During my time in The Fellowship Residency Program, I read a long list of powerful books. To read more about my residency experience click here. One aspect of my assignments is to summarize and write key takeaways from each of the books. This is a summary of "A Theology of Biblical Counseling: The Doctrinal Foundations of Counseling Ministry" by Heath Lambert.
Counseling is a theological exercise (1 Timothy 1:8-11)
Nature of theology
Theology-what the whole bible teaches us today about any given topic Nature of counseling Counseling- a conversation where one party with questions problems and troubles seeks assistance from another party with Solutions answers and help Won’t happen if the original party doesn’t see that they have questions and problems and troubles or if they don’t see that you have answers and help Doesn’t require that the counselor has to be any good Counseling requires a picture or vision of reality. God is the leading expert of counseling. Our posture, stance, theory of change, interventions, etc all must be aligned with the scriptural model of counseling. Every single counselor has a theology of counseling. Some are just bad theology. CBT-fails to compare client’s thoughts with scriptures and is more focused on happiness than holiness. Secular therapists make us better worshippers of ourselves. Is Bible sufficient for counseling? Debate between Biblical counselor and Christian counselors Biblical counselor argues that Christian counselors don’t believe the Bible is sufficient for the problems brought up in counseling. We have completed sufficiency in the Bible we have now. Scripture contains everything sufficient for its own interpretation Embrace truth outside the Bible not reject it Common grace w God’s kindness to everybody. Divine moral provision (not total depravity) in Genesis 4:15, Gen 11, gen 20:6, 1 thess a restraining arm Provide physical provision - Matt 5:35-45, Divine intellectual provision (true light which enlightens every man) Once secular scientists reach spiritual arenas, they can’t interpret. Instead they only can speculate. Our minds are darkened most about counseling issues. Don’t use secular methods though secular studies can inform, provoke, and confirm Biblical counseling Don’t use secular approaches, because Scriptures are sufficient, content using Biblical language, don’t believe important to give our assent to secular methods, don’t feel the need to emphasis information that is against the Biblical focus Noetic effects of sin? Theology of God: Communicable attributes (true of God and people) humble or good Incommunicable attributes (true of God alone): omniscient Moral (what He does) non-moral (who God is) Absolute (who God is of himself) relative (with regards to creation) Transcended (exalted) vs (nearness) People in counseling need to know His: Attributes of strength: Self-sufficient - emphasizes our dependency Infinity- limits Always present (fullness of who God is is everywhere)- absence Omniscient- Omnipotent Attributes of care: Holiness (devotion to Himself as God above every other reality) To love something well, you have to first put it in the right order Faithfulness (what God knows and says are true) Goodness (everything He is and does is standard in the universe for what is best) If God begins to seem not good, we must reject our own thinking Love-God gives himself for the goodness of others Saddest people he’s ever known is sexual assault victim. Still need to encounter an infinite care God. Mercy and grace- God’s kindness to undeserving people who need help. Wrath-anger toward and punishment towards wickedness Doctrine of Christ 2 natures 1. Jesus is God Identified as God and doing things that only God can do 2. Jesus is a human being He was born and has experiences that are human. Tired, hungry, etc human nature died Jesus is a moral example for us Jesus’s death heals the wounds of those seeking care People who are seeking counseling need the power of Jesus. They need the work and love of Jesus Christ for comfort. They need the judgment of sin to reconcile the conviction of their hearts to receive the forgiveness of Jesus Theology of the Holy Spirit Spirit’s work of convicting both sin and righteousness Spirits work of abiding and indwelling Spirits work of general teaching - inspiration of scripture Spirits work of specific teaching by taking scripture and applying it to individual hearts Spirits work of inspiring and empowering believers Biblical counseling is about obedience. Make them fruitless to fruitful and obedient Spirits work of gifting for Christian service Good spiritual fruit doesn’t come from a good counselee or a good counselor but from the Holy Spirit Therefore the best preparation will involve prayer. We need to be less concerned about secular ethics and more about the effectiveness of the Spirit in counseling We must make much of Jesus just as the Spirit does. Finally our counseling needs to be Biblical. Doctrine of Humanity Humans are made in the image of God This means we represent God. Humans are complex, moral beings, capable of deep relationships, and what we do (rule, etc) Our bodies fail our soul and our soul fails our body Only created with two genders Men and women are equal with regard to creation Men and woman also are created and called to different things Men cannot do ongoing counseling with women alone (Ephesians 5:3) Theology of sin We are guilty of our sin from conception because of original sin or Adam’s representation of us. All counseling is occasioned by sin: Either 1. Their own sin 2. Victims of the sins of others or 3. Sin of Adam and sin in the world If guilty, repent through confession to all afflicted. Always God sometimes others Then leave the sin. If sinned against, they must forgive as God has forgiven us Theology of suffering or dealing with sin in the fallen and broken world -enemy of Satan is responsible for some pain but not all -enemy of faulty and limited knowledge of humans -enemy of death and weakness of moving towards death There is a primary cause (God for every action), but also a secondary cause in each action (people, Satan, etc). God works in, through, and above the sinful natures of people and the world. God has an active and passive will. In His passive will, we see God pool the other way and allowing bad things to happen that He has the power to stop as a part of the sovereign plan. Suffering is good for us. Suffering is good for others, because Jesus’s power is on display. Suffering glorifies God Theology of salvation
Specifically, the order and elements of salvation.
Election-God chose those people who would come to faith in Jesus Christ
Call- ask from God to repent and be saved
Effective call- power and work of Christ to bring the elected to a changed heart
Regeneration-Transformation at the level of the heart by the Spirit.
Up to this point it’s what is happening outside of the person or believer
Conversion- involves active participation where the believer turns away from sin and towards trust and faith
Justification: a legal declaration that the converted person is forgiven of sin and now possesses Jesus’ righteousness
Adopted: out into God’s own family
Sanctification: grow in Christ’s likeness in their entire person
Perseverance: the faith will be kept by all who believe. We won’t lose our salvation
Glorification: perfection of believers at the return of Christ
Only Christians have the power to change through hope
It is cruel to allow people to remain in their life without understanding the hope that is available to them. It’s not unethical
Theology of the church
Focused on people who are involved in counseling at the church
Elder and pastor
Elder is called to be a teach and manage the church well.
Call of teaching: -there is a public ministry of the Word on Sunday morning -Personal ministry of the Word. Context of the one-on-one Manager of the church: -equipping church for the work of the Word -He is convinced that all believers are able to do the kind of admonishment that counselors do all the time. Professional counseling is a new thing. Believers are equipped Counseling and the goal of counseling: First we gain knowledge to know Him so that we understand theology. Goal of theology is counseling. As we gain more knowledge, we can pass it along to the hurting. This is a piece of theology as well. Counseling is book ended with theology. God explains who we are, what’s wrong with us, what it would take to fix it, and who can help do that. Christian counselors: take secular models and combine it with the Bible Biblical counselors believe that He gave us His solutions to the problem of living in scriptures and don’t believe that the secular methodologies should be combined. History of Biblical counseling: Starts with dominance of people committed to the word. More than anything, hurting need an encounter with Jesus Christ and to receive His grace. Situations the scriptures are capable of addressing: adulatory, divorce, remarriage, porn addiction (find where they get it and come up with a plan, premarital sex (repent to God and one another), teenage rebellion (look for ways that they can get out of the way by dying to themselves and show how they love and serve their child), conflict (first look at your own sin and confess before you point out sin in their lives)
The word does not go out and become void.