OUR DESIRE
It is our desire at Awakening Church to come alongside you as you navigate the difficulties of life that we all experience as well as the sins and weights that cling so closely in this life (Hebrews 12:1). Whether it is a single conversation or ongoing counseling, Awakening has biblical counselors ready to meet your needs. The counseling ministry will guide you in getting the help that best suits your situation and lead you towards the ultimate goal of honoring Christ with your life.
What does scripture say about counseling?
Counseling falls under the broad category of normal Christian discipleship. Every Christian should be a part of teaching people to observe everything that Christ commanded (Matthew 28:19-20). The purpose of what Awakening Church refers to as Biblical Counseling is really just a personalized, and private discipleship relationship. This is a relationship that all Christians have with each other in general, and it’s not only authorized by scripture, its commanded for our good.
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work….I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
2 Timothy 3:16-17, 4:1-2
Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
Galatians 6:1-2
Clearly, counseling is necessary to life in general and the Christian life in particular, so we need to know how to counsel. For Christians, the supremacy and authority of Scripture means that we need to learn how to counsel in a way that is biblical.
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work….I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
2 Timothy 3:16-17, 4:1-2
Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
Galatians 6:1-2
Clearly, counseling is necessary to life in general and the Christian life in particular, so we need to know how to counsel. For Christians, the supremacy and authority of Scripture means that we need to learn how to counsel in a way that is biblical.
What does Awakening Church believe about Biblical Counseling?
1. Biblical counseling is a discipleship ministry.
It is the private ministry of the Word just as preaching is the public ministry of the Word. This involves understanding the situation biblically and applying Scripture to the situation.
2. Biblical counseling is done by Christians for Christians under the authority of the local church.
Since it requires submission to Scripture, it must be conducted by Christian counselors to Christian counselee in order to be effective. As with all discipleship, biblical counseling must be done under the authority of the elders of the local church. A biblical counselor operates under the authority of the elders of a local church for all formal counseling, and the counselee should be under the authority of the elders of a local church as well.
3. Biblical counseling depends on the authority and sufficiency of Scripture.
Biblical counseling depends on the authority and sufficiency of Scripture. God’s Word has ultimate authority over every aspect of our lives, including every situation that any counselee will ever face. God’s Word is also sufficient to equip every Christian for every good work, including handling every situation a Christian counselee can encounter (2 Timothy 3:16-17, 2 Peter 1:3). Based on a secular humanist worldview devoid of God, psychology and psychiatry overemphasize self, underemphasize (or even deny) sin, deny the spiritual side of soul issues, and rely on human remedies from a human understanding that is severely tainted by sin. Instead, biblical counseling relies on Scripture as the only completely reliable source of information about the soul. God, who created the soul and is the only one who truly understands it (Jeremiah 17:9-10), so Scripture is the only definitive work on the subject.
4. Biblical counseling relies on the power of the Holy Spirit to transform the lives of counselees.
Biblical counseling relies on the power of the Holy Spirit to transform the lives of counselees. Scripture teaches that the issues we face are a result of sin: our sin, the sins of others, and the world corrupted because of sin. The only way to bring true and lasting change is for the Holy Spirit to transform our sinful hearts. Anything short of this results in only short-term and superficial change. This means that the Gospel is the first priority of biblical counseling. If the counselee does not understand or believe the Gospel, that must be addressed before any of the issues the counselee is facing can be approached biblically.
5. Biblical counseling focuses on the evaluation of desires and motives.
Biblical counseling focuses on the desires and motives that undergird our words and actions rather than the words and actions themselves (Matthew 15:10-20, Mark 7:14-23, James 4:1-3). Words and actions are the fruit of desires and motives, so true change comes from the inside, with transformed motives and desires producing transformed words and actions.
6. Biblical counseling seeks to understand and address the counselee’s situation using biblical rather than psychological terminology.
Biblical counseling seeks to understand and address the counselee’s situation using biblical rather than psychological terminology. This means helping counselees understand who God is, who they are, and where their situations originate as the Bible teaches using biblical language instead of the psychological language. Whether counselees are familiar with the Diagnostic and Statistics Manual of Mental Disorders or not, they often use psychological terminology because it is so pervasive in our culture’s vernacular. It also carries certain baggage, particularly in rooting counselees’ identity in psychological conditions rather than in an identity shaped by Scripture. Instead, biblical counseling describes the counselee’s situation in biblical terms. This means lovingly calling out sins, exhorting counselees to repent of their sins when appropriate. It also means helping them respond biblically to situations in which they are sinned against, including forgiving those who sinned against them as God has forgiven them.
7. The ultimate goal of biblical counseling is sanctification in which the counselee becomes more like Christ
The ultimate goal of biblical counseling is sanctification in which the counselee becomes more like Christ, not necessarily the removal or resolution of the situation the counselee is facing (Romans 8:28-30, 1 Thessalonians 4:3). Since God never promises to remove our troubles but does promise to help us in them, we cannot promise counselees that which God does not promise (1 Corinthians 10:13). This means biblical counselors help counselees to understand and trust in the sovereignty and goodness of God in their situations so that they place their hope in God, resting in and striving for God’s present work of sanctification and future work of glorification rather than short-term remedies to their present problems.