Christian Ministry and the Mental Health Counseling Complex

Introduction

The idea that Christian counselors should be considered as missionaries within the mental health professions has been popularized in various circles for years; however, this approach to counseling brings up a host of issues relating to the nature, purpose, and context of what is truly biblical counseling. This essay will confront the misguided thinking behind this argument and present the biblical alternative which seeks to maintain the integrity of not only the counsel provided, but the biblical counseling movement overall.

As a biblical counselor, I view the task of counseling, with all of its principles and methods, as distinctly Christian ministry.^{¹Jay Adams, How to Help People Change (Nashville: Zondervan, 1986), 33-40. See also, Samuel
Stephens, The Deception of Psychological Labels (Kansas City: Truth in Love, 2022); and Jay Adams, A Theology of Christian Counseling (Nashville: Zondervan, 1979), 1-10.} However, over the last couple of centuries, counseling has been uprooted from its historical and theological moorings and replanted firmly in secular soil.^{²For a sociological perspective on this see: Stephanie Muravchik, American Protestantism in the Age of Psychology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011); and Philip Rieff, The Triumph of the Therapeutic: Uses of Faith after Freud (Wilmington: ISI Books, 2006). For a theological perspective see E. Brooks Holifield, A History of Pastoral Care in America: From Salvation to Self-Realization (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 1983); and Samuel Stephens, The Psychological Anthropology of Wayne Edward Oates: A Downgrade from the Theological to the Therapeutic (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2020).} Today, for many, counseling has become something that is considered primarily clinical, professional, academic, and psychological rather than an endeavor which is essentially pastoral, ecclesiastical, ministerial, and theological. Sadly, the cultural milieu by which counseling has become defined is the only one by which many Christians are aware.

I have worked around theological education at some capacity for nearly a decade as either an administrator or a professor, and during this time I have had countless conversations with prospective and current students about the nature, purpose, and context of counseling. This fact, in and of itself, is by no means a bad thing. In fact, I am grateful for the way that the discipline of biblical counseling has grown in popularity and accessibility within theological education.^{³For instance, the first biblical counseling degree program among Southern Baptist seminary began at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SEBTS) in the late 1990s. Since then, similar degree programs have formed at three additional Southern Baptist seminaries, not to mention those in other protestant denominations.} With that being said, the postures and trends of these conversations often leave me troubled and discouraged. For instance, more often than not, when a prospective student asks about our biblical counseling program, the top questions I receive have little to do with how well our degree program provides ministerial preparation and theological acumen in building a comprehensive, distinctly biblical approach to counseling and care. Instead, these questions focus on what types of careers the students should expect to enter. Salary ranges, professional advancement, state licensing, and therapeutic competencies are common refrains characterizing such conversations. In short, I find that students are often sizing up a biblical counseling degree program for what it can offer them as it relates to professional relevancy and occupational security.

To keep reading this essay by Samuel Stephens in the Journal of Biblical Soul Care Fall Edition 2024, click here.