Is “Biblical” a Good Modifier for “Counseling” 

This past week the National Association of Nouthetic Counselors (NANC) became the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (ACBC).  

Any time a long-standing organization makes a name change, discussion is healthy and wise.

Leading up to the vote on the change (which was approved overwhelmingly), some of the healthy discussion revolved around whether “biblical” is a good modifier for “counseling.” 

The concern was whether “biblical” had become a rather “nebulous” term today and modifying “counseling” with the nebulous “biblical” could mean that the counseling approach is compromised, diluted, and water-downed. 

Let me first say that if anyone had asked me, I would have been totally in favor of the name change. For one, I trust the leadership of NANC/ACBC. For another, I am the Executive Director of an organization that modifies counseling with “biblical”—the Biblical Counseling Coalition.  

But I would also say that I understood the concern about modifiers. 

Any undefined modifier leaves one open to criticism of compromise. 

That would be true in any field. It’s certainly true in counseling. 

So…some follow-up questions are needed: 

• “How does a person or organization define ‘biblical’?” 

• “Does the individual or organization consistently practice what they preach—does their actual counseling, writing, and teaching ‘live out’ their definition?” 

Read the ACBC’s blog site and you will quickly and consistently see that they are robustly and clearly defining exactly what they mean by “biblical” counseling.

A Conviction 

First…a conviction… 

Just because someone may define something vaguely, does not mean that we should abdicate a perfectly fine word. 

Just because someone might define something in an unbiblical or non-Christian way, does not mean that we must abdicate a perfectly fine word. 

I prefer investing perfectly fine modifiers with robust, nuanced meaning so that no one who is willing to read you has any question about what you mean. 

So, What Makes for Biblical, Biblical Counseling? 

For my own ministry (RPM Ministries), I’ve defined what I mean by “biblical” counseling in several places. For example: 

• What Makes Biblical Counseling Biblical?  

• The Future of Biblical Counseling: Dreaming a Dozen Dreams  

• Biblical Counseling FAQs  

• Soul Physicians  

• Spiritual Friends  

For the past decade since I launched RPM Ministries, I’ve been an “open book”—literally 1,000s of blog posts, resources, and reviews. So people can be “good Bereans” who evaluate my definition and my writings with God’s Word. 

Again, my point—let’s be sure to carefully, publicly, robustly, and frequently define our terms. Let’s let people know what we mean by our modifiers for counseling. Then let’s be consistent in living out our labels. 

The Biblical Counseling Coalition 

As I mentioned, I am privileged to be the Executive Director of the Biblical Counseling Coalition. Ah, there is that word, “biblical.” 

Though I am the Executive Director, I am only 1 of 56 leaders who serve on our Board of Directors and Council Board. 

Together, forty of us carefully defined biblical counseling in almost 500 pages in Christ-Centered Biblical Counseling.  

That’s a lot of nuance! If anyone wants to assess whether our counseling is “biblical,” they have 40 authors and almost 500 pages to evaluate. 

When we launched the Biblical Counseling Coalition, over three-dozen leaders spent nearly a year developing our Confessional Statement.  

In it we provide over 3,000 words of definition. Our succinct summary is: 

Biblical counseling occurs whenever and wherever God’s people engage in conversations that are anchored in Scripture, centered on Christ and the Gospel, grounded in sound theology, dependent upon the Holy Spirit and prayer, directed toward sanctification, rooted in the life of the church, founded in love, attentive to heart issues, comprehensive in understanding, thorough in care, practical and relevant, and oriented toward outreach.

Embedded in that summary are twelve statements of conviction that we develop throughout the document. 

If anyone wants to assess whether our counseling is “biblical,” they have over 3,200 words to do so. In fact, in the document we invite assessment and feedback. We ask people to be good “Bereans” who search the Scriptures to see if what we say is “biblical.”

However, it surely would have been possible for us to choose a label, define that label, and then minister inconsistently with that label. That’s why we remain an “open book” with 1,000s of blog posts, book reviews, and resources—where people can assess whether we are living out our definition. It’s right and fair that people continue to keep us accountable for living out our definition.

Anyone can choose a label—sometimes to gain a following, an audience. The question is, is their ministry consistent with how they define their label? 

The Point: Label + Definition + Consistent Ministry Practice 

I am confident that ACBC will continue the long history of NANC—they will be consistent in using a label that they define robustly and then that they practice consistently. 

Any of us assessing any organizations should use this three-fold test: label + definition + consistent ministry practice. It is true that not everyone who uses the label “biblical” to modify “counseling” is practicing truly “biblical” counseling. 

Labels are meaningless unless we embed them with content that we consistently apply in ministry. 

Join the Conversation 

What modifier do you use to define your approach to “counseling”? 

Do you have a 50-word, 500-word, and 5,000-word definition of your approach to “counseling”?

Do you consistently live out your defined label? 

RPM Ministries: Equipping You to Change Lives with Christ’s Changeless Truth