2015-02-21

Background information on Accede!

“Now we can come fearlessly right into God’s presence, assured of His glad welcome when we come with Christ and trust in Him.”

Christian Counseling

This Accede! website has been created as a platform for the exchange of information on Christian Counseling. Those are two words. Let me explain briefly.
First, there is “Christian”. This site has been developed on the basis that the God Who created this earth, is still interested in us, human beings. Even though we -mankind- turned our backs on Him, He loved us - and He still does. Therefore, He send His Son, Jesus Christ, to reconcile us with Him. Christ not only came to reconcile and restore our relationship with God, He is lovingly longing to restore us completely to the humans we were intended to be.
The second word is “Counseling”. I see Counseling as walking alongside one another in order to help one another in the restoration process.
When the human race turned its back on God, we removed ourselves from His protection. We experience the consequences of that daily: pain, fear, lies, manipulation, abuse, hatred, war, depression, confusion, etc. That means we suffer injury. For example: emotionally - with the possible consequence that we cannot feel at home and accepted, just as we are. Our thinking can get confused as well by the lies we have heard or even by lies we have unknowingly created ourselves. It is important to seek for someone who can help us find real peace and restoration of every aspect of our beings: spirit, will, intellect, emotions and body.

Blessing and empowering the weak and the broken

Accede! is devoted to bless and empower the wounded and the broken. Specially those who have been hurt in their soul - emotionally and possibly physically as well - somewhere during their early life or maybe later. We see God taking a stand for those for whom nobody speaks and who sometimes hardly can speak for themselves anymore: the broken and the outcasts. He brings light into the darkness, life and grace where there was condemnation. Dignity where there was shame. Love where there was hatred and distrust.
It means so much when we start to perceive the presence of God or Jesus - Immanuel - in an otherwise very bleak situation! He can change things, He can change our hearts, He can change our attitudes, He can wash us from our sins, as well as wash the wounds from the sins of others against us. In that way, these wounds can heal.
In this ministry of helping people receive Immanuel, related to pastoral helping by blessing, Accede! cooperates both with Shepherd's House in the USA, and with the Dutch foundation "Zegenend Helpen" (Helping by Blessing; formerly: De Kracht van Vrede - The Power of Peace), founded by Téo J. van der Weele.

Jesus did what He saw the Heavenly Father do. At Accede!, I want to live by the same principle: align myself with what I - subjectively - see God the Father do. From that, I have come to focus on various areas that are partly reflected in the articles presented here.

André H. Roosma, in action as trainer at a workshop

Research and training

An important branch of the ministry of Accede! consists of research: both in-depth Bible-study as well as study of related sciences such as psychology, sociology and neurology. Not seldomly, it is found that the Bible and good, empirical science come to the same conclusions.

On the basis of this, Accede! provides training courses, seminars and lectures or sermons. Often these are directed primarily at pastoral counselors, mental health workers, etc., but sometimes other target groups are addressed (e.g. young parents on educating their children well). Most prominent are a Dutch course (5 Saturdays in a Spring or Autumn season) on attachment, belonging and connection with God, ourselves and each other, and two on the Immanuel lifestyle and Immanuel counseling. In these I teach how to learn to perceive Immanuel more and better (duration depending on the target group).

The above research, along with clinical practice has resulted in a lot of insights, many of which have been described in articles – most articles in Dutch, but some articles in English here as well.

The name:

The name Accede! is an acronym to Advice on Christian Counseling, Empowerment, Development and Education
Secondly, it also refers to the verb to accede = to come or step forward (as to a throne), to join (a community), or: to agree.
Because of what Christ did, we do not have to be afraid. We may come, without hesitation, to God, and join His family. He is ready to receive each one of us as His own child. He has fully agreed to our being and existence. And we need to learn to agree to His wonderful vision for our lives.
Thirdly, Accede! is an invitation to you, to come with your experiences, to present your ideas, to ask your questions – to help each other become better Assistants of God in Christian Counseling, Empowerment, Development and Education.

Then there is the prefix "12" in the domain name www.12accede.org. This can be read in various ways:
(a) just as 1, 2, [3] Accede!,
(b) as "[there is] One to [Whom we can always] accede", and
(c) as "[yes, we] want to accede".
The last option with thanks to Shell ;-).

Accede! - a development project

Accede! - and especially this website - is in part also my own knowledge and insight development project.
In part, I am a self-taught man. I carry out a lot of literature research, I talk a lot with all kinds of people, and I observe a lot in the world around me.

I am skeptical of science’s presumption of objectivity and definitiveness. I have a difficult time seeing scientific results, especially in neurobiology, as anything but provisional approximations, to be enjoyed for a while and discarded as soon as better accounts become available. Neurologist Antonio Damasio in Descartes' Error, 1994, p.xviii.

Often that is instigated by things that happen – either in the life of a counselee, or in my own life or in the life of someone else.
The articles that I publish here are a reflection of that. That means, that it happens regularly that I will add or change things upon new insights.
Inherent to the way I acquire new insights and publish about them is that it is patchy: there are many subjects that I haven’t come across yet or about which I didn’t have the opportunity to write yet (or I simply consider that quite enough has been written about it already). Undoubtedly, I will have my blind spots regarding certain areas or phenomena (cf. 1 Cor.13:9,12). In case you spot (or think to spot) such a blind spot, I’d like to hear it! I love to learn!

I encourage you to send me any of your ideas, comments, experiences or other input that might be of interest to me or maybe even also to other Christian Counselors. I may then, if appropriate and with your consent, decide to publish these ideas, or to amend the material that is already here according to your comments.

Daughters of Accede!

In the meantime – I write this in April 2011 –, the above development traject has led to a few daughters or pojects of Accede!. In each of them, the God of the Bible is in the centre:

• Immanuel pastoraat (Immanuel pastoral care; in Dutch) has emerged from a combination of Biblestudy, experience in pastoral practice and international cooperation. At the Dutch website of Immanuel pastoraat you find more about a training that I offer in this remarkable pastoral approach.
• Hallelu-YaH has emerged from a combination of Biblestudy, worship and awe towards the Creator of heaven and earth, and study of the oldest Hebrew. At the website of Hallelu-YaH you’ll find a.o. Biblestudies and Biblestudy-materials.

Language

Most of this site is phrased in English. My own background, however, is Dutch. So, I have included some information of special relevance to the Dutch (as well as the Flamish, Surinams, South African, or others who read Dutch). I think here of references to Dutch book titles, links to websites in Dutch, etc. On the longer term, I hope to translate most of the material here also into Dutch and put the Dutch versions on my Dutch website: www.12accede.nl.
Apart from this, I often use the metaphore of the Giraffe when it comes to talk about my length (I am 2.02 m. or 6’ 7” tall). And not only that, I also want to speak the language of the Giraffe as defined by Marshall B. Rosenberg in Compassionate communication: the language of the Jackal vs that of the Giraffe on the site of The Natural Child  :-).

These pages have been created to inform you, broaden our perspective and to start a conversation. If you mail me questions regarding your personal situation, I see it as my responsibility to keep them confidential (unless doing so would pose a threat to any person, to any Christian organization or to God).
In no way can I or my Internet Service Provider, be held responsible for material that resides elsewhere on the web, even if reachable via a link on one of these pages.
Neither can I be held responsible for the consequences of any use of the material presented here, other than use by myself.

Suggestions welcome!

I encourage you wholeheartedly to send me any of your ideas, comments, experiences or other suggestions that might be of interest to Christian counselors. I may then decide to publish these with your consent, or to amend the material that is already here according to your comments.
More background info, including some on my goals and approach, you will find on the page with backgrounds of the Accede! initiative.

Connecting professionally

If you would like to connect professionally with the author and owner of this site, André H. Roosma, that is possible via Linked In.

More information

More information is available from the editor of this site, André H. Roosma, reachable via e-mail: andre.roosma@12accede.nl.