Ed Welch says that all counseling is a variation on a single theme: knowing and praying for the counselee. Of all the questions the counselor might ask, then, the central guiding question in the counselor's mind is, "How can I pray for you?

Every man needs a place to be open and vulnerable with brothers leaning together upon the Lord.

Word-centered people who enter counseling will be more likely follow the guidance set out in Scripture. Because they know more of the depth of their sin, they are more willing to allow other church members to help them stay on that right path.

When we fail to assist people responding to the gospel at church, we train our people to repeat that failure at home and at work.

Plain and simple, men need community with other men. Loving, you-before-me, dedicated relationship. If you have never had it, you don't really get it yet, and if you had that community and lost it, you know the cavity it leaves in your soul until you discover it again.

Many pastors would rather preach God's Word and keep their distance than invest in a personal one-on-one counseling ministry. Most pastors counsel because they have to, not because they want to.

You may say you won't interfere with another person's soul, but you do—merely by existing. The snag about it is the practical difficulty, so to speak, of not existing.

He has the valuable quality of being fond of people without wanting to turn them inside out.

The departure of the church-going element had induced a more humanitarian atmosphere.

Now, don't you worry, Mr. Appledore. I'm thinkin' the best thing I can do is to trundle the old lady down to my mother and take her out of your way, otherwise you might be findin' your Christian feelings gettin' the better of you some fine day, and there's nothin' like Christian feelin's for upsettin' a man's domestic comfort.

Francis Bacon," said Peter, a trifle belatedly. "Mr. Kirk, you're a man after my own heart.

Unfortunately, the sinner isn't always the victim. Why should it be? said Mathews. Nature does not work by a scheme of poetical justice. Nor does God, said Perry. We suffer for one another, as, indeed, we must, being all members one of another. Can you separate the child from the father, the man from the brute, or even the man from the vegetable cell...?