A Paper by Nate Brooks, Tate Cockrell, Brad Hambrick, Kristin Kellen, and Sam Williams
On July 8, 2024, faculty members of the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary Biblical Counseling Department released the document:
Ten Commitments of Redemptive Counselors / Clinically-Informed Biblical Counselors
The purpose of their document was to describe the core convictions of Redemptive Counselors (RC), also known as Clinically-Informed Biblical Counselors (CIBC).
Today’s Post
In today’s post, I’m providing a “cut/paste” of their document minus:
- The Introduction
- The Footnotes
- The Conclusion
For the full document, go to:
Ten Commitments of Redemptive Counselors / Clinically-Informed Biblical Counselors
I’m providing this condensed version so that more people are aware of it, and will read all ten commitments.
In the cut/paste below, italicized areas have been italicized by me. They are areas that especially stood out to me as conveying central concepts of each of the ten points. Other than that, I am not making any comments on the ten commitments. Lord willing and time and energy allowing, I may do some posts in the future where I engaged with these ten commitments…
My Biblical Counseling Approach
I do not label my counseling “Redemptive Counseling” or “Clinically-Informed Biblical Counseling.” For my model of biblical counseling, see:
6 Biblical Counseling Convictions
Here’s my 16-word description of my model of biblical counseling. Biblical counselors are:
- Gospel-Centered
- Theologically-Saturated
- Relationship-Focused
- Church History-Informed
- Research-Aware
- Soul Physicians of Embodied-Souls
My 6 biblical counseling convictions have some overlap with and some differences from the 10 commitments of RC/CIBC.
For my current thoughts on clinically-informed biblical counseling and on non-clinically-informed biblical counseling, see:
Clinically-Informed Biblical Counseling: 3 Reflections and 2 Recommendations
Non-Clinically-Informed Biblical Counseling: 2 Reflections and 4 Recommendations
INC: Informed Nouthetic Counseling
The 10 Commitments of RC/CIBC by Nate Brooks, Tate Cockrell, Brad Hambrick, Kristin Kellen, and Sam Williams
1. On Scripture
The Bible is necessary, relevant, and authoritative for counseling. God describes His Word with a beautiful constellation of descriptions. The Bible is an illuminating lamp that points out hazards and helps along our path (Ps 119:105). It is able to transform fools into wise men and women (Ps 19:7). It is able to reveal to us our deepest motives and commitments which are often hidden otherwise (Heb 4:12). Memorizing its text helps us avoid staggering into ruin (Ps 119:11). It is our only source for knowing the good news of the gospel that we might be reconciled to God and given new hearts (Rom 10:14-15).
RC/CIBCers affirm that one of the purposes of the Bible is to address problems-in-living faced by human beings. In particular, God’s Word equips us to be conformed to the moral image of Christ (Rom 8:28-29; 1 John 3:1-3). Secular psychology can never serve as a replacement for biblical truth as God reveals in His Word: instruction, a divine perspective, and power—essential for change that cannot be discovered elsewhere.
2. On Sufficiency
The Bible is sufficient for counseling. This sufficiency is seen in two ways. First, the Bible gives us all the divine inerrant verbal information we need to understand our spiritual and moral condition, know our God, and be reconciled to Him. Nothing needs to be added to the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, as if the Bible was lacking.
Second, the Bible is sufficient to give us the wisdom necessary to live godly lives that represent God’s character and lead to human flourishing. To use language adopted from John Calvin, the Bible is a pair of spectacles that allow us to see the world through the eyes of God’s evaluation.7 RC/CIBCers therefore have everything necessary to evaluate common grace tools from every arena of life and establish their congruity or incongruity with God’s truth as the Holy Spirit leads God’s children in wisdom.
RC/CIBCers do not believe that the Bible’s sufficiency means that material outside of what is presented in the Scriptures is irrelevant or unimportant for counseling. To quote David Powlison, a “commitment to the sufficiency of Scripture does not hermetically seal the mind to all further input or interaction. Such commitment is a standpoint on the world, not a blindfold to the world.”8 RC/CIBCers are committed to receiving God’s manifold grace given through His Word, through natural revelation, and through common grace. All of these channels are ways that God is equipping humanity to follow Him. They are complementary and not competitive, and as counselors called to holistically care for human beings, ignoring any of them will lead to less helpful, and possibly harmful, counseling.
3. On the Use of Scripture in Counseling Practice
The Bible is not just the foundation for counseling but is to be woven throughout the DNA of the counseling process. This commitment distinguishes us from integrationism, which tends to describe the Bible as the foundation for counseling yet may only infrequently use biblical truths explicitly in counseling. One study of self-described integrationists uncovered that only 13% used the Bible explicitly in counseling and only 3% used it in “critical moments” in counseling.9
RC/CIBCers view such practice as withholding the very thing that was given to make humanity wise and give life (John 10:10; see commitment #1). The best counseling available to human beings will always involve the message of the Scriptures woven throughout. RC/CIBCers will use the biblical text by reading it from the page, by paraphrase, and by implicit ideas. RC/CIBCers affirm David Powlison’s words regarding his training at Westminster Theological Seminary:
“The theology and Bible courses were strikingly relevant to a young man who came with counseling questions and aspirations… Though most of the courses didn’t make ‘counseling applications’ in any detail, they were unmistakably about the ‘stuff’ counseling deals with.”10
When we say that the Bible is part of the DNA of counseling, we mean that Scriptural truths and principles govern and guide all truly Christian counseling. Counseling given by RC/CIBCers must conform to the moral imperatives of Scripture, which are given to humanity for its flourishing. At the same time, the manner in which Biblical truths are applied will vary, based upon the counselee’s spiritual maturity and the role of the counselor (i.e., friend, small group leader, pastor, lay counselor, or licensed professional). While nouthetic counseling tends to place the exposition of Scripture at the center of counseling and integrationism tends to explicitly use the text of Scripture infrequently in counseling, RC/CIBCers seek to ascertain what method of engagement is most helpful for the client at the moment, following wisdom and discernment given by the Holy Spirit.11
4. On Engagement with Secular Psychology
Tools and methods for counseling may be derived from secular approaches to psychology and can be helpful (which is different from being essential). These tools and methods enhance our ability to minister the truth of God’s Word into our clients’ life. These tools and methods are not a replacement for the truth of Scripture or used to inculcate worldliness into the hearts of our counselees. Rather, these tools and methods provide additional ways of engaging the human person that are not explicitly spoken of in the text of Scripture.
RC/CIBC diverges from nouthetic counseling on this point. Nouthetic counseling has historically affirmed that using extrabiblical knowledge in counseling is congruent with the sufficiency of Scripture due to the doctrine of common grace.12 However, nouthetic counseling has also drawn a border around the interventions emerging from secular psychology as being outside the bounds of what may be faithfully employed. This is due to the worldview-laden nature of therapeutic techniques.13
RC/CIBC affirms alongside nouthetic counselors that common grace allows for extrabiblical knowledge to be of significant value in counseling. However, we disagree that all methods emerging from secular psychotherapy are by necessity tainted by their worldview.14 RC/CIBCers draw a distinction between an approach’s worldview and its methods.
An illustration is helpful at this point. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) emerged from the work of Aaron T. Beck, Albert Ellis, and Donald Meichenbaum. The core tenet of CBT is that problems in emotions and behaviors exist downstream from thoughts. Therapy is therefore focused on changing thoughts.15 RC/CIBCers reject the view of humanity proposed by CBT, as its claims contradict Scripture. Adam and Eve partook of the fruit because it was “desirable.” James says our conflicts come from our desires (Jas 4:1-3). That same author later affirms “For the one who knows to do good and does not do it, he sins” (Jas 4:17). Biblical anthropology rules out the idea that human psychology is exclusively, or even primarily, thinking-centered.16 If anything, the Bible highlights the idea that our affections largely direct our thoughts. RC/CIBC therefore denies the truthfulness of CBT as a comprehensive explainer of humanity.
RC/CIBC affirms, however, that the strategies for thought change employed within CBT can provide assistance for counselors as they seek to help their counselees change their thinking. The Bible affirms that what we think about is important, both for righteousness and for our well-being. Scripture gives us some strategies for changing our thoughts (Phil 4:8): memorization of God’s Word (Ps 119:11), the use of mnemonic devices such as acrostics (Ps 25, 34, etc.), and biblical meditation (Ps 119:15). However, because the Bible was not written to be a comprehensive manual on every manner by which thoughts may be changed, observation and research may uncover for us additional strategies to effect lasting thought change, particularly when they do not contradict Scripture. Some empirically validated strategies have emerged out of CBT, which counselors may then employ to effect godly thought change by the power of the Holy Spirit who provided those tools through His common grace. We draw a distinction between the system as a whole (human beings are cognition-centric) and the tool (strategies for thought change).
In many ways, RC/CIBCers are merely following the pattern set forth by preaching pastors. Pastors typically preach with a clearly stated main idea and several numbered points designed to aid the congregation in retention. People remember outlines better than whole sermons, and so the preacher employs a rhetorical strategy derived from observation and secular speech theory to better assist his congregation’s hearing the Word and growth in sanctification despite there being no examples of enumerated sermon points within the Bible.17 RC/CIBCers likewise affirm that specific tools that emerge from secular psychological theories may be filled with biblical content and employed to advance sanctification in the life of their counselees.
5. On the Legitimacy of Working towards Civic Righteousness
RC/CIBCers work in the realms of both moral righteousness and civic righteousness. Christians often collapse these two forms of righteousness together in our daily talk, but they are different. Moral righteousness is more familiar to our ears – the righteousness that counts before God. This righteousness is both ultimate righteousness – that imparted to us by Christ, and the moral righteousness that comes out of our hearts in good works. Biblical counselors (both RC/CIBCers and nouthetic counselors) are in the business of growing moral righteousness.
Civic righteousness has received far less formal attention in many theological circles. John Frame describes civic righteousness as the possibility
to perform an act that is good for society, at least at the surface level, without being good… Some people contribute much to the well-being of society – by helping the poor, by becoming great artists, musicians, authors, and public servants, and in other ways – without a heart to serve God….Such people are ‘good for’ their communities. But it is also possible to speak of their actions as a partial moral goodness. Such social benefactors are depraved, according to Scripture, but since we don’t know the hearts of others it is difficult to know, or to show, in what ways they fail to measure up to God’s standards. In any case, partial moral goodness is not enough to please God.18
This righteousness is the righteousness that benefits a society and people in the society, without being of moral acceptance before God. A simple example is that all of us would rather have as our neighbor a kindly, unbelieving grandmother who showers the neighborhood with scratch baked apple pies rather than a war crime-committing dictator in exile. Neither are converted, yet one is more civically righteous than the other.
RC/CIBC affirms the validity of helping clients who are not interested in divine redemption and reconciliation [to] grow in civic righteousness. While we continue to hope for their redemption and look for moments of openness to explicit, gospel-focused conversations, helping a husband and wife stabilize and retreat from the cliff of divorce is a good thing, even if they remain unconverted. The closer human beings live to God’s standard, the better off their lives and the lives of all around them will be. Greater civic righteousness in that marriage means that children will be raised by parents who model a stable marriage with mutual honor for one another rather than suffer the trouble caused by being shuttled back and forth between parents who view their ex-spouse as an enemy.19 One of the Holy Spirit’s operations in this world is the promotion of good and the restraint of sinfulness; therefore, counselors who work towards the promotion of civic righteousness may rightly be described as doing the Lord’s work.20
6. On the Context of Counseling
RC/CIBCers work as a matter of calling in church-based counseling settings, private practice biblical counseling settings, and clinical counseling settings. These settings inform how a RC/CIBCer will live out their calling as an ambassador of Christ. Church and Christian settings allow for greater opportunities to be explicitly evangelistic. Clinical settings may curtail explicit evangelism, and yet civic righteousness being a product of the Spirit’s work validates care even when explicit evangelism is dependent upon the client’s receptivity.21
Christian teachers working in public education provide a helpful comparison to RC/CIBCers working in a clinical setting. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Prov 1:7), and every Christian teacher desires their students to be wise in the fullest sense of the term. However, education that provides students with knowledge, skills, and abilities that will serve them in their vocations and relationships is a function of God’s common grace and part of the Spirit’s work throughout all creation.22
RC/CIBCers are evangelistic in their counseling should clients be open to hearing of the good news of Jesus Christ. However, if someone is not interested, we are willing to use the more limited techniques afforded by clinical counseling, praying that their hearts will become open to further evangelistic opportunities. These techniques are always guided by the truth found in Scripture and employed to affect the greatest amount of good possible for the sake of the individual and society, especially in secular clinical settings.
7. On Terminology
RC/CIBCers use both biblical and clinical terminology to describe human trouble and recovery. This bilingual approach is neither out of a desire to curry favor with the world nor to blend into environments that do not share our commitments. Rather, RC/CIBCers understand that different spaces call for different language, the same as one would communicate differently with a medical doctor and a friend. Neither form of speech is “wrong,” but the appropriateness of the language is dictated by contexts.
David Powlison’s masterful article, “Is the Adonis Complex in Your Bible?” provides a helpful example of how biblical language is used to more deeply describe a phenomenon that is more often referred to in clinical terms.23 The term “Adonis Complex” accurately captures the presentation problem, yet it does not delve into the whys and wherefores of the heart. For this, biblical terminology provides a more robust understanding of what is occurring within this individual’s heart.
Psychological labels have a degree of utility, as they provide a common language to understand a person’s lived experience and provide a shared language for cooperation among helpers across different disciplines (e.g. medical personnel). The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) itself declares that it does not step into the realm of etiology, but only clinical descriptions.24 Many diagnoses such as generalized anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder are mere descriptions of symptoms. RC/CIBCers strongly discourage their counselees from adopting these labels as part of their personal identity, while also acknowledging they can correctly demarcate their lived experience.
RC/CIBCers differentiate between labels that are primarily moral in nature, such as narcissistic personality disorder, and those that the best scientific research indicates are likely a result of biological aberrations, such as autism spectrum disorder, bipolar disorder, dyslexia, and schizophrenia. These labels indicate troubles that tend to be fixed aspects of a person’s physical being.
8. On Care for the Body and Soul
RC/CIBC affirms that all people are both body and soul, with both our material and immaterial substances broken by sin and troubled by the effects of the fall. We share these commitments with both integrationists and nouthetic counselors. We affirm that the soul is the primary locus of human personality, and that the body cannot compel the soul to sin.
Our evaluation of nouthetic counseling is that its emphasis on biblical exposition and skepticism towards employing secular psychological research and interventions leads nouthetic counselors to minimize or ignore care for the body while caring for the soul.25 RC/CIBC does not elevate the body over the soul, but rather holds to a holistic approach to counseling that sees the body and soul as inextricably linked and the workings of the body as widely observable.
These differing commitments lead RC/CIBCers and nouthetic counselors to largely take different approaches to trauma care and healing. Nouthetic counselors reject the language of being “trauma-informed” arguing instead that the doctrine of biblical sufficiency makes biologically targeted interventions unnecessary or unhelpful.26 Conversely, RC/CIBCers understand the interplay of soul and body to require counseling that holistically addresses the human person.27 This two-way relationship between body and soul means that physiological trauma responses are not merely derivative of soul-centric troubles. Put another way, both the body and the soul keep the score. Thus, interventions that address bodily responses to traumatic triggers can be faithful expressions of genuinely Christian counseling.
9. On Learning
RC/CIBCers desire to learn from counselors to our north and to our south. (We use these terms because “left and right” tend to carry political and theological baggage.) We believe that integrationists can offer good counsel, and we believe that nouthetic counselors can offer good counsel. We believe that integrationists stop short of offering the best counseling available by relying too heavily on psychological tools and too lightly on the application of the biblical text into counseling. We believe that nouthetic counselors rely too exclusively on biblical exposition, leading them to focus predominantly on the moral elements of their clients’ struggles, often to the neglect of addressing the suffering dimension of a counselee’s hardship. However, we believe that God can and does use imperfect counseling – including imperfect counseling offered by RC/CIBCers – to affect heart change in His people, just as God uses theologically imperfect denominations and traditions to care well for His children.
10. On Ethos
RC/CIBCers view both integrationists and nouthetic counselors as brothers and sisters in the Lord who do much good. We celebrate one another’s successes and rejoice in the many truths that we hold in common. We aim to have our relationship to these two neighbors be like that of a friendly bond between like-minded Baptist and Presbyterian churches in the same city. We respect each other’s convictions, engage in healthy conversation, and seek to minister in our lane without making others’ lanes more difficult.
