Scripture and Counseling

Bob Kellemen, Jeff Forrey

• Publisher: Zondervan
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9780310516842
• Topic: Teologia e religione
• Subtopic: Ministro del culto cristiano

What role does Scripture play in counseling?

Today, we face a weakening of confidence in the Bible. This is just as true for the pastor offering counsel in his office as it is for the person in the pew talking with a struggling friend. We need to regain our confidence in God's living Word as sufficient to address the real-life issues we face today.

Scripture and Counseling will help you understand how the Bible equips us to grow in counseling competence as we use it to tackle the complex issues of life. Divided into two sections,

• Part One develops a robust biblical view of Scripture's sufficiency for "life and godliness" leading to increased confidence in God's Word.
• Part Two teaches how to use Scripture in the counseling process. This section demonstrates how a firm grasp of the sufficiency of Scripture leads to increased competence in the ancient art of personally ministering God's Word to others.

Part of the Biblical Counseling Coalition series, Scripture and Counseling brings you the wisdom of twenty ministry leaders who write so you can have confidence that God's Word is sufficient, necessary, and relevant to equip God's people to address the complex issues of life in a broken world.

It blends theological wisdom with practical expertise and is accessible to pastors, church leaders, counseling practitioners, and students, equipping them to minister the truth and power of God's word in the context of biblical counseling, soul care, spiritual direction, pastoral care, and small group facilitation.

PART 1

HOW WE VIEW THE BIBLE FOR LIFE IN A BROKEN WORLD

BOB KELLEMEN

In part 1 we want to assist you to develop a robust biblical view of Scripture for life and godliness — a biblical theology of Scripture for counseling. Throughout part 1, our authors demonstrate the “why” of Scripture for counseling, leading to increased confidence in God’s Word.

In the introduction, “The Preacher, the Counselor, and the Congregation,” the pastoral team of Kevin DeYoung and Pat Quinn develop the relationship between the pulpit ministry of the Word and the personal ministry of the Word. Kevin and Pat demonstrate how confidence and competence in God’s Word can and should saturate every aspect of ministry.

In chapter 1, “The Richness and Relevance of God’s Word,” Kevin Carson develops a foundational biblical theology of God’s Word for our lives. Kevin helps us to grasp what is at stake, understand the issues, and grow in our confidence in the Bible’s comprehensive relevance to life in a broken world.

Paul Tautges and Steve Viars in chapter 2, “Sufficient for Life and Godliness,” ask, “If Scripture is the lens through which we view the world, then how does that lens work?” Paul and Steve help us to understand more clearly how God’s Word thoroughly equips us for life and ministry.

In chapter 3, “Where Do We Find Truth?,” and chapter 4, “What Is Psychology?,” Jeffery Forrey takes us on a journey with several friends who ponder in-depth, real-life questions about the Bible, sources of truth, and the relationship between biblical counseling and psychology. In his two chapters, Jeff helps us to gain an increased wonder at God’s revelation — in creation and Scripture. And he helps us to see the importance of understanding the creature through the Creator.

In chapter 5, “Scripture Is Sufficient, but to Do What?,” Jeremy Pierre addresses the nature and purpose of Scripture. Jeremy helps us to grow in our confidence in the comprehensive relevancy and necessity of the Scriptures for building a model of people, problems, and change.

Robert Jones in chapter 6, “The Christ-Centeredness of Biblical Counseling,” demonstrates how counseling that flows from Scripture is focused on Christ. Robert reminds us that the purpose of Scripture-based counseling is to lead people to adore, commune with, become like, depend upon, and follow Jesus Christ.

In chapter 7, “A Counseling Primer from the Great Cloud of Witnesses,” Bob Kellemen traces the story of the relationship between the Bible and counseling throughout church history. Bob helps us to grow in appreciation of the historical legacy of confidence in God’s Word to change lives.

Sam Williams in chapter 8, “What about the Body?,” explores the implications of scriptural sufficiency given that we are embodied beings. Sam helps us to appreciate the complexity of the mind-body relationship and to think through a biblical theology of the body, of medication, and of mental illness.

In chapter 9, “Caution: Counseling Systems Are Belief Systems,” the team of Ernie Baker and Howard Eyrich share with readers the cautions that the apostle Paul shared with his readers in Colossians. Ernie and Howard help us to grow in discernment about the foundations upon which counseling systems are built.

In chapter 10, “The Bible Is Relevant for That?,” Bob Kellemen addresses how we view the Bible for life in a broken world. Using the issue of sexual abuse, Bob helps us to build a robust, comprehensive way of viewing the Bible in order to develop biblical approaches to life issues.

As you read each chapter in part 1, I encourage you to see them as part of a much larger whole. Though written by a dozen authors, the chapters weave together a story. As the outline contained above indicates, each chapter crafts a specific piece of the puzzle that it is working into place. No one chapter is attempting to say everything about issues related to the Bible’s rich sufficiency and robust relevancy for life in a broken world. However, taken together, it is our prayer that the combined chapters in Scripture and Counseling may offer you a mosaic of the Bible’s authority and necessity for daily life and relationships under the cross.

INTRODUCTION

THE PREACHER, THE COUNSELOR, AND THE CONGREGATION

KEVIN DEYOUNG AND PAT QUINN

At University Reformed Church, where we serve, one of the firm convictions is that the ministry of the preacher and the ministry of the counselor are not different kinds of ministry, but rather the same ministry given in different ways in different settings. Both are fundamentally, thoroughly, and unapologetically Word ministries. One may be more proclamation and monologue, and the other more conversational and dialogue, but the variation in approach and context does not undermine their shared belief in the power of the Word of God to do the work of God in the people of God. What shapes our understanding of pulpit ministry is a strong confidence in the necessity, sufficiency, authority, and relevance of God’s Word. The same confidence shapes our understanding of counseling ministry.

The Word of God is necessary. We cannot truly know God or know ourselves unless God speaks. While Christians can learn from the insights of those blessed by common grace and those with gifts of reason and observation, the care of souls requires revelation from the Maker of souls. We preach and we counsel from the Scriptures not simply because they help us see a few good insights, but because they are the spectacles through which we must see everything.

The Word of God is sufficient. All we need for life and godliness, for salvation and sanctification has been given to us in the Bible. This doesn’t mean the Scriptures tell us everything we need to know about everything or that there is a verse somewhere in the Bible that names all our problems. The Bible is not exhaustive. But it is enough. We don’t have to turn away from God’s Word when we get to the really hard and messy stuff of life. The Bible has something to say to the self-loathing, the self-destructive, and the self-absorbed. We do not need to be afraid to preach and counsel from the Word of God into the darkest places of the human heart.

The Word of God is authoritative. The Christ who is Lord exercises His lordship by means of His Word. To reject His Word is to reject Him. In a day filled with sermonettes for Christianettes, we must not forget that what most distinguished Jesus’ preaching from that of the scribes and Pharisees was His authority. The Word gives definitive claims, issues obligatory commands, and makes life-changing promises. All three must be announced with authority. This authority may be spoken in a loud voice or a soft whisper, in a prayer or in a personal note, with an outstretched finger or an open embrace. Authority is not dependent on personality or one’s position within the church building. Authority comes from God’s Word, and the counselor no less than the preacher must bring this authority to bear on all those encountered, especially on those who swear allegiance to Christ.

God’s Word is relevant. Terms change. Science changes. Our experiences change. But the human predicament does not change, the divine remedy does not change, and the truth does not change. This makes the Word of God eternally relevant. Whatever work we can accomplish in the church apart from the Word of God is not the work that matters most. When it comes to matters of heaven and hell, matters of sin and salvation, matters of brokenness and healing, we are powerless in ourselves to effect any of the good change we want to see. This is why we must rely on the unchanging Word of God. If Christ is relevant — and what Christian would dare say He is not — then we can never ignore what He has to say to us. There is less wisdom in our new techniques than we think and more power in God’s Word than we imagine.

A GOSPEL-TUNED TAG TEAM

I (Kevin) love the partnership in the Word that I share with Pat. It’s encouraging — and unfortunately rare in many churches — to know that what I preach on Sunday will be reinforced by our counseling ministry Monday through Saturday. I don’t have to worry that Pat will be working from a different foundation or pursuing a different cure. He’s far more gifted than I am at asking questions, assigning homework, leading Bible studies, and gently helping people apply the Word of God to their problems. But though he may be more skilled in his context, he doesn’t do anything substantially different from what I do in mine. He talks about faith, repentance, sin, salvation, the gospel, justification, lies, truth, forgiveness, promises, commands, communion with God, and union with Christ — all the same themes I expound from the pulpit week after week.

I’d like to think my preaching makes Pat’s counseling easier. He can build on what I teach, use what I preach, and remind people of last week’s sermons because when we both work from the Word, we end up saying the same things. I know I’ve become a better preacher knowing that Pat is such a good counselor. Hearing the questions he asks and the cases he’s working on helps me make sure that my message does not just aim for an announcement of truth, but also for the care of souls. It’s always more effective to preach with real people, real hurts, real struggles, and real temptations in view. Being involved in our counseling ministry forces me to think how this week’s text speaks to a teenager with same-sex attraction, or to an older man struggling with bitterness, or to a young couple with no hope for their marriage, or to a confused wife who can’t stand her husband. If my sermons don’t help with counseling, then I need to rework my approach to preaching. And if a church’s counseling is totally unlike, in substance and grounding, faithful expositional preaching, then that church’s counseling probably is something other than biblical. The preacher and the counselor working together, teaching the same truths from the same Bible to the same heart conditions, can be a powerfully gospel-tuned tag team.

THE PREACHER AND THE COUNSELOR

I (Pat) have been serving as director of counseling ministries at University Reformed Church since 2009. When Kevin became pastor in 2005, we discovered that we had a mutual love for biblical counseling, and this eventually led to creating a new staff position for me. I have had the privilege of serving with Kevin as an elder, worship leader, teacher, and counselor, and have benefited greatly from his leadership, preaching, and encouragement. Our shared vision for the ministry of the Word has made it a joy to serve together.

Shared Convictions

One of our shared convictions is a commitment to and confidence in the necessity, sufficiency, authority, and relevancy of Scripture for helping people work through suffering and sin issues in a way that glorifies God and brings spiritual growth — making disciples. Since one way of defining counseling is “remedial disciple making,” this mutual commitment allows us to work together in direct and indirect ways. In my counseling training material I explain:

While God speaks in many ways, He has spoken finally, decisively, and authoritatively through His Son Jesus Christ as recorded in the Scriptures (authority). While the Bible does not give an exhaustive list of all modern counseling problems and cures, it does provide a comprehensive way of looking at and addressing them (sufficiency and relevance). No other “word,” counseling model, or therapeutic technique can effect awakening to the reality of God, deep conviction of what is most deeply wrong with us, complete forgiveness and acceptance, death to the sinful nature, freedom to change, and hope of future perfection (necessity).¹

These shared convictions about Scripture allow us to be, as Kevin wrote, a gospel-tuned tag team to help people change. Here’s what this looked like in two counseling cases.

Tag-Team Stories²

The first story illustrates how the necessity, sufficiency, authority, and relevancy of Scripture worked with a modern psychiatric problem. The second relates how preacher and counselor worked together to help a troubled couple find grace to restore their marriage.

JAMES

James came for counseling a couple of years ago struggling with extreme obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The first time we met and I reached out to shake his hand, he asked me if I had washed my hands. In addition to this germophobia, James was wrestling with doubts about God and his salvation. As James and I continued to meet, it became increasingly clear that unprocessed sin from his past and the rejection from a recent breakup with a young woman were making him feel unclean, provoking his doubts, and fueling his OCD. This...