Buzz Words and Biblical Discernment
Recently, I was alerted to a public discussion in a Facebook group associated with nouthetic counseling. The thread began when a pastor shared a genuine concern.
“I don’t want to waste time reading or listening to unhelpful material, I’m always asking the question: “Is this an integrationist?”
A nouthetic biblical counseling leader responded twice in the thread. First, he shared,
“The buzz words I listen for these days are ‘holistic’ and ‘clinically-informed biblical counseling.’ I hope we can start a discussion about this on this page soon.”
He developed his thinking further in his second response.
He first noted the re-release of Jay Adams’s work Call to Discernment, and encouraged those in the group to read the book. Good counsel. He also shared that he did not want to tell people what to believe, but wanted to help people to think biblically/discerningly. Again, good counsel.
Then he once again noted his concern about buzz words.
“Please listen for words like clinically informed, and holistic. These words have meanings and implications. I would not use the word holistic to describe my counseling. This is not because I don’t care about the body. I certainly do. The term has baggage though. ACBC has always cared about the body.”
Biblical Discernment About Buzz Words
I’m always nervous when people start using “buzz words” to assess another person’s approach, or model, or theology. I am always wanting to allow people to be defined by their definitions, not by guilt-by-association because some may use a particular “buzz word” in a particular way.
Then I got to thinking, “I’m sure I’ve heard many very conservative nouthetic-biblical counselors use the word ‘holistic’ when it comes to biblical counseling.” So, I did a very quick check of the ACBC site by simply placing the word holistic into the search feature.
First, I stumbled across this fine statement by ACBC Executive Director, Dale Johnson, on our being holistic beings requiring holistic counseling.
“We can’t just reduce problems of humanity down to simply psychological issues or biological issues. We are holistic beings and we have to be able to incorporate the beauty of our image of God in man in how we think about human problems. It’s such a critical thing for us. So, we have to be cautious about premature diagnosis.”
Then I found a second podcast interview by Dr. Johnson, again on our being holistic beings who need holistic care, where he shared another insightful thought.
“Well, I appreciate the way that you’re helping us understand the dynamic in which the Bible speaks about our human experience and even acknowledges the lack of function in some ways, as we see biological degeneration, and the Bible’s not unaware of that. Like God’s not unaware of that in terms of our human condition. I mean, that is a byproduct of the fall of man. The sin of man, Paul in 2 Corinthians 4 talks about the body decaying in different aspects. And certainly, if we’re a holistic being as the body decays, there will be a lack of functioning on some level. But in the end, what we have to realize is that’s where eschatological hope points us in the Scripture, in the New Testament, that we long for the day when we’re not looking for something else to redeem us body and soul; we’re looking to Christ to accomplish that. And that’s the hope that we have even here.”
Then I found an ACBC conference message by Dr. Stuart Scott where he talked accurately about holistic care.
“Now, we want to look at ministering to an individual, the family, and also a church holistically—not in an eastern religion sense, but in the sense of giving to the individual and to the family all of the facts of the whole gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is what they all need.”
Beyond the ACBC site, I did a very quick Google search of “Holistic Biblical Counseling,” and found a wide diversity of usages of this concept. For example, here’s how Reformation Heritage Books describes Jay Adams’s first book, Competent to Counsel:
“Dr. Jay Adams defends the idea that the Bible itself, as God’s Word, provides all the principles needed for understanding and engaging in holistic counseling.”
And here’s the publisher’s official description of Jay Adams’s primary text on biblical counseling theology, More Than Redemption: A Theology of Christian Counseling.
“Jay E. Adams—vocal advocate of a strictly biblical approach to counseling and author of the highly influential book Competent to Counsel—firmly believes that the Bible itself provides all the principles needed for understanding and engaging in holistic counseling.”
My good friend, colleague in ministry, and ACBC Fellow, Dr. Kevin Carson, presented an excellent session at the ACBC Conference on “Developing a Holistic, Biblically-Faithful, Counseling Approach.”
Biblical counseling leader, Ed Welch, writing at Desiring God, shared this solidly biblical article entitled, “Counseling the Body: First Steps for Holistic Soul Care.”
I have more than a dozen additional examples (after just a quick search) of leading “conservative” biblical counselors using the “buzz word” of “holistic.” Perhaps it’s not such a good “buzz word” after all for discerning biblical counseling fidelity.
Imagined Rebuttal or Push-Back
I can imagine the rebuttal to my listing these comments about holistic nouthetic biblical counseling.
“But if you read these writers in context you’ll see that they are defining the word ‘holistic’ biblically!”
That is exactly my point.
Let’s beware of and be wary of “buzz-word-assessments.”
Please, let’s allow biblical counselors to define their terms in context—including the word “holistic” (as well as the term “trauma-informed”).
Let’s give people a gracious benefit of the doubt by reading what they actually say, without assuming that their use of a “buzz word” means they are engaged in “integration,” or “psycho-heresy,” or “syncretism” (the newest “buzz word” to accuse someone of being only a “so-called-biblical counselor”).
What’s My Interest in All This?
I’m sure that in my twenty-five books, over 2,500 blog posts, and over 150 published articles that I’ve used the word “holistic.” But it’s not a primary word for me. I tend to use words like “comprehensive” or “embodied-souls” when I’m talking about “holistic care for the whole person.” So, I’ve not taken this conversation personally.
But as a leader in the biblical counseling world, with forty years of ministry as a biblical counselor, pastor, seminary professor, conference speaker, and author, I do have an interest in our assessing one another fairly.
Sadly, we have a tendency to give those who are “in our camp,” a much greater benefit of the doubt than those we view as being “outside our camp.” It’s like my imagined push-back I mentioned above.
When a leader within your group uses “holistic,” the quick reply is, “but read them in context and see how they defined their term.”
When a leader outside your group uses “holistic,” the knee-jerk retort is, “there’s that buzz word again, beware of syncretism!”
An Historical Example
Jay Adams, the founder of the modern nouthetic biblical counseling movement, copiously read the works of secular behavioralist, O. Hobart Mowrer. Adams even spent six weeks, 24/7, learning under Mowrer in an intensive internship at a psychiatric inpatient unit. Adams also spoke of “recycling” and “recasting” secular psychology for nouthetic counseling. Yet, followers of Jay Adams adamantly deny that Adams in any way was an integrationist or was syncretistic.
On the other hand, if a biblical counselor “outside the camp” of other biblical counselors so much as reads a book on the impact of trauma on the body, such as The Body Keeps the Score, or researches evidenced-based counseling, then that biblical counselor is labeled syncretistic and integrationist.
Again, we tend to assume the best about those “within our camp,” and we assume the worst about those “outside our group.”
A Recent, More Personal Example
Recently I posted on my Facebook group (Gospel-Centered Biblical Counseling and Equipping) that I was beginning a Genesis to Revelation gospel-centered, Scripture-focused examination of traumatic-suffering, embodied-souls, and biblical soul care. Many people were excited and asked for any current resources I had.
One person was more skeptical, asking how I would avoid “eisegesis” where I read “trauma” into passages where that was not the main biblical theme. That’s a fair question. I addressed that question with the person in several ways, including by providing a link to a lengthy document on how I use the hermeneutical spiral to examine biblical counseling topics.
The person was still not persuaded.
I then did a copy/paste of someone “within their camp” who used almost identical language to me in describing their study of trauma. This other counselor had written, “the reader will find trauma from cover to cover in the Bible.” The person who questioned my Genesis to Revelation study then shared, “Well, this other person was using ‘cover to cover poetically’” and thus they are certainly not doing eisegesis.
I agree. Both of us were saying the same thing—we wanted to develop a Scripture-informed approach to understanding suffering.
What’s my point?
It is only natural for us to assume the best of people “in our camp,” and it much less natural to assume the best of those “outside our camp.” Perhaps we need supernatural help from God’s Spirit…
Perhaps even before we start the discernment process, we should humbly ask God to discern our own hearts and motivations.
Some Resources for Building and Discerning Comprehensive, Holistic Biblical Models of Biblical Counseling
I don’t enjoy disagreeing. I much prefer the positive ministry of equipping folks for doing truly biblical counseling. With that in mind, here are a few of the many resources that I’ve developed to help build and discern truly biblical models of biblical counseling—comprehensive, holistic models.
By the way, the nouthetic biblical counseling leader who posted on Facebook about “buzz words” also believes in providing resources to help people biblically discern biblical counseling approaches. I applaud that.
What I don’t recommend is a focus on “buzz words.”
What I do recommend and ask is that we humbly relate with grace to one another in our biblical counseling community.
What I do recommend and ask is that we humbly relate with grace to one another in our biblical counseling community—treating those “outside our camp” with the same fairness and balance as we treat those “inside our camp.”
