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[Darrell]

Youth Pastor Mark Kelly is currently writing a blog series in defense of Nouthetic counseling methods.

He says in part:

To avoid any confusion, let me say that I believe NC and Biblical Counseling to be synonymous terms.  I am not saying that all nouthetic counselors act biblically all the time, however, NC cannot be anything else but biblical if done properly.
There are three elements to NC that we will examine briefly here:

Nouthetic counseling involves confrontation.
Confrontation can be defined as “…one Christian personally [giving] counsel to another from the Scriptures.”
Confrontation finds it’s foundation in 2 Timothy 3:16,17.
Confrontation, when done biblically / nouthetically, keeps me from counseling my own ideas or the ideas of others.  It keeps me focused on biblical solutions to spiritual problems.

Nouthetic counseling involves concern.
Concern can be defined as “…that counseling [which] is always done for the benefit of the counselee.”
Concern can find it’s foundation in 1 Corinthians 4:14.
Concern, when biblical or nouthetic in nature, implies that I always have the best, biblical interest of the counselee in mind.  It is my duty as a brother in Christ to assist my brother / sister in Christ in the process of progressive sanctification.  As they heed biblical / nouthetic counsel, they become more like Christ.

Nouthetic counseling involves change.
Change is necessary because “…there is something in another Christian’s life that fails to meet the biblical requirements and that, therefore, keeps him from honoring God”.
Change is necessary to the degree that I deviate from the duties I have as a believer in Christ (as found in 2 Corinthians 5:9 and 1 Corinthians 10:31).  Those duties are, simply put: please God and glorify God.
Change, or progressive sanctification, can be further defined in Ephesians 4:17-24.

A multitude of things hide behind the label 'biblical.'

[Pastor Mark]

Hello D,
I appreciate you linking to my posts exploring Nouthetic Counseling.  I also pray that your forum "Nouthetic Survivors" leads to open and honest communication that would ultimately bring God glory and allow all who interact to continue to become conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.

As a matter of possible interest to those who post here, I am also blogging through "Soul Physicians" by Dr.Bob Kellemen, member of AACC (American Association of Christian Counselors).  This resource is one of several good texts he has written on the subject of biblical counseling.  By clicking here you should see most of the posts, and there are a couple that come after.

You did state at the end of your post that

...a multitude of things hide behind the label 'biblical'...

I re-read my quoted post again and did not see where I might be 'hiding' behind the label biblical; my goal was to explain things clearly and openly.  Please, if you see something in my post - or any post on my sight for that matter - that is unbiblical in nature, whether in definition or "attitude" (as hard as that is to determine on the web) - please, bring it to my attention. 

May you continue to grow in the grace & knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

[Darrell]

You did state at the end of your post that

...a multitude of things hide behind the label 'biblical'...

I re-read my quoted post again and did not see where I might be 'hiding' behind the label biblical; my goal was to explain things clearly and openly.  Please, if you see something in my post - or any post on my sight for that matter - that is unbiblical in nature, whether in definition or "attitude" (as hard as that is to determine on the web) - please, bring it to my attention. 

May you continue to grow in the grace & knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Thanks for stopping by, Pastor Mark.

Let me unpack my statement a little bit. It's not you specifically are hiding anything behind the label 'biblical' but rather that counselors who are "bad" (in the sense that they may do more harm than good to some people) would also claim that label for themselves. You yourself admitted that "not...all nouthetic counselors act biblically all the time", yet they too no doubt would claim Scriptures authority for what they do. In that sense the phrase "biblical counseling" is (in my opinion) much abused.

Furthermore, in general Christian circles we tend to use the word "biblical" in the sense of "what our group culture allows" oftentime resorting to eisegesis to prove our point. Think of "biblical dating" or "biblical music" or "biblical _______"(you fill in the blank). In that sense things do often hide behind the word "biblical" that are far from commanded either by law or by principle.

[Darrell]

To go a step further, by the same token that we often label certain activities "biblical" we often want to label others "unbiblical" because they fall outside the purview of Scripture.

Psychology as a study is called 'unbiblical' by some (not saying you specifically!) since it uses techniques that are not Scripture-based. Then again, by that measuring stick dentists, mechanics, and computer programmers also are 'unbiblical' in that their tradecraft is not specifically spoken to by the Bible.