In Appendix 2, Powlison list six crucial issues in contemporary Biblical Counseling. In my
opinion, the issue which I consider being the most urgent/significant is the issue listed as
number one. The first issue listed describes how “counseling in the Christian church
continues to be significantly compromised by the secular assumptions and practices of our
cultures reigning psychologies and psychiatries” (Powlison, 2010, p. 241). The problem is
considered an old issue, yet continues to exist today (p. 241). Biblical counseling is an
expression of church life (p. 243). I have been told many times that counseling in the
church is not counseling, it is pastoral care. Although some Christians have credentials,
they too must recognize that their education and credentials have not prepared them to
cure and care for souls but for offering a different cure and care, different wisdom (p. 299).
There are often individuals that would like to know why an individual would pursue a degree
in Pastoral Counseling instead of secular counseling. "Secular psychologies remain major
competitors with the church" (p. 242). I have been asked, how can someone give someone
advice without a license to counsel, is there a possibility that you can get sued for giving
the wrong advice? Some people believe that only someone who studies mental or
behavioral patterns can give competent counsel. We must continue to advocate for biblical
counseling and its important role in transforming lives through the word of God. "Biblical
Counseling must continue to repudiate the notion of a counseling profession disconnected
both structurally and intellectually from the nurture, instruction, love, discipline authority, and
friendship of the body of Christ" (p. 242). Adams opposed the institutional and professional
arrangement of the mental health system and deplored the subordination of church and
pastor to the authority of psychiatry and psychotherapeutic establishment (p.97).
a a a a It appears that people place limits on biblical counseling and believe that no real change
can take place from counseling received within the church. “Some pastors have been
convinced that serious counseling was beyond them (p.97.) "When it comes to curing of
souls, the question for Christian mental health professionals, just as for Christians who
have ecclesiastical credentials and education, is: Do you think and practice in fidelity to the
mind of God?” (p. 299). The Bible is the basis for a Christian’s counseling because it deals
with the same issues that all counseling does, only biblical wise people should qualify to
counsel other people (pp. 100, 299). Adams wrote to give clientele confidence that they had
the goods on human nature, despite their lack of what the dominant cultural surround
deemed a prerequisite for that task (p. 97). The pressures that had a part in compressing
and shrinking the church’s counseling role were able to make headway because, even
though counseling by its nature was theological throughout and through, it had been carried
on in an unsystematic, atheological manner (p.97). The other issues listed are just as
valuable as the issue that I was most urgent/significant, because of the importance of the
role of the church, and its impact in transforming lives through the power of the Holy Spirit.
The first issue is our foundation, issues w, 3, 4, 5, and 6 builds on that foundation. (p. 243).
Adams believed that “the bible defined and exemplified a methodology for the cure of souls,
a methodology that complemented and implemented its interpretive system (p. 97). “The
first crucial issue restates where we have stood for the past twenty years, The five crucial
issues that follow are newer issues (p. 243).
Reference
Powlison, D. (2010). The biblical counseling movement: History and context. New
Growth Press.
