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).
6 6 6It 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,6D.6(2010).6The biblical counseling movement: History and
context.6New Growth Press.
