Biblical Counseling
His divine power has given us
everything we need for life and godliness through our
knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and
goodness (2 Peter 1:3).
In The
Crisis of Psychiatry and Religion, the former president
of the American Psychological Association O. Hobart
Mowrer, raised this penetrating question, "Has
Evangelical religion sold its birthright for a mess
of psychological pottage?" In 1970, Westminster
Seminary professor Jay Adams, in his landmark Competent
to Counsel conceded that it had, and spearheaded
a revival of biblical counseling. He saw that many of
the various problems counselees bring are essentially
spiritual, and therefore require a spiritual solution.
He perceived that many of our problems are not "mental
illness" requiring "therapy" as a secular
humanistic world view assumed, but rather sin requiring
redemption as a biblical world view implies. He saw
the Christian counselor's role as being an instrument
of the Holy Spirit and directive in applying biblical
solutions.
The Christian
Counseling and Education Foundation continues to
advance the biblical counseling movement through conferences,
counseling services, training, church support and publications
such as the Journal of Biblical Counseling.
Similarly, John C. Broger has continued
in the tradition biblical counseling with the comprehensive,
in-depth counseling and discipleship manual, Self
Confrontation. The related Biblical
Counseling Foundation is organized "to train
and equip members of the body of Christ to face the
challenge of living in a fallen world and to prepare
them to disciple/counsel others using the Bible as their
only authoritative source.
For more on Biblical Counseling, see
the IAM Ten Steps of Faith and
Obedience. These Ten Steps provide a way of applying
the Gospel in our lives through discipleship and counseling.
They are designed to be used in a small group setting
the way the AA 12 steps are used.
Useful Links
Power
to Change Excellent, inspiring stories of how people
have overcome all kinds of problems.
Celebrate
Recovery A good source of recovery information,
plus a listing of meetings.
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