A Dozen Affirmations
1. We affirm that our modern movement has not arrived; our views are not perfected; our perspectives are not glorified.
2. We affirm the sufficiency of Scriptures, not the sufficiency of a modern movement.
3. We affirm and believe in change: our modern movement can and must keep growing in biblical wisdom and insight (semper reformanda).
4. We affirm and believe in being humbly open to the nouthetic confrontation of our modern movement.
5. We affirm that someone disagreeing with human founders of a human movement is not the same as disagreeing with Scripture.
6. We affirm that it is not heresy for someone to biblically disagree with our human interpretation of what makes biblical counseling truly biblical.
7. We affirm the value of church history: we assess our modern movement biblically and historically; the 2,000-year history of Christian pastoral care and counseling helps us to be church history-informed about what makes biblical counseling truly biblical.
8. We affirm that there is wisdom about counseling in a multitude of counselors: we invite others to mutually engage with our biblical interpretations of what makes biblical counseling truly biblical.
9. We affirm the biblical value of biblical counselors listening well to other biblical counselors: we believe that iron sharpens iron.
10. We affirm the value of collegial statements that summarize biblical counseling convictions (such as the Biblical Counseling Coalition Confessional Statement), yet, even these human documents, like the creeds of Christianity, are imperfect, but helpful, summaries that must be assessed scripturally.
11. We affirm that God’s Word equips God’s people to speak the truth in love so that as one-another ministers, pastoral soul care givers, and biblical counselors we will no longer be infants but we will grow up together in Christ, in love.
12. We affirm that Scripture is sufficient for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training the biblical counseling movement to progressively grow toward being more thoroughly equipped for the good work of the personal ministry of the Word.
I was in church from week 1 of my birth and have continued in my faith for almost 87 years. I never heard of Progressive Sanctification or Progressive Revelation until my graduate school.
I am happy to see your list of declarations and agree, I think, with all of them. However, over the years I have been shunned by many brothers and sisters for my ‘Low view of scripture’ due to integrating science and scripture and drinking wine, wearing a beard, leading inductive Bible studies unleashed from a Baptist Quarterly, praying for the sick, and gifted women in ministry.
I am very thankful for having a father who urged me to reject legalism and embrace grace.
Where the Spirit is there is liberty!