The Future of Biblical Counseling, Part 6

Dream Number Five: Biblical Counseling Will Be Relational

In the future, the Trinitarian roots of our faith will blossom as biblical counselors will be known by their fruit—the fruit of compassion and passion. For all eternity the Trinity (John 1, 17), engages in an ongoing “dance” of mutual adoration and admiration. As the God of the Bible is the eternal Community of intimate Oneness, so biblical counselors will eschews aloofness in favor of what one African American friend describes as “real and raw counseling.”

While techniques, skills, and tools of competency will not be ignored, soul-to-soul relating will be emphasized. Like the Apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians 2:8, we will say to our spiritual friends, “I loved you so much that I gave you not only the Scriptures but my own soul as well.”

When put into practice, Trinitarian, Paul-like relational competencies will highlight neither directive nor non-directive counseling. Rather, they will birth collaborative counseling where the counselor, the counselee, and the Divine Counselor form a trialogical relationship. Biblical counselors will work together with their counselees, seeing them as mature believers capable of examining and applying the Bible directly to their own lives.