For many years I have been scouring eBay and other used book sites for copies of The Big Umbrella, marking them up exponentially from the price I paid, and reselling them to grateful students of biblical counseling. With this republication my little cottage industry comes to an end but my loss is great gain for biblical counselors everywhere. When my friend, Joe Bianchi at Calvary Press, asked me which of Dr. Adams’ books would be most valuable to bring back into print this volume was clearly the first choice.
The Big Umbrella was the second book Dr. Adams published dealing with biblical counseling. It appeared less than two years after Competent to Counsel and before his other foundational books The Christian Counselor’s Manual, More Than Redemption (later titled Theology of Counseling), and How to Help People Change. The book consists of lectures Dr. Adams gave in various situations expanding upon and defending his first book. While these lectures were delivered in a different context than ours today, as you read these words you will find they are still fresh and speak pointedly to our situation almost 40 years later. Good exposition of the Scripture has no expiration date.
From the beginning we have required our students at the Institute for Nouthetic Studies to read the first section of this book as a part of our first introductory course. That chapter alone is worth far more than the price you will pay for this entire volume. You Are Your Brother’s Counselor should be required reading of anyone holding office in a local church. I believe anyone who is involved in biblical counseling will find this book, written almost 40 years ago, still to be one of the most helpful volumes he has read since, well, Competent to Counsel. And now you don’t have to pay my confiscatory prices to do so!
You can order your copy directly from Calvary Press at their website here.