ACBC Theology Exam 24 - The Church and the Counseling Process
00:00:00.000 | to our 24th meeting of Intermediate Biblical Counseling.
00:00:04.700 | And just a joy to be able to gather tonight
00:00:09.080 | in this online format and in this online meeting
00:00:14.080 | and to continue our study of the word of God.
00:00:17.400 | We're looking at tonight, theology exam number 24,
00:00:20.920 | which deals with the subject of the church
00:00:24.120 | and the counseling process.
00:00:26.580 | And so a great topic for us to end our study this year on.
00:00:31.320 | It's been a wonderful time
00:00:33.260 | studying the word of God with you
00:00:34.640 | these last number of months.
00:00:36.680 | And by God's grace,
00:00:37.760 | we've made it to the end of the theology exam questions.
00:00:41.600 | And in January, we will be doing another class
00:00:45.240 | dealing with the 20 questions on the counseling exams,
00:00:49.480 | but that's for 2021.
00:00:52.640 | I'm just happy to get to the end of the theology exams
00:00:57.000 | with all of you.
00:00:57.880 | And just again, want to thank you for your faithfulness
00:01:00.660 | and for your perseverance through this year.
00:01:04.800 | And thank you for your diligent study of the word of God.
00:01:07.960 | And it's just been a joy to study these topics with you.
00:01:12.600 | Well, as I mentioned tonight,
00:01:13.680 | we're looking at the 24th theology exam question,
00:01:18.240 | which has to do with the church and the counseling process.
00:01:23.240 | You'll remember last week,
00:01:25.140 | we looked at the doctrine of the church
00:01:27.360 | and did a broad survey of what the church is
00:01:30.440 | and how the church is spoken of in scripture.
00:01:35.440 | We saw the different descriptions of the local church
00:01:40.520 | in scripture,
00:01:41.880 | that the church is the very bride and the body of Christ.
00:01:45.840 | The church is the flock of Christ.
00:01:48.280 | The church is the family of God.
00:01:50.240 | And also that the church is the very dwelling place of God,
00:01:54.680 | the New Testament temple
00:01:56.600 | as revealed in the New Testament scriptures.
00:02:00.740 | And just a wonderful look at the descriptions of the church
00:02:05.740 | as found in the New Testament.
00:02:09.220 | That was more of a general theological question.
00:02:12.960 | Describe what the church is
00:02:15.580 | and in this question,
00:02:17.240 | we're going to be looking at
00:02:18.800 | how does that relate to actual counseling ministry?
00:02:23.920 | How does our view of the local church,
00:02:27.080 | our ecclesiology, if you will,
00:02:29.840 | relate to our view of biblical counseling ministry?
00:02:34.840 | How should we view counseling ministry
00:02:39.000 | in light of the doctrine of the local church?
00:02:43.920 | And you have heard me,
00:02:45.860 | if you were in year one of ACBC training with me,
00:02:49.820 | year one training,
00:02:51.140 | then you have heard me say that counseling
00:02:53.500 | is a ministry of the local church
00:02:55.460 | and that the best counseling ministry
00:02:58.500 | occurs in the local church
00:03:00.740 | as an expression of the local church's ministry.
00:03:03.660 | The best counseling ministry occurs in accountability
00:03:07.060 | to the governance structure of the local church.
00:03:10.780 | The best counseling ministry occurs
00:03:12.840 | as the counseling ministry integrates
00:03:15.560 | into the life of the local church,
00:03:17.880 | into the preaching and the teaching ministries of the church
00:03:21.560 | as well as into the body life,
00:03:24.600 | the one another ministry of the local church.
00:03:28.480 | And so all of that is really the expression
00:03:31.300 | of the core conviction that underlies ACBC's ministry.
00:03:37.200 | We believe that counseling is a ministry of the local church
00:03:42.060 | and that the best counseling that occurs in this world
00:03:45.540 | occurs in the context of the local church's ministry.
00:03:50.540 | That is why I love ACBC as an organization.
00:03:56.580 | That is why I am committed to ACBC
00:04:00.220 | as a parish church organization
00:04:02.940 | that has come alongside the local church
00:04:06.780 | and to be a support to the local church.
00:04:10.900 | ACBC is very clear on its mission
00:04:15.580 | and also its core conviction
00:04:17.940 | that counseling ministry is to occur
00:04:21.540 | as an expression of the local church's ministry.
00:04:25.300 | So I love ACBC because of its commitment
00:04:29.340 | to the sufficiency of scripture for counseling ministry
00:04:32.940 | and also for the organization's robust ecclesiology,
00:04:37.940 | how the ministry of ACBC sees counseling ministry
00:04:44.020 | as a ministry of the church.
00:04:49.980 | So what we're asking you to do in theology exam number 24
00:04:54.500 | is to apply the doctrine of the local church
00:04:58.020 | that you have studied and articulated in the last exam
00:05:02.980 | and apply it to the actual practice of counseling ministry.
00:05:07.980 | So how does your doctrine of the local church
00:05:11.420 | shape and inform how you do counseling?
00:05:16.020 | Jesus said in Matthew 16, verse 18,
00:05:18.940 | "I will build my church
00:05:21.260 | "and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
00:05:25.000 | So we wanna build our counseling ministry
00:05:27.300 | not only upon the doctrine of the sufficiency of scripture,
00:05:31.680 | but also upon the doctrine of the church.
00:05:36.420 | And so this is a fitting end to a wonderful year of study.
00:05:41.420 | And I just wanna devote our time of study to the Lord.
00:05:45.500 | Let's pray together and let's ask the Lord
00:05:48.380 | to bless our time.
00:05:49.700 | Well, Father, we thank you for our time tonight
00:05:54.860 | and this hour that we can look at
00:05:57.580 | some very precious truths in scripture.
00:06:00.540 | And we thank you, Father,
00:06:02.100 | that tonight we are looking at a topic
00:06:05.080 | that is really near and dear to the heart of Christ.
00:06:09.440 | Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.
00:06:14.860 | The church is the very bride in the body of Christ
00:06:18.060 | bought with the blood of Christ.
00:06:20.700 | And it is the church that is the organization,
00:06:25.300 | the organism that is being built into a spiritual temple
00:06:30.020 | in this, the New Testament era.
00:06:31.900 | And we thank you for the promise
00:06:33.980 | that Christ will build his church
00:06:36.740 | and the gates of hell shall not stand against it.
00:06:39.960 | We thank you for the ministry of the church.
00:06:44.700 | We thank you for the preaching
00:06:46.620 | and the teaching ministry of the church.
00:06:50.180 | We thank you for the fellowship of the church.
00:06:52.300 | We thank you for the ordinances of the church,
00:06:55.860 | the Lord's table and baptism.
00:06:58.140 | We thank you for the mission of the church,
00:07:00.740 | which is to make disciples of all the nations,
00:07:03.820 | baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son
00:07:07.660 | and of the Holy Spirit.
00:07:08.860 | And we just thank you for the privilege
00:07:11.420 | of not only belonging to Christ,
00:07:14.100 | but also the privilege of belonging to the church.
00:07:18.320 | We pray that you would make us men and women
00:07:20.860 | who love the church, who are committed to the church
00:07:25.860 | and who express our counseling ministry
00:07:28.980 | as an extension of the local church's ministry.
00:07:33.460 | Help us to be committed to the churches
00:07:36.560 | that we are a part of.
00:07:38.520 | And we pray that Father, you would use this session
00:07:42.760 | to help us to think through the practical implications
00:07:48.120 | of this truth, that counseling ministry
00:07:52.060 | is a ministry of the church.
00:07:53.380 | And so we just thank you for this time,
00:07:55.620 | we commit it to you in Jesus' name, amen.
00:07:58.400 | - Amen, well, let's read together Theology Exam number 24.
00:08:04.860 | And the question is, what role should the church play
00:08:07.880 | in the counseling process?
00:08:11.300 | And so a number of good resources that I've listed for you
00:08:14.780 | on page one of your handout, the works by Wayne Grudem,
00:08:19.040 | Paul Toczkis and Heath Lambert,
00:08:21.480 | as well as David Powelson's article
00:08:23.560 | in the Journal of Biblical Counseling.
00:08:25.040 | All of those are very good resources
00:08:27.600 | that will help you think through this topic
00:08:29.900 | of how a counseling is a ministry of the local church.
00:08:34.640 | I also wanna commend to you the additional resources
00:08:38.220 | that I've placed on your handout
00:08:40.640 | and a really good blog post on this topic
00:08:44.520 | was written by Dr. Robert Jones,
00:08:46.560 | who was my professor at Southern Seminary.
00:08:50.800 | He has thought through this topic of church-based
00:08:54.360 | and church-centered biblical counseling ministry
00:08:57.120 | in some detail.
00:08:59.540 | And there's a part one as well as a part two
00:09:03.320 | to that blog post that's found
00:09:05.920 | at the Biblical Counseling Coalition website.
00:09:10.920 | A very helpful work.
00:09:12.360 | And I'm gonna go over some of his comments
00:09:15.960 | through the course of this session,
00:09:19.200 | but I did want to quote from his blog post for a moment.
00:09:23.920 | This isn't on your handout,
00:09:25.400 | but I'll just put it on the screen here.
00:09:28.200 | And he writes, "I love church-based counseling.
00:09:32.700 | Having done it for 30 years now,
00:09:34.960 | 19 as a lead pastor and the past 11 as an associate,
00:09:39.960 | I can assure you that there is nothing better
00:09:41.980 | than counseling in the context of a healthy local church.
00:09:46.920 | By church-based counseling, I mean, Christ-centered,
00:09:50.000 | biblical counseling provided for the members
00:09:52.380 | and visitors of a local church
00:09:54.960 | done by the trained leaders and members of that church
00:09:59.080 | with the goal of helping those members
00:10:01.000 | and visitors follow Christ
00:10:02.520 | and function as growing members of that congregation."
00:10:07.960 | And I love his definition of church-based counseling.
00:10:12.020 | It is Christ-centered biblical counseling
00:10:16.020 | provided for the members and visitors of a local church.
00:10:21.020 | Dr. Jones continues that,
00:10:23.980 | "While I thank the Lord for my brothers and sisters
00:10:26.220 | who counsel biblically as much as they're permitted to
00:10:30.340 | in para-church settings, private practice offices,
00:10:34.620 | and institutional settings,
00:10:36.820 | and I recognize their place in God's kingdom,
00:10:40.300 | none of those scenarios offers the depth and breadth of care
00:10:43.800 | that a sound biblical counseling church can provide."
00:10:48.800 | And I would agree with that assessment.
00:10:53.380 | He talks about how counseling ministry
00:10:58.380 | as an expression of the local church
00:11:00.340 | is able to integrate its ministry
00:11:02.760 | into all of the different ministries of the local church
00:11:07.300 | and therefore offers to a counselee
00:11:11.020 | what no standalone practice could offer.
00:11:15.800 | And I think as you'll see by the end of this session,
00:11:19.820 | I hope you will see how that is practically true.
00:11:23.860 | And I like the balance in this.
00:11:26.040 | We're not against para-church settings
00:11:28.060 | or private practice offices.
00:11:30.940 | We're not against institutional settings.
00:11:34.640 | We are not known for what we are against
00:11:37.800 | so much as what we are for.
00:11:39.380 | We are for a high view of the local church
00:11:42.920 | and a high view of the sufficiency of scripture.
00:11:46.420 | So that's just a very helpful blog
00:11:49.440 | that I would encourage you to read
00:11:50.860 | and think through on your own.
00:11:53.260 | I would encourage you for your essay purposes
00:11:55.640 | that if you were to take three or four
00:11:58.560 | of the 13 statements there,
00:12:02.080 | the 13 benefits of church-based biblical counseling
00:12:05.680 | and do your own reflection on that topic
00:12:10.520 | and even think through some benefits on your own
00:12:13.560 | and incorporate that into your theology exam,
00:12:18.080 | that would very much enrich your theology exam
00:12:22.680 | and really provide some material
00:12:25.160 | to write on this essay topic.
00:12:28.800 | Just a very helpful resource.
00:12:32.040 | And then on your handout there,
00:12:33.640 | I would highly recommend to you
00:12:35.800 | Milton Vincent's seminar,
00:12:38.360 | "Abounding in Hope and Able to Counsel."
00:12:41.640 | That was recorded at the IBCD conference
00:12:46.320 | and I had the privilege of sitting in on that seminar
00:12:49.520 | and just one of the best one-hour seminars
00:12:54.480 | that I have heard on the topic
00:12:56.280 | of church-based biblical counseling
00:12:59.200 | and how the believer is able to counsel
00:13:03.840 | because he or she has the full revelation of the gospel
00:13:08.840 | as recorded in the book of Romans
00:13:11.280 | as well as in the Old Testament
00:13:14.960 | and New Testament scriptures.
00:13:17.320 | So please get your hands on that seminar
00:13:20.680 | and refer to those notes.
00:13:23.000 | That is a very helpful work
00:13:25.280 | that will help you think through this topic.
00:13:27.320 | And then a couple of blog posts there,
00:13:29.200 | Ed Welch and Paul Toshkis have some good material
00:13:32.760 | on counseling one another
00:13:35.080 | as a ministry of the local church
00:13:37.000 | and the ministry of church discipline in the local church,
00:13:42.000 | which is, as we shall see,
00:13:44.840 | related to the counseling ministry in some degree.
00:13:52.720 | So let me move to page two of your handout
00:13:55.260 | and let's talk through the role of the church
00:13:59.040 | in counseling ministry.
00:14:01.840 | What do we mean by the church being central
00:14:06.640 | in counseling ministry?
00:14:07.960 | And what do we mean by church-based
00:14:10.080 | and church-centered counseling ministry?
00:14:13.440 | Well, the main idea that we're communicating
00:14:15.740 | in this session is simply this,
00:14:17.300 | that biblical counseling is a ministry of the local church.
00:14:21.540 | Biblical counseling is a ministry of the local church.
00:14:26.040 | And at the risk of overstating the obvious,
00:14:31.040 | we want to promote a church-centered view
00:14:34.640 | of biblical counseling.
00:14:38.160 | It was back in 1970 when Jay Adams published
00:14:41.880 | his landmark work entitled "Competent to Counsel."
00:14:46.260 | And in that day, Adams was responding to this idea
00:14:50.440 | that the church has a lot to offer
00:14:54.020 | in terms of biblical teaching
00:14:55.540 | and the church is tasked to evangelize the world.
00:14:58.560 | But when it comes to life's problems
00:15:01.400 | and helping people with the issues of life,
00:15:03.360 | the church did not have the resources to do that ministry
00:15:08.200 | and needed to refer their members outside of the church
00:15:12.020 | into the secular world.
00:15:14.700 | And the church needed to tell its members
00:15:18.000 | to receive help from secular psychologists.
00:15:21.560 | That was the prominent idea in Adams' day.
00:15:26.100 | And he wrote this landmark work, "Competent to Counsel."
00:15:30.280 | The fundamental conviction that Adams promoted in his book
00:15:36.060 | was that the church was indeed able to counsel
00:15:39.960 | and had the resources to help people with their problems.
00:15:44.320 | And Adams based his conviction
00:15:47.880 | off the teaching of Romans 15, verse 14,
00:15:51.140 | where Paul says, "I myself am satisfied about you,
00:15:54.120 | "my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness,
00:15:57.180 | "filled with all knowledge,
00:15:59.460 | "and able or competent to instruct."
00:16:03.280 | The Greek word is nutheteo, to admonish.
00:16:06.320 | It could be translated to counsel.
00:16:09.840 | You are able to instruct one another.
00:16:14.460 | And that term, nutheteo, became the basis
00:16:16.800 | for the counseling movement, nuthetic counseling.
00:16:21.800 | That term is derived from the Greek term
00:16:24.840 | used in Romans 15, verse 14.
00:16:28.120 | The term nutheteo is used in Colossians 3, verse 16,
00:16:33.120 | where Paul says, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you
00:16:35.520 | "richly, teaching," and nutheteo, admonishing,
00:16:39.720 | "one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns
00:16:42.960 | "and spiritual songs with thankfulness
00:16:44.780 | "in your hearts to God."
00:16:48.160 | And Adams said in that work
00:16:51.380 | that the task of nutheteo belongs to those members
00:16:56.380 | in the local church.
00:17:01.480 | He wrote that the thesis of this book
00:17:03.840 | is that qualified Christian counselors,
00:17:06.800 | properly trained in the scriptures,
00:17:08.480 | are competent to counsel,
00:17:12.240 | more competent than psychiatrists or anyone else.
00:17:17.240 | And that is the fundamental conviction
00:17:20.300 | that launched the biblical counseling movement.
00:17:22.660 | It was a radical idea back in 1970,
00:17:26.520 | and it continues to be a radical idea even today.
00:17:31.520 | Believers are able to counsel.
00:17:35.240 | The problems that are addressed by secular psychology
00:17:39.360 | are the very same problems
00:17:40.960 | that are addressed by the scriptures.
00:17:44.280 | And this ministry of admonishing one another,
00:17:48.960 | speaking the truth to one another,
00:17:50.920 | belongs as a ministry of the church.
00:17:54.560 | The term nutheteo comes from the Greek words
00:17:58.560 | nous, meaning mind, and tithimi, meaning to place.
00:18:02.940 | It literally can be translated to place in the mind.
00:18:07.640 | And the idea there is to lay it on the mind
00:18:10.320 | or the heart of a person
00:18:11.840 | with a view towards a change in conduct.
00:18:15.920 | Nutheteo could be described as the ministry
00:18:19.040 | of putting sense into someone's head.
00:18:23.700 | So that's what we do in counseling ministry.
00:18:25.760 | We speak the truth in love,
00:18:28.120 | and we seek to bring biblical truth
00:18:30.600 | to bear upon people's lives
00:18:33.320 | through helpful conversations
00:18:35.260 | with a view towards a change of belief and conduct.
00:18:40.260 | You'll note there that Paul simply includes
00:18:44.180 | that ministry of admonishing one another
00:18:47.440 | as the one-anothering that occurs in the local church.
00:18:52.440 | There are 59 one-anothers in the scripture,
00:18:57.400 | 59 commands that call us into the fellowship
00:19:01.540 | of the local church and call us to build relationships
00:19:05.200 | in the local church.
00:19:07.800 | A sampling on your hand out there,
00:19:10.120 | love one another, live in harmony with one another,
00:19:13.720 | welcome one another, care for one another,
00:19:16.240 | greet one another, through love serve one another,
00:19:20.000 | bear one another's burdens
00:19:21.440 | and so fulfill the law of Christ,
00:19:23.240 | encourage one another, build one another up,
00:19:26.000 | pray for one another, exhort one another,
00:19:28.960 | and you can add to that list,
00:19:30.680 | newt the tale or admonish one another,
00:19:35.480 | speak truth into one another's lives.
00:19:40.480 | All of those commands taken together
00:19:44.920 | bring to bear upon our lives
00:19:48.320 | and our understanding of the Christian life
00:19:49.740 | that we cannot live our Christian lives
00:19:51.960 | in isolation from relationships in the local church.
00:19:56.960 | And so counseling ministry is meant to work in conjunction
00:20:02.160 | with all of the other one-another commands in scripture.
00:20:06.280 | We counsel one another as we pray for one another.
00:20:11.320 | We counsel one another as we care for one another.
00:20:15.040 | We counsel one another as we greet one another.
00:20:18.120 | There's been many times in my own counseling ministry
00:20:20.340 | where I have the joy of meeting with a counselee
00:20:24.520 | in a counseling room on a Thursday morning
00:20:27.920 | or a Thursday evening,
00:20:29.160 | and then have the opportunity to greet that counselee
00:20:32.280 | on a Sunday morning at the counseling
00:20:34.520 | during the worship service.
00:20:36.840 | We operate in conjunction with the ministry
00:20:41.840 | of the local church.
00:20:44.760 | And so we counsel one another as we exhort one another
00:20:49.360 | and as we encourage one another.
00:20:53.040 | So this is why we wanna encourage you
00:20:54.880 | to have a broad view of counseling ministry
00:20:57.120 | as well as a narrow view of counseling ministry.
00:20:59.960 | The broad view of counseling ministry
00:21:02.920 | is that counseling happens all the time.
00:21:04.920 | Counseling happens in coffee shops.
00:21:06.800 | It happens in living rooms.
00:21:08.120 | It happens at breakfast at Denny's or at Flappy Jacks.
00:21:12.500 | It happens as you text or as you call one another
00:21:17.500 | or FaceTime one another.
00:21:18.960 | It happens in small group meetings.
00:21:20.640 | It happens after a worship service
00:21:24.080 | at as you eat donuts with other believers in Christ.
00:21:27.160 | Counseling happens all the time in the conversations
00:21:30.160 | that you and I have on a weekly daily basis
00:21:33.920 | where we share life together with other believers in Christ.
00:21:36.960 | That's the broad view of counseling ministry.
00:21:39.720 | And then there is a narrow aspect of counseling ministry
00:21:42.560 | where counseling happens in structured counseling sessions
00:21:46.760 | that are in an office or in a counseling room
00:21:51.160 | in which you organize 12 to 15 sessions
00:21:54.400 | and walk through a very specific issue of life.
00:21:59.400 | There is a broad aspect and there is a narrow aspect.
00:22:03.040 | And one of the benefits of the certification process
00:22:06.880 | is you get better at the narrow aspect
00:22:09.560 | of counseling ministry.
00:22:11.240 | And guess what?
00:22:12.080 | That makes you better at the broader aspects
00:22:14.600 | of counseling ministry.
00:22:15.720 | If you can do 12 to 15 sessions with a counselee
00:22:19.520 | dealing with an intense issue of life,
00:22:22.320 | then you will be able to handle that conversation
00:22:25.800 | at Flappy Jacks or at Starbucks or wherever you may be.
00:22:29.920 | And so counseling ministry is the ministry of the church
00:22:34.920 | happening all the time in the church.
00:22:39.620 | So Adams asked this question.
00:22:42.120 | Why would we go outside the church
00:22:43.900 | when addressing the real problems and issues of life?
00:22:47.680 | I'll just reason theologically for a moment.
00:22:52.360 | If the church is the very body and the bride of Christ,
00:22:56.600 | if the church is the very flock
00:22:58.880 | that belongs to the shepherd who is Christ,
00:23:03.240 | if the flock is the family of God,
00:23:05.200 | if it is the dwelling place of God
00:23:07.140 | in which the spirit of God dwells
00:23:09.420 | and empowers effective ministry,
00:23:12.320 | then why would you forfeit all of the benefits
00:23:15.800 | and the blessings that belong to the church
00:23:17.920 | and send your people outside of the church
00:23:21.040 | to address the problems and the issues of life?
00:23:25.240 | We're not against the idea of medication.
00:23:29.080 | We're not against the idea of,
00:23:31.920 | at some point, partnering with a physician.
00:23:35.280 | We're not against some of the insights
00:23:38.040 | that secular psychology has to offer
00:23:40.220 | in terms of how people behave.
00:23:42.840 | Even J. Adams noted that secular psychology
00:23:46.920 | makes good and helpful observations about human behavior.
00:23:50.320 | And so we wanna be balanced with this,
00:23:54.300 | and we're not anti all of these other things
00:23:59.180 | that go on in the world.
00:24:00.540 | What we are saying as we are affirming
00:24:03.680 | the sufficiency of scripture
00:24:05.220 | and the centrality of the church
00:24:07.600 | and the plan and program of God
00:24:09.440 | is that ministry belongs to the church,
00:24:14.440 | that lives are changed as the scriptures
00:24:18.660 | are brought to bear upon people's lives,
00:24:21.840 | and that the counseling issues
00:24:23.480 | that you and I face in the world today
00:24:26.560 | are issues that are addressed by the scriptures
00:24:30.040 | and can be addressed in the local church.
00:24:34.440 | And so this was Adam's statement
00:24:37.600 | and the one that launched the biblical counseling movement.
00:24:41.760 | Now, with that said,
00:24:43.800 | let me move to page three of your handout
00:24:46.520 | and just talk through some practical implications of this.
00:24:50.600 | The key passage, as we noted,
00:24:53.320 | that Adams entitled his landmark work after
00:24:58.320 | is Romans 15, verse 14, where Paul says,
00:25:03.200 | "I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers,"
00:25:06.640 | that means Christians,
00:25:08.560 | "that you yourselves are full of goodness,"
00:25:12.280 | and that word talks about practical help
00:25:14.800 | or practical benefit,
00:25:16.820 | "that you are filled with all knowledge,"
00:25:20.800 | which refers to the knowledge of the gospel,
00:25:24.280 | the knowledge of Christ,
00:25:26.200 | the knowledge of all the doctrines
00:25:27.900 | that he has spoken of in the book of Romans,
00:25:31.000 | the knowledge of the truths of justification by faith alone,
00:25:35.360 | the knowledge of the truth of glorification,
00:25:39.440 | which will occur at some time in the future.
00:25:43.320 | You are filled with all of this spiritual knowledge,
00:25:46.720 | the knowledge of Christ,
00:25:47.960 | the knowledge of the truth of God.
00:25:50.400 | You're full of goodness
00:25:52.200 | because you are filled with practical help
00:25:56.120 | based upon your knowledge of Christ and his word.
00:26:00.000 | And therefore, Paul says,
00:26:01.600 | "I'm satisfied about you,
00:26:04.920 | and you are able to newt the tale to instruct one another."
00:26:09.920 | And he just makes the statement
00:26:13.040 | that the believer is competent to counsel,
00:26:18.000 | that we should not be intimidated
00:26:19.560 | by those who have some professional certification.
00:26:24.560 | We should understand that
00:26:28.520 | if we have been given the scriptures
00:26:30.300 | and given the ministry of the Holy Spirit,
00:26:33.000 | that we are able to give instruction from God's word.
00:26:37.840 | And this statement is expounded upon
00:26:43.760 | by Milton Vincent in his excellent seminar,
00:26:48.360 | "Abounding in Hope and Able to Counsel."
00:26:51.060 | And what Pastor Milton does in that seminar
00:26:55.440 | is he notes that it appears
00:26:58.160 | that even in the realm of secular psychology,
00:27:02.440 | that different models of secular psychology,
00:27:06.360 | different methods of psychotherapy
00:27:11.060 | do have some limited temporal benefit.
00:27:16.060 | He notes there that there seems to be,
00:27:18.400 | and this is just kind of a broad observation,
00:27:21.440 | that when a person, even an unbeliever,
00:27:24.120 | goes to see a secular psychologist or a secular therapist,
00:27:28.280 | there is some limited benefit of a temporal nature.
00:27:33.280 | And he also notes there that it appears
00:27:37.960 | that it doesn't seem to matter
00:27:40.760 | what the content of that therapy
00:27:45.760 | is in the actual delivery of a theory
00:27:52.320 | that addresses the person's issues.
00:27:55.240 | It doesn't seem to matter what the content is,
00:27:59.080 | what the common thread that surrounds the limited benefit
00:28:03.760 | that people receive from secular psychology
00:28:07.280 | seems to be a live person who seems to care
00:28:12.280 | or expresses some kind of care
00:28:15.700 | that devotes a certain amount of time to a specific person,
00:28:21.680 | that the common denominator
00:28:23.840 | behind how people receive help from secular psychology
00:28:28.840 | doesn't seem to be the exact model
00:28:31.760 | or the exact theories being espoused
00:28:34.560 | in the counseling delivery,
00:28:37.680 | but it is just, there's a person to talk to,
00:28:41.640 | and that person appears to care,
00:28:44.200 | and that person gives attention,
00:28:46.620 | and that person, for at least a structured amount of time,
00:28:49.760 | devotes himself or herself to addressing your problems.
00:28:54.760 | After doing this survey of secular psychology,
00:29:01.240 | Vincent makes this statement
00:29:03.040 | that I think is very helpful for us to think through.
00:29:06.640 | He says, "If the common ingredient
00:29:08.640 | that makes all models of psychotherapy
00:29:12.160 | at least somewhat helpful is a caring human being
00:29:16.360 | who is willing to listen and talk and help,
00:29:20.600 | then the church should be a dynamic place
00:29:23.120 | that is bristling with power to help people.
00:29:25.800 | Those of us who have been saved by Christ
00:29:28.920 | are called to be quick to listen and slow to talk,
00:29:32.180 | and when we talk, we speak the truth in love,
00:29:35.480 | and the truth we speak is the gospel of Jesus Christ,
00:29:39.520 | which is the power of God into salvation
00:29:42.780 | to everyone who believes."
00:29:45.920 | Just a balanced view there of secular psychology
00:29:50.080 | and how it would contrast
00:29:52.520 | with the church's counseling ministry.
00:29:54.780 | Vincent knows that it seems that even secular psychology
00:29:58.240 | can be somewhat helpful in some limited temporal sense
00:30:03.240 | because there is a live person
00:30:07.100 | who is caring for another person,
00:30:12.600 | and if that is true under common grace,
00:30:16.240 | then how much more under saving grace
00:30:20.200 | should the church be a dynamic place
00:30:23.160 | that is bristling with power to help other people?
00:30:27.200 | For we offer not only a caring person
00:30:30.640 | who is devoted to help another person,
00:30:33.840 | but we also offer the ministry of the Holy Spirit
00:30:37.040 | and the truth of the scriptures
00:30:38.480 | and the gospel of Jesus Christ.
00:30:40.440 | How much more ought the church to be a place
00:30:44.360 | that is abounding in hope
00:30:47.020 | and is filled with believers
00:30:50.060 | who are equipped to counsel others
00:30:53.000 | and to give them the life-changing truths of scripture?
00:30:56.920 | If the world can produce a minimal level of helpfulness
00:31:03.000 | under common grace,
00:31:04.400 | how much more ought the church to be a place
00:31:08.680 | that is filled with life-changing counsel
00:31:11.720 | under saving grace?
00:31:14.480 | For we offer people not only a caring human being,
00:31:19.240 | but a Christ-like spirit-filled counseling ministry
00:31:23.820 | that is empowered by the scriptures
00:31:25.560 | and the gospel of Jesus Christ.
00:31:28.320 | And so Paul says here,
00:31:30.640 | you are able to instruct one another.
00:31:37.020 | William Henderson has made this comment,
00:31:38.740 | "Today the word counseling is heard again and again.
00:31:42.940 | Ever so many books and articles
00:31:44.720 | have been written about it.
00:31:45.900 | The apostle here reveals
00:31:47.260 | that there was a mutual counseling already in his day.
00:31:51.900 | And it was of a high character.
00:31:54.260 | By and large, the members of the Roman church
00:31:56.500 | were competent to admonish one another."
00:32:01.500 | And I love Ed Welch's statement
00:32:05.340 | in towards the middle of page three.
00:32:07.660 | He says, "No longer do people need a special anointing
00:32:11.860 | to offer a prophetic word of direction and wisdom.
00:32:16.060 | Now we are part of the new covenant
00:32:18.020 | in which the spirit has been given to all
00:32:20.940 | who have put their faith in Jesus.
00:32:23.580 | God is pleased to have the church mature
00:32:25.780 | through the ministry of weak people
00:32:28.480 | who seem unqualified in the world's eyes.
00:32:31.820 | Most likely this is already happening in your church.
00:32:35.220 | People share their struggles with each other.
00:32:37.900 | People pray with each other.
00:32:39.940 | This is certainly happening with the women in the church.
00:32:42.340 | Sometimes it is happening with the men.
00:32:45.020 | We want it to happen more and with growing love and wisdom."
00:32:49.620 | And here is Welch's definition of biblical counseling.
00:32:53.140 | He says, "Counseling is wise and helpful conversations."
00:32:58.140 | That is counseling.
00:32:59.580 | I like that definition.
00:33:01.260 | Wise and helpful conversations in surrounding God's word
00:33:06.260 | and relating it to life.
00:33:10.420 | He says, "We all need this and need to give it."
00:33:15.420 | This is a view of counseling ministry that is,
00:33:20.620 | again, was radical in 1970 and that is still radical today.
00:33:30.140 | So with that said, let me move to page four of your handout.
00:33:35.140 | And what I wanna do is actually segue a little bit
00:33:39.580 | into a brief overview of Robert Jones's blog,
00:33:43.540 | his "13 Benefits of Church-Based Biblical Counseling."
00:33:47.580 | As I thought about this subject,
00:33:50.060 | I thought that Jones does a fantastic job
00:33:53.260 | of just giving an overview or a big picture
00:33:56.660 | of what does church-based counseling ministry look like.
00:34:01.180 | And I wanna do a brief overview of that here
00:34:04.340 | and then come back to page four of your handout
00:34:07.420 | and then highlight a few of these benefits
00:34:10.820 | in greater detail.
00:34:12.200 | But as I mentioned, you would do well to reflect
00:34:16.700 | on these benefits on your own and perhaps use them
00:34:19.340 | as a prompt to write your own thoughts on this issue.
00:34:23.340 | But the question would be,
00:34:25.140 | what are the benefits of church-based counseling
00:34:29.020 | as opposed to counseling,
00:34:32.380 | which is done outside of the local church
00:34:34.580 | or even counseling that is done as a standalone ministry?
00:34:39.580 | And just run through these.
00:34:42.140 | I think you'll get the big picture
00:34:43.500 | and this will be helpful to think through this topic.
00:34:46.320 | But number one would be the direct oversight
00:34:48.780 | of God-ordained shepherds.
00:34:51.700 | And he's referring there to the elders
00:34:53.580 | and the pastors of the local church.
00:34:56.900 | Here at Kindred Church,
00:34:58.980 | our counseling ministries operates underneath the authority
00:35:02.180 | of the elders and pastors of the church.
00:35:04.980 | We are accountable to the governance structure
00:35:07.460 | of the local church.
00:35:09.540 | And that is a healthy accountability that I rejoice in
00:35:13.380 | and I thank God for.
00:35:18.340 | We have tremendous benefits that flow
00:35:21.060 | out of this accountability to the elders
00:35:23.380 | and the pastors of the local church.
00:35:26.180 | This keeps us as a ministry theologically grounded.
00:35:29.940 | We are accountable to the doctrinal statement of our church.
00:35:33.860 | We are accountable to the bylaws of our local church.
00:35:38.860 | And it not only keeps our counseling ministry accountable,
00:35:43.900 | it keeps our counselors accountable
00:35:47.500 | that they must be accountable as to their doctrine
00:35:51.380 | and as to their conduct in the local church.
00:35:55.340 | We seek to affirm counselors as ACBC certified counselors
00:36:01.300 | who have a good reputation in the local church.
00:36:05.340 | And this is a question ACBC asks us as pastors
00:36:09.580 | to answer regarding our counselors on a yearly basis
00:36:14.380 | is what is your counselor's reputation in the local church?
00:36:18.620 | And that's for the simple reason
00:36:20.900 | that we don't want to affirm biblical counselors
00:36:24.500 | who have poor reputations in the local church.
00:36:28.580 | And I thank God for the counselors in my ministry
00:36:32.300 | and just thank God that each of them
00:36:34.620 | have stellar reputations in the local church
00:36:39.260 | and they have built up those reputations
00:36:42.020 | over years of faithful service in the church.
00:36:45.700 | So the first benefit would be the direct oversight
00:36:50.460 | of God ordained shepherds.
00:36:52.620 | A second benefit would be consistency
00:36:55.780 | between private counseling and the public preaching
00:36:59.740 | and teaching of God's word.
00:37:01.580 | This would be the idea that we want our counselees
00:37:05.900 | to be not only coming for counseling,
00:37:08.140 | but also to be sitting in worship service
00:37:12.020 | on a Sunday morning, hearing the word of God proclaimed.
00:37:16.300 | We want them to be in essence hearing the same thing
00:37:19.780 | on a Sunday morning in a group setting
00:37:22.820 | that they are hearing in an individual meeting
00:37:27.820 | during the week.
00:37:29.820 | It is the partnership of this public ministry of God's word
00:37:33.220 | and the private ministry of God's word
00:37:35.380 | that produces life change in the counselees life.
00:37:40.380 | And so counselees need to hear both preaching,
00:37:44.620 | Caruso ministry and counseling, Nutheteo ministry.
00:37:49.620 | And it's helpful when both of those ministries
00:37:55.700 | are coming from the same doctrinal viewpoint.
00:38:01.300 | It's helpful when this isn't always the case
00:38:04.340 | in counseling ministry because we do counsel people
00:38:07.380 | who are coming from different churches,
00:38:09.700 | but it is helpful when the counselee is hearing
00:38:12.700 | from the pulpit, a high view of the authority of scripture
00:38:16.380 | and then hearing the same doctrinal viewpoint
00:38:18.900 | in the counseling ministry that there's consistency
00:38:22.260 | between private and public ministry of God's word.
00:38:27.260 | Oftentimes an ideal setting is my counselee
00:38:32.300 | is sitting in a worship service on Sunday morning,
00:38:35.140 | hearing the preaching of God's word.
00:38:37.140 | And then even we can bring into the counseling session
00:38:40.660 | applications of Sunday's message to the specific issue
00:38:44.980 | that the counselee is facing.
00:38:47.100 | I've been surprised and amazed at how many times
00:38:50.700 | the Sunday morning message is directly relevant
00:38:53.380 | to what my counselee is going through in his life.
00:38:58.580 | And so that is a very helpful partnership
00:39:02.700 | between public preaching and private counseling.
00:39:06.700 | Number three would be God-centered Christ-exalting worship.
00:39:13.420 | Just note here that you're not gonna get this
00:39:16.540 | in a standalone counseling session,
00:39:18.840 | but getting your counselee involved
00:39:22.900 | on a Sunday morning worship service
00:39:26.340 | gets them exposed to the corporate worship of the church
00:39:29.820 | and they're exposed to
00:39:31.460 | God-centered Christ-exalting worship.
00:39:35.700 | Now, why is this helpful in counseling ministry?
00:39:38.920 | It's helpful because as we have learned
00:39:43.180 | in the fundamentals of biblical counseling,
00:39:45.380 | the deepest heart issues are always theological
00:39:49.300 | and the deepest heart issues are always related to worship.
00:39:55.300 | Who or what do we worship as the Puritans used to put it?
00:40:00.300 | Who do we give our ultimate allegiance and affections?
00:40:06.300 | One of the counselors in our ministry was commenting
00:40:09.740 | that the common thread seems to be
00:40:13.420 | that the heart issues deal with idolatry and unbelief.
00:40:19.420 | Those are the dominant heart issues
00:40:21.260 | that come up in counseling.
00:40:24.100 | And I would agree with that assessment
00:40:26.420 | that usually at the deepest heart level
00:40:30.900 | of a counselee's life,
00:40:33.780 | there are issues related to unbelief and idolatry
00:40:38.260 | that the counselee is worshiping or worth shipping
00:40:42.860 | something other than the true and the living God.
00:40:47.860 | How do you deal with these matters of the heart?
00:40:50.540 | How do you deal with idolatry and worship issues?
00:40:54.900 | Well, you have to get the counselee
00:40:56.500 | into the corporate worship of the church
00:40:59.180 | and you have to get them exposed to corporate worship.
00:41:04.180 | God-centered Christ exalting worship
00:41:07.380 | has a wonderful way of addressing the counseling issues
00:41:12.380 | that we are facing.
00:41:15.900 | Jones even writes that this comment
00:41:18.940 | is a little tongue in cheek,
00:41:20.100 | but the idea is good.
00:41:22.180 | He writes and I quote that a biblical counseling church
00:41:25.020 | offers two counseling sessions every week,
00:41:28.580 | a kind of Sunday morning group therapy time
00:41:33.220 | for an assembly of recovering idolaters
00:41:36.500 | and then a private session during the week.
00:41:39.700 | He says that's a little bit of a humorous observation,
00:41:44.140 | but the idea is good.
00:41:45.700 | You need both the group meeting of a Sunday morning
00:41:48.680 | and also the private meeting with a counselor.
00:41:52.700 | Number four would be Christ's ordinances of baptism
00:41:57.700 | and the Lord's supper,
00:41:59.780 | which are some of the most powerful moments
00:42:01.820 | in the life of a church.
00:42:04.100 | I've had the privilege of administrating the baptisms
00:42:07.460 | here at Kindred Church for the last five years
00:42:10.940 | and also been involved in leading the Lord's supper
00:42:13.740 | and just a tremendous joy to be part of these ordinances.
00:42:18.740 | It never gets old.
00:42:22.040 | In fact, these ordinances grow more and more meaningful
00:42:26.120 | as the years go by.
00:42:28.420 | And the truth is that some of our counselees
00:42:31.440 | do need to be baptized.
00:42:34.200 | And part of the counseling process
00:42:35.940 | is to instruct them in the ordinance of baptism
00:42:39.600 | and just to let them know that that is the first
00:42:42.340 | and most simplest commandment that Jesus gives
00:42:44.600 | to a believer in Christ.
00:42:47.160 | And we can't progress to the greater commandments
00:42:50.400 | if we don't obey Christ in the first
00:42:52.860 | and simplest commandment, which is to be baptized.
00:42:57.860 | We've had people in our church say that,
00:43:01.320 | well, I wanna work with children
00:43:02.860 | or I wanna be involved in working with youth,
00:43:05.760 | but I haven't been baptized and I don't plan to be baptized.
00:43:09.560 | And our response is, if you're not willing to be obedient
00:43:13.400 | to the most basic command in the Christian life,
00:43:17.100 | then how can we entrust children
00:43:19.280 | to your spiritual influence?
00:43:22.500 | What indeed are you going to teach our children
00:43:25.180 | that the word of God does not need to be obeyed?
00:43:29.920 | That's not the message we want our children to hear.
00:43:32.580 | So we just encourage people to be baptized
00:43:35.340 | and to partake of the Lord's table.
00:43:38.420 | And sometimes there have been occasions
00:43:40.840 | where we will instruct our counselees to be baptized
00:43:44.800 | as part of the counseling process,
00:43:46.800 | that this is actually going to be helpful for you
00:43:49.700 | to grow in sanctification if you obey Christ
00:43:52.480 | in this very important ordinance.
00:43:57.340 | A fifth benefit would be formative and restorative
00:44:02.360 | or redemptive church discipline.
00:44:05.320 | I have some material on that subject in your handout,
00:44:08.200 | but I'll just mention it here.
00:44:09.900 | When and if we have a counselee
00:44:12.920 | who's caught in unrepentant sin
00:44:15.380 | and is unwilling to repent and deal with that sin issue,
00:44:19.520 | then a church-based counseling ministry has a recourse
00:44:24.200 | to bring that to the next stage of church discipline
00:44:28.600 | and to bring some of that spiritual pressure
00:44:30.920 | upon the counselee's life.
00:44:32.960 | Now, I thank God that at least in the last five years
00:44:35.880 | of my ministry here at Kindred
00:44:38.320 | and in the Kindred Counseling Center,
00:44:41.000 | we have not had to discipline any counselee
00:44:44.460 | that comes in for church discipline
00:44:46.280 | and or comes in for counseling ministry.
00:44:49.760 | No one comes in for church discipline,
00:44:51.260 | but they come in for counseling ministry.
00:44:53.320 | We have not had to institute church discipline
00:44:55.800 | for any of our counselees as of yet.
00:44:59.520 | And so I do wanna be balanced with this.
00:45:01.680 | We don't wanna train counselors
00:45:03.480 | who are always threatening their counselees
00:45:06.000 | with church discipline if they don't do their homework
00:45:08.640 | or if they don't show up on time
00:45:09.880 | or if they don't make radical change in a week or two.
00:45:13.800 | That's not the tone that we wanna set.
00:45:16.280 | The rule is patience and long-suffering
00:45:21.440 | and waiting for the counselee
00:45:24.120 | to take those steps towards obedience.
00:45:27.720 | But there is a framework, however,
00:45:29.900 | and there is an accountability structure in place
00:45:32.440 | that we operate as a ministry of the local church
00:45:35.120 | and therefore we do have the right,
00:45:38.040 | if we have a situation where there is blatant,
00:45:41.560 | unrepentant sin that's not being repented of
00:45:44.760 | or not being dealt with,
00:45:45.840 | then we do have recourse to bring the pressure
00:45:49.780 | of church discipline upon that situation.
00:45:52.320 | And all of that is recorded
00:45:54.280 | in our consent to counsel documents.
00:45:57.920 | And that, by the way, is a very helpful accountability
00:46:02.920 | to live under that we do live in a local church
00:46:08.960 | that practices church discipline.
00:46:13.000 | Number six would be the fellowship, encouragement,
00:46:17.400 | an example of mature fellow believers.
00:46:20.580 | We can actually assign as homework
00:46:25.280 | to ask a counselee to join a small group.
00:46:28.980 | We can even get really specific in our homework assignments
00:46:32.640 | that some of our counselors have even gotten so specific
00:46:36.480 | as to say to our counselee,
00:46:38.160 | "We want you to join a small group
00:46:39.720 | "and then we want you to stay after the small group,
00:46:43.600 | "the formal time ends,
00:46:45.000 | "and we want you to stay during the snack time
00:46:46.980 | "and talk to two to three people,
00:46:49.680 | "ask them what their prayer requests are."
00:46:52.020 | You can get that very specific in counseling ministry
00:46:55.380 | as part of the homework to get people involved
00:46:58.540 | in the fellowship of the local church
00:47:00.720 | and just bring that resource to bear
00:47:02.900 | upon the counselee's life.
00:47:06.420 | We've just noted this,
00:47:07.520 | that the two things that are very common
00:47:10.680 | in counseling ministry is one,
00:47:13.500 | our counselees are not reading the word of God
00:47:15.660 | on a daily basis.
00:47:17.400 | And number two, they're just living isolated lives,
00:47:21.280 | that they don't have relationships in the local church.
00:47:24.460 | And so if we can assign homework
00:47:26.500 | that will help them to get into the word of God
00:47:28.760 | on a daily basis,
00:47:30.140 | and then get into the flow of relationships
00:47:32.560 | and fellowship in the local church,
00:47:34.620 | we will have helped them build the foundations
00:47:38.100 | of their spiritual life.
00:47:39.220 | And many counselees,
00:47:40.880 | just from those two items being dealt with in their lives
00:47:44.540 | do grow in their counseling issue.
00:47:46.980 | Even if we haven't addressed the specific issue
00:47:49.660 | of anxiety or anger or conflict resolution,
00:47:53.200 | just getting them into the word on a daily basis,
00:47:56.180 | getting them into fellowship
00:47:58.340 | brings tremendous spiritual benefits to their lives.
00:48:02.340 | And so that is another benefit.
00:48:04.420 | Number seven would be existing facilities and office space.
00:48:08.120 | As a related note,
00:48:11.320 | a church-based counseling ministry is ideally funded
00:48:16.080 | by the offerings of the members of the church.
00:48:20.520 | And so typically we offer our ministry for free.
00:48:24.560 | I'm always, I'm often asked the question,
00:48:27.460 | do we do this as a paid ministry
00:48:31.360 | or can we expect to make money off counseling ministry
00:48:36.360 | in the church?
00:48:37.240 | And typically my basic response is,
00:48:41.120 | it's similar to the public ministry of God's word.
00:48:44.000 | We don't charge for people to come
00:48:47.440 | and hear the word of God on a Sunday morning.
00:48:49.640 | We don't charge admission for people to do that.
00:48:53.760 | Even though what we offer them
00:48:55.280 | in the preaching of God's word is invaluable.
00:48:58.080 | We're not charging tickets.
00:48:59.580 | We're not selling tickets to come and hear the word of God
00:49:04.580 | on a Sunday morning.
00:49:06.200 | And similarly with private ministry of God's word,
00:49:09.660 | we don't charge for our counseling ministry.
00:49:13.080 | At times with non-members,
00:49:15.020 | we might give a suggested donation
00:49:18.040 | to the counseling ministry.
00:49:19.320 | And definitely if a counselee feels led
00:49:22.240 | to give a freewill offering out of gratitude
00:49:25.600 | to what they have received in counseling,
00:49:29.200 | we certainly encourage them to do that.
00:49:30.680 | And we certainly will receive that offering,
00:49:32.960 | but that's a different motivational structure
00:49:36.760 | than if a counseling ministry charges
00:49:39.560 | for its counseling ministry.
00:49:41.820 | And I know there's a little bit of differing perspectives,
00:49:45.980 | even in the biblical counseling world
00:49:47.560 | on this particular subject,
00:49:49.840 | but just to let you know where I've landed
00:49:51.480 | after many discussions on this is,
00:49:55.160 | I just kind of landed with an understanding
00:49:59.640 | that if we don't charge
00:50:01.080 | for the public ministry of God's word,
00:50:03.680 | then generally speaking,
00:50:05.720 | I'm comfortable with a view of counseling that says,
00:50:08.000 | we don't charge for the private ministry of God's word.
00:50:12.820 | And on a practical note, if we did charge,
00:50:15.060 | that would introduce a lot of different complexities
00:50:18.740 | as to how we would have to set up our ministry.
00:50:22.340 | And I would rather avoid that if possible,
00:50:26.940 | but you can use existing facilities
00:50:28.820 | and use existing resources of the local church
00:50:33.180 | and not have to pay additional overhead
00:50:36.900 | where you have to go to a financial model
00:50:39.960 | of charging for counseling ministry.
00:50:43.700 | And so as a side note,
00:50:45.600 | most of our counselors do this as a ministry.
00:50:49.120 | They're not paid for their service.
00:50:51.320 | They're not paid for counseling
00:50:55.840 | just as they would not be paid
00:50:57.640 | for serving as a deacon or deaconess
00:50:59.680 | or serving in the welcome tent
00:51:01.480 | or serving as an usher.
00:51:03.920 | For the majority of our counselors,
00:51:05.600 | this is a labor of love.
00:51:07.860 | There may be a place for a highly dedicated counselor
00:51:11.460 | who is giving significant amounts of time and energy
00:51:16.000 | to the counseling ministry to be given a stipend
00:51:19.660 | or to be supported in some way,
00:51:21.500 | but that would be at the discretion of the elders
00:51:23.700 | and the pastors of the church.
00:51:25.620 | Generally, our counselors are doing this as a ministry
00:51:29.820 | and as a service to Christ.
00:51:33.820 | And then there is letter number eight,
00:51:36.420 | immediate opportunities to serve others,
00:51:38.840 | which would be also a suggested assignment
00:51:43.400 | that you can give to counselees.
00:51:47.020 | It's just many of our counselees
00:51:48.700 | have a very self-focused view of their lives
00:51:52.140 | and we need to pull them out of that
00:51:53.460 | and help them to see others in the body of Christ.
00:51:55.860 | And you can assign them homework
00:51:57.620 | that gets them into service.
00:52:01.900 | Number nine would be resource people for auxiliary help.
00:52:06.580 | I can think of one counselee
00:52:08.660 | that without getting into details,
00:52:10.820 | I had one counseling situation
00:52:13.740 | where there were financial issues
00:52:16.380 | and I was able to ask the counselee,
00:52:18.140 | can I bring in another person in the church
00:52:21.820 | who has expertise in this very,
00:52:25.260 | in the specific financial issue that you're dealing with
00:52:27.620 | and have them speak into the situation
00:52:30.220 | and was able to get the consent of the counselee on that.
00:52:34.020 | And that led to a wonderful partnership
00:52:38.220 | of having someone in our church
00:52:39.860 | minister to the counselee alongside myself.
00:52:44.060 | And those are some of the opportunities
00:52:46.060 | that exist in a local church setting
00:52:49.540 | that may not exist in a standalone counseling center.
00:52:54.220 | Number 10 would be benevolence assistance,
00:52:57.540 | financial help or physical labor.
00:53:01.100 | Our church does have a benevolence fund
00:53:03.060 | that's meant to help members with financial needs.
00:53:06.460 | And we have partnered with that ministry
00:53:08.420 | in the counseling ministry of the church.
00:53:11.740 | Number 11 would be members homes for counseling,
00:53:14.940 | discipleship and small group life.
00:53:17.140 | We've seen that some of our counselors,
00:53:23.580 | it's like the, when Paul left the church at Ephesus
00:53:28.300 | and the church, they asked Paul not to go.
00:53:32.820 | And some of our counselees become friends in the ministry.
00:53:37.820 | The formal aspects of counseling
00:53:40.540 | lead to a longer relationship.
00:53:43.740 | And that's a joy to see.
00:53:45.500 | That doesn't always happen, but sometimes it does.
00:53:48.300 | And that's a wonderful thing to see
00:53:50.900 | when we see the formal aspect of ministry
00:53:53.420 | lead to informal ministry and informal relationships.
00:53:58.420 | There is the aspect of a greater legal protection.
00:54:05.140 | When you define your counseling ministry
00:54:07.300 | as a ministry of the local church,
00:54:09.620 | and just define it as a ministry that is accountable
00:54:13.260 | to the doctrinal statement of the church,
00:54:17.140 | then there is legal protection there
00:54:21.140 | that whatever protections apply to the church as a whole
00:54:25.860 | can be claimed by the counseling ministry
00:54:27.780 | as part of that larger structure.
00:54:30.140 | And so there are some benefits of that
00:54:33.020 | that I could take time to explain,
00:54:34.540 | but my time is limited here.
00:54:38.340 | But to say that there is some legal protection
00:54:40.820 | and defining it that way.
00:54:42.900 | And then Jones notes,
00:54:44.100 | we offer all of the above free of charge.
00:54:48.540 | Jones concludes this,
00:54:50.140 | that truly given this baker's dozen of benefits,
00:54:55.140 | the local church remains God's ideal counseling center.
00:55:02.500 | May our Lord help his church gain this vision,
00:55:05.540 | equip its leaders and members to counsel others
00:55:07.780 | biblically and skillfully,
00:55:09.740 | and reach its members and their community
00:55:11.940 | with the life-changing hope found in Jesus Christ,
00:55:14.580 | the wonderful counselor.
00:55:17.380 | Now, as I said, you would do well
00:55:19.180 | to take those dozen benefits
00:55:21.900 | and reflect possibly on three or four of those items
00:55:26.580 | and write out your own thoughts on the subject.
00:55:28.580 | But I did an overview of that
00:55:29.900 | because I do hope you'll see
00:55:31.500 | that a church-based counseling ministry
00:55:36.260 | does have resources to offer to our counselees
00:55:40.460 | that a standalone or parachurch counseling ministry
00:55:43.860 | may not be able to offer.
00:55:46.700 | Now, what I've done on pages four to six of your handout
00:55:50.260 | is I've highlighted three of,
00:55:54.460 | having done a survey of blessings or benefits
00:55:57.100 | of church-based counseling,
00:55:58.100 | I've highlighted three items
00:56:00.500 | that I found to be very significant in my own ministry
00:56:05.500 | and in leading the Kindred Center.
00:56:09.580 | These are three benefits or distinctions
00:56:12.060 | of church-based ministry.
00:56:13.380 | I'm gonna do this really briefly
00:56:15.260 | and then close our time together.
00:56:16.980 | But just three of those elements that are very helpful
00:56:21.980 | and have been very helpful to me.
00:56:24.420 | Letter A would be that biblical counseling
00:56:26.500 | operates under the oversight of elders in the local church.
00:56:31.500 | So we always wanna be operating in partnership
00:56:36.820 | with the elders of the local church.
00:56:38.980 | Ideally, if a counselee is coming from another local church,
00:56:41.980 | we wanna be operating in partnership
00:56:44.900 | with the elders of that local church
00:56:47.180 | and we don't wanna be going against the elders of a church.
00:56:51.980 | One of the practical implications of this
00:56:55.460 | is we do not promise absolute confidentiality
00:56:58.420 | to our counselees.
00:56:59.940 | We state that in the consent to counsel documents,
00:57:02.900 | which I've given you a copy of.
00:57:05.180 | And we do retain the right to take an issue
00:57:09.300 | in the counseling relationship to the elders of the church
00:57:13.420 | if that is necessary.
00:57:15.620 | Now, please be balanced with that
00:57:17.340 | because we do practice limited confidentiality,
00:57:20.860 | which is to say that
00:57:23.260 | if I can keep this information confidential,
00:57:25.940 | I will by all means be discreet and trustworthy
00:57:29.780 | with this information.
00:57:30.880 | I will not disclose this information
00:57:33.540 | outside of the counseling relationship
00:57:35.580 | unless I am biblically mandated to do so
00:57:39.300 | or unless I'm under compulsion to do so
00:57:43.700 | because of legitimate reasons.
00:57:47.020 | We do wanna be discreet
00:57:49.580 | and we do want to be confidential,
00:57:52.260 | but we never practice or promise absolute confidentiality
00:57:57.260 | and we have that in our counseling documents.
00:58:02.160 | On page five, letter B,
00:58:04.440 | we do instruct our counselees to be involved
00:58:07.040 | in the ongoing ministry of the local church.
00:58:10.100 | That includes Sunday morning gatherings,
00:58:12.860 | small group ministry.
00:58:15.040 | We encourage them to get involved in the body of Christ
00:58:18.880 | and get involved in service.
00:58:20.960 | And it is the combination of all of those ministries
00:58:23.800 | alongside of counseling that has the resource
00:58:28.800 | and the power to change people's lives.
00:58:32.760 | And then on the last page, on page six,
00:58:35.180 | I have a page there on church discipline.
00:58:38.460 | We do believe that church discipline can be initiated
00:58:43.680 | if the counselee continues in unrepentant sin.
00:58:46.840 | In next year, if you are involved
00:58:50.800 | in going through the counseling exams with me,
00:58:54.340 | you will write one entire essay
00:58:57.060 | on the subject of church discipline
00:58:59.120 | and your view of church discipline.
00:59:02.000 | Just to note this briefly here on Matthew,
00:59:06.140 | on page six, you have Matthew 18, verse 15,
00:59:09.100 | which outlines the steps of church discipline.
00:59:12.260 | You have private confrontation,
00:59:14.500 | semi-private confrontation, church-wide pursuit,
00:59:18.540 | and you have a removal from fellowship.
00:59:22.580 | If counseling ministry is a ministry of the local church,
00:59:27.020 | then the members of our church who are being counseled
00:59:31.500 | can undergo church discipline
00:59:33.940 | if there is not repentance from ongoing sin.
00:59:38.180 | Again, be balanced and careful with this.
00:59:40.780 | We have not had to do this
00:59:42.100 | in our counseling ministry as of yet,
00:59:44.260 | but that structure is in place as an accountability,
00:59:49.100 | as accountability to the local church.
00:59:52.460 | And so all of that to say that I hope you have,
00:59:59.140 | we've been given a good overview
01:00:01.060 | of how church-based counseling works
01:00:03.900 | and the benefits and the blessings of that.
01:00:06.260 | And I would agree with Robert Jones' statement at the end
01:00:09.420 | that the local church remains God's ideal counseling center.
01:00:14.420 | So ideally, the local church
01:00:18.500 | does not have a counseling center.
01:00:21.700 | Ideally, the local church is the center
01:00:25.660 | where counseling ministry takes place,
01:00:27.940 | both formal and informal.
01:00:31.300 | Ideally, the church is a community of counselors
01:00:35.540 | who speak the truth and love to one another
01:00:38.980 | and who do so both in informal settings,
01:00:42.020 | such as Starbucks or Coffee Bean
01:00:45.260 | or Corner Bakery or Flappy Jacks,
01:00:49.380 | and also do so in formal structure settings
01:00:52.580 | in a church office in a specific counseling room.
01:00:58.180 | And all of that is so that the body of Christ
01:01:00.580 | can be built up to become more like Christ
01:01:03.660 | and to honor the one who has loved and saved us.
01:01:06.780 | Just to let you know that this has been my prayer
01:01:10.420 | over the past number of years,
01:01:13.620 | that the church would catch a vision for biblical counseling,
01:01:17.220 | that the church would catch a vision
01:01:20.420 | for a counseling ministry
01:01:22.420 | that is both relational and biblical,
01:01:26.260 | that is both theological and practical,
01:01:29.460 | that is both rooted in the doctrine
01:01:31.980 | of the sufficiency of scripture
01:01:33.740 | and expresses a high view of the local church,
01:01:37.660 | and that the members of the church
01:01:39.260 | would catch a vision for how they could be used
01:01:41.540 | as instruments in the Redeemer's hands
01:01:44.220 | to give hope and help to those who are in need.
01:01:48.340 | And I believe that even in the short time
01:01:52.780 | that I've been involved with ACBC,
01:01:55.140 | that God has been gracious to answer that prayer
01:01:57.980 | that already He has done exceedingly abundantly
01:02:01.100 | beyond what I could ask or think.
01:02:03.460 | And I do believe that you who are enrolled in this class,
01:02:06.900 | working through these exam questions
01:02:09.860 | and working through these topics related to God's word,
01:02:13.260 | that you are an answer to the prayers
01:02:16.340 | that have been made in the past,
01:02:19.380 | that there would be members of the church
01:02:21.700 | who would catch a vision for this ministry
01:02:23.940 | and then be used as a catalyst
01:02:25.780 | to help others catch a vision
01:02:27.940 | for biblical counseling ministry.
01:02:30.500 | I can think of probably no greater testament
01:02:33.500 | to the biblical counseling ministry
01:02:36.860 | and the character of the counselors
01:02:38.660 | that are part of this ministry
01:02:39.820 | than to say that many of our counselors
01:02:43.300 | have sat in on classes like this,
01:02:45.340 | have gone through year one training
01:02:47.180 | and then year two training,
01:02:48.540 | and then the third phase of certification process.
01:02:52.120 | And then they have been unleashed in counseling rooms
01:02:56.060 | to counsel people, to counsel people
01:03:00.260 | who are dealing with addiction and sleeplessness
01:03:05.180 | and broken marriages and out of control anger problems
01:03:10.180 | and family issues and all of the issues
01:03:12.980 | that we see biblical counseling addresses
01:03:15.700 | that we've seen our counselors work through this training
01:03:18.820 | and then be used by God to bring hope and help
01:03:22.920 | to hurting people.
01:03:24.480 | And there probably is no greater testament
01:03:27.140 | to these counselors ministry
01:03:28.880 | than to see that the people that they have counseled
01:03:33.760 | have then enrolled in these classes
01:03:38.760 | and have said that because I have been so helped
01:03:43.760 | by the word of God in biblical counseling,
01:03:47.320 | I want to be trained to help others using God's word.
01:03:52.320 | That's exceedingly abundantly beyond
01:03:57.120 | what I could have asked or thought five years ago
01:04:01.120 | when we began this ministry.
01:04:04.480 | And I believe God is gonna use many of you
01:04:08.400 | in the very same way that as you complete these essays
01:04:12.640 | and as you move on to phase three of certification
01:04:15.240 | and as you moved on to meeting with people
01:04:18.720 | and loving them and helping them and caring for them
01:04:21.520 | and bringing the word of God to bear upon their problems,
01:04:24.940 | that God is gonna multiply your ministry in a wonderful way
01:04:28.840 | and that God is gonna use you in great ways.
01:04:32.600 | So let me conclude our teaching this year
01:04:34.840 | and our class tonight with the benediction
01:04:38.640 | from Romans 15 verse 13, which says this,
01:04:42.440 | "May the God of hope fill you with all joy
01:04:45.720 | and peace and believing so that by the power
01:04:48.480 | of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope.
01:04:51.520 | I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers,
01:04:55.300 | that you yourselves are full of goodness,
01:04:57.940 | filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another."
01:05:02.940 | Let's pray together.
01:05:04.400 | Father, thank you for this hour of study.
01:05:08.400 | Thank you for this year of study.
01:05:10.560 | Thank you for these 24 topics
01:05:13.760 | that we have sought to carefully walk through as a class
01:05:18.760 | and that we have sought to articulate
01:05:22.140 | and put into our own words to put pen to paper.
01:05:26.440 | We have devoted ourselves to this class and to this time
01:05:29.840 | because we believe your word is precious and powerful,
01:05:33.920 | because we love your church
01:05:35.740 | and because we understand what is at stake,
01:05:39.180 | that there are people whose lives are in need
01:05:44.040 | of good, solid biblical counseling,
01:05:46.880 | that they need more than what the secular world can offer,
01:05:52.200 | that they need the hope that is found
01:05:54.120 | in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
01:05:56.680 | And I just thank you, Father,
01:05:58.280 | for the diligence of the students in this class.
01:06:03.280 | I pray that you would help them
01:06:05.260 | as they complete these essays and as they move on
01:06:07.620 | to write the counseling exam essays.
01:06:10.320 | And we pray that in years to come,
01:06:12.240 | that you would bear fruit in their lives
01:06:14.460 | and through their ministries
01:06:15.520 | that would be indeed exceedingly abundantly
01:06:18.600 | beyond all that we could ask or think,
01:06:20.240 | that you would multiply the fruitfulness of their lives
01:06:24.200 | and their ministry 30, 60, 100 fold,
01:06:28.700 | and that there would be many who come
01:06:32.460 | and say in years to come that they have received help
01:06:36.560 | and hope from God's word because of the result
01:06:40.880 | of the hours that we have spent together.
01:06:43.440 | And so we just commit the fruit of this class to you.
01:06:47.960 | We give you all the resources, all the time,
01:06:50.080 | all the hard work.
01:06:51.640 | We give to you all of these essays,
01:06:54.120 | and we pray that, Lord, you would somehow use it all
01:06:56.760 | for your glory and for your praise
01:06:58.440 | and for the furtherance of the gospel
01:07:00.820 | and the building up of your church.
01:07:02.140 | And we thank you and pray this in Jesus' name, amen.
01:07:06.620 | - Amen.
01:07:08.180 | Well, God bless you all.
01:07:10.300 | Have a wonderful holidays.
01:07:12.420 | I will send out notification of our next class in January.
01:07:16.620 | Merry Christmas and.