This volume presents the essence of the biblical counseling movement as well as the practice of the art by the Martin Luther of the twentieth century. Yes, Adams was a reformer, who, in this volume, puts “the cookies on the counter” for everyday Christians (whom he dubbed “pew dwellers”). He not only rightly argues that every Christian is expected to counsel but also equips every Christian with the basic tools to deliver the counsel. He builds on the foundation of Romans 15:14, which is dependent upon the indwelling Holy Spirit and the sufficient Word of God (2 Tim. 3:15–17). This book has been, and will continue to be, a primary primer for the encouragement and training of lay folks who do the work of this important ministry.
This volume contains excellent information on some of the fundamentals of truly biblical counseling and will help Christians to become competent counselors.
On rare occasions, our Lord has provided his church with unique men of valor and faith who have boldly stood against its secular drift. Men like Augustine, John Wycliffe, William Tyndale, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Charles Spurgeon, and others were all used by God to call the church to return to a faith and a practice that were committed to biblical fidelity. Dr. Jay E. Adams was such a man for his generation! He was used by God to call the church back to the sufficiency of Scripture as it drifted away into the delusions of secular psychology and sociology. Dr. Adams was the undisputed “father of the modern biblical counseling movement.” I counted him a personal friend because we shared the same perspective on how psychology had destroyed many lives and many churches. He loved the public preaching the Word of God (see his books on preaching), but he also saw that the church today lacked the private ministry of the Word of God in addressing the serious disturbances of the soul (see his numerous books on biblical counseling). Ready to Restore is one of those books that returns counseling to laymen and women who are well-schooled in biblical hermeneutics, theology, and discipleship and turns it away from the elitism of professional secular counseling. It has all the foundational ideas that make biblical counseling effective. If you want a basic understanding of what biblical counseling is and how it should be practiced, this book is a must-read.
In Ready to Restore, perhaps one of his most useful books, Jay Adams unpacks many of the fundamental principles of historical biblical counseling with his typical precision and clarity. In this classic work, he both condenses and expands upon portions of what he had previously written and does so with simplicity and in less technical terms than in Competent to Counsel and The Big Umbrella. This is more of a layman's guide to biblical counseling and discipleship than it is a seminary textbook. If you would like a very readable small book that will help you, or someone you know, to cut your teeth on the basics of biblical counseling, this might be just the thing for you.
Think of Ready to Restore as the CliffsNotes version of The Christian Counselor’s Manual by Jay Adams. This small work has been the mainstay of many lay counseling training programs since it was first published in 1981. I read through it periodically myself to sharpen my own counseling skills and evaluate where I might be leaving behind important basics. I highly recommend this book for the new biblical counselor, the lay church leader, and the seasoned counselor.
Theological foundations in counseling are critical because they direct the work of the counselor and shape the trajectory of ministry in the counseling room. Ready to Restore serves as a stabilizing anchor for biblical counselors against the constant bombardment of humanistic philosophies that seek to undermine the biblical aims of soul care. For the novice, this book provides a sturdy foundation upon which to build a solid framework for counseling ministry. Seasoned counselors will find that Dr. Adams’s work grounds their scriptural methods and goals of counseling. You will be hard-pressed to find a better brief introduction to the biblical rationale and fundamental methodologies of biblical counseling.
