The Context
In another post by the folks at First Baptist Jacksonville, this one by Sean Perron, Sean proclaimed,
“I am convinced we need a reset on the term biblical counseling.”
5 Reflections on Resetting the Definition of Biblical Counseling
Sean’s post and his exhortation that we “reset” the term “biblical counseling” got me thinking. Here are a few brief, quick reflections…
1. Who Get’s to Define Biblical Counseling?
Almost two years ago, I addressed this very issue here: Who Gets to Define Biblical Counseling? In this post, I suggested that:
- Modern discussions about the modern biblical counseling movement often neglect 1,950 years of church history.
- We act as if biblical counseling was started in the 1970s by one person in the United States.
My post links to an array of church history resources documenting the long history of biblical counseling—which pre-dates the modern nouthetic counseling movement by millennia.
Not surprisingly, when Sean supports his preferred definitions of biblical counseling he links to resources that highlight the past 50 years.
Please note, I am not against those youthful, fifty-year-old-or-less descriptions. I am simply emphasizing:
- Our potential historical ignorance if any of us, myself included, act as if biblical counseling arose within our lifetime.
- Our potential historical arrogance if any of us, myself included, act as if we can define biblical counseling apart from that great cloud of historical Christian witnesses from the past 2,000 years—as they built their definitions on the authoritative, sufficient Word of God.
G. K. Chesterton pictures this poetically and prophetically:
History and tradition are democracy extended through time. History gives “votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead.” It refuses to submit to the small and arrogant elite “who merely happen to be walking around.” (Chesterton, Orthodoxy, p. 3, emphasis added).
2. A Church History-Based Definition of Biblical Counseling
In Who Gets to Define Biblical Counseling? I collate Scriptures and church history to suggest this historical definition of the ancient art of soul care, one-another ministry, pastoral care and counseling—biblical counseling.
The personal ministry of the Word of sharing Scripture (the gospel) and soul (relationship in Christ) (1 Thessalonians 2:7-8) through speaking God’s truth in love with grace (Ephesians 4:15) to sustain, heal, reconcile, and guide saints who experience suffering and struggle against sin on their sanctification journey, as practiced by pastors through pastoral soul care and spiritual direction and as practiced by believers through one-another ministry.
So…if we are considering a “reset,” I would suggest the Scriptures as our foundation and two-thousand years of church history as a guidepost, rather than leaning primarily on the past fifty years.
3. A Collaborative, Comprehensive Definition of Biblical Counseling
If we want to “reset” or develop an agreed-upon definition of biblical counseling, I suggest the Biblical Counseling Coalition Confessional Statement. This document was produced over the course of ten months in 2010-2011, by over three dozen biblical counseling leaders from around the world who represented a cross-section of biblical counseling churches and para-church organizations. David Powlison did extensive work on this document. Here is the Biblical Counseling summary statement on what makes biblical counseling truly biblical:
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.
This statement summarizes a dozen statements developed from Scripture and church history.
4. One Person’s Contribution to an Interactive, Collaborative Discussion
Again, for emphasis, I do not think any one person or any one group should develop the exclusive definition of biblical counseling. At the same time, each of us ought to develop theologically-saturated, church history-informed convictions about what makes biblical counseling truly biblical. Here is my attempt to contribute one such statement.
As biblical counselors we seek to be:
Gospel-Centered, Theologically-Saturated, Relationship-Focused, Church History-Informed, Research-Aware Soul Physicians of Embodied-Souls
I develop and support this statement foundationally from Scripture and secondarily from church history in this document:
6 Biblical Counseling Convictions
5. Reset?
If we reset, then who is “we”?
Who gets to claim the mantle of the authority to reset what makes biblical counseling truly biblical?
Is resetting done by one individual?
Is resetting done by one group of individuals from one church or para-church organization in one city, or state, or country?
Or, is resetting done collaboratively by dozens of biblical counseling leaders from around the world representing major biblical counseling churches and para-church groups? (See the Biblical Counseling Coalition Confessional Statement)?
If we mean resetting historical biblical counseling, then, please, let’s look beyond just the past fifty years. Let’s focus on the 1,950 years that preceded the modern nouthetic movement.
If we mean resetting collaborative definitions of modern biblical counseling, then the Biblical Counseling Coalition Confessional Statement already accomplished that.
Summary for Clarity
In his article, Sean uses various words and phrases like “reset,” “mislabel,” and “genuine biblical counseling content.” Whichever word or phrase one uses, my point would be the same:
We need more than one person or one group from the last fifty years to reset the definition of biblical counseling, to correctly label biblical counseling, and to assess genuine biblical counseling content.
On Twitter/X, Sean publicly responded to my post. I responded to Sean on X, asking:
“Sean, would you agree or disagree with this summary?”
To determine biblical counseling orthodoxy, we need the collaborative wisdom of biblical counselors today, and we need the collaborative wisdom of 2000 years of the history of Christian soul care and biblical counseling.
