If a woman confided in you about her struggle with life-dominating sins, would you know how to respond? Would you be tempted to direct her to a counselor outside of the church or would you be confident in your church’s ability to navigate the storm with her?
Sarah Chadbourn joins us to discuss how God has shaped her passion for women caught in life-dominating sin. Sarah’s husband, Jonathan Chadbourn, is the senior pastor at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Groveland, Illinois. Jonathan and Sarah have been biblical counseling for many years.
Sarah shares her testimony from a lifelong addiction to control that affected every area of her life to experiencing intentional discipleship and walking through a two-year residential program. Sarah unpacks practical ways a church can reflect Christ and become a place where the women in the flock confidently confess even the darkest struggles of their soul and find lasting change.
Listen in!
RESOURCES:
- (Book) A Gospel Primer | Milton Vincent
- Cornerstone Baptist Church Groveland, IL
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- Learn more about our 5-Project Biblical Counseling Blueprint Model™
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KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- The local church should be a place of refuge and redemption for the sinner and the sufferer. The flock needs to have confidence that even if their sin and shame is exposed, the church will still be a place of safety. This type of radical confession and the response that the church will offer may need to be addressed from the pulpit to encourage and equip women across all ages to come forward. Believers caught in darkness need to be reminded with the love of Christ that there is still hope for their life and that God can still transform them and be honored through their life and testimony.
- The local church should be a place of the ministry of the saints. 2 Corinthians 1:3-5 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.” When a pastor chooses to trust the people that God has placed in the body to disciple the men and women who are struggling, change starts to cascade through the flock. God has designed an amazing system by equipping the saints He has transformed to minister to others.
- The local church should be equipped to counsel. Many sinning and suffering women in the church already have some sort of experience with counseling and may doubt that the church is capable to help them. This is part of BCM’s mission- to come alongside the church to raise up competent counselors who are fully equipped to apply the Word that is sufficient and superior for the problems of the soul.
