Faith-Based Schools: Bringing faith to the classroom

A career as a Christian counselor can be rewarding, challenging and fulfilling all at the same time. Practicing counseling within the Christian faith is a way for you to serve God and others. You can prepare for a career that creates both a personal connection and a life-changing impact on your clients. However, before you start your journey to become a Christian counselor, there are important things to think about.

Christian counselors strive to help their clients overcome personal problems and achieve a healthier mental state through traditional principles of psychology and psychotherapy combined with knowledge from the Bible.

If you’re considering the possibility of becoming a Christian counselor, it’s important to first think about your commitment to the Christian faith as well as your knowledge of Christianity. It’s important that you have a committed relationship with Christ before your share your faith and counsel others. Your clients will come to you for biblical advice, as well as a practical, balanced perspective. It will make it easier for them to trust you and identify with you if you share their beliefs.

Most importantly, you’ll need to complete the education to become a Christian counselor. Just like secular therapists and counselors, you will need an education in psychology, counseling and psychotherapy in order to provide professional counseling.

Earning a degree in Christian counseling or related psychology fields can help you learn the appropriate moral and ethical rules of conduct that come with the profession. You can also train to counsel a variety of people from different situations and age groups, including individuals, couples, and families. Coursework involved with earning your Christian counseling degree will include much of the same coursework as a standard counseling degree with the addition of faith-based courses.

The three most common components studied within a Christian counseling degree include:

• Psychology (General Psychology, Psychology and Theology and Social Psychology)
• Psychotherapy (Crisis Counseling, Counseling Theory Cross-Cultural Counseling)
• The Bible (Old Testament, New Testament and Christian Counseling)

As you earn your degree, it’s important to develop your own personal Christian counseling philosophy. You can build your own unique viewpoint that includes theories, techniques and trends from both psychology and the Bible.

Are you right for a Christian counseling career? You may find this profession fulfilling if you identify with the following statements:

• I enjoy talking and listening to people about personal issues
• I want to experience a deeper relationship with God’s Word
• I love to help others
• Psychology interests me
• I enjoy sharing my faith with others and helping them learn more about the Bible

With a degree in Christian counseling, you can combine counseling with your Christian faith and bring joy and meaning to your clients’ lives. Before you start your journey, think about your own beliefs and your ability and passion to help others. Then start searching for the right degree program for you!

Music can be an amazing form of worship, a way to share your faith with others and even a form of revitalizing meditation and prayer. For many Christian musicians considering a future career, their love of music may be overshadowed by the reality of finding a job in the field.

By earning a music degree from a Christian college, you don’t have to be stuck pursuing a career as a Christian musician – let’s face it – not very many people are able to make it in that competitive business.

There are many other rewarding and exciting careers for Christian musicians besides trying to make it big in the music industry. With a music degree from many Christian universities and colleges, you can be prepared for a wide range of careers, and a music degree also provides an excellent background for any graduate degree.

What can you do with a degree in music? Many Christian musicians choose to combine their music degree with a business, theology or psychology degree. With a degree in theology, you can pursue opportunities as a music minister, worship leader, youth group director or choir director. All of these jobs allow music to still be very much a part of your life and offer the reward of working closely with others and sharing your faith and love of music.

With an emphasis in business, you can take your music degree to careers at Christian record label companies, recording studios, sound engineering or public relations firms. You can enjoy the excitement of the music industry with more job security than a singing or songwriting career can offer.

Producers of Christian records must have a strong background in music. As a producer, you are required to hire studio musicians, recording engineers, background vocalists and many other professionals who help make an album. Recording budgets for Christian recording acts are generally very comparable to secular record deals.

Talented publicists are also needed in the Christian music world. Many Christian record labels have their own in-house publicity departments. Publicists in the Christian music industry must consult with the label and the artist to create a strong, cohesive message and then work to get the message out in print, broadcast and online formats.

Another career possibility with a music degree is an artist and repertoire representative. Also known as talent scouts, artist and repertoire representatives are responsible for finding, signing and developing talent for record companies.

Many larger churches also look for people with music degrees to teach music lessons at the church or be a children’s ministry director or event coordinator. One positive of pursuing a music career in a Christian setting is that it often offers more opportunities for performances and participation in musical events than the mainstream music industry. As a member of a church, director of the choir or youth group leader, you are able to share your talent each Sunday morning or for special church events.

Choosing to pursue a music degree doesn’t mean you’ll be stuck without job opportunities! Instead it can offer truly enjoyable and rewarding careers that allow you to worship and share your faith with others. Most of all, your job can allow you do what you love!