biblical Change is one of two courses in the Formation Certificate. Learn more about our current courses and certificates of completion below.
Meet the Lecturing Faculty
David Powlison served as CCEF’s executive director (2014-2019), a faculty member, and senior editor of the Journal of Biblical Counseling. He held a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania and an MDiv from Westminster Theological Seminary. David wrote extensively on biblical counseling and on the relationship between faith and psychology. His books Seeing with New Eyes and Speaking Truth in Love probe the implications of Scripture for how to understand people and how to counsel. The Biblical Counseling Movement: History and Contextexplores the background and development of CCEF’s mission. David is survived by his wife Nan, their three children and spouses, and seven grandchildren.
Alasdair is the Executive Director of CCEF, as well as a faculty member and counselor. He has served at CCEF since 2009. He holds a master of divinity with an emphasis in counseling from Westminster Theological Seminary. Alasdair cofounded CCEF New England, where he served as director for ten years. He also served as the director of CCEF’s School of Biblical Counseling for three years. He is the host of CCEF’s podcast, Where Life & Scripture Meet, and is the coauthor of Untangling Emotions (Crossway, 2019).
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