Part Four:
The Great Cloud of Biblical Counseling Witnesses
A Word from Bob
First, I posted this blog mini-series back in 2009. I am thankful for how the modern biblical counseling movement has developed and grown since then, especially in the area that these posts focused on: biblical parakaletic soul care for the suffering.
Second, if you find yourself troubled that I am saying that some biblical counseling is only half biblical, then I would ask you to be sure to read my comments at the end of this blog post. Thanks!
For Part 1, please visit: The Gravity of Grinding Affliction
For Part 2, please visit: Whatever Happened to Sin?
For Part 3, please visit: Embracing the Legacy of Comforting Biblical Counseling
My Premise
Some modern biblical counseling considers the seriousness of sin—sinning, but spends much less time equipping people to minister to the gravity of grinding affliction—suffering. When we provide counseling for sin, but fail to provide counseling and counselor training for suffering, then such biblical counseling is only half biblical.
The Great Cloud of Biblical Counseling Witnesses
The Bible exhorts us to honor and learn from those who have gone before us:
“Remember the days of old; consider the generations long past. Ask your father and he will tell you, your elders, and they will explain to you” (Deuteronomy 32:7).
“Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for yours souls” (Jeremiah 6:16a).
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (Hebrews 12:1).
So, how did the great cloud of biblical counseling witnesses in Church history deal with suffering? Well, for the detailed answer, please refer to:
Counseling Under the Cross: How Martin Luther Applied the Gospel to Daily Life.
Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction.
Sacred Friendships: Celebrating the Legacy of Women Heroes of the Faith.
The Readers’ Digest Version
As Church historians have probed the history of personal ministry, they have categorized all “people-ministry” using the four tasks of sustaining and healing for suffering, and reconciling and guiding for sinning. Though different terms were used in different eras, these historians have found consistent categories, definitions, and descriptions. Historically, comprehensive biblical care of people always involved the twin functions of soul care for suffering and spiritual direction for sinning through the four ministries of sustaining, healing, reconciling, and guiding.
John McNeil’s A History of the Cure of Souls traces the art of soul care throughout Church history and shows that Christians always provided ministry for suffering and sin.
“Lying deep in the experience and culture of the early Christian communities are the closely related practices of mutual edification and fraternal correction.”
Speaking of the Apostle Paul, McNeil notes:
“In such passages we cannot fail to see the Apostle’s design to create an atmosphere in which the intimate exchange of spiritual help, the mutual guidance of souls, would be a normal feature of Christian behavior.”
Throughout his historical survey, McNeil explains that mutual edification involves soul care through the provision of sustaining (consolation, support, and comfort) and healing (encouragement and enlightenment) for suffering. Fraternal correction includes spiritual direction through the provision of reconciling (discipline, confession, and forgiveness) and guiding (direction and counsel) for sinning.
Historians of soul care, Clebsch and Jaekle, found that pastoral care has historically involved “helping acts, done by representative Christian persons, directed toward the healing, sustaining, guiding, and reconciling of troubled persons whose troubles arise in the context of ultimate meanings and concerns” (Clebsch and Jaekle, Pastoral Care in Historical Perspective, p. 4).
How extensive has the twin ministries of soul care for suffering and spiritual direction for sinning been?
“The Christian ministry of the cure of souls, or pastoral care, has been exercised on innumerable occasions and in every conceivable human circumstance, as it has aimed to relieve a plethora of perplexities besetting persons of every class and condition and mentality. Pastors rude and barely plucked from paganism, pastors sophisticated in the theory and practice of their profession, and pastors at every stage of adeptness between these extremes, have sought and wrought to help troubled people overcome their troubles. To view pastoral care in historical perspective is to survey a vast endeavor, to appreciate a noble profession, and to receive a grand tradition” (Clebsch and Jaekle, p. 1).
Have we in the biblical counseling movement received or ignored this grand tradition of biblical counseling both for suffering and for sin?
Where Do We Go from Here?
In Part 5, I’ll address the question, “What might it look like to train pastors and lay people to be soul physicians and spiritual friends who deal with both suffering and sin?”
Why I Am Addressing This Topic
All who have followed my ministry know that I am a bridge-builder and not a wall-builder. You might wonder then, “Bob, why blog about something that is surely to be controversial?”
Those who follow my ministry also know that I equip God’s people to change lives with Christ’s changeless truth through comprehensive, compassionate, and culturally-informed biblical counseling and spiritual formation.
Biblical counseling that fails to deal with suffering, fails the test of comprehensive, compassionate, and culturally-informed biblical counseling. I would be a hypocrite to my calling if I remained silent.
Others might wonder, “Are you talking about a particular person, persons, or groups who are writing and ministering today?”
No. I am not. This is not an attack against. These blogs are not directed toward any one person or group.
These blogs are directed to all of us—myself included—who love biblical counseling. They are for all of us—myself included—who need good Bereans (Acts 17) to help us to assess how biblical or unbiblical our approaches to biblical counseling truly are. I write to help, not to hurt. I write to equip, not to attack. I write to start a conversation, not to finish one.
Join the Conversation
Have we in the biblical counseling movement received or ignored this grand tradition of biblical counseling both for suffering and for sin?
