Heath Lambert: We’re answering one of your questions on the podcast this week and the question is whether or not Christians should be licensed by the state to counsel. In order for this question to make sense, you need to understand something of the context for it. And let me explain first to our international listeners, we’re very glad to have people from all over the world listen to Truth in Love, and what you might not understand if you’re in an international setting is that in the United States the practice of counseling is regulated on a state-by-state basis through secular counseling licensure. That is, each and every state gets to decide the requirements for who will be certified and what they have to do in order to be certified. And there is something of a tension between those who are licensed by the state to counsel and those who do biblical counseling, believing that the Scriptures mandate that counseling is a practice that Christians must engage in general and that pastors and other ministers of the gospel must engage in particular. And so, there’s something of a turf war between state-licensed counseling and biblical counseling. And what some people wonder is should I be licensed by the state in order to do counseling if I really believe in biblical counseling? And that is the question that we’re representing on the podcast this week. And so, should that happen? And let me give an answer to that by talking in a few different categories.
First of all, some people will decide that it is good for them to pursue a license by the state in order to do counseling. They will decide this because they have the mindset of a missionary. They want to take Jesus Christ to all people in all places, including locked wards and mental institutions, and including counseling centers out in the secular world. And so, the motivation to be a missionary for Jesus Christ will drive many people to want to be licensed by the state. And the reason that logic will make sense is because of the turf war that I was talking about a moment ago. There are some contexts in the United States where only licensed therapists are allowed to engage in the counseling. There are locked wards and hospitals and mental institutions that will only employ licensed therapists. There are some counseling centers that will only employ licensed therapists. There are some social work agencies that will only employ licensed therapists. And so, there’s going to be Christians who are motivated by Scripture and the desire to make Jesus known to get their foot in the door and that is going to take a credential like a state license much in the same way that learning a foreign language is going to be a requirement to take the gospel to an international context. And so, we need to say first of all, that motivation is a good one and for people that want to do it we are thankful for that, and we certainly want to take the truth of Scripture and the truth of Jesus Christ to broken and troubled people behind the curtain of secular enforcement for counseling, and so, we’re thankful for that missionary motivation to want to be state-licensed. So, some people will decide to pursue state licensure in order to do that kind of counseling.
But here’s another element to the answer. Some people cannot pursue state licensure even if their motivation of being a missionary is a good one. And that is because the requirements for state licensure are going to prohibit them from being able to do it with integrity as a Christian. And let me explain what I mean. Because it’s the individual states that offer licensure for those who would counsel under the banner of the authority of the state, those requirements change on a state-by-state basis. There are some states that in order for you to be licensed by that state require you to agree to things that no Christian can agree to. Let me give you some examples of some requirements for state licensure that are going to be out of bounds in a biblical worldview. There are some states that require you, in order to be licensed by their state, to avoid proselytizing. That is, you’re not allowed to share your faith. That is, you’re not allowed to engage in the Great Commission. And so, there are some states that say you may not obey Jesus as He extends the Great Commission in your counseling conversation. Now, Jesus Christ has not given His people a decision to make about that issue. And so, when the authority of the state, in secular licensing, comes up against the authority of Jesus Christ, and how we are to conduct our conversations, Christians are duty-bound to side with Jesus Christ. And even though they might have a good intention to be state-licensed, they may not be because in becoming state-licensed, they will do something that Jesus Christ forbids.
Another requirement is there are a growing number of states in the union that make it a requirement that counselors may not counsel minors away from homosexuality or transgender behavior and identification. And we would have to say that on biblical grounds that is not allowed. A Christian must have the freedom to say to somebody, no matter how old they are, that God made you a certain way, He made you to operate in a certain way, and if you have desires or behaviors that are outside of that created order, then you need to repent of that and you need the Lord Jesus Christ to give you the strength and the resources to do that. A Christian may not agree with the state that they will not call people to repentance who are in clear sin just because the conversation is called counseling and just because the person is under the age of 18. There are other examples that we could give, but the point is that there are some requirements in these states that are going to forbid Christians from being licensed by that state with integrity. And so, if you want to be a counseling missionary and take the gospel behind the closed doors of these locked wards in these counseling centers, then the next thing you need to do is look at the state where you would be licensed and be sure that you can maintain your integrity as a Christian and practice in that state. Above all, we as Christians must maintain our allegiance to Christ and we must maintain our integrity. We cannot say, “Well, I’m going to sign the agreement and sort of wink at Caesar and say what he wants me to say, but then I’m going to do whatever I want.” If you sign your name to a document and agree to live by those rules, then you need to live by those rules. And so, our allegiance to Christ and our desire to have integrity is going to mean that so many Christians won’t even be able to be licensed by the state.
Here’s the reality. Our culture is radically becoming increasingly secular. And the fact of the matter is that the relationship between Christians and the state as it has existed with regard to counseling has always been a little tense because what Jesus demands of our conversation is different than what the state demands. That tension is only going to increase with radical secularization in our culture. And actually, it is the purpose of ACBC to resolve that tension. As a matter of fact, you don’t need to be licensed by the state to be a competent counselor. What you need is people, Christians, who understand what the Bible has to say about these things and who have a lot of wisdom and experience to help you grow. That’s why ACBC exists as a certifying organization. It is our job to pursue excellence in biblical counseling by helping people to grow up in the ability to do counseling well. We have three phases of our certification process that make that possible. There’s a training phase where you get required education in the area of counseling, there is an exam phase where you’re evaluated on your ability to understand that information, and then there is a supervision phase where one of our fellows and expert in biblical counseling with decades of experience is going to look over your shoulder and help you understand what you’ve done right and what you need to improve in, and at the end of that process you are certified with ACBC. The point of the whole process is to make sure that people know how to counsel like the Wonderful Counselor would have them to counsel, not necessarily how Caesar would have them to counsel. And so, I want to encourage you to look at ACBC certification and to think about the importance of the call to have broken and troubled people be matched with a counselor who’s going to point them to Jesus, who’s going to point them to the Word, and not to the secular requirements of a world that exists apart from Christ.
