Biblical Counseling and the Therapeutic Culture

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Benjamin Kreps:

Hey everyone, and welcome to the Mark Prater podcast where our aim is to connect our global family of Sovereign Grace Churches with our executive director. Mark, those who follow the podcast know that a couple of weeks ago, the leadership team had a retreat with the regional leaders, and that went very well by all accounts. We have excellent regional leaders and this was an opportunity for the leadership team and regional leaders to interact. One of the topics that you discussed that you talked about was the topic of biblical counseling, and you have some thoughts for us about that?

Mark Prater:

Yeah. First of all, I agree with you. We have the best regional leaders here in the states, and I thank God for them. And one of the benefits of doing a retreat with them is we really do learn from them. We get updates from the region, and then we just have these conversations about how can we best serve the churches of Sovereign Grace. That's why the leadership team exists. And so the aim of that whole discussion is to find ways to continue to serve our churches because we love our pastors and we love our churches and want to serve them well. That's the primary task of the leadership team.

And we got into this conversation that was very fascinating regarding basically how the therapeutic culture today can impinge upon the church a bit, and that can have some effects, obviously. But let me talk about what I mean by the therapeutic. It's an age of expressive individualism. I know Trueman uses that term. And you're finding that people, like the therapeutic in the past, are looking for solutions to their problems outside of themselves and not looking first inside where we know that indwelling sin still remains. And we have that fight, the mortification of sin, and how the word of God and the grace of God can be applied to that to really help you grow.

One of the quotes I read to the regional leaders came from a book called Digital Liturgies by Samuel Jackson. He referenced there a paper written by Wilfred McClay. Wilfred McClay is more of an academic. I probably wouldn't recommend you read the paper because it's just the scholarly work that I had to struggle through, but I thought he made a really good point. The title of the article is very interesting, "The Strange Persistence of Guilt", and the sort of the overall observation is there's a strange persistence of guilt that lingers in our culture, and this is sort of the summary that Samuel James gives of that article. McClay is basically saying there's this persistent sense of guilt in our society that has occurred for two competing reasons. And this is what James writes. First, there is the cyclization of guilt and shame. Few ideas enjoy such uniformity of consensus as the idea that any sense of moral failing or despair of one's flaws must be reinterpreted In therapeutic terms, you are not guilty. You are simply held to oppressive standards by your community. Your shame tells you nothing except that you need to actualize your authentic self and do whatever your heart tells you.

Now, here's the second observation. However, despite such therapeutic answers to guilt and shame, modern people do not appear more at peace or reconcile with themselves. Instead, contemporary culture is brimming with unrest, anxiety, and yes, even a profound kind of guilt. And so that's kind of the therapeutic soup that we can be living in a bit that the folks in our churches can be affected by. We as pastors can be affected by.

And one of the effects that we're seeing of that is we find more people that are saying, I need a therapist, or I need a counselor, meaning a therapist or counselor outside of the local church. And of course, let me be very clear about this, there is a place for therapists and counselors outside of the church, but we are concerned that what is getting replaced is the important role of biblical counseling that a pastor is called to provide for his churches, to care for his church as a shepherd. Because that's the wonderful metaphor in scripture, isn't it? That describes that shepherd imagery is used to define us as pastors, as men who are called to care for their flocks. And that's so important.

And we are going to talk about this I think at the Pastors' conference, probably do a breakout session on this topic where we want to try to serve our pastors to help them maintain the priority of biblical counseling in the church so we don't lose that, because we will only find hope in God's word. It's biblical counseling. It's God's word that is living and active that transforms us. And we as shepherds have to help our people apply God's word to their many difficult situations and the grace of God to those difficult situations so that the power of God can transform them and actually bring them hope. And when you talk about grace, you point them to the one who has paid for all of our shame and guilt. There's only one who has done that. And so there's only one who can offer hope to live a life without shame and guilt. And that is Jesus Christ and his finished work in the gospel.

Benjamin Kreps:

Yes. That's helpful to be thinking about this topic. I had a guy in our church, young aspiring guy who's going to a conservative Bible college near us who asked me if I had a therapist because one of his teachers told him that every pastor should have their own personal therapist. So this stuff is ubiquitous, whether it's social media, Google ads constantly promoting, you need a therapist, here's the number to call at therapy. This is going to help you. And that's what the people in our churches are breathing each day.

Mark Prater:

That's true. Yeah. In fact, Ben, you just got back from a week at the Pastors College where you intentionally registered and went to attend the pastoral ministry class, which you took many years ago when you were a PC student, but you took it again. So talk about why you took it again and what the effect was on you this week.

Benjamin Kreps:

Took it again because it's been 11 years, and I remember sitting in that class with CJ, being deeply encouraged, edified, strengthened and equipped. But as I told my church last Sunday at the end of the service when I informed them that Kevin Busch and I were heading to Louisville to the class, here's the issue is that I've leaked. I've leaked what I've learned. So spent the past week learning from CJ, I can think of no finer pastor to learn from about pastoral ministry other than CJ, so a deeply edifying, week; invigorating, recalibrating. I came back from that class with a more fervent desire to be a faithful shepherd.

And to that end, I wanted to share a quote that CJ shared with us. CJ had many fine quotes, but this one affected me from Thomas Oden where he says, It is no small effort to which we set ourselves. The task about which we are seeking to think integrally is none other than learning properly to shepherd the body of Christ. One would expect physicians or attorneys to have grasped an integral theory of their task, some overarching conception of their official duty before beginning their practice. And yes, we pray they do, but in ministry in the last decade, some have thought it acceptable to proceed without any such general conception or overarching vision. Here's the money: yet the importance of the office of pastor still quietly pleads with us to think with extraordinary care about the better and worse ways in which that office, shepherding, might be conceived and practiced. And so I heartily agree with you about biblical counseling, that our call to shepherd the people of God takes great care and thoughtfulness. And we need to know the flock. We need to be students of the soul in order to care for the flock. This takes great wisdom, it takes courage in difficult moments, but God provides all that we need in that. And so, amen, may we grow as a family of churches that have pastors who are eager to counsel the people of God with the word of God.

Mark Prater:

Amen. Amen. Thanks for going to that class, Ben. It's such a good class. I'm going to take it again. It's a reminder for all of us as pastors that as Ben said, we leak and we need to have ongoing training. And I couldn't recommend any better place to go than our Pastors College. And so an encouragement to guys, I know it costs money, I know it requires time, I know it affects things locally. Make all those sacrifices because you will become a better pastor by just being equipped and not just being equipped, as Ben said, but rejuvenated for pastoral ministry.

Benjamin Kreps:

Yeah. Excellent. Well, I so appreciate, and I'm sure I could speak for most, if not all of us, we appreciate the careful thought that you and the leadership team and the regional leaders are giving to this important area of addressing the therapeutic world, which is constantly intruding upon our churches, living their lives in this world, surrounded by this kind of language and jargon, and so grateful that you guys are thinking about how to serve us, equip us, strengthen us, to counsel the people of God with the word of God, which is what they need most. So thanks, Mark, and thank you all for checking out the podcast. We'll see you here next week, Lord willing. Bye for now.