1) This means that the elders/pastors (hopefully you have a plurality of elders) are willing and must love equipping the church for the work of the ministry.
2) This also means that the elders cannot have superiority issues when training up the body of Christ, meaning: There cannot be any arrogance thinking that God has called them (the elders) to handle the whole load of ministry by themselves. Instead, the elders will find joy equipping the body for the work of the ministry.
3) This also means that the body of Christ, when equipped, does not see themselves as having the authority of the elders, but working as a body to serve the body. So, in essence, equipping will continue equipping, which will continue equipping...a cycle that is healthy and matures each part of the body.
So, traditional "Christian Counseling" calls either a pastor or professional counselor to give advice to a person struggling with sin, pre-marital advice, etc. This pastor/counselor will usually meet with a person once a week, at most. Can this really offer a view into this person's life? Most people who are counseling a man/woman struggling with sin are not involved in their everyday life. Their is no solid community that sees the person's struggle, leaving the counselor to use random methods to stop the sinner's behavior. This is because they only see the bad fruit of the sin, not the root.
What about the method of the traditional way? Far too often in Christian Counseling, and all of Christianity, struggling people are counseled with Law. What I mean is that when one struggles with anger, the counselor would respond with, "Be angry and do not sin (Eph. 4:26). Or, someone might be struggling with enjoying their work, to which the counselor might respond, "You need to work for the Lord (Col. 3:23)." Yes, these are from the Word of God, but they are commands that are only possible because of the indicatives that are true of us. These truths are all found in the Gospel. We are a people that deserved to die for our sin, but Christ died in our place. We could not obey the law, so Christ did perfectly for us. By putting our faith in his work, we are given the righteousness and eternal life he deserved. So, when one counsels without reassurance of their true identity and what they are not believing about the Gospel, we leave them trying to "be angry and not sin," or to "work as if working for the Lord."
Gospel Shepherding looks completely different than one on one counseling, although there are times for that. Gospel Shepherding equips the body of Christ, who are actively living in community (this means seeing one another more than at a mid-week Bible study and weekend church service), to encourage or correct one another with the Gospel. You see, when doing life together, people are bound to rub each other the wrong way, making sin habits more visual, and also building a love for one another, resulting in men and women desperate to aid in the sanctification of one another by the Spirit, through the power of the Gospel. Think of how your family knows you and how differently you act around them than you do at a church service. The point is to get the body of Christ living real life together, for the sake of glorifying our God. Gospel Shepherding allows the body to shepherd one another, in real life, instead of seeing a person who does not know how you even live your real life. A person who is involved in your everyday life will be the first to see your struggle with sin, the way your husband/wife, mom/dad would be the first to see sin. Instead of trying to correct the bad fruit (anger, worry, etc.), Gospel Shepherds understand that bad fruit occurs because of unbelief in the Gospel (Hebrew 3:7-4:13). Again, all sin stems from an unbelief in the Gospel. That is why we must constantly remind one another of our identity in the Gospel (Eph. 1-3).
While traditional "Christian Counseling" will give a list of "to-do's," which is Law based, Gospel Shepherding allows sinner's to be restored from disbelieving the Gospel, to a people who are consistently being reminded of who their God is, what He has done, who they are in light of who He is and what He has done, and how they can live as a result. Friends, I beg you, stop seeing the Gospel as a past tense event that gives you a pass to Heaven, but see it for what it is: The means and power of salvation (Rom. 1:16-17) in the PAST (Eph. 2:8), PRESENT (1 Cor. 15:2; Phil. 2:12-13), and FUTURE (Acts 15:11; 1 Peter 1:3-5). The Gospel forms a Community on Mission. Community and Mission cannot happen without the Gospel, so let us see the Gospel as the lifeblood of who we are!
