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".