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Dear Friends,

A Christian counsellor — like a Christian preacher — can be a tremendous gift from God. But unless we are just looking for someone ‘nice’ we urgently need someone with a biblical framework — and not just a few Christian words thrown in.

In a helpful interview with David Powlinson [Editor of the Journal of Biblical Counselling and lecturer at Westminster Theological Seminary] he defines counselling as “bringing wisdom, challenges, consolation and hope through God’s word”. As the pulpit trajectory is from the Bible to life so the counselling trajectory is usually from life to the Bible.

But there is all the difference in the universe between the secular counselling framework and the Christian counselling framework. For example:
(a) What is their view of the human heart?
(b) Who do they think has the answers/resources?

Unless a counsellor recognises that the human heart is “a God-referential organ” and that “underneath the symptoms of anxiety, addictions and other assorted problems there is the problem of the human heart … (he or she) can never go deep enough”. Any counsellor who teaches that “the solution to your problems is simply to talk to yourself in ways that are self-affirming he is denying our need of grace which we find in the gospel”.

Again “the modern self esteem process is among the cheapest of the cheap answers to a very real problem (because)…we need to be delivered from the tyranny of ourselves and others…”

Powlinson points out that “our fundamental problem is that we do not love God. We are distractible, headstrong, confused and self obsessed … Usually people come to counselling to make themselves feel better or to fix their circumstances…God has much bigger things in mind for us.”

And it is when the heart is addressed by the word of God and the grace of God that everything else falls into place. The secular therapist has so little to offer. The biblical counsellor leads people to the Redeemer, Jesus Christ who has limitless provision.

To the question ‘should we expect people in deep trouble to perform great spiritual exercises?’ Powlinson’s answer is “we should expect people to change direction. Direction is what the Bible is about … repentance means headed in the right direction towards Christ.”

Finally Powlinson suggests that so much of this counselling is to be done by ordinary Christians to ordinary Christians using the Bible and their own prayerfulness and love. He points to 1 Thessalonians 5:14, saying “we are all meant to be counselling one another and building each other up in the truth”.

May the Lord help you and me to go in the direction of Christ and help others — even those in deep water — to do the same.

Yours in fellowship,
Simon Manchester

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