Update on the Biblical Counseling Coalition (Guest Post by Pastor Rob Green)
Last week I posted about the meeting of the Biblical Counseling Coalition.
Today, we have a guest post about the BCC by Pastor Rob Green of Faith Baptist Church in Lafayette, Indiana. Read his original post at the Faith Biblical Counseling Ministry blog.
On December 5-6 a group of people interested in seeing a biblical counseling coalition met in Chicago in order to discuss the vision, goals, and next steps. I was given the privilege of attending and here are the “take-aways” from the weekend meeting.
# 1: There is a genuine desire to work together
I think it is fair to say that everyone in the room wants to see the groups that do biblical counseling work together so that the cause of Christ is advanced. There was a genuine commitment to the importance of the birth, life, death, burial, resurrection, and coming return of Jesus for all of challenges we face. The more time we spend talking about our agreements the more we will see a desire to work together for something great.
# 2: There is a genuine desire to speak to one another rather than about one another
I will never forget an assignment I was given in my Ph.D. program. I had to describe and critique one scholar’s understanding of how the NT authors use the OT. Here was the catch…we had to send our paper to our given scholar and give them an opportunity to comment on our work. That changed the way I wrote. It changed the amount of effort I gave to understanding his position and representing him fairly. After all, I wanted my given scholar to say that I represented him fairly. I think this same attitude will be found in the BCC as well. We may not all agree about every point, but the way we discuss those differences will be different. We will speak to one another rather than about one another.
# 3: There is a genuine desire to influence others
Several explained that sometimes biblical counseling has a bad name whether that is due to a bad experience or to a stereotype that may or may not be accurate. One thing that the biblical counseling coalition is seeking to do is to win back a voice in the ears of those who have written the whole idea off. It may be that God would use a new organization to help overcome some of the fears and hurts of the past and we would all seek to help people through a robust and comprehensive approach of using Scripture.
There were, of course, other things that happened in those two days. However, I think it is fair to say that the BCC is on the move. By God’s grace it will be a vehicle used to help people who are hurting to find rest, joy, and peace in a growing relationship with God and His people. You could continue to pray that goals and desires like the ones mentioned here would be used by God to help us all grow in the maturity of the faith.
Join the Conversation
Of Rob’s three “take-aways,” which one impacts you the most? How?
