A Disturbance in the Modern Biblical Counseling Movement 

Obi-Wan Kenobi, of Star Wars fame, “felt a great disturbance in the Force” when he sensed the destruction of Alderaan. In recent months, I have “felt a great disturbance in the biblical counseling movement.”

A History of Conflict

Historically, it’s certainly nothing new for the modern nouthetic-biblical counseling movement to experience disturbance or tension. Here’s just a very brief summary to put the current situation into some historical perspective.

David Powlison, in his book, The Biblical Counseling Movement: History and Context (66-71), narrates the story of two famous, or infamous, attempts for early nouthetic leaders and early Christian integrative counselors to come to a meeting of the minds. Unfortunately, each meeting ended with more division than prior to the meetings.

Powlison further highlights tensions that existed in the 1980s-1990s within the biblical counseling family, describing these as “Internal Developments and Fault Lines in the Nouthetic Movement” (207). Included among these were disagreements related to: a behavioral focus or a heart/motivation focus, the interpretation of the nature of the “flesh” in biblical theology, and tenor and tone in interactions (207-291).

To sense something of the “family” tensions between “first generation” biblical counselors and “second generation” biblical counselors, see Donn Arms’s 2010 article, “A Note to Second Generation Counselors: Stop it!” In a similar inter-family squabble, in 2011, Donn Arms posted a scathing review of Heath Lambert’s The Biblical Counseling Movement After Adams. Arms even linked Lambert to secular Rogerian counseling.

“While Lambert believes these differences are the result of growth and maturity in the movement, a careful examination of Lambert’s evidence often reveals a departure from what is biblical and helpful and is a retreat back to the mindset of the pre-nouthetic Rogerian practices of our forefathers which Adams inveighed against over 40 years ago.”

The tensions within the biblical counseling movement were so pronounced in the early 2000s that one pastor declared at a major biblical counseling conference, “Can’t you all get along? Do I have to choose between the various biblical counseling groups?” It was this statement that prompted the launch of the Biblical Counseling Coalition—and it’s goal to promote collegial relationships where biblical counseling leaders talked to each other instead of talking about each other.

For an outline of Heath Lambert’s perspective on controversy and conflict within the biblical counseling movement in 2017, see Counseling and Controversy. For a personal depiction of conflict between a biblical counselor and a Christian psychologist, see Heath Lambert’s Clarifying and Confessing.

The Current Divisions 

In May 2024, Heath Lambert posted the first of a series of podcasts presenting his perspective on “The Current State of the Contemporary Biblical Counseling Movement.” That was his sub-title. His main title was more controversial: “Priests in the Garden, Zombies in the Wilderness, and Prophets on the Wall.” In these podcasts, Heath and his pastoral employees at Faith Baptist Church Jacksonville have called out by name several biblical counselors as “neo-integrationists,” “zombie-infected, “false priests.”

In addition to these posts, recent editions of ACBC’s Journal of Biblical Soul Care have called out biblical counselors as “neo-integrationists” or “integrationists,” and claimed some are “deviating from traditionally held positions regarding the adaptation of secular psychologies with Scripture…”

Also, a recent series of booklets by Shepherd Press, under the label of “Critical Issues,” with Ernie Baker as Consulting Editor, has called out various biblical counselors as “integrationists,” and said that they are frustrated with Scripture and fascinated with secular psychology.

Among those expressing their concerns about fellow biblical counselors are:

1. Heath Lambert and Sean Perron at First Baptist Church Jacksonville in their Summer of Sufficiency podcast series.
2. Ernie Baker, in his role as Consulting Editor at Shepherd Press.
3. Greg Gifford, in his role as General Editor of the Journal of Biblical Soul Care (JBSC), Francine Tan, in her article for the JBSC, Samuel Stephens in his article for the JBSC, and Ryan Thomas in his article for JBSC.
4. Dale Johnson, in his role as ACBC Executive Director, both through his podcast interviews and through his hosting of Heath Lambert at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in the “For the Church” series, on October 22, 2024.

Among those called out by these groups and publications are:

1. Biblical counseling faculty members at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary: Nate Brooks, Brad Hambrick, Kristin Kellen, and Sam Williams.
2. Association of Biblical Counselors President, Jeremy Lelek.
3. Long-time CCEF biblical counseling faculty member, author, and speaker, Ed Welch.
4. Long-time biblical counselor, Director of Counseling at McLean Bible Church, Eliza Huie, who holds certificates in biblical counseling from CCEF and ABC.

My Private Encouragement 

Privately, I have encouraged a number of the key players in the current conversations to interact privately and/or in a controlled group setting—face-to-face rather than blog-to-blog or podcast-to-podcast.

But Don’t Biblical Counselors Already Do This? 

Some may assume that because of the Biblical Counseling Coalition’s annual Leadership Summit, that the primary parties in these current conversations will be gathering soon for this year’s summit. However, most of the people addressing these issues are not a part of the Biblical Counseling Coalition. For example, in “Group A,” listed below, none of those nine individuals is listed by the Biblical Counseling Coalition as a Council Board member.

Many of the articles being published and the podcasts being produced have been occurring without any interaction between the people involved. Some private conversations are occurring among some individuals, which is great. But to date, sadly, that is the exception not the norm.

My Proposal: A Moderated, Face-to-Face Group Meeting—A Sharing of the Hearts and a Meeting of the Minds 

Here’s my recommendation:

I suggest a gathering of biblical counseling leaders for a moderated face-to-face meeting to discuss current  concerns and conflicts in the biblical counseling movement.

Who Might Participate? 

I would suggest three groups of people. Rather than give a label or name to the first two groups—which could be interpreted various ways—I’ll simply name them Group A and Group B.

Group A 

1. Heath Lambert
2. Sean Perron
3. Ernie Baker
4. Greg Gifford
5. Francine Tan
6. Samuel Stephens
7. Ryan Thomas
8. Dale Johnson
9. John Street: President of the Board of Trustees of the ACBC

Group B

1. Nate Brooks
2. Brad Hambrick
3. Kristin Kellen
4. Sam Williams
5. Jeremy Lelek
6. Ed Welch
7. Eliza Huie
8. John Henderson: Board of Directors, ABC
9. Alasdair Groves: Executive Director, CCEF

Then, I would suggest a third group. This group would consist of moderators or conciliators, who could facilitate the face-to-face discussions.

Group C: Moderatos, Facilitators, Conciliators

1. Al Mohler: President, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
2. Jason Allen: President, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
3. Daniel Akin: President, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.
4. Jeremy Pierre: Lawrence and Charlotte Hoover Professor of Biblical Counseling and Practical Theology; Dean, Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Ministry.
5. Curtis Solomon: Biblical Counseling Coalition Executive Director; Assistant Professor & Program Coordinator of Biblical Counseling at Boyce College.
6. Robert Jones: Professor of Biblical Counseling and Practical Theology at SBTS; Chair, Department of Biblical Counseling at SBTS.
7. Deepak Reju: Senior Pastor Ogletown Baptist Church; Board of Directors for the Biblical Counseling Coalition.
8. Betty-Anne Van Reese: Board of Directors for the Biblical Counseling Coalition; Board of Directors for the Canadian Biblical Counseling Coalition.
9. Paul Tripp: Biblical Counselor, Author, Speaker.

Of course, there are many qualified leaders who could represent this third group. The composition of this third group is simply suggestive of representative leaders who are connected to the schools and organizations associated with these discussions, and/or are biblical counseling leaders associated with significant biblical counseling organizations or schools, and/or are not only trained biblical counselors, but also trained conciliators.

What Would They All Do Together? 

The key word in this header is the last word—“together.” Instead of writing about each other; they look each other in the eye and speak to each other. Most of us can attest to the reality that it’s one thing to negatively label or characterize someone in writing; it’s a totally different matter to mischaracterize someone to their face in the presence of a group of people moderated by Christian leaders.

The specific agenda would be best determined by the three groups of people outlined above, with the final organizing of the meetings done by “Group C”: the conciliators. I might suggest two categories:

1. Relational Reconciliation
2. Humble, Mature Conversations

Relational Reconciliation: A Sharing of the Hearts

For relational reconciliation, many “models” might fit. However, the “4Gs” of Peacemaking could be one overarching way to organize this aspect of the face-to-face gathering.

1. G: Glorify God—“How can I please, honor, and glorify the Lord in this situation; in these interactions and conversations?”
2. G: Get the Log Out of My Own Eye—“What sinful specks or logs are in my own eye in this situation/relation? In my writings about this situation, have I sinned against God and my brothers/sisters in anyway? What confession do I want to make? Who might I need to ask forgiveness of?”
3. G: Gently Restore—Where any relationships have been broken by sin, a process of facilitated restoration could occur.
4. G: Go and Be Reconciled: Now people live out the reconciliation that has begun to occur.

Humble Mature Conversations: A Meeting of the Minds 

With at least the beginning of relational reconciliation, now group members can have “adult-to-adult,” face-to-face conversations about the theological and methodological issues central to the current concerns in our modern biblical counseling world.

Before we can even correctly characterize one another, we need to carefully listen to one another. Of all people, biblical counseling leaders should be humble listeners. Perhaps some prompting discussion questions could include:

• I’ve characterized you and your position in written or spoken form. I want to listen well to you. Have I mischaracterized or misunderstood your position in any way? Could you help me to better understand and more accurately characterize your position(s)?

As group members gain a more accurate understanding of each other’s biblical counseling positions, now they can engage in face-to-face, adult-to-adult, moderated discussions such as:

• Where can I humbly learn from your perspectives?
• What makes biblical counseling truly biblical?
• Scripturally, where are we drawing the boundary lines between acceptable and unacceptable perspectives on biblical counseling?
• Where can we “agree to disagree,” yet still see each other within the “boundaries” of true biblical counseling?
• If we leave these meetings and still have areas where we see each other outside the boundary lines of biblical counseling, how could we speak charitably, humbly, accurately, and truthfully about each other?
• Where does this leave us individually?
• Where does this leave the biblical counseling movement?
• What do we want to say about the results of these meetings to people who did not attend?
• In the future, before we write or speak about/against one another, do we have permission and encouragement to first clarify if we are characterizing each other accurately?
• What’s next…?

If it were up to me, I would not have any “presentations.” Rather than attendees sharing position papers they have written, I would suggest attendees share with each other in humble, gentle, interactive conversations. Moderators would take the lead in making sure everyone is heard—almost like a skilled family counselor…

My Role? 

I am “retired from making money, but not retired from ministering to people.” So, I have no “need” to attend this meeting. However, I would be open to attending—if it would be helpful. Because I have spoken into these issues publicly, if it would be beneficial, I am willing to attend and participate. If it might be unhelpful, I am willing not to attend. I would leave that up to the members of Group A, Group B, and Group C.