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Random Thoughts on Christian Counseling
Posted by Bowden McElroy in Church & Missions
There is no middle ground. I advertise myself as a Professional Christian Counselor. Professional in that I am licensed by the state, have received years of graduate and post-grad training, adhere to a code of ethics, and charge a fee for my services. When people discover what I do for a living they either love the idea of Christian counseling or hate it; rarely do I meet someone who occupies the murky gray middle.
Those who love the idea of Christian counseling view the field as worthwhile, helpful, and a much-needed alternative to a traditional, allegedly values-neutral, traces-its-history-to-Freud, approach to psychology. They see Christian counselors as having more time available and a greater expertise in helping people with serious problems than the typical overworked pastor of a church.
Those who hate the idea of Christian counseling tend to view the field as not-really-Christian, tainted by the philosophies of the world, and usurping the role of the local church. They’re often irate that money is exchanged: a real Christian would provide counseling for free. One of my favorite authors/speakers has the habit of referring to all that is wrong with our country as the “American therapeutic culture” or the “therapeutic ethos of American culture”: implying that mental health practitioners have ruined our society.
And that’s just on the side of the church. Non-Christian mental health professionals are equally divided. A few see Christian counseling as a useful tool for reaching a specific population within the larger culture. Most view Christian counselors as not real professionals: spouting aphorisms and telling people to read-two-verses-and-call-me-in-the-morning is neither professional nor therapeutic.
I have some of the same frustrations that many of my friends in the church have. If the church were being all that she should be, many of my clients would never actually be clients. Why, for example, am I doing so much marriage counseling? A couple within the church could serve as a marriage mentor to engaged couples. They could start by providing the premarital counseling and then continue the relationship after the wedding. Half of the marriage counseling I do would disappear if congregations really got behind the idea of marriage mentoring. Most couples I see want their marriage to work; they just don’t know how. An older, more experienced, godly couple would serve them better than any therapist or pastor.
Christian counseling is hard to define. At Christian Family Institute we’ve provided a brief description of what we think counseling from a Christ-centered perspective truly is:
(We believe) counselors are called to counsel. Counseling is not a profession unrelated to our faith. Just as ministers are called to the ministry, Christian counselors are called to the ministry of counseling. The scripture indicates that each Christian is given spiritual gifts for the purpose of ministry to the Body of Christ (I Cor. 12:7). For Christian counselors, spiritual gifts will be manifested in the style of counseling that the counselor provides.
As Christian counselors we recognize that all people have a need for Christ. As Christian counselors we also recognize that God’s Word is absolutely reliable and authoritative in all it speaks to, particularly matters of faith, lifestyle, and morality. Christian counselors derive their sense of morality from God’s absolute Word. In practice we are committed to loving all persons whether or not they are Christians.Human beings function and malfunction as a result of a complex and seamless interaction between biological, psychological, social, and spiritual forces. Malfunction in any one of these areas produces a ripple effect. If a person has a cavity in one tooth, the pain may radiate to many surrounding areas. So also do symptoms spread in any of the bio-psycho-social-spiritual dimensions.
As Christian counselors we also recognize the value of psychology, marriage and family therapy, counseling, psychiatry, and medicine. Persons who consult with us are often concerned about problems these disciplines may address. For one client the issues that bring them to counseling may be of a moral nature involving guilt and confusion. The next client that comes to us may be experiencing the consequences of sin in their life. The next person who comes may have been sinned against by others who were abusive and are attempting to recover from the damage that was done to their life. The next client who comes to counseling may be experiencing psychological symptoms related to a genetic or medical condition. As Christian counselors we depend on the Holy Spirit as well as our training in these disciplines in order to be effective in helping people with their concerns.This approach would be classified by Collins (1975) as a “Christian Professional” model. We would classify it as a “spoiling the Egyptians” approach according to the Crabb (1977) model.
What do you think? Any thoughts about Christian counseling? Do you, or does your church, provide counseling to members? Non-members? Has the process been formalized or is it part of the process of making disciples? Do you refer to professional counselors? How about it – do you think people like me are exercising our gifts in a god-honoring way or are we part of the problem?
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Nice post to begin the counseling discussion. As a student of biblical counseling and a pastor, I see well where this discussion needs to occur. I certainly hope that this will be beneficial without being nasty (I’ve seen a few of these discussions go that way in the end).
First let me say what I would happily affirm. There are many people in our churches who need extra time with pastors and/or other believers who are biblically equipped to help them with their struggles. Galatians 6:1 tells the mature to help those who have stumbled, and I would say that this applies in a multitude of areas. Thus I am not opposed to the concept of a counselor in the church, be that person a lay counselor or a person who derives his or her living from the field. I think that the folks at the Christian Counseling and Education Foundation have shown that a solid model of professional biblical counseling can be done.
I also want to affirm that there are medical causes and contributors to problems that we all have. It is necessary for pastors or Christian counselors to utilize solid medical professionals to make sure that those we counsel are not simply being impacted by simple hormonal problems such as thyroid issues.
I am, however, quite skeptical of the use of psychological techniques and explanations in the church. Like it or not, psychological theory is nearly impossible to separate from the underlying atheistic or humanistic philosophies of those who have put the theory together. Thus, as we use psychological theory in order to offer someone relief from his or her struggles, we run the risk of introducing them to ways of thinking and explaining themselves that are unbiblical and even perhaps anti-Christian. (Realize that I am not trying to sweep everyone into this compartment.)
When psychology is scientific, meaning that it is an analysis of human behaviors, it can be quite useful. The data that tells us that a person who experiences X responds 75% of the time with Y can be very helpful in understanding the kinds of temptations and struggles that the person will need to be prepared to avoid. However, if the psychologist goes onto tell us that the person who has experienced X must do Y (that the behavior is caused by something and therefore excusable even if it is sinful behavior), we as Christians cannot accept such answers. If the psychologist tells us that the reason that a person who has experienced X will often do Y is Z, we are almost always going to have to be skeptical because the psychologist who made this determination will have done so based on secular, evolutionary, humanistic theories of explaining human behavior.
So, here is the struggle for me: I can accept data from psychology when it stays very raw and does not try to tread into areas where the Bible speaks. This basically limits psychology’s usefulness to me to the field of behavioral statistic gathering. Perhaps some in the field of psychiatry can aid me in helping to better understand how our body chemistry impacts our thinking. But I cannot go with the psychologists in accepting almost any of their explanations of why people do what they do, what is right and wrong, or how our problems are to be solved. Instead, I need something more solid. It is in this area that I turn from psychology and find that God has provided us everything we need relating to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3-ff) and that his word is more solid and reliable than any of my experiences and understandings (2 Peter 1:19).
Thus, as a pastor, I would not refer a person to an outside counselor unless I was convinced that the counselor in question was committed to a model of biblical counseling that would use God’s word for the care of the soul. Like I said, we would not turn away from medicine completely, but the use of medication would need to be based on measurable data and not on guesswork as is so often the case with many meds prescribed for psychological problems.
You are in a good, much needed field. As A Teen, I used to read the works of Clyde Narramore, which helped, along with my church’s Biblical teaching to mold my life.
Also, while living in Ft. Lauderdale, I went to seminars with Billy Graham’s Son in law- Dr. T.
I am grateful for Christ Counselors, and psychologists.
May The Lord bless you.
Dr. Paul W. Foltz
Dr. Paul,
Thanks for the kind words. Clyde Narramore is considered by many to be one of the fathers of Christian counseling.
Travis,
One of the problems I have with this topic is that some people speak of “psychology” as if it were one unified, agreed upon field when it isn’t. There are basically five or six general schools of thought (dozens, if not hundreds, of sub-schools):
1)Freud and the various analytical psychotherapies.
2) Behaviorism
3) Humanistic approaches
4) Cognitive therapies/therapies
5) Biological theories
6) Family-systems/social-learning theories.
I think we can borrow useful concepts from the last three. The first three… not so much.
Good point re: psychology as a single field. I certainly see that some fields and their followers are more anti-Christian than others. I also know that there are wonderful believers who are part of the other disciplines.
I would be interested to think more with you on this topic. Can you give me someexamples of things we might borrow from the latter groups you mentioned that would benefit a Christian pastor or counselor? (Please don’t hear challenge here, but actual curiosity to hear your thoughts.)
By the way, I would also add to your reminder that psychology is not one single field that biblical counseling is also a quite varied field as well. From Eric Johnson, who desires to unite the integrationists and the BC only guys, to David Powlison and Paul Tripp, who seem more gentle toward some psychological theories while still turning away from most of them, to Jay Adams and the folks at NANC, who are more to the right still, to the Bobkins folks who have jumped right over the cliff–clearly, there are lots of folks on both sides who cannot be lumped together.
Anyway, give me some thoughts. Perhaps we can find a helpful common ground for all.
Bowden,
I agree that we all, as members of the Body of Christ, should be involved, to one extent or another, in counseling each other. I also believe it is good that some people, like yourself, get special training, and come to have special expertise in this area. And, we all have to make a living. If you are going to dedicate your time and your life to serving the Body of Christ in this area, then you are going to need some way to pay your expenses and support your family.
In one sense, I see Christian counseling clinics, and many other so-called “parachurch ministries,” as arms of the church at large in a given locality, or the “city church.” It would, perhaps, be good if the “city church,” as such, could take on responsibility to financially support these ministries. But, given the currently divided state of the Church, it would probably create more problems than it would solve. I suppose that, in the meantime, if local churches, or collectives of local churches, cannot individually support “professional counselors,” a viable alternative is for counselors to charge reasonable fees for their services. I would especially like to see churches, or collectives of churches, or the “city church,” do something, though, to help those who are unable to afford these services.
David,
A few years ago I started a satellite office about 60 miles away. We were invited in by the local SB Association to use their office a couple of times per week. It didn’t work out (60 miles was too close – people were just as willing to drive to Tulsa) but was an interesting concept. A friend of mine recently completed his M.A. in counseling from SWBTS: he’s a business man who doesn’t want to make a career change but wants to start a not-for-profit Christian counseling center.
Travis,
The Apostle Paul repeated told us to “take every thought captive”. Cognitive psychologists have broken this down into some very specific steps and call it “cognitive restructuring”. I find the cognitive approaches to be very compatible with a Christian world view. The difference between me and my secular brethren is that my definitions of “irrational thinking” or “false beliefs” come straight from God’s Word.
Much of the family systems thinking has to do with how we live in relation to one another and impact each other. (Psychology tends to focus on the individual, not on the family.) A lot of the communication theory comes from this and I believe these ideas, if not directly related to biblical principles, are at the very least neutral.
My view of counseling/therapy is that it is a specialized form of education. (I am definitely NOT one of the humanistic “and how do you feel about that” therapists.) Therefore, I tend to see Christian counseling as a specialized form of discipleship.
Brother Bowden,
God’s Word contains all the answers to every situation, either in principle, promise or precept.
I am glad to read,that God’s Word is used in your counseling.
Keep up the good work….
Dr. Paul W. Foltz
I cetainly believe in Christian counseling.
That is why I put so much of my time into trying to help David Rogers. But he is just sooooo stubborn. It is truly a burden at times.
Bowden, You are worth every penny you get and then some. Keep up the good work.
cb
P.S. Do you have any pointers I could use in helping David? I am scraping the bottom of the barrel for ideas.