Please open your Bibles to Ephesians 4 this evening. This evening's study is going to be a little different than what we're accustomed to as we consider a topic, a current trend in light of Scripture. And the title for the study this evening is Scripture and the Biblical Counseling Movement. Scripture and the Biblical Counseling Movement. So I want to begin this evening by reading a few passages of Scripture that talk about the body life in the church. These are from the epistles, so the apostles are writing to local churches and giving them instructions about what it looks like to be a church and how we're to grow together in the Lord. So the passages that we're about to read again are just outlining that. We're going to frame our discussion this evening with these passages. So Ephesians 4, and beginning in verse 11, after Paul has told the Ephesians that Every believer is given a grace gift according to the measure of his gift. In verse 11, he begins to fill this out for the church, and he says, He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for the building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may be no longer children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the Head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. And then turn over to 1 Thessalonians 5. 1 Thessalonians 5. And look at verse 12. As Paul begins his final exhortations to the church in Thessalonica, he'll exhort them how to posture themselves toward their leaders, and then also in how to interact with one another. And this is what he says in verse 12. We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another And to everyone, it goes on with some general instructions, "...rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit, do not despise prophecies, but test everything. Hold fast to what is good, abstain from every form of evil." One of the things we're doing tonight is testing everything. And then one last passage in 2 Timothy chapter 2. These are simply representative passages. There's many, many others that delineate similar truth. But 2 Timothy 2, beginning in verse 22, these are instructions Paul gives specifically to Timothy, pastorally, in helping people who are entangled in sin, and he says this, So flee youthful passions, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies. You know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth. And they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will. It's a sobering passage in many respects, and one thing I point out almost every time I read this passage is that repentance is a gift from God. And so when the Word of the Lord The Spirit of God is working to lead you to repentance. Do not put that off. You cannot generate repentance at will. It is a gift from the Lord." Well, again, these passages frame our discussion because they teach us that Christ has established the church, He's given offices to the church, and He intends that the body of Christ, the members of the church, grow up in maturity to interact with one another, to contribute to the well-being of the church, a well-being that includes exhorting and admonishing one another at times, encouraging one another, and also the reality that there are times when believers are ensnared and need direct, yet patient, admonition to repentance to escape the snare of the devil. What they've been ensnared by is not something to be lightly considered. It is the snare of the devil. And this is the instruction that the Lord gives us in His Word. So our purpose tonight isn't to exposit these passages again, but just to set the framework for understanding what we're talking about here when we're talking about Scripture and the biblical counseling movement. So we've looked at some scriptures that tell us how to interact with one another, and we want to consider this biblical counseling movement in light of those passages. Now before I get into some of the material I have here this evening, just a couple preliminary remarks about my personal exposure to the biblical counseling movement. Back in, I think it was my junior year of high school, My family left the Church of the Nazarene, where we'd been all my life up to that point, and we left because they had compromised on the inerrancy of Scripture, among other things. And we found a little Bible church in central Indiana and started attending there, and that was where I was first introduced to expository preaching, and I was also first introduced to biblical counseling. Our pastor there was a gifted expositor, and he was also a certified National Association of New Thetic Counselors counselor. And so for the last 30 years, I guess, I've had some exposure to the biblical counseling movement, and when I went to college and then on through grad school and worked at the university as an administrator, essentially the ministry atmosphere of that particular Christian institution was biblical counseling. I mean, you kind of took it for granted. It was like the air you breathed. classes, the way we did ministry, the way we ministered in the dorms to the students. We had multiple counselors in each dorm that were usually graduate assistants. And then within the administration and student life, we handled a lot of counseling as students would come from a variety of backgrounds. And as you can imagine, have a number of things that they were working through. And so as we're talking about this biblical counseling movement, it's not something that I've looked at just as a movement separate even from my own experience, and even in the reading preparation that I did on the movement, it was like reading part of my biography of the last 30 years and the development of how things have taken off, I guess you could say, in the biblical counseling movement. And the transition in my own thinking about the biblical counseling movement happened as over the last 12 years, I guess now. Hard to believe it's been that long. I've been in pastoral ministry in a local church setting. So again, those were just some preliminary marks so you can kind of have an idea of my perspective and my interaction over the years with this particular movement. But the way I'm going to frame our discussion this evening is just by raising some questions and then answering them. And I hope they're questions that you might be asking. And after we conclude this evening, and if you have other questions, and if it raises other questions, you're welcome to send me an email and ask those questions. It's something we'll also be looking at next week also. And so I invite your feedback as well. So the first question I want to raise this evening is why are we talking about this? Why are we talking about this? And the simple answer is that the biblical counseling movement is an influencing current within conservative evangelical Christianity. And I choose all of those words carefully. It's an influencing current in conservative evangelical Christianity. And what happens is you go in ministry, you see that there are currents, like a river has different currents, and a wise river guide says, okay, where is this current going? It's part of the river we're in, but if we get into a different flow or if we get into a different current, that could be disastrous. Okay, so we're looking at something that's fairly closely related to us. It's a current within our culture. It's a current in conservative evangelicalism. So, we're not talking about modern psychology. We're not talking about psychoanalysis, Freudian approach. We're not talking about behaviorism, the Skinner approach. We're not talking about humanism, the Rogers approach. All of those theories of secular psychology that are based in secular thinking and for Christians are kind of a moot point. We discard those out of hand. We're also not talking about the broader evangelical attempt to integrate psychology into Christian ministry. So there's attempts where people say, okay, well some of this secular thinking has bearing and we want to take the ideas of Christianity and the ideas of Freud and put them together. If you know anything about Freud, it's sickening. It's like saying, you know, let's take a little bit of evolution and a little bit of creationism. They don't work together. But we're not talking about that, okay? We're assuming that that is also something we set aside. The James Dobsons, the Minereth Myers, all of those integrationists, we're not talking about that. We're raising questions, though, about the biblical counseling movement that need to be considered by the local church. Questions like, is biblical counseling ministry necessary for believers to grow, to mature, to be built up in Christ? Is the effectiveness of the church in 2024 dependent on having credentialed biblical counselors? Okay, and those are questions that are prevalent within conservative evangelical Christianity. So again, we're talking about an influencing current within conservative evangelical Christianity. Question number two. What is the Biblical Counseling Movement? What is the Biblical Counseling Movement? And that title, Biblical Counseling Movement, is not something that I came up with. It's a label that the movement uses itself. For example, one of the late influencers in the movement, David Powlison, wrote a book called The Biblical Counseling Movement. History and Context, and it was a publication of his dissertation following the movement as a whole. And also, if you look at various counseling philosophy statements at different educational institutions, you will find that they refer to this as a movement, the biblical counseling movement. So, what is the biblical counseling movement? Well, right now, at this time, this is the way I would describe it. It's a movement that seeks to produce credentialed counselors to contribute to and supplement the ministry of the local church. A movement that seeks to produce credentialed counselors, that's important, credentialed counselors to contribute to and supplement the ministry of the local church. And within that, there's a spectrum. So you'll have some people that, you know, go to a university and they get advanced degrees in biblical counseling, and they'll set up a private practice. a private practice of biblical counseling. That's one side of the spectrum. The other side of the spectrum are those that do work hard to remain related to the local church. So there's an understanding, even today, of the relationship of the local church and the importance of the local church to biblical counseling, and pretty much any biblical counseling institution or parachurch organization that you come across will acknowledge the necessity of the local church and their desire to supplement and help the local church with what they are doing. And the idea of credentialing You know, what is a credentialed biblical counselor? Well, biblical counseling credentialing takes place through parachurch organizations like the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors, ACBC. That was a change from the former NANC, National Association of New Thetic Counselors. So you have these parachurch organizations and they provide a course of study, different elements of accountability so that counselors can be certified. And then another track, if you will, towards certification is through programs at Christian colleges and universities. And those programs, you know, span from bachelor's in science degrees through multiple stages of graduate work up through Ph.D.' 's work in biblical counseling. So that's a summary of the current...a current description of the biblical counseling movement. You know, as we go through things this evening, you know, I'm not going to be exhaustive. That's not the intent of tonight. The intent of tonight is mainly to introduce you to the movement and to establish our view of the movement in general. So I'm compressing a lot of things into these statements and doing that intentionally. So again, the current status is a movement that seeks to produce credentialed counselors to contribute to and supplement the ministry of the local church. Well, how did it get to this point? What's the historic progression of the biblical counseling movement? Well, simply stated, just to put it in as concise form as I can, the biblical counseling movement is a 50-year-old movement, approximately 50-year-old movement, initiated by a man named Jay Adams. Jay Adams is the father of biblical counseling. He's passed away now, but he was a forceful personality in seeking to equip pastors to counsel their people instead of farming them out to professional psychologists. And that was good, right? He had a very noble and good goal as he set out to reclaim counseling from the professional environs of psychology and integrated psychology. He understood that soul care belonged to the church. and that pastors should be the primary people to help those who are dealing and struggling with sin and dealing and struggling with issues that are related to suffering and trial and all of the other things that are often associated with counseling. And so again, just I'm compressing that, that was his goal. He wanted pastors to be able to counsel their people and to not be afraid of problems in a way that would cause them to outsource their people to secular psychology. And so he stood against the integration of psychology into broader Christian practice. He was invited, actually, to a psychology department at Talbot Seminary. And I believe this was in 1979. And just to kind of give you an idea of the forcefulness of his character, he began his speech by saying, this department has no reason to exist. And he preached that very boldly, that God's Word is sufficient, and that God has established the church for the care of souls. So he stood very strongly against psychology and against the integration of psychological doctrine into Christian practice. He recognized the priority of the church and he recognized that God's Word is sufficient. He recognized that the power of the Holy Spirit is given to us to change us more and more to the image of Jesus Christ. Over time, you know, remember I said it's about a 50-year-old movement. Well, over time, as some of Adam's philosophy and the practice of biblical counseling gained traction in a fairly wide national context, Much of Adam's local church emphasis was overshadowed by parachurch credentialing agencies. And again, this is something that the biblical counseling movement itself recognizes. There was a shift in the biblical counseling movement, and a lot of that shift was from Adam's approach that counseling belongs primarily to pastors and to local churches, to creating parachurch credentialing agencies. And so what that's led to then today is this robust offering of counseling programs in Christian universities. And I just wanna give you a description, a read, a description of what one very conservative Christian university says about their graduate certificate of counseling. So graduate certificate means you have to finish your bachelor's of arts, but you're not in a master's program. All right, so this is the course description for a graduate certificate in biblical counseling. A graduate certificate in biblical counseling will prepare you for a counseling ministry in your local church, on the mission field, at summer camps, in biblical counseling centers, classrooms, Christian camps, any place that people are looking for someone to help them apply God's answers to life's challenges. The recently revised updated courses are taught by highly credentialed biblical counselors with years of counseling experience. The courses are essential in shaping your understanding of counseling and to enable you to focus your preparation for specific counseling needs. You may have experienced the struggle involved in offering genuine help to confused or hurting people. How do you identify their real needs? How do you know your answers are truly biblical? Or how do you walk them down the path of healing and spiritual growth? These struggles are exactly why we offer the graduate certificate in biblical counseling. You may not have the time or desire right now to earn the full master's degree, but you can still receive essential training in biblical counseling with this graduate certificate. Okay, so I pulled that off a website today. All right, this is the biblical counseling movement. You need to be certified so that you know that you can really help people. That's my summary of it. And by the way, to enter this program, you need to have completed your bachelor's degree with a minimum GPA of 2.0. Okay. So in order to help people with spiritual problems, I need to have a bachelor's degree with a minimum 2.0 GPA and then enroll in this graduate program for counseling. That is the typical assumption within the biblical counseling movement. And notice this. At the very beginning of the description it said, it will prepare you for a counseling ministry in your church on the mission field, et cetera, et cetera. There's a separation. All right, you're in your church. You have a counseling ministry in your church. You see what's happening? And so again, I'm just reading that to help us understand, you know, what is this movement? This movement is seeking to produce credentialed counselors to contribute to and supplement the ministry in the local church. So when we think about that, there's another question to raise. What is at stake in the discussion? What is at stake in the discussion? We said, why are we talking about this? It's because it's a current of influence. We've briefly described what the biblical counseling movement is. It's seeking to provide credentialed counselors to contribute to and supplement the ministry of the local church. So what is at stake in this discussion? What's important? Why is it important then that we talk about these things? Well, one of the things, one of the first things that is at stake in this discussion is a proper understanding of theology in general. For example, One of the calls, if you will, or challenges that was set forth by an influential biblical counselor about 15 years ago was that there needs to be creedal standards for the care and cure of souls. Now, what is a creedal standard? Well, a creed is what we have in our 1689, right? The 1689 Baptist Confession, that's our creed. That's our doctrinal statement. This is what we believe. These are the essential doctrines that Scripture teaches. and what we as a church hold to. And so in the challenge that was set forth by this influential figure in biblical counseling, it was a challenge to say, okay, we need another creed that applies theology to different counseling problems. like anxiety, or like anger, or like various forms of dealing with trauma and grief, et cetera, and so on. The problems just proliferate when you begin to read the material. And so when we're looking at the movement, one of the things that is at stake is a proper understanding of theology in general. Do we need a whole separate creed of theology to help us deal with problems apart from the confessions that we already have that summarize theology? And you know, this is a point where I'm tempted to diverge and go off on a very long tangent, but I'll try to stick to my notes, but make one observation. One of the things that the 1689 Confession details or summarizes for us is the doctrine of sanctification, the doctrine of sanctification. And the doctrine of sanctification teaches us that when we come to Christ, the power of sin is broken in our lives through our union with Christ, And yet, we are growing more and more like Christ. And that process of growing more and more like Christ is a process that will take the rest of our lives. And it's a process that involves a conflict outlined in scripture of the flesh and the spirit. Where in scripture tells us, do not walk in the flesh, but be filled with the Spirit. And as believers respond to the Word of God, which is synonymous with being filled with the Spirit, let me say that again, as believers submit to the Word of God, which is synonymous with being filled with the Spirit, Their lives are transformed from one degree of glory to another, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. And folks, in that very condensed summary of sanctification, I have about, I'm gonna use a percentage, I don't know if it's accurate or not. I have 80% of what I need for all counseling. Rooted in the doctrine of sanctification. I don't need a whole manual, right, for this problem and this problem and this problem and this problem. I have the Scripture that teaches me what man's condition is, and that tells me all of the resources that converted people have in the Lord Jesus Christ. And counseling is essentially learning to take those scriptures and simply help people understand what union in Christ means and how by the power of Christ, they have the ability to obey. You don't need six to 12 weeks to stop disobeying God. It's a matter of repentance. All right, I said it'd be a short tangent, that's short enough. But a proper understanding of theology in general is at stake. And two doctrines that stand out, there's more, there's more, but two doctrines that stand out is the doctrine of the church. For example, the offices of elder, deacon, and biblical counselor. Oh, wait a minute, that one's not in the Bible. Right, the principle of church membership, and the priority of the pulpit in the local church. Right, the doctrine of the church is at stake. And the doctrine of sanctification also, how people view problems and how people deal with sin and how you mature. Those are two examples of some of the specific doctrines that are at stake. And, you know, let's just take a moment here and just think through the whole Christian experience biblically. What is the Christian experience? Well, first of all, it's conversion, right? It's when we're taken from the domain of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of the beloved Son, Colossians 1. It's when we've been regenerated by the Spirit of God. We were dead in our trespasses and sins, but God made us alive. We're unified with Christ. We enjoy our union with Christ. We've been declared guilty or guiltless from all of our sins. We've been justified. We've been legally declared guilt-free from all sin, past, present, and future because of the completed work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're justified and we're adopted the twin doctrine of justification. Justification declares us guiltless. Adoption declares us the children of God. The object of His affection co-heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ. At conversion, we're positionally sanctified. We're set apart from the world. We're no longer of the world. Yes, we're in the world, but we're not of the world. We've been sanctified positionally, we've been given the seal of the Holy Spirit. And all that happens instantaneously at conversion. We have everything we need. The moment, the moment we're saved. And then there's the progression of sanctification, which I just alluded to. the progressive growth into likeness of Christ in thought and character, and it's accomplished through the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit as we walk and are filled with the Spirit and rooted in union with Christ. You know, if you want to study a passage of Scripture that opens up sanctification, Romans 6, 7, and 8 is a great place to start. Reckon yourselves to be dead unto sin and alive unto Christ. That's what sanctification is. It's constantly reckoning. It's constantly saying, yes, I'm dead to sin and alive to Christ, and I accept it by faith because it's what God has said. And the power of sin is broken in my life because of Christ. And now I'm called to present my body as a slave to righteousness. And then Romans 7, yes, I continue to deal with sin. The things that I want to do, I do not. And the things I don't want to do, I do. Oh, wretched man that I am, right? We get that struggle. Romans 8, but there is no condemnation for those who are in Jesus Christ. And he goes on to talk about the spirit of adoption by which we call Abba Father, and the comfort we have in suffering, all that, just in Romans 6, 7, and 8, and it's rooted, our sanctification, our growth in Christlikeness is rooted in our existing permanent union with the Lord Jesus Christ. And so when someone comes and says, you know, I'm struggling with a sin, there might be some practical things you need to do. But ultimately, you need to recognize who you are. You need to reckon yourself dead to sin and alive to Christ. That's the starting point. It's not do these 12 things in 12 weeks and we'll get it solved. It's obey. Obey. Obey in the power of the Spirit of God that dwells in you. I mean, it's the Spirit that raised Christ from the dead. It's the Spirit that brought you spiritual life. Depend on that Spirit as you grow in Christ. And you know within that, within sanctification is the reality of struggle. of suffering and of trials and of dealing with sin, of broken relationships, of being in extremely traumatic situations, of experiencing awful things. Think about the church in the first century. Think about the beheadings they witnessed. Think about the crucifixions they witnessed, the stonings they witnessed as people died for their confession of faith in Christ. That was traumatic. That was traumatic. And Peter says, Look, don't count. Don't look at these sufferings and be surprised. This is a wicked, vile, evil world under the influence of the devil. What did you expect? The devil is the god of this world. He hates God. He hates Christians. you're going to face opposition. And that suffering, the intensity, the trauma that we face, whatever form that it takes, it's sometimes part of our purification. Sometimes it's part of our discipline from the hand of a loving father. He disciplines those he loves. Sometimes it's like in the case of Job, it's simply a vindication of God's character. but it's always according to the purposes of God and by God's design. And that's why James says, look, when trials come, brothers and sisters, stay under until all the purposes of God are accomplished in your life. Don't look for the early exit ramp. but allow God to work His good will and good pleasure in you. And if you don't know how to handle it, well then ask for wisdom from God that gives to all men liberally and upbraids not. Right? And all we're doing here is just overviewing the Christian experience. We're converted. We have this process of sanctification happening in our life as we learn more and more to reflect the Lord Jesus Christ and to submit to our Master and our Lord. And we have the ultimate hope, though, You know, there's an experience that we haven't experienced yet, right? And what's it called? Glorification. Glorification. And Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4, verses 16 through 18, that the trials, the heaviness of the trials that he's enduring now are featherweight compared to the weight of glory that he anticipates. He says, that's my hope. You know, if you think about someone that should have been messed up because of all the trauma he faced, Paul was it. But he said, my hope is in the glory to come, not in fixing the problems of this life so I have a good life here and now. And when we think about the Christian experience, we find that the means that God has given to us to be a light, to be a witness, to call men and women to Christ, to the way that God converts people, the way that He grows people, the way that He prepares us for glory is in God's Word through the preaching of the Word, through the work of the Spirit, and through the institution of the church that He has established. Right? It was sufficient in the New Testament. The elders, the deacons, the body as they grow up into maturity so that each part is supplying what is lacking, speaking the truth in love. Right? So when we When we look at the Christian experience as defined by Scripture, and when we think about what the biblical counseling movement is offering, here, come get this degree so that you can have a Christian counseling, a biblical counseling ministry in your local church or camp or a private practice or whatever you want. Right, is there a little bit of discord? Is there a little bit of discord? So that brings me to the next question. What are the dangers of the biblical counseling movement? What are the dangers of the biblical counseling movement? Well, here are a few. The biblical counseling movement creates an extra-biblical category of ministry worker. An extra-biblical category of ministry worker. Listen to this definition of a biblical counselor, right? In one academic institution's philosophy of counseling ministry, they actually say, here is our definition of a biblical counselor, and then they give this. The biblical counselor strives to be a word-filled, spirit-empowered disciple of Jesus Christ, who for the glory of God humbly and compassionately evangelizes the lost and assists fellow believers in their progressive sanctification in the midst of life's challenges through the Christ-centered ministry of God's sufficient word and through the partnership and ministry of the local church. You know what I think about that definition? I think it's great for every Christian. Every Christian should seek to be a word-filled, Spirit-empowered disciple of Jesus Christ for the glory of God, right? Absolutely. The problem is that's the definition of a biblical counselor. All right, I'm not interested in creating an extra biblical category of ministry worker called the Christian counselor that essentially says unless you're a biblically trained, a credentialed biblical counselor, you can't really help people, at least some people. And that's one of the dangers. That's one of the dangers. Another danger is that the biblical counseling model stratifies spiritual problems. What I mean by stratifies, you know, you have different, what's the word? Strati? And rock formations, right? And you can see those. And so there's this sense that Okay, some spiritual problems you can handle on your own. Some spiritual problems you need some help from someone else, you know, any common Christian will do. Some spiritual problems, you know, your pastor probably should help you with that. Some spiritual problems you need a certified biblical counselor. The biblical counseling model stratifies spiritual problems and assumes that some issues need to be outsourced to a certified biblical counselor instead of handled within the body under the direction of the elders. And you know, part of the reason for this kind of thinking is the natural outcome of institutionalism. So a lot of the biblical counseling movement really exploded in the context of Christian colleges and universities. Well, what's happening in Christian colleges and universities? Christian colleges and universities are bringing together young people from many different backgrounds. Many different backgrounds. often with very weak understanding of any doctrine or Christianity, often infused with easy-believism. I prayed a prayer, and I've been saved since, and I've been living like the world, but I'm saved because I prayed the prayer and got dunked when I was three. Well, what happens when they come to a Christian college, they're out of the influence of parents and church and all that? Well, some stuff starts to come out. Well, now you're a Christian institution, here for Christian young people, but the Christian young people aren't behaving the way Christian young people should because there's some significant spiritual problems, so what do we do? And we need counselors, right? And even within the institution where I worked over the course of 15 or so years, the proliferation, the explosion of the number of counselors was incredible because of the weakness of the churches from where so many people were coming from, and probably, frankly, the lostness of so many of the students that were there. But then within that institutional setting, an institution is good at stratifying different things. It's part of what you have to do for accreditation and all this kind of stuff. And so biblical counseling, again, getting back to the point that I'm making here, biblical counseling stratifies spiritual problems, assuming that some need to be outsourced. And the other thing is, who are the biblical counselors? Biblical counseling separates credentialing from church membership in the biblical direction for spirit-filled believers to help one another. So a biblical counselor, say, someone goes to school, let's put it in terms of a student. Somebody goes to school, gets in trouble, or has some kind of, you know, spiritual experience, then they're helped by a counselor at their university. And they think, you know what, I want to do this. So I'm going to pursue biblical counseling. And so they, they enrolled now in biblical counseling, maybe they get a graduate degree in biblical counseling, they finish, they go out, they go to a local church, and they come up the first Sunday and say, Hi, I'm a biblical counselor, I'd love to minister in this church. How do you think Don would like that? And I use that somewhat humorously, but it's not too far from reality sometimes. I mean, I'm glad you got a piece of paper, but you're not a member. You're not proven. We're not going to just throw you into ministry apart from the context of membership and getting to know you, et cetera, within the local church. It's very dangerous. It's always dangerous when someone comes into a church and refuses to put themselves under the accountability of leadership by refusing to join the church and yet inserts themselves into church life. Dangerous. And the biblical counseling movement in many ways facilitates that kind of thinking. It's an unintended consequence. yet it happens. And so then another danger is that biblical counseling dilutes the priority of the pulpit by providing additional service to address felt needs. In other words, consumerism, right? Someone comes in and they think, you know, the preaching is good, but you know, that sermon didn't meet my need. I need to go see the biblical counselor. No, the preaching of the word is primary. And if you listen, for example, if you listen to Don's last two sermons on the law, about a disciple who obeys the law and who loves the law, I mean, that'll deal with most of your sin issues right up front. But if I have in the back of my mind, I need to go see a biblical counselor to help me specifically with my issue, what am I doing? I'm essentially rationalizing and putting off the conviction of the Spirit of God that's happening through the preaching of the Word as an authoritative monologue from the Word of God as being given to address my will and thinking, I'll just go see a biblical counselor. Right, it dilutes the priority of the pulpit. by providing a consumeristic outlet. And biblical counseling then can also create unrealistic expectations about sanctification. And I keep coming back to that idea of sanctification because it's important, right? Well, if I get through a six to 12 week course, I'll have my sin problem taken care of. Well, it's wrong on two counts. First of all, you can immediately repent of your sin and turn to Christ and turn away from your sin. And second of all, your sanctification will not be completed until you die. All right, so it distorts, it can create unrealistic expectations about sanctification on both ends and can contribute to discouragement because of that. In biblical counseling, then, as defined by the requirement of credentialed experts, biblical counseling, as defined by the requirement of credentialed experts to solve certain spiritual problems, this is important, taken to its logical outcome, becomes a form of Gnosticism. What is Gnosticism? Gnosticism says you need to have a special knowledge to be really spiritual. Right? That's the essence of Gnosticism. You need to have a special knowledge to be really spiritual. Do you want to really help people with their problems and know whether or not you're helping them biblically? Well, you need a counseling certificate. Gnosticism, a special knowledge to attain another degree of spirituality taken to its logical conclusions or outcomes. Now, I know I have friends that embrace biblical counseling that are biblical counselors, and that's not what they're thinking. That's not what they're thinking. But what we're doing, remember, what we're doing is we're saying this is a current of influence. This is a current of influence within conservative evangelical Christianity, and we're saying where does this current go? And it goes to an idea that there's a special knowledge you need to really be able to help people. And the flip side of that, The flip side of that is that biblical counseling then intimidates believers in the body of Christ from engaging with one another over spiritual matters. Folks, in the body of Christ, we're called to engage with one another in these things. That's why we read those passages at the beginning. But again, the unintended consequence of the biblical counseling movement by saying, well, you need a degree and you need certification and you need to be an expert, it intimidates the body of Christ from engaging with one another over spiritual matters like we're commanded to in Scripture repeatedly. Turn over to Galatians chapter five, the end of the chapter. You're familiar with v. 22 and following. Galatians 5 beginning at v. 22. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. And then read on, brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. Right, we're called, Paul says, as the body of Christ, as you obey and walk in the Spirit, and your life produces the fruit of the Spirit, You're called to crucify the flesh with its passions and desires. You're called to not become conceited, to not provoke one another, to not envy one another. And out of that work of God in your heart, then brothers, if any of you is caught in a transgression, you who are spiritual, restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Do you see what's happening here? As we pursue sanctification, as we pursue Christlikeness within the context of the body of Christ, God calls us to encourage one another in our pursuit of Christlikeness. And so we don't start, you know, with chapter six, verse one, and start looking around, you know, spot picking. Oh, I have a, Matt, can I talk to you about all your spots? you have very few compared to my logs, right? If we start in six, one, we start looking at the spots. If we go back to chapter five, we start removing the logs. which then prepares us to serve one another in love and deal with the transgressions while keeping watch on ourselves as we bear one another's burdens. And folks, the danger, again, it's the unintended consequence, but it's an inherent danger with the biblical counseling movement when you have a whole category of ministry worker and somebody, you know, in God's providence, you have a conversation with someone and there's spiritual issues and you're the one in the conversation, so God's providentially put you there to encourage and admonish and exhort the brother or sister in Christ, but we have biblical counselor. And what happens? Well, you miss out on the process of sanctification. Maybe you're the one that has the problem and you miss out of the brother or sister giving you encouragement in Christ because they're thinking, oh, I need to send them to a biblical counselor. Instead of right there in that conversation, having the confidence in Christ because of the work of the Spirit, because of the new life you have in Christ, for that person to say, brother, can I ask you, have you thought about this? And that's part of the growth of both people in the conversation. These are the unintended consequences, and yet the real dangers that that current of influence can create. So what is then the TCC position on helping those deal with significant spiritual problems? What's our position to help those dealing with significant spiritual problems? And that's an important question. Because as we're dealing with the movement, it's important to understand that we're not saying we never do any kind of counseling. Right? And you can go online and you can find our philosophy of counseling, and that'll be very helpful to you. But just a couple points briefly. We believe that people sometimes do need individual pastoral care at critical times in their lives. We're not denying that there are times of great intensity where that kind of care is needed. And we believe that God equips believers to minister to one another, to encourage, to exhort and rebuke. And it's not just the elders, but it's the body. We also believe that the preaching of the word is the primary source for biblical counsel and that most problems people face are addressed through a steady diet of preaching and teaching in the local church. One of the things that we outline in our counseling statement is that we're not going to meet with people who are not attending regularly. If you're not making the effort of being under the preaching of the word, which is the primary means of growth, really our meeting is worthless. You need to be under the preaching of the word. That is God's ordained means, the primary means for spiritual growth. And so we believe that the biblical counseling movement, as defined above, compromises the priority of the pulpit and the design of the church by creating a subcategory of, quote, experts outside of the God-ordained offices of elder and deacon, and to the exclusion of gifted church members. And some questions that have helped us to work through this whole thing, and we're about to wrap up here, but these might be helpful for you. Some of the questions that we worked through in preparing this. Is the goal of the Christian life to live problem-free or to view scripture as a problem-solving manual? Is expository preaching able to address and solve spiritual problems in those who hear? Is individual interaction always necessary for change? And to me, the answer for that question is the apostles wrote epistles to the churches. They weren't individually counseling. Can spirit-filled believers without a graduate counseling certificate help other believers with spiritual problems? Is someone not involved in the local church a candidate for counseling? And that just helps us define, you know, to have a biblical counseling private practice is, you know, it doesn't really make a lot of sense, quite frankly. And then thinking more broadly, in times past, did revival come from biblical counseling? And did Christ found his church with credentialed biblical counselors? Thought-provoking questions. Now, someone might say, you know, I have some really significant issues. I get that. But can I just quickly give you a list of Bible characters and some of the modern labels that they would have been given? Lot and Noah, drunks. The 11 patriarchs, rage issues, sexual addiction, and a huge inferiority complex. Samson, codependent. Saul, bipolar. David, he was a mess. Depression, PTSD, anxiety to start with. Elijah, depression, Lord kill me. Paul, OCD. The Corinthian church, too long to list. You know there's a church in the area called Corinthian Baptist Church? I don't get it. I guess you're just being honest, I don't know. And you know, you think about the New Testament, who the New Testament letters were written to, soldiers, Christians, watching people being massacred. I mean, people removed from their homes because of persecution. These people dealt with incredible amounts of trauma. And the apostles kept saying, look to Jesus. Look to Jesus. So, our goals for this evening were modest. I hope we might have accomplished a little bit. I simply wanted to identify what the biblical counseling movement is, identify why the discussion is important, establish the contrast of our local church philosophy to the biblical counseling movement, And ultimately, there's a very practical purpose behind all of this, and that is to encourage you to fulfill your role in the church, to pursue Christ, to pursue the Word of God, to listen to the preaching of the Word with anticipation that God is going to deal with your soul And as we grow together and engage together, that we are equipped and that we carry out God's plan to encourage and to admonish and to exhort one another to grow into maturity in Jesus Christ. And of course, you know, that assumes that you are taking the time to read your Bible. That assumes that you are daily seeking to walk in the Spirit. It assumes that you're practicing repentance and walking humbly before your God. The reason I don't subscribe, I guess you could say, to the biblical counseling movement is because I believe that God intends the church, the people in the church, to be the biblical counselors to one another as they mature in Christ through the preaching of the Word of God. Let's pray. Father, we thank you tonight for the Word of God. We thank you for the privilege of thinking through different issues together, and thank you for the people that you've assembled here, people who love you, people who desire to obey you, to walk according to the truth. And Lord, I pray for each one of us as we go forth into the rest of our week, that we would put to death the things of the flesh, that we would walk in the Spirit, that You would produce the fruit of the Spirit in us, and that all would be done for the glory and praise of Your name. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Thanks for listening!