Go Counsel with Care: Proclaiming Hope

This was not an unfamiliar sight for Glenn and Patti. When Patti first opened the doors of her counseling practice, she knew that of those who would approach her for help, many would do so because of a struggling marriage. When she and Glenn enrolled as students at Southeastern Seminary, they learned how to biblically counsel married couples. But even before coming to Southeastern, Glenn and Patti could sympathize with the marital hurt they saw before them because they themselves had been in those very shoes in their own marriage.

Colliding Worlds

Glenn and Patti first met in their hometown of Lancaster, SC, while performing together in a community production of the musical Oklahoma.

They soon began dating and decided to get married. Both had a love for Christ in addition to a love for one another, but neither had a clear understanding of the journey they were embarking on in marriage. They certainly did not anticipate the challenges that would meet them along the way.

In the first few years of marriage, the newlyweds experienced an onslaught of major life changes, both good and bad. Following a heart-breaking miscarriage, God blessed Glenn and Patti with three children in the next three and a half years. In addition to the major adjustment of parenthood, the family also moved multiple times during these years.

The greatest struggle, however, came from a conflict of values. Glenn and Patti found their lives slowly drifting apart. While Glenn dedicated his life to furthering his career in a very secular workplace, Patti found herself in a completely different sphere of life as she cared for their three children and taught music part time at a Christian school.

“These two worlds collided every day in our home,” Glenn and Patti remembered.

These two worlds collided every day in our home.

“I lived very different lives at home and at work,” Glenn said. “I became drawn into a world where Christ was not a priority, and I brought that world home with me. The world that I lived in during the day brought pressure, challenges, and temptations that eroded my character and my relationship with God and Patti.”

While in many ways it seemed like their marriage was falling apart, God had other plans for the Steens.

Over time, he began to work in both Glenn and Patti’s hearts. He strengthened and comforted Patti as she drew near to him in prayer, seeking hope in a situation that seemed hopeless. He also began convicting Glenn of his actions and the way he was allowing a toxic work environment to damage the priceless gift he had in Patti and in his family.

Through a combination of marriage counseling, work and life changes, and, above all, God’s intercession in their lives, Glenn and Patti’s marriage began to heal and grow. Eventually, the severity of the storm was behind them. However, this was by no means the end of the journey that God had placed them on — it was, in fact, just the beginning.

Counseling from a Biblical Worldview

Early in her life, Patti realized that she had a desire to serve in a ministry context, a dream she began to pursue through her giftings in music. However, it wasn’t until she discovered Southeastern Seminary and its biblical counseling program that she realized God might be calling her in a different direction of ministry.

Counseling appealed to her in many ways, but she was especially drawn toward it because of her own marriage crisis and the counseling that she and Glenn received during that time. Here was an opportunity to learn how to minister to those in need — and to do so from a clear, biblical worldview.

“I depended on the Lord and trusted him during our marital crisis, but I wanted someone to help me navigate these waters by pointing me to Scripture and helping me to see ways he was at work in my life,” Patti recalled. “Yet the counsel we had received previously was more about looking at our familial history and other secular methodologies rather than seeking the counsel of God’s word. I thought that maybe that type of biblical counseling didn’t exist until I began my studies at Southeastern! I’ve often said that it felt as though I had found a home! Every aspect of the teaching spoke to what I had longed for ten years before.”

I thought that maybe that type of biblical counseling didn’t exist until I began my studies at Southeastern! I’ve often said that it felt as though I had found a home!

Each week, Patti drove to Wake Forest, eager to see what the Lord had for her to learn in that day’s classes. Throughout the years in which she pursued her master’s, numerous classes and professors left a deep impact on her life and on her ministry.

As she sat under the instruction of professors such as Steven Wade, she grew in her understanding of both counseling theory and practical skills. In tandem with her classes on counseling, she also grew in her knowledge of Scripture through courses such as New Testament with Scott Kellum, where she learned how to understand the Bible systematically and theologically. God used this season of equipping to prepare her for the ministry that would soon be on her doorstep and to prepare her for the partner who would soon join her in that ministry.

A New Partner

“Patti came home one day while she was in seminary,” Glenn recalled, “and said, ‘There’s some training I want to go to in Greensboro, North Carolina. It’s going to be four weekends in September… for three years.’”

At first, Glenn wasn’t thrilled at the idea. He was particularly concerned that the seminar would cut into his personal time and the college football season. Eventually, though, despite his reluctance, he agreed to join her.

“I remember very vividly, we went to the first night,” Glenn said. “And I walked in, feeling like, ‘We’re on different tracks because she’s a biblical counselor, and she knows some stuff, and I know nothing.’”

“And so, I went in,” he remembered, “and a man named Randy Patton talked for an hour on the sovereignty of God.”

It was a message that turned Glenn’s world upside down.

As he sat next to his wife listening to the truth of God’s word, spoken with clarity and boldness, he realized how little he knew this God whom he followed.

“He spoke of a God I didn’t understand and a God I didn’t know. And I knew I had to have a relationship with this God that I had just heard about,” Glenn said. “It changed my life instantly. It changed the trajectory of my marriage, my personal life, my family life, my work life — it changed everything. And so, once it changed everything, I started getting involved in counseling with Patti.”

A Season of Preparation

Glenn began pursuing counseling training while continuing work with his full-time job. When the opportunities arose, he came alongside Patti and joined her in counseling married couples. And the opportunities did continue to come.

Patti’s time at Southeastern prepared her to pursue full-time counseling ministry after completing her Master of Arts in biblical counseling in 2006. Seeing a need in her community, she started Living Hope Counseling Center that very year, partnering originally with her church and then later with Moriah Baptist Association.

The Steen’s counseling ministry soon began to extend beyond the center’s doors and to reach overseas. Glenn and Patti realized that they could combine their passion for counseling and the Scriptures with a love for missions. On their trips, the Steens had many chances to encourage, counsel, and pour into those serving full time on the mission field.

“God just kept placing people and situations in front of us, and we knew we needed to do it better,” Glenn recalled, thinking back on his desire to be equipped during that season of opportunities. “I knew I needed to be better prepared. And so, I came to Southeastern to get my master’s, and Patti came to get her Doctor of Ministry.”

God was not finished with the Steens yet. Seeing a need for further education and training, Glenn and Patti immersed themselves in another season of learning at Southeastern over the next three years. Patti completed her Doctor of Ministry in 2019, and Glenn finished his master’s in 2020.

“My degree changed who I was,” Glenn said, “and it changed how I did ministry completely. My ministry became so much more robust.”

My degree changed who I was, and it changed how I did ministry completely.

Patti also saw a change in her understanding of missions. “When I returned in 2017,” she recalled, “we had already become quite involved in overseas ministry. In our situation, Southeastern amplified and solidified our view of and participation in the Great Commission. Southeastern has taught us that we must teach, preach, go, and support the Great Commission.”

Because of the impact that Southeastern had on their lives and ministry, Glenn and Patti wanted to find some way to support the seminary. They decided to contribute financially to Southeastern with the desire that their giving would pave the way for others who needed to be equipped.

“We know one thing — Southeastern has laid the foundations for us,” Glenn stated. “It has given us the education we need, it has challenged us spiritually, and it continues to put things in front of us that allow us to expand God’s kingdom. We will support Southeastern because there are hundreds and thousands of other people like us who need to come here and who need to get what we have received. They need to prepare themselves.”

We will support Southeastern because there are hundreds and thousands of other people like us who need to come here and who need to get what we have received.

Proclaiming Hope

As Southeastern prepares followers of Christ for ministry, Glenn and Patti continue to seek ways to care for and minister to those hurting and in need of biblical counseling.

“Generally, people come to see a counselor because they are suffering in some way,” the Steens shared. “God’s word says that suffering serves a purpose: to develop and increase our faith while conforming us to the image of Christ (James 1:2-4; Romans 8:28-29). For the believer, biblical counseling is not just about ‘feeling better’ but is about finding a lasting joy in Jesus. Sometimes this process reveals a heart that never truly trusted Christ for salvation. Other times, one person in the relationship may have even ignored or rejected God, but through counseling and hearing Spirit-filled yet practical presentations of the gospel, they may repent and surrender to Jesus.”

Glenn recounted a story of a married couple who visited him and Patti early in their counseling ministry. The marriage was in critical condition. As was her habit, Patti started out that first session by examining the couple’s spiritual lives, determining whether or not they were in God’s word and how often.

“We were in the Bible belt of the Bible belt, really in the buckle,” Glenn recalled. When Patti asked the husband how much he read the Bible, “he looked directly at us and said, ‘I’ve never opened the book.’”

Glenn realized exactly what he needed to do. He got up and found the Bible that he had planned to give his daughter for her upcoming birthday. He presented it to the husband and told him he would give it to him if he would begin reading it.

That next week, Glenn said, “He came back, and he opened his Bible. It was highlighted in three or four different colors. He had notes all over the sides of the pages.” By God’s grace, it has been almost twenty years since that husband surrendered his life to Christ.

Through God’s merciful redemption of their own marriage and his continued faithfulness in drawing them to himself, Glenn and Patti are now fellow workers in the harvest, equipped both practically and theologically by their training at Southeastern to share the good news of Jesus with those that they counsel.

Please join us in praying for Glenn and Patti Steen and for their ministry. Pray that God would continue to bless them abundantly with fruit in their work and that lives would be changed. Pray also that he would be a source of guidance and wisdom for them as they walk through life transitions together.