Reflections on How Christians Make Decisions about Counseling
I’ve been reflecting on comments on the posts where David Murray and I interacted about Depression, Medication, and Biblical Counseling (see below for links).
Here are two main thoughts…
Some Christians Don’t Seem to Have Much Confidence in One-Another Care and Biblical Counseling
Regarding one-another care, I’m always saying to the Body of Christ:
“Don’t take a back seat to anyone!”
I say that because of my study of God’s Word, my study of church history, and my study of the research into effective care for hurting people.
It seems to me from comments on my blog posts and David’s blog posts, that many Christians do not have much confidence in the effectiveness of Christian one-another care and/or biblical counseling.
It seems to me that some Christians view counseling/care as having three primary options:
- Option A: Good secular care, such as cognitive-behavioral counseling by a non-Christian counselor.
- Option B: Good Christian counseling by a Christian using cognitive-behavioral counseling.
- Option C: Bad, non-comprehensive, non-compassionate Christian care, such as untrained lay people or poorly-trained biblical counselors using biblical counseling.
I hope those views are outliers. But why would I even say that?
After repeated posts where compassionate and comprehensive biblical counseling was emphasized, people say, “Are you saying, ‘People don’t need good care like CBT’?”
Or people say, “By recommending biblical counseling, isn’t that just like saying ‘Just pray’?”
No, I’m saying, there is another option:
- Option A+: Compassionate Christian care from the Body of Christ and from biblical counselors who care comprehensively by helping people address all aspects of the soul and by encouraging people to address all potential physical issues with their doctor.
Why is it that when you recommend biblical counseling and one-another care by the Body of Christ, some Christians see that as recommending low-level (even dangerous) caring that does not measure up to the world’s care?
The Body of Christ has always been about the business of helping hurting and hardened people find healing and hope through Christ’s grace.
Like the Apostle Paul in Romans 15:14, I believe that Christians are competent to counsel one another when:
- They are full of goodness: Growing in Christlike maturity.
- They are complete in knowledge: Growing in comprehensive, wise biblical counseling where Truth is relevantly and richly applied to life.
- They are embedded in Christian community (“brothers/one another” in Romans 15:14): Growing in and through life-on-life community in the Body of Christ.
Paul would say:
“Body of Christ: Don’t take a back seat to anyone!”
Some Christians Don’t Seem to Want to Examine Counseling Issues through Biblical Lenses
I was surprised that I did not receive comments that challenged my exegesis and application of the many biblical texts that I developed. I was surprised that I did not receive comments that challenged the exegetical/systematic/biblical theological foundation I developed.
I could be wrong in my exegesis—but people did not go to the Bible to challenge my biblical exegesis.
I could be wrong in my theology—but people did not use biblical theology to challenge my theological positions.
Why do we have extensive conversations about how best to minister to hurting people, without people engaging the Bible when they respond?
It makes me wonder if many Christians have made up their minds about counseling without studying what the Bible has to say.
I’m fine with research—I quoted several researchers.
I’m fine with philosophical thinking and logical reasoning.
I’m fine with people expressing their opinions and asking me questions. In fact, I did not delete a single comment made on this blog mini-series and I responded to almost every single comment.
But people who disagreed with me did not address my biblical interpretations/applications and they did not address my theological perspectives.
I was anticipating and looking forward to rich dialogue about what the Bible says about Christian care and caring for Christians.
I was anticipating and looking forward to engaging in scriptural conversations about the Bible’s view on soul care.
It did not come.
It seems like:
- We use the world’s wisdom to determine whether or not we should use the world’s wisdom in caring for one-another as Christians.
- We use our opinions and our experiences to determine whether or not we should use the world’s wisdom in caring for one-another as Christians.
My desire and plea:
- Let’s examine Christian care through the lens of the Bible.
- Let’s examine biblical counseling through what the Bible says.
I Hope I’m Wrong…
So, it seems to me that:
- Sometimes as Christians we lack confidence that biblical care could be compassionate, comprehensive, rich, robust, relevant, and relational.
- Sometimes as Christians we assess Christian care and biblical counseling on the basis of opinion, personal experience, and the world’s wisdom rather than on the basis of the Bible.
I hope I’m wrong…
The Rest of the Story
Here are the links to my posts in my blog mini-series on Depression, Medication, and Biblical Counseling:
- Post 1: “I’m Thinking about Going to the Doctor for Depression Meds”—What Is a Compassionate, Comprehensive Response?
- Post 2: David Murray and Bob Kellemen Interact about Depression
- Post 3: Can an Unregenerate Cognitive-Behavioral Therapist Be Christ-Centered?
- Post 4: Is Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy the Same as Biblical Mind/Heart Renewal?
- PDF of Depression, Medication, and Biblical Counseling
Join the Conversation
Do you think that some Christians don’t have much confidence in Christian care? If so, why do you think this may be true? What could be done about it? If you don’t think this is an accurate interpretation on my part, why not? How would you see it differently?
Do you think that some Christians don’t seem to want to examine counseling issues through biblical lenses. If so, why do you think this may be true? What could be done about it? If you don’t think this is true, why not? How would you see it differently?
RPM Ministries: Equipping You to Change Lives with Christ’s Changeless Truth
I’m sure that we all, in varying degrees, often avoid viewing our lives through ‘biblical lenses’ because of fear of what we may find (and perhaps already know). This can be confounded by lack of confidence in the options we see as being available to us. And who would not use their experience as a lens in this context ? If I don’t know anyone (individual or group) that I think or feel I can have confidence in being fully competent as you describe, then I will probably only use whomever I can (but do not fully trust) when in desperation. (In fact this is often true of secular solutions, physical and otherwise, so it should be no surprise that we have the same avoidance patterns regarding biblical solutions as well. ) This is yet another area in which believers (as humans) over-congratulate their own competence, rather than actually working on developing it and taking a comprehensive approach (connecting one spiritual issue with another effectively rather than one problem behavior in isolation) or significant commitment of time and attention. “OK, your time’s “up — I’ll text you on Tuesday to ask how you’re doing with that. “
Gavin, Thanks for sharing. I agree 100% that we would be foolish to over-congratulate ourselves on our own competence, rather than actually working on developing it. We start with confidence in the rich wisdom of God’s Word for our life in this broken world. We then do what Paul counsels us to do in Romans 15:14 that I talked about in this post–we develop our competence. While it can be true that some counselors may be over-confident in their competency, I believe it is true, as this post points out, that Christians can be under-confident in the power of God’s Word compassionately and comprehensively shared by an equipped servant of God. Bob
I guess I managed not to make it evident that I was speaking really about one-another discipling — counseling that starts within the life-sharing group environment. I do know people who would go to a biblical counselor (e.g. our pastor) over other options. However, without adequate equipping, we ‘one anothers’ tend to fall back on what we’ve seen done in the past, rather than striving for a fully fleshed-out approach that presents exhortation, accountability, etc. in a Gospel context as so many of the resources here and elsewhere discuss extensively. I’m afraid that some tend to think, since we believe in biblical soul care (or whatever models we invoke), then everyone present should fully embrace transparency immediately.. using the push where the pull would be much more effective.
Hi Bob,
I believe Christians don’t have confidence in Christian care for at least two reasons:
1. Because they don’t “see” it working. Other than the BCC website, there aren’t many platforms for Christians to tell their story of how they benefitted from biblical counseling. Christians who have benefitted from biblical counseling need to tell their stories so that others have greater confidence in biblical counseling.
2. Because Christians see biblical counseling like they see “Christian movies.” Most Christian movies are low budget, low quality, non-actors with a great story. Unfortunately most Christian cannot see past this. To some degree, biblical counselors are considered low quality, lay people with not much professionalism.
At least two solutions:
1. Christians who have benefitted from biblical counseling should tell their stories.
2. Biblical counselors should continue to train and strive for excellence.