Dear Pastor:  If you are like me, you get to have lots of conversations about sin and suffering.  Just think about your congregation...Some of your sheep are depressed.  Couples struggle with martial conflict.  You are bound to know a few workaholics.  Many men are leading their wife poorly in marriage.  Men struggling with internet pornography; women struggling with eating struggles.  Maybe you've had someone who is suicidal.  And the list goes on and on. 

A common thread that often runs through these sins is anger. 

The depressed person is angry at God for her sorrow.  The wife is angry at her husband for his neglect.  Woman who is struggling with food is angry with herself for constantly giving in.  The man stuck in internet pornography is mad at himself for always giving in to the sin.  And the list goes on and on.

I don't want to do a long excursis on anger.  Rather, I want to suggest four resources for those struggling with anger or those who are helping someone who is struggling.

#1:  To start, David Powlison's lectures that CCEF's National conference.  

#2:  Robert Jones book Uprooting Anger. 

#3:  Paul Tripp's CDs or DVD set How to be Good and Angry. 

#4:  Steve Estes' talk on anger within church leadership.

Pastor, I hope these suggestions provide a few good biblical resources to help you care for angry sheep. 

Someone sent an email to 9 Marks headquarters asking: "My fiance is looking at masters in counseling programs and we are beginning to do research on different ones. Would your ministry (unofficially) recommend some counseling programs that we should check out?" 

I’m not sure what perspective you are coming from in terms of counseling.  There are a wide variety of counseling models in the Evangelical world.  We (at 9 Marks) are very committed to Scripture, so as you might expect, we are very committed to biblical counseling (BC).  If you don’t really care for BC then this post is basically useless.  If you are interested in BC then here are four choices.

1.      CCEF (www.ccef.org) – The Christian counseling and Education Foundation is the place where the modern BC movement began.  Well known names include Ed Welch (author of When People are Big and God is Small) and David Powlison (best known as the editor for the Journal of BC).  

2.     Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (www.sebts.edu) - The Southern Baptist school that has the longest standing and most established BC program.

3.     Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (www.sbts.edu) – The newest BC program among Southern Baptist schools.  Some will recognize the name Stuart Scott, who wrote The Exemplary Husband and taught at Masters Seminary for many years. 

4.     Masters Seminary (www.tms.edu) – John MacArthur is been a strong proponent of BC for many years, and has built a church and seminary that are both very committed to BC. 

Outside of CCEF's national conference, there are very few counseling conferences that are worth attending.  Most are not worth the time, energy, or expense because they don't think carefully about the relationship of the gospel, counseling and the church.  So, I was excited to find out recently about THE GOSPEL: Counseling and the Church, which is being held on Aug 25-26 in Louisville, KY.  If you are anywhere near Louisville, you might consider attending.  Paul Tripp is the keynote speaker, and there are several churches who have counselors committed to a Biblical Counseling model who are doing breakout workshops.

By the way, some of you might be interested in reading David Powlison's article on the nature of criticism (which also responds to critiques of Biblical counseling).  If so, click here.

David Powlison thinks through a subject that many misunderstand... here.

You are, by consensus--maybe even unanimous--opinion, the nicest guy we know.  But you can't say, "While I appreciate Dr. Adam’s list, I’d want to nuance a number of his statements" and then just move on like that was some obscure footnote to an archaic Latin manuscript.  We want the goods man!  How would you nuance?  Nuance, baby, nuance!  Enquiring minds want to know.

1.       Don’t counsel people who want absolute confidentiality. 

Do we leave counseling to the trained professionals, or do the leaders and members of your church need to take responsibility for the care of the sheep?  Counseling is time-consuming and difficult, but it's an important part of life in the body of Christ.  Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands helps pastors and church members envision what wise, godly counsel looks like. 

Tripp sets forth a biblical model--LOVE, KNOW, SPEAK, DO--which gives you a framework to care for others.  This is not wooden formula, but wholehearted, Christ-centered approached to love and care for fellow believers. 

I often have pastors ask, "If I can just read one book on counseling, what would it be?"  If you can only read one book, this should be the book!   

If you are interested in more CCEF books, you can look at the New Growth Press website.   

We've made a big deal of CCEF in the last e-journal, and deservingly so.  They have written a lot of great books that are tremendous help to our congregation.  Let me introduce to you one CCEF book that you might consider buying... 

How People Change is basically a book on sanctification.   This book does a great job in setting forth a biblical theology of change and motivation.  If you are looking to answer the question, "Why do people do the things they do?", this is a good book to read!

Our own pastor (Mark Dever) has written about the book: "This book is applied theology. It's about heat, thorns, the cross, and fruit. It's about present grace. In sixteen short and well-illustrated chapters, the wonderful prospect of change for the good is held out for the reader. We are called to consider our circumstances and our responses to them, and beneath that to examine our hearts desires and to turn afresh to Christ's cross."

If you are interested in checking out more books by CCEF, you can go to New Growth Press . 

I've been growing in my conviction that pastors too quickly refer out problematic situations in their congregations.  While I don't think that all referrals are wrong, I do wonder if we pass the responsibility for some of our members too quickly to Christian counselors?

Reason to Refer:

• You just don't have time.  Your ministry is already very, very busy and counseling sucks up too much time from your schedule.
• You're not very good at counseling, so why not leave it to the professionals?
• You would prefer to preach; not counsel.
• You've got some problems that you just don't know what to do with.

Reasons to NOT Refer:

• Biblical counselors are a rare breed.  Most Christian counselors in your area are too psychological and not very Scriptural. 
• You are more capable of dealing with difficult problems than you give yourself credit.
• We all share a common humanity.  I may not have the same problems, but I can certainly relate to people's struggles.  You have stress, disappointment, anger, and heart-ache, and so do they. 
• Counseling gives you a better sense of the sins and struggles in your congregation; and it helps you to write better application for your sermons. 

I've started to articulate an argument for counseling being recovered by the church.   You might even say I'm arguing why church-based counseling is a better option.  You might agree with me.  You might disagree.  Regardless, I'd love to hear your opinion on referrals and church-based counseling. 

Greg & Mike,

I've always thought of the relationship of preaching and counseling in terms of one phrase: "Authority goes to those who preach the Word."   As you exposit the Scriptures, and as people grow to trust the Scriptures and your faithful handling of the Scriptures, they will seek you out.  Not the youth minister.  Not the associate pastor.  But the senior minister, the man who is charged with the task of proclaiming the Word weekly.   New ministers  won't get  much counseling because they are unknown commodities.  As trust in the minster and trust in his  proclamation of the Word grows, so does the  counseling.  And Greg is certainly right--faithful expositional preaching (not story-telling, moralism, or the like)---will pierce hearts, stirring up conviction of sin and eagerness for righteousness. 

Counseling has an interesting effect on preaching---it should aid the preacher in sermon application.  It helps you apply the truth because you have specific knowledge about the joys and struggles of the lives of members in one specific congregation.   

One thing that some of our pastors do during sermon preparation is to turn to a page of the directory and think about how a particular point in the sermon will apply to the different people in the directory.   This type of exercise helps you think about how truth changes the lives of specific people in your congregation!  (Obviously, you don't call specific people out by name in the middle of your sermon, but this does help you take broad application and turn it to more specific application at different points in your sermon....you need both specific and broad application when you preach!)

This week two things came across my eyes that made me think...

First, I received a glossy piece of junk mail advertising a national conference (probably the biggest one out there) dedicated to counseling. Above the address label, the mailer asked in big letters: What can you do when preaching a sermon isn't enough?

Second, I was reading Lloyd-Jones' Preaching and Preachers this week with an intern at the church. There the Doctor makes an interesting observation. He says on page 17, "As preaching goes up, personal counseling goes down." Now, if you've read P and P, you know that this was Lloyd-Jones speaking off the cuff. In fact, in the very next paragraph after he makes the statement above he calls tape recording of sermons a "special abomination".

But it's got me to thinking. What is the proper relationship between counseling and preaching? Does the rise of counseling indicate a failure in the pulpit (like Lloyd-Jones seems to indicate)? Does the sermon have limits as a means of addressing people's problems (like the junk mail seems to indicate)? Or is it a both/and situation?

In my experience, I did very little counseling at the outset of my ministry. I was young(er), a new pastor in a new church. My authority was fairly limited. Not many people were lining up for my help. Now that I've been preaching for a while, I think people trust me more as a resource. I also think that preaching aimed at the heart will cause people to grapple with issues that may require more personal follow-up. So I guess I'm not happy with either extreme.

Thoughts?

In the late 1960’s, pastor and author Jay Adams published Competent to Counsel, and its essential message was a battle cry to the Christian counseling world. While thousands of Christians received counseling training through secular schools and the Christian counseling movement warmly embraced secular psychological models, Dr. Adams made a bold statement about our need to return to the Bible to learn how to do counseling in a godly fashion. I had never heard Dr. Adams speak until a few years ago, but I can just imagine him saying, “Where is the Bible in all this? Why are Christians turning to secular psychology to teach us how to counsel people? Have we forgotten that we, the chosen children of the Almighty God, already have been given everything we need for life and godliness in the Scriptures?”

Dr. Adams was right. The Bible needs to be the beginning, means, and end of our counseling. Along with writing books, Dr. Adams wanted to be sure that pastors and laypeople were adequately trained in counseling from the Scriptures. So, he founded the Christian Counseling Education Foundation (CCEF) in Glenside, PA in 1968. CCEF’s mission statement summarizes their goal: “To partner with those who counsel and who need counseling help, so the power of Christ is expressed in our lives and relationships.” For thirty-nine years now, CCEF has been the leading catalyst in biblical thinking in counseling. Over the years, their staff and counseling ministry has continued to grow. Now CCEF’s counselors and staff on average provide Christ-centered counseling to more than 110 people per week and more than 6,200 hours of counseling per year. Along with counseling, they offer church seminars, an annual conference (which last year hosted 2000 people), seminary-based and church-based training, and a wide variety of publications (including eighteen books, thirty-six booklets, and the Journal of Biblical Counseling).  Some of their key leaders have become well-known in the Evangelical world: David Powlison, Ed Welch, and Paul Tripp.   

If you've never heard of CCEF, let me encourage you to pick up one of CCEF's books or booklets.  I think you will find they will be a huge help to your ministry.  And if you enjoy what you read, consider taking staff and laypeople to their national conference and training seminars, read some more of their books and journal publications, and maybe even think about taking some of their on-line classes.

This side of heaven, there is no such thing as a perfect organization. CCEF, like any other institution or para-church organization, has strengths and weaknesses. Though not perfect, I do consider a partnership with CCEF a good thing for any pastor to pursue.   

As a pastor, you just don't have much time to read.  I understand that quite well.  So, it's not surprising that the most common question I get asked is, "If I have time to read just one book on biblical counseling, what should it be?"

Here is my choice:  Paul Tripp's Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands.

Using Christ's example, Tripp describes four basic steps (Love-Know-Speak-Do) that show believers how to use God's word to help others.  The book covers lots of helpful topics such as: identifying with the sufferer; clarifying responsibility; asking 'heart-piercing' questions; etc.   

I was reminded recently that the Evangelical Christian counseling landscape is about as diverse as the colors in a crayon box.   So, I thought it might help to read a paragraph that describes the type of counseling we do at Capitol Hill Baptist church.  I don't have the time (nor space) to go into an extensive explanation of biblical counseling, but will list a few resources below if you wish to think more about this topic.  So here it is....

The type of counseling I do is referred to as “biblical counseling.”  My goal is to erect from the Bible a model and method to wisely help people in their problems. As a biblical counselor and pastor, I seek to build strong relationships and help people to apply the gospel in ways that are meaningful and direction-giving. My counseling is shaped by a Christ-centered view of human life as found in the Christian Scriptures, which takes seriously the physical, social, and developmental nature of our difficulties. I believe that people can be healed, strengthened, and built up as they grow in their relationship with Christ. However, this doesn’t happen apart from our personal dependence on Him and seeking of His help.

This paragraph is a summary of items written by myself and faculty at CCEF & SBTS, with adjustments made by elders at CHBC. 

Article References for further reading:  David Powlison's "Affirmations & Denials: A Proposed Definition of Biblical Counseling" (JBC, 2000, Vol 19, no. 1); Ed Welch's "What is Biblical Counseling, Anyway?" (JBC, 1997, Vol 16, no. 1). 

Book References for further reading: Tim Lane & Paul Tripp's "How People Change"; Paul Tripp's "Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands"; David Powlison's "Seeing with New Eyes".