“A Radical Proposal:
Christ-Centered Ministry verses Problem-Centered COUNSELING”
by Martin
and Deidre Bobgan
Many years ago we traveled through the
dark terrain of psychology hoping to discover the secrets of human nature and
how to help people suffering from problems of living. The more we searched
through the theories and therapies of counseling psychology, the more we saw
its fallacies, failures, and false ways. It was not until the bright light of
the Gospel shined in our lives that we saw hope for mankind and the true answer
to problems of living! Our confidence in the conversation of counseling to help
people solve problems of living shifted from the psychological way to what we
thought was the spiritual way. We
became part of the biblical counseling movement until we realized that in many
ways it simply reflected the psychological way.
In this book we use the terms counselor,
counselee, and counseling when we are speaking about either
psychological or biblical counseling since these are the terms they use.
However, when we refer to those individuals engaged in Christ-centered
ministry, we will identify the one who ministers with terms such as the helper
or servant rather than counselor, the one who is seeking help
as the seeker or fellow believer rather than counselee, and
ministry, ministering, or mutual care rather than counseling.
Counseling
involves two or more people conversing about problems with one being the
so-called expert (counselor) who is expected to provide answers and solutions
for the one in need (counselee). The
desire to help people who are suffering from problems of living quickly
translates into focusing on the person and the problem. Thus much of both
psychological and biblical counseling focuses attention on people and their
problems. The goal easily becomes solving the problem rather than spiritual
growth and the center of attention becomes the person and the problem more than
"Christ in you the hope of glory" (Col. 1:27). Throughout
Scripture problems of living are shown to be opportunities for spiritual
growth. Problems of living are like
torn up ground in a person's life during which the Lord can work mightily
through His Word, the Holy Spirit, and the Body of Christ. Will they be
used as such? And how can fellow
believers encourage such spiritual growth? How might we all edify one another
and encourage one another to trust the Holy Spirit to empower all believers to
walk according to their new life in Christ?
In
addition to discarding theories and therapies of psychological counseling, we
are discouraging all problem-centered counseling, whether psycho-logical or
biblical. Although this may seem to be
a radical move, we contend that as long as personal ministry remains
problem-centered and therefore person-focused there will be less spiritual
growth and more superficial fixing of the flesh. When such counseling attempts to change behavior, it can end up
being a type of behaviorism that cleans the "cup" on the outside
(Matt. 23:25) and thereby strengthens the flesh. When such counseling attempts
to go deeper than the problems at hand, humans often usurp the role of the Holy
Spirit when they try to gain insight into another person or when they attempt
to identify the "idols of the heart."
The radical proposal is to
discourage problem-centered counseling and to encourage Christ-centered
ministry, to overthrow intimidation from the psycho-logical and biblical
counseling movements, and thereby to free believers in local congregations to
minister to fellow believers without psychological or biblical counseling
manuals, workshops, seminars, degrees, or certificates.
Instead
of problem-centered counseling, we propose a Christ-centered, biblical ministry
that flows forth from the preaching and teaching of the Word. We will refer to this as Christ-centered
ministry because the emphasis is on Christ and His work in the believer
through the Word of God, the Holy Spirit, and the Body of Christ to the glory
of the Father. We want to intensify
attention given to what already exists in the local church for every believer
to be growing in Christ.
The
subject of this book is the Lord's provisions for ministering to people with
the same problems of living usually dealt with by mental health professionals
and biblical counselors through conversation.
This ministry should be accomplished at the local congregational
level by believers who have passed from darkness to light through the death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ and who are growing in sanctification by denying
self and by recognizing that God uses suffering to purify and mature His
children. All Bible- believing
churches should have the resources of teaching, preaching, evangelism,
fellowship, and prayer to assist individuals who seek help when they are beset
with problems of living.
Instead
of communicating the message that local congregations don't know and can't do
and that they need outside help or need to go elsewhere for ministry, our
message is that local congregations do know and can do, if the Word of God is
proclaimed with authority and power and there are believers who are maturing in
the faith. There is no need to send
people out to counseling or to bring counselors into the church, because what
is truly needed should already be available regarding preaching the Gospel,
teaching the Word, praying, and fellowshipping with the saints. Therefore
churches need to address the following questions: Is the Gospel being preached
and taught? Are biblical doctrines
having to do with salvation, sanctification, and the believers' walk with the
Lord being faithfully taught? Are
members studying Scripture? Are those
believers who are experiencing problems of living spending time with the Lord
in His Word and in prayer, are they desiring to grow in Christ, and are they
being encouraged in their faith? Are
they fellowshipping with like-minded believers? The resources for loving and serving Christ through times of
trial are available to every Christian in the Word of God, in the indwelling
Holy Spirit, and in the local body of believers.
Very
simply, Christ-centered ministry can be summarized in the words who, what,
why, when, where, and how. In a nutshell: The "Who" is
Jesus Christ. The "What" is
the life of Christ and the written Word of God as applied by the Holy Spirit.
The "Why" is the Father's mandate to all believers to minister to one
another to make increase of the Body and to edify one another in love that all
may be conformed to the image of Christ.
The "When" and "Where" are whenever and wherever
Jesus involves a member of His local church body to minister to another. The "How" is the super- natural
work of the Lord through the believer to minister, by grace through faith, such
expressions of love as care, comfort, compassion, mercy, encouragement,
exhortation, admonition, instruction in truth, and hospitality. The who, what, why, when, where, and
how already exist in the Body of Christ, particularly in those churches
that faithfully minister the Word and where believers are growing in their walk
with the Lord. We do not believe in
cookbook counseling, but rather in life-lived ministry. We are being generally descriptive, not
specifically prescriptive.
Christ-centered
ministry relies on the work of the Holy Spirit in a believer's life and
therefore emphasizes spiritual growth, whereby the believer walks with the Lord
according to the Spirit rather than according to the flesh. Thus, believers are encouraged to live their
new life in Christ, which is spiritually alive because the Spirit of Christ
lives in them. The source of the new
life is God and therefore it is both spiritual and eternal. When believers are walking in the Spirit
they are living by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. They are putting off the old ways of what
they were before receiving His life and they are following Jesus in holiness,
righteousness, truth, mercy, kindness, goodness, love, joy, peace, long suffering,
patience, humility, temperance, gentleness, faith, forgiveness, and obedience
to God. When they are walking in the
Spirit, their desire is to know and follow Jesus, and they are growing in their
love for God and one another.
Walking
in the Spirit also means denying the flesh, which in this context means all the
sinful ways that are characteristic of fallen mankind. The flesh is all that a person is before he
is born again. The flesh is at war with
the Spirit (Gal. 5:16,17). Scripture
lists some of the works of the flesh as being "adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance,
emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness,
revellings" (Gal. 5:19-21), “lying, stealing, bitter-ness, anger,
clamour, evil speaking, and malice”
(Eph. 4:25-31). In short, the flesh is
self wanting its own way at the expense of others and in opposition to
God. The flesh is self on the throne
instead of God. One can easily see how vital it is for believers to walk in the
Spirit and to deny the fleshly self.
And yet, when people experience problems of living, they often attempt
to deal with them through fleshly means.
Through
encouragement to grow in their walk with the Lord and to depend on Him,
believers not only learn to deal with current problems; they will also become
better prepared for future trials and challenges they have not yet faced.
Rather than getting into the habit of looking to another person to fix their
lives or solve their problems, believers will become established in their own
walk with the Lord and in drawing upon the resources they already have in
Christ. All biblical ministry is for the sake of building up believers in
Christ so that they can walk pleasing to the Lord, serving Him, thanking Him,
and glorifying Him through good times and bad (Phil. 4:12).
Importance of Preaching, Teaching,
and Ministering Truth
It
is disappointing to see that while churches will take responsibility for
preaching the Gospel of salvation, as soon as problems occur, they send individuals
elsewhere for help, not realizing that problems provide opportunities for
sanctification. In fact, counseling has all but eclipsed preaching in
importance for dealing with life's infirmities. There is a need to regain greater respect for those local church
ministries and teachings that lead to salvation and spiritual growth. Paul declared:
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God (1 Cor. 1:18).
So,
as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome
also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God
unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the
Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as
it is written, The just shall live by faith (Romans
1:15-17).
Preaching
and teaching in the local church are God's ministry gifts to bring people to
salvation and through sanctification and also to equip the saints for
ministering to one another in the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:11,12). The emphasis is always to be on Christ
and what He has done, is doing, and will do in the life of every believer
through trials as well as through daily living. He is the source and resource of both salvation and
sanctification. Therefore Paul wrote:
As ye have therefore received Christ
Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished
in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through
philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of
the world, and not after Christ. For in
him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Col. 2:6-9).
We hope to encourage believers to
minister to one another with the attention on Christ, the Word of God, and the
Holy Spirit. The goal of
Christ-centered ministry is spiritual growth in walking in the Spirit rather
than the flesh. We encourage confidence in the vast provisions of our Lord and
discourage all reliance on counseling systems.
We encourage reliance on the Holy Spirit to enable believers to minister
to one another in the Body of Christ and reject all forms of intimidation from
the counseling world.
The ideal seeker of Christ-centered
ministry would be one who already knows that problems of living are
opportunities for spiritual growth and is looking for someone to help utilize
what God has already given in His Word, His indwelling Holy Spirit, and in the
Body of Christ. But these people are rare, because most Christians have become
culturally accustomed to expect problem-centered counseling. Not only is our proposal for Christ-centered
ministry instead of problem-centered counseling radical; even more radical will
be implementing these God-given, biblically valid ways of ministry
because of the current fixation on problem-centered counseling.
Through
the years we have documented the faults of psychological counseling and
enumerated the errors of the biblical counseling movement in our books and
articles.[1] We are not saying that there is no good in
either the psychological counseling movement or the biblical counseling
movement. Some psychotherapists give good advice and some biblical counselors
are truly biblical. We are saying that
both movements intimidate believers, focus too much on solving problems, and
have enough common and individual faults to reject them.
Many
who will read this book have read one or more of our other books and articles
and are familiar with our position on psychological and biblical
counseling. Nevertheless, we have
included some of the reasons we oppose those movements in Chapters Two and
Three.
Chapter
Two is a brief summary of research evidence that demonstrates how empty the
promises of psychotherapy and its underlying psychologies really are. This type of psychology, which purports to
help individuals with problems of living, is the very wisdom of men about which
God warns His people (1 Cor. 2). While
Christians do not need scientific research to convince them that the Lord and
His Word give them all they need for life and godliness, it is important to
understand that the scientific research does support the Bible but does not
support the psychological takeover in the church.
Chapter
Three reveals weaknesses of the biblical counseling movement and shows
parallels between it and its precursor, the psychological counseling movement.
Biblical counselors' intent to be as biblical as possible is undermined by
their problem-centered counseling, which is a reflection of the psychological
counseling movement.
Chapter
Four reveals the origins of problem-centered counseling, and Chapter Five
explains the differences between Christ-centered ministry and problem-centered
counseling. Chapter Six briefly describes the who, what, why, when, where, and
how of Christ-centered ministry. Chapter Seven demonstrates advantages of
Christ-centered ministry over problem-centered counseling and encourages
believers in local congregations to minister to one another according to the
Word of God and the indwelling Life of Christ.
Christ-centered
ministry is much broader than counseling. We discuss the broadness of what is
included in caring for souls in our book Competent to Minister. However, the purpose of this book is
to reveal the origins and faults of problem-centered counseling, to describe
Christ-centered ministry and how it differs from problem-centered counseling,
and to encourage local congregations to minister as God has called them to do
without the influence of the psychological or biblical counseling movements. Much of what we say will be familiar to
Christians. But, the call for those mature in the faith to be salt and light in
the local church in the current era of licensed psychological counselors and
degreed or certificated biblical counselors will contrast with what currently
exists in the church world. While this book is aimed at encouraging believers
who are maturing in the faith to minister to one another in their local congregations,
it also encourages all believers to grow spiritually in faith and practice.
While
we have titled this chapter "A Radical Proposal," people in those
churches that are continuing to be biblical in their approach and continuing to
rely on the Lord and His word will scratch their heads and say, "What's so
radical? That's what we've been doing all along." We thank God for those
churches! Indeed our proposal would not have been radical one hundred years
ago. However, because of the way
psychological and biblical counseling has swept into the church and grabbed
hold of minds and hearts, this proposal is radical! It will require a 180-degree turn around for
many Christians, pastors, churches, Bible colleges, seminaries, and mission
boards. In fact, if the church or
fellowship you attend refers out to either psychological or biblical counselors
or brings such individuals on staff, we go so far as to say that you may need
to find one that has confidence in the Word of God beyond giving lip service to
it. That is confidence enough to
trust mature believers in their local church fellowship to minister to those
suffering from problems of living, without biblical counseling manuals,
workshops, seminars, degrees, or certificates. We hope and pray that our feeble efforts will encourage
Christians to turn away from both psychology and the biblical counseling
movement and to minister in the local body of believers as God has called them
to do in His Word. g
Taken from Christ-Centered
Ministry or Problem-Centered, by Martin and Deidre Bobgan, EastGate
Publishers, Santa Barbara, CA, 2004.
Used with permission. Further
reproduction prohibited without written permission from the publisher.
[1] See
Martin and Deidre Bobgan. PsychoHeresy:
The Psychological Seduction of Christianity (1987); The End of “Christian
Psychology” (1997); and Against “Biblical Counseling”: For
the Bible (1994). Santa Barbara,
CA: EastGate Publishers; articles from PsychoHeresy Awareness Letter now
posted on <www.psychoheresy-aware.org>.