Monday, August 13, 2007

Southern Baptist Scholars on Biblical Counseling

Here's an item related to the previous post: an interview (PDF) with Daniel Akin (president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary) Russell Moore (dean of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary's School of Theology), Paige Patterson (president of Southwestern Theological Seminary) and Sam Williams (professor of Biblical Counseling at Southeastern Theological Seminary) about Southern Baptists' move toward biblical counseling.

The interview, originally published two years ago in the newsletter of
Crossroads Counseling, consists of responses to the following questions:

1. How do you define the difference between biblical counseling and other models of Christian counseling (a.k.a. integration)?


2. Which approach to counseling, biblical counseling or integration, do you prefer? What aspects of doctrine and personal experience are most influential in your decision?


3. What do you believe the role of the Bible, the gospel, and the church ought to have in a distinctively biblical counseling model? What role does secular psychology have?


4. How does your school teach that biblical counseling should interact with the ministries of the church?

5. What questions would you ask a counselor you were considering referring to in order to
assess whether their practice was distinctively biblical? What “red flags” are you screening for as you ask these questions?

6. Do you see any potential dangers with a church referring to integrationist counselors or
using discipleship materials in their church that are from an integrationist perspective?

7. What authors and organizations do you believe are doing the best work in presenting a
biblical model of counseling?

8. Why do you think secular psychology has become such an attractive alternative for many church leaders and members? Why are Southern Baptists embracing biblical counseling at this time in their history?

9. How would you envision an ideal relationship between local churches and a parachurch ministry devoted to a biblical model of counseling?

10. What final words of advice would you give to pastors as they consider matters of
counseling?

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