Biblical Counseling Must Be Contextualized to NewAudiences
The issue that Powlison (2010) addresses that I feel is most urgent at this
time is the expansion of biblical counseling to new audiences. I have
grown up in the church and live in the heart of Silicon Valley and most
people I encounter are either ministers or academics. The problem I see
arise time and time again, is there is very little common language
between the two. My undergrad is in Psychology from Rosemead, which is
an integrated theological program, and even there, there was virtually no
discussion of biblical counseling. In Acts 19:8-10, Paul is trying to teach in
the synagogue in Ephesus, but they opposed him, so he did not stop
teaching, he just changed his audience. If biblical counseling wants to be
relevant to the world of academia as well as to the minister, there is a
need to be able to bridge the gap and create a common language.
Powlison (2010) states that the same issues still face biblical counseling,
the need to create intellectual content and develop counseling methods.
Powlison (2010) also states that human motivation must be addressed,
the relationship between human responsibility and suffering needs clarity,
the roles of the counselor need more understanding and the roles
between biblical counseling and secular psychology need to be
understood. These issues all seem to be sub-categories of the problem I
believe is more prevalent. By expanding to new audiences with common
language and terms through the world of academia, these issues will be
resolved, studied, clarified, and written about in terms that the
mainstream audience will be able to consult. Peer-reviewed journal
articles is how the scientific world shares information, it is vital that the
biblical counseling movement utilize these resources to share the
“powerful and subtle explanatory power” (Powlison, 2010, p. 254).
This is what I believe Powlison (2010) refers to when he speaks of
“systematic biblical counseling” (p. 271). This means the church, or the
biblical counseling movement, needs to continue the hard work of
explaining the methods they are using and develop research that shows
effectiveness. In this way the INTEX model will continue to allow the gap
to be bridged by utilizing the scientific research model used in psychology
and applying it to the biblical counseling movement. James 1:5 states that
if we need wisdom, we can ask God to supply it. Wisdom also requires
discernment, so that we can understand what is from God and what is
from man (Ps. 119:125). The scientific method of research might be able
to help “define sources and criteria of significant and reliable knowledge”
(Powlison, 2010, p. 277).
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References
Powlison, D. (2010).=The biblical counseling movement: History and
context. New Growth Press.=
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