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).
c c c 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.
