A Word from Bob
You’re reading Part 1 in a multi-part series on What Makes Biblical Counseling Truly Biblical? I’ve developed this series from Chapters 1 and 2 of my book Gospel-Centered Counseling: How Christ Changes Lives.
Counseling Conversations: Theologically-Saturated Biblical Counseling
Over the past year, I’ve been interacting with a fellow biblical counselor about what makes biblical counseling truly biblical? This is a question I’ve pondered and pursued, examined and studied, written about and taught for forty years.
My best encapsulation of my answer to this question is in my book Gospel-Centered Counseling: How Christ Changes Lives. In Gospel-Centered Counseling, I use the ten classic systematic theology doctrines as a grid for answering the question, what makes biblical counseling truly biblical? I turn those ten doctrines into 8 ultimate life questions.
Life’s 8 Ultimate Questions
Question #1: The Word: “Where do we find wisdom for life in a broken world?”
Question #2: The Trinity/Community: “What comes into our mind when we think about God?” “Whose view of God will we believe—Christ’s or Satan’s?”
Question #3: Creation: “Whose are we?” “In what story do we find ourselves?”
Question #4: Fall: “What’s the root source of our problem?” “What went wrong?”
Question #5: Redemption: “How does Christ bring us peace with God?” “How does Christ change people?”
Question #6: Church: “Where can we find a place to belong and become?”
Question #7: Consummation: “How does our future destiny with Christ make a difference in our lives today as saints who struggle against suffering and sin?”
Question #8: Sanctification: “Why are we here?” “How do we become like Jesus?” How can our inner life increasingly reflect the inner life of Christ?”
Answering these questions biblically is my approach, my paradigm, for developing a theologically-saturate, gospel-centered model of biblical counseling.
In this blog mini-series, we’re focusing on the first question:
- Question #1: The Word: “Where do we find wisdom for life in a broken world?”
Counseling Ashley and Nate
Ashley and her husband, Nate, met with me at church the day after their twin sons’ eleventh birthday. With tears streaming down her face, Ashley shared that twenty-five years earlier, not long after her eleventh birthday, a relative had begun sexually abusing her.
Those who knew Ashley would have been shocked. She grew up in a Christian home, was active at church as an adult, served as a leader in the women’s ministry, and was always “pleasant.”
As Ashley described herself,
“Yes, I’m the good girl from the good home. The good mom; the good wife. But nobody knows the ugliness I feel inside. Nobody knows how I’ve pretended and denied all these years. I just can’t keep faking it any longer. I’m a mess. Depressed to the point that at times I’ve thought about suicide. Always fearful and anxious—terrified I’ll displease someone. Terrified someone will find out what an empty but evil thing I am…”
As Ashley’s voice trailed off, Nate asked,
“Pastor Bob, can you help? Does the Bible offer any hope for my wife?”[i]
How you or I respond to Ashley’s soul struggles and to Nate’s life questions depends on how we answer several other foundational questions:
- Truth Questions: “How do we view God’s Word for the personal ministry of the Word?”
- Life Questions: “What does it look like to live a whole life in a broken world? What is the purpose of life?”
- Counseling Questions: “What is the ultimate focus of wise and loving counseling in a broken world—what does help look like? How can gospel-centered counselors minister to saints who are facing suffering and fighting besetting sins—what does hope look like?”
- Life’s First Ultimate Question: “Where do we find wisdom for life in a broken world?”
3 Typical Approaches to Building a Model of Counseling
When dear folks like Ashley and Nate courageously share their raw concerns with people in the church, I’ve noticed that we tend to respond in one of three typical ways.
Approach #1: Refer
First, some refer. The stereotype goes something like this:
“I’m a committed Christian. I want to help you with your struggle. However, we have to understand that while the Bible provides insight for our ‘spiritual lives,’ God never intended that we use His Word to address ‘emotional and mental’ struggles. For relevant help for those issues, we need outside experts.”
There’s confidence in God, but with a corresponding conviction that for “non-spiritual issues” God’s Word is not the most appropriate resource.
Approach #2: Sprinkling
Second, some follow a sprinkling approach. The stereotype goes something like this:
“I’m a committed Christian. I want to help you with your struggles. To the insights I’ve gleaned from the world’s wisdom about your issue, I’ll add Christian concern, prayer, and some occasional biblical principles where they seem pertinent.”
There’s confidence in God’s Word as important in helping hurting people, but its application lacks an understanding of the vital, comprehensive, and robust nature of God’s Word for life in a broken world.
Approach #3: Concordance
Third, some follow the concordance approach. The stereotype goes something like this:
“I’m a committed Christian. I want to help you with your struggle. You have a problem. I’ll use my Bible concordance to find God’s answer.”
Some have called this the “one-problem, one-verse, one- solution” approach. There’s confidence in the Bible, but its application lacks an understanding of the complexity of life and the rich nature of God’s Word.
In each case, I have purposefully prefaced my comments with “the stereotype…” Life and counseling are infinitely more complex than three summary approaches can encapsulate. Further, it is not my intent to promote an “us against them,” or a “good guys/bad guys” mindset. Rather than accuse or antagonize, I hope to invite, encourage, and equip.
The Richness and Robustness of God’s Sufficient Word
Instead of just saying, “Don’t do it that way,” I desire to increase our confidence in God’s Word for life in a broken world and increase our competence in applying Christ’s changeless truth to change lives. I believe that we follow other approaches—like the refer, sprinkle, and concordance approaches—and turn to other sources because:
- No one has equipped us to understand the richness and robustness of God’s sufficient Word for life in a broken world—helping us to develop confidence in how we view the Bible for real life.
- No one has equipped us to apply God’s authoritative truth to life relevantly and relationally—helping us to develop the competence to use God’s Word for real life issues.
Approach #4: The Gospel Narrative Way
In this blog mini-series, I want to equip us to view and use the Bible in a “fourth way”—the gospel narrative way.
If we are to view the Bible accurately and use the Bible competently, then we must understand the Bible’s story the way God tells it.
In this blog mini-series, we’ll listen in as God tells His story and ours as the drama of redemption. It is a gospel narrative of relationship.
The Bible presents a grand narrative in which God is both the Author and the Hero, with the story climaxing in Christ. God begins by telling the story of relationship initiated in Genesis 1-2 and relationship rejected in Genesis 3. After those first three chapters, the rest of the Bible tells the story of God wooing us back to His holy and loving arms, all the while fighting the Evil One who wants to seduce us away from our first love.
Ever since Genesis 3, life is a battle for our love—the ageless question of who captures our heart—Christ or Satan. In Soul Physicians, I encapsulated all of life as a war and a wedding.[ii] Others have described it picturesquely as slay the dragon; marry the damsel. The Bible calls it “the gospel.”
Our counseling is sterile and dead if we see the Bible as an academic textbook. But if we view and use the Bible as the story—the gospel-centered drama—of the battle to win our hearts, then our one-another ministry comes alive.
To help you to grow in confidence and competence, to help you to handle God’s Word skillfully and artfully, I’ll follow Paul’s approach in Colossians. While he did not hesitant to caution people against being taken captive by false approaches (Colossians 2:4, 8), and while he did not hesitate to lovingly confront those who followed false approaches (Colossians 2:16-23), Paul emphasized the incomparable supremacy of Christ and the unparalleled sufficiency of Christianity.
Like Paul, we’ll focus on stirring up our confidence in:
- Christ’s gospel of grace (Colossians 1:3-23),
- Christ-dependent ministry (Colossians 1:24-2:2),
- Christ’s wisdom (Colossians 2:3-23),
- Our salvation and sanctification in Christ (Colossians 3:1-11), and
- The Body of Christ ministering the Word to one another (Colossians 3:13-4:18).
When people asked Paul, “Where do we turn for life wisdom among many fiercely competitive worldview options?” he responded with an infinite answer in one word: “Christ!”
The Rest of the Story
Join me for Part 2, as we explore and expose how often we are Looking for Answers in All the Wrong Places.
Join the Conversation
- Nate asked: “Can you help? Does the Bible offer any hope for my wife?” What would your initial responses be to Nate’s questions? What would be the basis for your initial answers?
- In our churches today, we tend to respond in one of three stereotypical ways when folks like Nate and Ashley approach us with real-life concerns. I labeled these the refer, sprinkle, or concordance approaches. Which of these do you tend to see most churches use? Why do you think that is? Which are you most tempted to use? Why do you think that is?
Notes
[i]I develop Ashley’s story and a biblical counseling response in Sexual Abuse: Beauty for Ashes.
[ii]Robert Kellemen, Soul Physicians.
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