Gospel-Centered Pastoral Counselling (2)

Part 2 of the revised text of a lecture for the Bible Seminary in Aguascalientes, Mexico in February, 2008.  See here for part 1.

Applying the Presuppositions

So, those are our presuppositions.  Now I want to take those presuppositions and apply them to pastoral counseling.  Especially that first presupposition about the Bible.  Second Timothy 3:16 said that the Bible is useful for a number of things.  Did you notice that all of those things have something in common?  They are all about change.  Changing people into something new and better.  The Bible is useful for changing people.  Now that is what counseling is all about, isn’t it?  People come to us because they are unhappy.  They want to change and be happy.  Counseling is all about change.  So, the Bible is useful for counseling.

Now remember what I said a few moments ago about the message of the Bible.  It’s all about Jesus Christ and the good news about him.  If that’s true, then we should think about how to apply the good news of the Bible to pastoral counseling.  As pastors, how can we bring the gospel of Jesus Christ into a broken marriage?  As pastors, how can we bring the good news of Christ for someone addicted to alcohol or drugs?  How can we help someone who is depressed with the gospel?  How is bringing the gospel going to bring real change?

Application of the Gospel to Pastoral Counselling

When we do counseling, usually we are working with people who have broken lives.  Sometimes this brokenness is caused by their own sin or sins.  Sometimes this brokenness is cause by the sin or sins of other people.  Sometimes the brokenness is caused by the fact that we live in a world that has sickness and weakness – things which are the general effects of the fall into sin of Adam and Eve.  Many times it is a combination of these things.  Sin is at least part of the problem – and sin is the part of the problem that pastors are able to help with.

As pastors, we know what to do about sin and how to help sinners.  We have Jesus Christ who came into this world to save sinners.  We have Jesus Christ who not only saves people from the wrath and curse of God.  Jesus Christ also saves people from the power of sin in their lives.  He can help!

So, when we do pastoral counseling we need to think carefully about where Jesus Christ fits in this situation.  How can we present the gospel as good news for the person who asks for our help?  How can that good news become even better good news as Jesus Christ continues to do his work in that person?  How can that good news change sinners to become more and more like Jesus Christ?

There is a lot to say here and I am keeping things simple.  To help you understand what I am saying, let us look at three examples or case studies.

Case Studies

A Broken Marriage

Marriage problems are common, even among Christians.  What do you say when you have a couple in front of you and they just cannot stop fighting?  The first thing we need to get them to realize is where the problem really is.  They have to look in the mirror.  The famous British author G.K. Chesterton was asked what he thought the biggest problem in the world was today.  He said, “I am.”  What is the biggest problem in my marriage?  I am.  This is where we need to get couples.  We need to have them see their own sin and take responsibility for it instead of blaming.

When we get them to that point, we can say to them, “Okay, where is Jesus Christ in your situation?”  We can ask them, “Who is Jesus Christ to you at this moment in this problem?”  We want to lead them with the Bible to see that first of all Christ is their Saviour, the one who forgives their sin.  Jesus is the one who wipes away all their sins in this situation with his blood.  The Lord Jesus is the one who lived a perfect life for this couple.  They have been forgiven much if they believe in Christ!  And if they have been forgiven much, they should also be ready and willing to forgive one another, just as Christ has done for them.  If they have been shown mercy, they should show mercy.  They believe in Christ, they are joined to him with faith, they are in him.  What he does has to become what they do.

We also want the couple to see that what Paul says about Christ and the Church in Ephesians 5 is good news.  Christ never abandons his church.  He works to have a good relationship with her.  The church is called to have a good relationship with him.  The good news is very good and so in our marriages, we want to reflect that good relationship.

An Addict

Addictions are terrible things.  People become addicted to drugs, alcohol, pornography, gambling, and many other things.  Addiction is slavery.  Basically, sin takes over your life.  With addiction, the sin also often takes over your body and makes chemical changes in your body.  Pastors can help with the spiritual side of addiction, but the physical side is a place where the help of doctors may be needed.

What hope can we give to a person who is an addict?  How can we do gospel-centered pastoral counseling with an addict?  First, we need to tell them the truth.  Addicts are sinners like everyone else.  And there is hope for sinners.  There is hope with Jesus Christ, the friend of sinners.  In a sense, we all are addicted to sin.  We keep going back to it again and again.  Yet there is hope with Jesus Christ.  We need to tell the addict that.  If he believes in Jesus Christ, if he places his faith and trust in him, there is hope for change.  We can read that wonderful passage from 1 Corinthians 6:7-11.  Paul says that some of the Corinthian Christians were sexually immoral, some were homosexuals, some were thieves, and others were drunkards – they were addicted to alcohol.  And then listen to the good news he brings in verse 11, “And that is what some of you were.  But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”  That is very good news!  There is hope.  And that hope comes when we counsel the addict to fix his eyes and focus on Jesus Christ.

Let me mention a resource on the Internet:  www.settingcaptivesfree.com This is a gospel-centered counseling program for people with addictions.  People can also follow the programs in Spanish.  Many people have been helped with it.

Depression

Where I come from, depression is a serious problem for many people.  Many people in my church suffer with depression, especially in the winter time.  I do not know how things are in Mexico.  There are apparently cultures in the world where there is no name for depression.  People do not know what it is and it does not seem to happen.  At least it does not seem to happen very much.

But okay, maybe you will have a depressed person in your church.  How can you give them help with the Bible?  Like addictions, depression can be a complicated problem.  Sometimes people who are depressed need to be helped with medication.  But you are the pastor and you can still give the hope of the gospel.  For a Christian, you can comfort them with the promises of God that even though they do not feel like it, God is still there.  God still loves them and cares for them.  God still gives his grace in Jesus Christ.

The Psalms are very good to read with people who are depressed.  In the Psalms we hear many cries for help.  David and the other writers of the Psalms often suffer.  Take Psalm 88.  If you read that Psalm to someone who is depressed, they will agree that the person who wrote it is someone who understands.  This is somebody who believes in God, but he feels like God has abandoned him.  He feels like God is distant.  He feels like God does not care for him.  Those feelings might not be telling the truth, but those feelings and emotions are very real for the one who is suffering.  The Bible takes those feelings seriously.

Then as we read this Psalm with the depressed person, we should ask them to think about whose words they are.  They are not just the words of a man.  They are the Word of God and that is God’s grace for them.  In fact, they are the words of the one who is both God and man, Jesus Christ.  We saw earlier that the Old Testament (and the book of Psalms – Luke 24:44) is all about Jesus.  The Psalms are the songs of Jesus.

When the person we are counseling learns this, we can read Psalm 88 with them again.  We read it with new eyes.  Psalm 88 is a song about Jesus Christ.  The Lord Jesus was the one abandoned by God.  When he was on the cross he said, “My God, my God, why have you turned your back on me?”  Jesus suffered in a way that we can never understand.  And he did it for us.  So Jesus Christ understands depression.  People can go to him and tell him how they feel and ask him for help.  They can learn to cope with depression.  By looking to Jesus Christ, they can even learn to grow spiritually through depression.

Conclusion

That brings us to the end.  If there is one thing that I want you to remember it is that the Bible is all about Jesus Christ.  Further, 2 Timothy 3:16 says that the Bible is useful for helping people to change.  In other words, for pastors the gospel of Jesus Christ is all we need to do the counseling work that God puts on our path.  I am not a counseling expert with many years of experience. Yet I have seen the power of the gospel to change lives.  I know the power of my Saviour and I hope and pray you do as well.

Gospel-Centered Pastoral Counselling (1)

Revised text of a lecture for the Bible Seminary in Aguascalientes, Mexico in February, 2008.

Introduction

Many pastors are asked for help in counseling.  This is especially true with members of their churches.  People look to their pastors for help.

As pastors, we can help with every kind of problem.  Yet we cannot help with every kind of problem in the same way.  For example, we are not trained in psychology or psychiatry.  We are not trained in medicine.  When people come to us with a physical or mental illness, we can help them in a certain way, but we cannot help them the way that a doctor can.

Pastors should be men trained to help people with spiritual care.  Many years ago, pastoral counseling was called “the care of souls.”  We are not trained to solve medical problems – a pastor is not a doctor for the body and that includes the brain.  However, we should aim to be doctors for the soul.  Hebrews 13:17 says that pastors are those who care for the souls of the sheep that God has placed in their flock.

In this lecture, I want to explain how pastors can help the people in our churches with every kind of problem.  How can we help in the way that fits with the work that God has given pastors to do?

Presuppositions

To begin with, we need to speak about presuppositions.  Presuppositions are concepts or ideas that we hold which are not up for debate or discussion.  They are firmly held beliefs.  They are the starting place for our discussions about anything else.  All pastors should have certain presuppositions, concepts that are taken from the Bible that are the foundation for everything else we think about.  Presuppositions are the concepts that are the foundation for everything we do.   When we look at a topic like pastoral counseling, it is helpful to make our presuppositions clear.  In this section, we want to especially make clear those presuppositions which directly affect how we think about pastoral counseling.  We will now do that.  I should say that much more could be said on each of these presuppositions.  But I will try to keep it short.  So, our first presupposition:

The Word of God

The Bible teaches that it is the inspired Word of God.  It is the authority for our lives.  The Bible can never be wrong.  The most important Bible passage here is 2 Timothy 3:16-17:

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

From that passage, we know that the Bible has been breathed out by God – it is inspired by God, it comes from God.  Many people were involved with the writing of the Bible, but the first author is God.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 also tells us that the Bible is useful for a number of things.  It is useful for teaching people.  That means it is useful for teaching people truth that matters, truth that saves.  It is useful for rebuking.  That means it is useful for pointing out where people are going wrong in their lives.  The Bible is useful for correcting.  That means it is useful for showing people the right way to go in their lives.  Scripture is useful for training in righteousness.  That means the Bible is useful for making people look more and more like Jesus Christ.  And what is the result of all these uses of the Bible?  God says the result is that the man of God will be totally ready for every good work.  That means the Bible leads every Christian to be ready for a Christian life.

Now I could say a lot more on this point, but let me say just two more things.  2 Timothy 3:16 says “All Scripture.”  When those words were first written, the New Testament was not finished.  When Paul wrote “All Scripture,” that first of all meant the Old Testament.  Today many Christians do not place much value on the Old Testament, but God says here that the Old Testament is useful for all these different things.  Of course, as time went on the books of the New Testament were also added.  They are also the inspired Word of God that is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.  But we often forget that the Old Testament is important too.

That brings us to the question of what the Bible is about.  What is its main message?  We have help on this point from Jesus Christ.  Listen to what he said in Luke 24:27 as he spoke to the two men on the road to Emmaus,

And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, he expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

A little further on, Jesus appeared to his disciples and he said in Luke 24:44-45,

“These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning me.”  And he opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.

He said something similar to the Jews in John 5:39,

You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of me.

And also in John 5:46,

For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.

So, who is the Bible about?  It’s all about Jesus Christ.  It all points to him.  Remember that when Jesus said these words, the New Testament was not written yet.  The entire Bible, including the Old Testament, points to Jesus Christ and the salvation we have in him.

When we come to pastoral counseling, we do so with the understanding that the Bible alone is our foundation and the Bible’s message centers on Jesus Christ and on the gospel.  That has to be our starting point, our first and ultimate presupposition.

What the Bible Teaches About God

The Bible teaches that God is there.  It assumes the existence of God.  We know that God is highly exalted (transcendent), but he is also intimately present (immanent).  We also work with the presupposition that God is three persons in one being, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  He is our Creator, Redeemer, and Renewer.  There is much more to mention, but let me also say that we presuppose God’s sovereign power.  He is almighty God and no one can stop him from doing what he wants to do.

What the Bible Teaches About Man

The Bible teaches that God created man in his own image.  Before the fall into sin, man was perfect, but yet finite.  Man is limited in what he can do and know.  The Bible teaches that man fell into sin.  Afterwards, the Bible says that man is dead in transgressions and sins (Eph. 2:1).  This fallenness extends to every aspect of our humanity.  We call that pervasive (or total) depravity.

What the Bible Teaches About Salvation

However, God comes after man to save him.  To save him from what?  To save him from the wrath of God against sin.  That wrath will be most fully poured out in hell.  God saves man from that.  He does that through Jesus Christ.  If a man will be saved, he must believe in Jesus Christ alone for his salvation.  Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone and through Jesus Christ alone.  The result is glory for God alone!

What the Bible Teaches About Sanctification

The Bible teaches that God saves people from the curse of sin.  That means when we believe in Jesus Christ, we have peace with God.  However, that does not mean that Christians are perfect people.  The Bible teaches in Romans 7 and Galatians 5 that we have the remnants or left overs of the old nature still in us.  While the curse of sin is taken away, we still have to contend with the power of sin.  We must fight against sin in our lives.  Yes, we have peace with God, but it is a peace which starts a war.  It is a war against sin.  We call this war “sanctification.”  Sanctification is the process by which God makes us to look and more like Jesus Christ.  He does that with the Word and with the Holy Spirit.

What the Bible Teaches About the Church

Salvation and sanctification normally occur through the ministry of the Church.  The church is not a hotel for saints, but a hospital for sinners.  It is the place where sinners are being made well.  Believers cannot be people who live by themselves.  God has put us in the body of Jesus Christ – in the Bible, especially in Ephesians, the body of Christ is typically the local church.

What the Bible Teaches About the Future

At the end of the age, the Bible teaches us that Jesus Christ will return.  When he returns, we will receive more with Christ than what we lost with Adam’s fall into sin.  We have a glorious salvation in Jesus Christ waiting for us.  We know that Jesus Christ has the victory over sin and death and when he returns that victory will be revealed as being complete.  The Devil and all who followed him will be thrown into the lake of fire.

(to be continued)

God’s Grace for the Abused

“The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” That Bible passage comes from verse 18 of Psalm 34.   Maybe you know what it’s like to be brokenhearted and crushed in spirit.  If you’ve ever been abused sexually, physically, or emotionally, then I know that you know.  Abuse of any kind crushes you down and leaves you broken.  And when this has happened to you, especially as a child, there are no easy answers.   It’s a real struggle to come to terms with what happened, and, strangely enough, it can be even harder if you have any kind of belief in the God of the Bible.

If you’ve been abused in any way, I want to acknowledge your pain as being very real and legitimate.  You may try to keep that pain filed away in the back of your soul somewhere, but you and I both know that it’s still there.  From time to time, it re-emerges to haunt you again – even if you thought that you’d dealt with it through counselling.  You have your pain and you have your questions.  And again, you may have your secret doubts about God and his love for you.

There is grace and compassion from God for you.  Even though you are broken.  Even though you may doubt God’s love, you doubt his ability to have kept you safe when you were abused.  Even though you are weak and broken, there is grace.  Even though you are crushed.  You’re sad and angry at the same time, maybe even angry at God.   God can look past it all.  God will give you grace, he will give what you don’t deserve.  God is still there for you, even if you have trouble accepting it.  There is grace for the abused.

Let me explain why that is.  You can only understand the depth of God’s grace when you look at the person who most clearly showed God’s grace in this world.   You have to look at Jesus Christ.  When we’ve been abused, the temptation is to think that we’re alone, that our situation is totally unique.  Perhaps in some ways it is.  But just think for a moment about the suffering that the Lord Jesus experienced.  He was physically abused horrifically in the last hours of his life.  Having had all his clothes stripped off him, there was a measure of sexual abuse in what he experienced.  But the worst part of his suffering was the emotional and spiritual angle.  No pictures or movies can adequately capture it.  He was rejected by God his Father.  He was rejected by all his friends and disciples.  Jesus Christ had done nothing wrong, yet he hung on the cross and suffered.  He deserved none of this!

Why did Jesus Christ have to experience all this abuse?  We ask the same questions about our own experiences.  We don’t often find answers that will satisfy us.   There are answers, but they seem trite.  But with the suffering and abuse of Jesus Christ, we have a different story.  There is an answer to why Jesus had to suffer.  The Bible clearly teaches that all are sinners.  Abusers and abused – all of us have fallen short of God’s holy standards.  We have put ourselves into debt with God.  The good news is that God sent Jesus Christ to pay the debt for all who believe in him.  There was a sense in what happened with Jesus:  it was for you!   He took all that hellish abuse for you, so that you could have a friendly relationship with God.   You could not do that for yourself.  God did not owe it to you to send Jesus Christ.  He did it simply because he cared for you.

Do you see God’s grace in the abuse that Jesus Christ suffered?  It was horrible, but there was no other way for you to be saved.  Somebody had to step in and pay the price for your sins.  The only way you could do it is if you were to go to hell yourself.  You could spend an eternity in hell and you would never be finished paying for your sins.  Instead, when you hold on to Christ in faith, his suffering makes the payment for you.   The suffering of the Lord Jesus is the only thing that can make you acceptable to God.

The abuse and suffering of Jesus Christ makes sense.  We can see God’s grace in that.  God’s grace is that through the abuse of Jesus Christ, we receive what we did not deserve.  Through the abuse of Jesus, we receive a relationship with God and the life that lasts forever.

Now, let’s go back to your own abuse and suffering.  Where is God’s grace in what happened to you?   I’m going to be careful here, because I don’t know exactly what you’ve been through.  I don’t know where you’re at right now.  I can only work with what I do know.   I know that you’re not responsible for what happened to you.  And another thing I know, and you should know too, is what we began with from Psalm 34: “The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”  The Lord is close to you.  This means that God is relationally close to you in your brokenheartedness.   If you are holding on to Jesus Christ for your salvation, God promises that he is close.  Now maybe you don’t feel that closeness, but he is there.  He also promises to save you – that doesn’t mean that he’s going to stop all the hurt and suffering in your life.  No, we’re going to see that the promise is bigger than that.

When we believe that the Lord Jesus is our Saviour, we want to believe that life will be easier and make more sense.  But it doesn’t always work that way.  Sometimes life becomes tougher and more confusing.  We want to believe that we have a God who will stop every bad thing from happening to us.  We want to believe that we have a God who is in control and who’s only going to bring good things our way.   We want to believe that the story of Job in the Old Testament is just an exception.  But here again, we have to look to Jesus.  His path to victory was through suffering.  He had to travel through the valley of the shadow of death.   In fact, more often than not, Christians suffer.  The so-called victorious Christian life with no struggles, with no suffering and all sunny skies is the exception, not the rule.  I just mentioned Job, but you can read Psalm 73 to see the same thing happening.  In that Psalm, a man wonders why the wicked seem to have everything going good, but the believers are suffering.  What sense does it make?  The answer doesn’t come until he goes to the temple.  At the temple, he sees the sacrifices of all the animals and he’s reminded that eternal death is the punishment for sin.  God points out that he needs to think “big picture.”

That’s hard to do when we’ve been abused.  It’s even harder to think big picture when the abuse is ongoing.  It’s not easy to have an eternal perspective.  But this is what faith is about.  Even though things look off, you have to trust God’s promise that he is near you, even though you can’t understand how that’s being worked out.   Because of Jesus Christ, God is working in your life, even through your abuse and sufferings.  You have to think ahead in faith.  Though it’s incredibly hard to do it, you have to think along the lines of what we read in Romans 8:18, “I consider that the present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”  The present life is suffering and abuse.  It’s real and it weighs us down.  But there is a future.  The future is glory and it will be revealed in us.  This is God’s promise to you.  He makes another promise in verse 28 of Romans 8, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”  And then a couple verses further, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”

If you’ve been abused, you probably don’t feel like God has been much for you in your life.  Again, here’s where faith comes in the picture.  To grasp what I’m getting at, you need to think of yourself differently.  We like to think that we’re quite intelligent, understanding people.  We’ve reached a level of maturity.  But as Christians, we come to see ourselves differently.   I used to live in a BC town where there were a number of mentally handicapped people.  One of them was a young woman, perhaps in her twenties.  She had a caregiver who took her out every day.  Without her caregiver, she would likely never have been able to get out of bed, eat proper meals, and so on.  She was totally dependent on her caregiver.  She trusted her caregiver to do the right thing for her each day.  I suppose she may not always have understood why her caregiver did certain things.    But yet she trusted her.  We see the same thing with infant children and their parents.   They don’t understand, especially in the midst of pain, but typically they go on trusting.  They know that their parents and caregivers are really for them.  When we think about God’s closeness to us, we need to think in these terms.  Hard though it may be, we need to see ourselves as entirely dependent on God and his goodness.  As we do that, we will not only know about God’s grace, we will also experience it in our lives.

And as we experience that grace for ourselves in relation to God, we will also be more ready and willing to share it with others.  One of the biggest steps an abused person can take is to extend grace and forgiveness to the one who abused them.  Maybe you’re not ready for that yet.  It may take some time.  But as you meaningfully reflect on God’s grace for you in Jesus Christ, at some point you’ll want to share that grace with the person or people who’ve hurt you.  They don’t deserve your forgiveness, do they?  But when you give that forgiveness, what are you saying about God?   You’re saying, “In giving Jesus Christ, my God has been so gracious to me, I will extend the same grace to you.”  In that way, God’s goodness gets amplified in this broken world.  More people will come to see and appreciate the depth of God’s grace for sinners.

If you’ve been abused, there is God’s grace and healing for you in Jesus Christ.  May God bless you with his grace in the Lord Jesus.

Book Review: Christians Get Depressed Too

Christians Get Depressed Too, David Murray, Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2010.  Paperback, 112 pages, $10.00

Dr. David Murray is rapidly becoming well-known.  He blogs regularly (headhearthand.posterous.com), does a podcast with Tim Challies, is a regular Facebook user, video producer, and preacher.  Besides all that, he finds time to teach Old Testament and Practical Theology at Puritan Theological Seminary, in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  Murray has developed a reputation for being theologically astute, biblically faithful, and pastorally sensitive.  All of those qualities come together in this short book on a tough subject.

There is a perception out there that depression is, at its roots, a spiritual problem.  According to this perception, people become depressed because they have done something sinful.  A true and faithful Christian would never get depressed.  Part of Murray’s burden in this book is to dismantle that perception.  He does that with an open Bible, explaining how godly believers in both Testament struggled with this problem.

The author goes on to outline how complex depression is – there are no trite and easy answers.  He describes the problem in a way that will be helpful for those trying to understand it.  He also gives hope, comfort, and help for those who are suffering.  Again, all of this is grounded in the Word of God.  Yes, Murray believes that Christians can learn from medical science and he attempts to incorporate some of those insights into this book.  He is also firmly convinced that medication can not only alleviate symptoms, but also address the causes of depression in many cases.

There are a lot of people out there who struggle with this ailment.  In severe cases, it can be debilitating.  It’s hard to know what to say or do if you’re watching someone go through it.  Those who want to help should read this book.  And don’t be afraid to buy a copy for the person suffering either.  It may give the encouragement and help they need.  The book is short enough so as not to be intimidating and written clearly enough so as not to be misunderstood.

I’ve read and reviewed several books on this subject over the years.  I’ve learned that depression is a dark and ugly consequence of the fall into sin.  It is no less a part of this world of dysfunction than is cancer.  At the same, I’ve learned (and Murray’s book has reinforced this) that depression reminds us of how little we know about the workings of the human brain and how it relates to our non-material aspect (our soul).  Finally, I’ve become convinced that God brings trials (including depression) our way so as to shape, teach, and lead us.  This little book brings us back to the Word through which that all happens.

Friends You Should Meet (3) — Jay Adams

It’s not a secret that I love books.  Here in my study I often feel like I’m surrounded by good friends.  In this series of posts, I’d like to introduce you to some of my friends, both the old ones from centuries ago and the more recent ones.  I’ll describe their strengths and, where necessary, their weaknesses.  The aim is to help you find good friends for yourself — in other words, to find edifying reading that will give you a better understanding of the Christian faith, a greater grasp of the gospel, and a deeper love for Christ.

What does Jay Adams have in common with the Puritans?  I mean, besides many theological commonalities?  Both are objects of intense prejudice.  Everybody knows that Jay Adams and his counseling methodology is bad, but very few people have actually read anything by Jay Adams.  In the Canadian Reformed community, the source of this deep antipathy for Adams can be traced back to a 1977 article in Clarion by Dutch theologian C. Trimp.  The article (originally a lecture he delivered at our seminary here in Hamilton), while expressing some appreciation, generally took Adams apart.  Trimp’s critique would be parroted by CanRC leaders for years to come.  However, what Trimp wrote was based on just one early book of Adams (Competent to Counsel) and, in the meantime, Adams had written several more books.  In some of those books, he explained himself further and negated many of the criticisms that Trimp offered.  I began reading Adams in university and was immediately impressed by his deep commitment to Scripture and the Reformed faith.

Jay Adams (born 1929) is the author of more than 100 books and remains an in-demand lecturer.  He did his seminary training at Reformed Episcopal Seminary and completed a Ph.D. at the University of Missouri.  From 1963-1983, he taught at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia.  Prior to that, he pastored a number of Presbyterian churches, including an Orthodox Presbyterian congregation.  The Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church currently holds his ministerial credentials.  He was the founder of the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation (CCEF) as well as the National Association of Nouthetic Counselors (NANC).  He’s currently involved with the Institute for Nouthetic Studies.

Why is Jay Adams important? For precisely the same reason I first appreciated Adams back in university:  he takes the Bible seriously.  He writes on a variety of subjects, from Christian living to counselling to preaching, but whatever the topic, sola Scriptura is his touchstone.  You may not always agree with his conclusions, but you have to agree that this is the right approach.  Basically, Adams takes the presuppositional approach of Cornelius Van Til and applies it to pastoral theology.  I’ve read about a dozen of Adams’ books and have learned a lot from them.

Where do I start? As mentioned, Competent to Counsel was one of Adam’s earliest books, published in 1970.  It’s an important book, but it does leave a lot of questions hanging.  If you’re interested in Adam’s counselling methodology, a better place to start would be A Theology of Christian Counseling: More Than Redemption.  A good follow-up would be How to Help People Change: The Four-Step Biblical Process.  A couple of other books that are more directed to the regular “person in the pew”:  What To Do on Thursday: A Layman’s Guide to the Practical Use of the Scriptures and The Biblical View of Self-Esteem, Self-Love, Self-Image.  Preachers and aspiring preachers need to read his Truth Applied: Application in Preaching.

What to look out for? Adams is a controversial figure.  On a formal level, some people have a difficult time getting past Adams’ tone and style.  For some, he’s too strident, too forceful, too critical, or too this or that.  Theologically, questions have sometimes been raised about Adam’s concept of habituation.  George M. Schwab wrote an article in the Winter 2003 Journal of Biblical Counseling (published by CCEF) alleging that Adams was more influenced by O. Hobart Mowrer and William Glasser than by Scripture on this point.  When someone has written as much as Adams, you can expect that there will be disagreements and critiques.  Meanwhile, another generation of counselors has arisen and some of these (esp. at CCEF) have modified Adams’ approach in what may be described as a kinder and gentler direction.  While this is not a serious theological faux pas, if I remember correctly, Adams is also postmillennial in his eschatology.

Writing about Jay Adams in a positive way is a risky endeavour.  For every positive point that one might rise, there will be a host of people who raise the negatives.  Adams is not infallible, but he does respect the infallible Bible and he is Reformed in his convictions.  I know that my life and  ministry have certainly been enriched by his writings.  Perhaps he has something to offer you too.

BTW, Jay Adams blogs here.