I just posted an 18-tweet thread on Twitter about being a “____-informed biblical counselor.”
If you don’t know what that means…or if you do…keep reading for some of my reflections and ponderings on this topic.
Keep in mind that Twitter limits how many characters/letters can be in each tweet.
A Twitter Tweet Thread
Tweet 1: A long #BibleCn thread on being “an informed biblical counselor.” For a detailed discussion of this topic—related to counseling and sexual abuse—see “A Theologically-Informed Approach to Sexual Abuse Counseling: Implementing the Hermeneutical Spiral.” 1/
Tweet 2” In #BibleCn these days, there’s some level of controversy over the issue of being a “hyphenated-biblical counselor.” That is, being a: “____-informed-biblical counselor. Perhaps it’s a “trauma-informed BCer.” Or “a neuroscience-informed BCer.” Let’s ponder this together. 2/
Tweet 3: Defining what we mean is vital. It’s also vital to describe how we do what we mean. Let’s take the topic of a being a #BibleCn who is informed about sexual abuse. What information do we need? Where do we find it? How do we evaluate it? How do we implement it? 3/
Tweet 4: My Primary Premise (in 2 Tweets): Sexual abuse-informed #BibleCn must start with…the Bible. The Bible offers a robust, relevant, relational, and profound understanding of the damage done by sexual abuse and of a way forward toward Christ-centered healing from sexual abuse…. 4/
Tweet 5: My Primary Premise (Continued): ….As #BibleCn we can and must study the Scriptures cover-to-cover to uncover biblical and theological building blocks that provide a way of viewing and using the Bible to develop a theology and methodology of sexual abuse counseling. 5/
Tweet 6: Here’s where we might want to be a tad self-critical as “______-informed” #BibleCn Is our focus foremost on the Word’s wisdom or the world’s research? If we don’t have a rich biblical-theological foundation then it’s easy for the world’s information to trump the Word’s wisdom. 6/
Tweet 7: Is there a place for #BibleCn to engage with the world’s research? Yes. I’ve “taken heat” for affirming that. I’ve written much about it: 23 Resources for Counseling the Whole Person: God Designed Us as “Embodied Souls” 7/
Tweet 8: In that article, I spoke both to the role of revelation & of research. I said: #BibleCn will develop and follow a theological anthropology—a rich/robust biblical understanding of embodied souls that leads to relevant/practical counseling that ministers to people comprehensively. 8/
Tweet 9: Regarding the role of research, I said: #BibleCn will use the lens of God’s sufficient Scriptures to carefully evaluate neurological research regarding the brain/body connection & then potentially discerningly implement interventions that address our embodied nature. 9/
Tweet 10: Review the #BibleCn process in “A Theologically-Informed Approach to Sexual Abuse Counseling: Implementing the Hermeneutical Spiral.” In this 23-page document, it’s not until page 21 that we probe the world’s research: AFTER exegeting/applying the Word’s wisdom. 10/
Tweet 11: Larry Crabb used to say, “Let’s be careful lest we have a Sunday School-level knowledge of Scripture, but a PhD-level knowledge of secular psychology.” Informed #BibleCn is first and foremost biblically-informed. We’re convinced that the Bible is richly relevant to real life. 11/
Tweet 12: That leaves #BibleCn with a longer-hyphenated label:
Biblically-theologically-informed-BCers-trusting-the-Word’s-wisdom-for-our-BC-theory/methodology-using-the-lens-of-Scripture-to-carefully-evaluate-where-the-world’s-research-may-offer-common-grace-adjunctive/catalytic-input. 12/
Tweet 13: Or, a tad shorter, as #BibleCn we seek to be:
Label: Theologically-Saturated, Research-Informed Biblical Counselors
Description: Foundationally we are richly and deeply biblically-theologically-saturated; secondarily we are shrewdly, carefully, discerningly research-informed; and always we evaluate all extra-biblical data through a Christ-centered lens. 13/
Tweet 14: Some may say, “But I’m not sure I have the time or training to do cover-to-cover biblical/theological exegesis of each life issue.” That’s why we’re thankful for the #BibleCn body of Christ and the many richly theologically-informed books and training seminars now available. 14/
Tweet 15: If you’d like to explore (in more detail than tweets) how to use the Bible to develop a rich theology/methodology of #BibleCn for life issues, see: “A Theologically-Informed Approach to Sexual Abuse Counseling: Implementing the Hermeneutical Spiral.” 15/
Tweet 16: I suspect, or at least hope, that the more “conservative” #BibleCn folks might be a tad less nervous about “____-informed BC” if they heard us often repeating that first and foremost we want to be “biblically-theologically-informed biblical counselors.” 16/
Tweet 17: And I suspect they might be a tad less nervous about “____-informed BC” if they saw us as #BibleCn consistently demonstrating how we use the sufficient Scriptures to carefully assess and evaluate research. 17/
Tweet 18/Final: This probably should have been a blog post instead of a Tweet thread. I hope it provides some food for thought re what makes ___-informed #BibleCn richly and relevantly biblical. 18/The End.
