Soul Rest Today from Ancient Soul Care Givers
God tells us in Jeremiah 6:16 to,
“Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.”
It’s fascinating that we find rest for our souls in the ancient paths of soul care.
This reminds us of the New Testament truth from Hebrews 12:1 about the “great cloud of witnesses” who teach us how to “run with perseverance the race set out before us.” We find spiritual direction, wisdom, strength, motivation, and encouragement from Christ-followers who have gone before us.
Your Free Resource
In the spirit of Jeremiah 6:16 and Hebrews 12:1, I’ve produced a free forty-eight-page PDF resource based on an eight-part RPM Ministries Truth & Love blog mini-series:
The Ancient Paths of Christian Soul Care: Timeless Truth for Our Changing Times.
In this free resource:
- We examine ancient, historical Christian pastoral soul care to see what the 50-year-young modern nouthetic biblical counseling movement can learn from the ancient paths of 2,000 years of church history.
Table of Contents
Here’s what you’ll find in this eight-part series on the ancient paths of Christian soul care (note: in this free PDF resource, I rearranged the order of the original posts):
- What Is “Historic,” “Classic” Biblical Counseling? In Part 1, I ask and answer a series of questions. How do we date the beginning of “biblical counseling”? When did “biblical counseling” begin? What’s the birthdate of “biblical counseling”? What is “historic,” “classic” biblical counseling?
- What Can Modern Biblical Counselors Learn from Historical Soul Care? In Part 2, we learned how the wisdom from the ancient paths (Jeremiah 6:16) of historical Christian pastoral care offers us a template for compassionate, comprehensive care and counseling.
- Lingering in Lament: Life Lessons from Church History. In Part 3, we learn that it is theological, biblical, and historical to patiently, relationally engage counselees in their earthly laments and to empathetically enter their painful emotions. This is psalm-like biblical counseling.
- Modern Biblical Counseling Is a Shrunken Version of Historical Pastoral Care. In Part 4, we learn that biblical counseling shrinks when we think like shrinks! Historical pastoral care grows our vision for comprehensive, compassionate ministry as we think and act like the Good Shepherd.
- Star Wars, Star Trek, and Biblical Counseling: 4 Generations of Biblical Counselors. In Part 5, we ask, “Have you done one of those genealogy DNA tests yet?” I’ve done two. Fascinating what I’ve learned about my lineage. We also ask, “What’s your biblical counseling lineage, DNA, genealogy? What stream do you trace your biblical counseling to?” Of course, any and all biblical counselors first answer this question with, “I trace my biblical counseling to the Bible!” Agreed. Then, humanly speaking, are there others in the body of Christ who have influenced your approach to biblical counseling? Are you a 1stgeneration Jay Adams nouthetic counselor? Are you a 2nd generation David Powlison biblical counselor? Are you a 3rd generation more recently and diversely trained biblical counselor? Are you a prequel/before/historical predecessor biblical counselor tracing your lineage beyond and before America in the 1960s?
- 2 Ways of Thinking About Our Biblical Counseling Identity: Lineage of Training and Line of Thinking. In Part 6, I introduce two different ways of thinking about our biblical counseling identity. One is historical—our lineage of training. The other is theological—our line of thinking.
- 18 Resources on the History of Pastoral Counseling, Soul Care, and Biblical Counseling. In Part 7, I introduce you to “the democracy of the dead”—to past voices speaking to us today, by providing links to and summaries of resources on the history of Christian soul care.
- 3 Books on Biblical Counseling in Church History: A Treasure Hunt. In Part 8, I tell the story of my history with church history. I also introduce you to my published writings on the history of soul care.
My History with Church History
In 6 Biblical Counseling Convictions, I describe my approach to biblical counseling as:
- Gospel-Centered/Christ-Centered, Theologically-Saturated, Relationship-Focused, Church History-Informed, Research-Aware Soul Physicians of Embodied-Souls
I’ve not found many people who include “church history-informed” among their primary convictions about biblical counseling. What is my history with church history?
When I was in seminary in the 1980s, open warfare broke out over competing counseling models. During these debates, I was struck by the fact that no one was using church history as a guide to assess modern church counseling approaches. I kept thinking:
“Surely the church has always been about the business of helping hurting and hardened people to find hope and healing in Christ!”
So I started reading everything I could find (this was before Google and Amazon) on the history of soul care. For the past 40 years—that’s a whole generation—I’ve continued that study of church history. For over a quarter-century, I taught a course on The History of Christian Soul Care. I wrote my Ph.D. dissertation on the history of Martin Luther’s spiritual care. I’ve written three books on the history of Christian soul care.
Sure enough, I have been able to learn a great deal about what makes biblical counseling truly biblical and what makes Christian counseling truly Christian by learning from that great cloud of historical witnesses—Christians who have been counseling one another for the past 2,000 years. That’s why I believe in being church history-informed.
Church History-Informed Biblical Counseling
Studying church history exposes our modern blind spots and our arrogant assumption that somehow we alone have cornered the market on understanding and applying God’s truth. G. K. Chesterton said it poetically.
“Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes—our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking around.”
History teaches. History humbles.
What might the modern biblical counseling movement learn from ancient soul care? How might the modern biblical counseling movement benefit if we returned to the history of Christian pastoral care and counseling?
- Wisdom from the ancient paths (Jeremiah 6:16) of historical Christian pastoral soul care offers us a template for compassionate, comprehensive care and counseling today.
- Historical pastoral care provides a multi-dimensional model of comprehensive, compassionate care. Understanding the history of pastoral care helps us avoid one-dimensional approaches to biblical care and counseling.
- Historical pastoral care models how to provide shepherding care for saints who suffer in our sinful world and who struggle against sin on our sanctification journey.
- Historical pastoral care and counseling has always comprehensively engaged the whole body of Christ in helping the whole person in their whole life. Modern biblical counseling is just one aspect of historical pastoral care. Historical pastoral care grows our vision for comprehensive ministry as we think and minister like the Good Shepherd.
Learning from the Great Cloud of Historical Witnesses
Our modern nouthetic biblical counseling movement is a fifty-year young approach to people-helping. After over four decades of primary source reading and research in church history—specifically the history of Christian soul care—I am more convinced than ever that we have much to learn from that great cloud of historical witnesses who have gone before us.
A movement seeking to build upon the sufficiency of Scripture seems sometimes to insist upon the sufficiency of the modern nouthetic biblical counseling movement. Divergences from the tenants of modern nouthetic biblical counseling are treated as if they are divergences from God’s Word.
Being church history-informed is catalytic. Studying how the Church has comprehensively and compassionately ministered to one another for 2,000 years provides corrective lenses to examine our modern eyesight and expose our modern misperceptions.
It seems fitting to paraphrase G. K. Chesterton, applying his classic quote to our modern nouthetic biblical counseling movement.
The history of Christian soul care is democracy extended through time. Church history-informed soul care gives votes to the most obscure of all classes—our spiritual ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead—not living dead zombies, but spiritually resurrected believers from church history.
Historical soul care refuses to submit to the minority view of modernity who merely happen to be walking around today. Instead, church history-informed biblical counseling uses the old eyes, but clear vision, of ancient Christian soul care givers to broaden, deepen, and enrich our fifty-year-young nouthetic biblical counseling movement.
Enjoy!
Enjoy your free PDF resource here:
The Ancient Paths of Christian Soul Care: Timeless Truth for Our Changing Times.
