The Biblical Counseling approach to counseling does not come “ready-made” in the Bible, but rather is “one outworking of biblical faith into the particulars of our time, place, problems, and persons.”²⁷ In other words, there is no such faithful counseling that says, “Here’s a Bible verse, now go in peace.” Counseling takes time, patience, and effort. It takes time to understand a person’s personal history, personality, actions and reactions, and current situations. It takes a lot of love for neighbor to listen and listen patiently in whatever adversity a person goes through (Prov. 17:17). It takes patience to know that sanctification is progressive (Phil. 1:6). It takes effort to think deeply about what the Bible says about a person’s problems, understand and teach certain Scriptures (Jas. 3:1), show how they apply to their lives today, and speak it in such a way that they will want to listen (Eph. 4:15). However, if done faithfully, Scripture is sufficient to address all true counseling needs.

“The gospel is not enough to help someone with sexual addiction.” I could not believe those words came out of the mouth of a Christian counselor. Perhaps she was an extreme example. But this counselor was identified as an expert to a room of about forty pastors and church leaders. As soon as I heard her statement—which came on the heels of a PowerPoint presentation that apparently demonstrated that a large percentage of pastors were addicted to sexual immorality and needed more than the Bible to help them out of their sin—I texted two of my friends in the room. I asked them both, “Are you enjoying this?” One friend texted something along the lines of, “This is garbage.” The other friend said, “This is valuable stuff!” Though I always try to be kind in my conversation, I am more of the opinion of my first friend.

Like the Christian counselor above would say about sexual addiction, I have heard from many Christians and pastors over the years who say that there are many things that pastors are not equipped to handle in counseling. I assume many readers will respond to that and say, “Duh!” That would probably mean you are not a “Biblical Counselor.” As a Biblical Counselor, my reaction to “There are many things that pastors are not equipped to handle in counseling” is, “How could God’s Word not be able to address someone’s problems?” When Christians have such a wide range of responses to things like sexual addiction or what pastors can handle in counseling, I assume it is because we are speaking past each other on some level. I hope this essay can bring us closer together on the main issues regarding counseling.¹

David Powlison (1949–2019) can help us get there. I believe he had the right vision of counseling, mankind, and Scripture, and the way he addressed those issues can help different counseling camps understand each other better. My goal in this essay is to persuade you of the goodness of the BC approach that Powlison set forth. I am under no illusion that I could persuade everyone to embrace the BC approach, but I at least hope I can move people away from a dismissive attitude toward BC, which is what “Duh!” communicates. I hope if you can see BC’s goodness, it will encourage you to utilize some of its tools more often. Let me start with a brief background to Powlison’s place within the BC movement, lay out a definition for BC, and then give three implications of that definition that hopefully bring more light to the conversations between different camps.

My Flavor of Biblical Counseling

I first was introduced to BC as a Master of Divinity student at Southern Seminary back in 2006. At one point I was in lockstep with all the extreme Biblical Counselors you can think of (Jay Adams, John MacArthur, Heath Lambert, etc.). I have evolved over the years. I’d like to think I have matured, while at the same time I am genuinely grateful for the foundations of BC that the work of Jay Adams gave me.² Within my camp, Powlison’s approach captivated me early on, and I have only become more convinced over time. His work in the field of psychiatry before becoming a Christian gave him a rather unique and authoritative perspective as he entered the world of BC. In this essay, I hope to honor his view of BC—which I think has taken a lot of the rough edges off the nouthetic counseling movement.

Jay Adams (1929–2020) started the modern BC movement in the late 1960s. He spent much of his time arguing against modern psychiatry and psychotherapy, seeing them as incompatible with Christianity.³ He exhorted Christians to reject Freudian and man-centered methods of counseling and founded the Christian Counseling Education Foundation (CCEF) in 1968 with a major emphasis on repentance from sin in counseling. In typical polemical style, he asserted, “Freudianism ought to be credited [with] the leading part it has played in the present collapse of responsibility in modern American society.”⁴ He noticed too many people relieving themselves of responsibility when it came to matters he considered sin. He was known to have a rather “forceful, prophetic style,” which eventually put him at relative odds with fellow CCEF leaders like Powlison and Ed Welch.⁵ Adams left CCEF in the mid-1990s, marking a distinct shift in the flavor of BC at CCEF. In other words, BC is not a monolithic movement. If there are Biblical Counselors with whom you disagree, that is not a reason to reject the BC program wholesale.

I think Powlison was the best our camp has to offer. He led CCEF and many within the BC world “in a direction of increased sensitivity to human suffering, to the dynamics of motivation, to the centrality of the gospel in the daily life of the believer, the importance of the Body of Christ and to a more articulate engagement with secular culture.”⁶ He built off the work of Adams, but developed and improved it. This is an imperfect illustration, but perhaps this could help other camps to understand the BC movement a little better. Jay Adams was like the Martin Luther of our movement (like I said, it’s an imperfect illustration). David Powlison was like the John Calvin of our movement. I would not be a Protestant if not for the way God used Luther, yet I find more affinity with John Calvin in comparison with Martin Luther. I would not be a BC if not for Jay Adams, but I disagree with much of his approach. The fundamentals have not changed. But a distinct movement within a movement emerged with Powlison. Let me now define the inner movement.

Definitions

BC in general is the approach that affirms “the Bible to be sufficient for the spiritual needs of God’s people.”⁷ All stripes of BC would agree with that basic definition. When we say “sufficient,” we simply mean that nothing else is needed but Scripture. People often feel helped by things other than Scripture, but BC argues that the Bible is what truly helps. In contrast, David Myers has argued, “The discoveries of psychological science do challenge some traditional Christian understandings. An ever-reforming faith will always be open to learning from both the book of God’s Word and the book of God’s works.”⁸ Myers’ argument is that the church will always be discovering more about human thinking and human behavior, and those discoveries are an essential part of counseling. Robert Roberts and P. J. Watson also disagree with BC, arguing that the best counselors are those who know the Bible and the Christian Tradition, and “who are familiar with contemporary psychology and can therefore sniff out a biblical psychology that effectively speaks to current circumstances.”⁹ Once again, modern psychology is needed to truly help.

BC is not opposed to studying God’s works of providence, but we do not believe modern psychology is a part of the providence needed for counseling. Other Christian counselors believe the Bible to be a big help—even the main help—but not sufficient. The sufficiency of Scripture for helping people with spiritual needs is the main thing that distinguishes BC from other approaches. I will lay out three distinctive implications of that below, but before I do that it will also help to further define what BC means by “helping” people with their “spiritual needs.” In other words, what are the spiritual needs that BC looks to address, and how do we meet them?

Powlison once wrote that BC happens when “Truth mediates a Person, a working Redeemer.”¹⁰ BC for Powlison was ministering God’s Word so that people can experience redemption through the person and work of Christ. It is gospel ministry, downstream from the preaching of the Word and administration of the sacraments. As such, BC is an effort to improve the relationship of the creature to his/her Creator.¹¹ “To be human is to love a Savior, Father, Master, and Lord. Instead of ‘psychopathology’ and ‘syndromes,’ we see ‘sins’ against this Person, and we see sufferings that are ‘trials’ revealing our need for a true Deliverer.”¹² Sin and suffering are the spiritual needs that must be addressed in counseling. One implication of this understanding of spiritual needs is that BC does not attempt to change a person’s medical condition. If a person suffers from true physiological problems that need medicine, the Biblical Counselor should only attempt to address the spiritual problems that may accompany the physiological problems. Our “turf” is sanctification, not medication.

The way Powlison would address spiritual needs was twofold: (1) “God’s voice speaks into real life to reveal the gaze and intentions of the Christ who pursues us” and (2) “understanding people amid their real life struggles: the pursuit of wise truth.”¹³Powlison studied God’s voice and God’s people.

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