In the introduction, Scott Floyd states the thesis of his book: “Knowing how to provide crisis care in essential, then, to any type of effective ministry.”[1] He begins his introduction with a series of catastrophizes that would demand crisis counseling. Floyd reviewed the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City which killed 168 people, the 1997 Columbine High School where thirteen students and a teacher were killed, the 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center building massacring almost three thousand civilians, and the 2005 Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans which causes 1,836 fatalities. After listing these disasters, Floyd asks, “Are we dealing with a new problem? He answers his question by referring to examples given by Jesus recorded in Luke 13:1-5. Jesus refers to natural and moral evil. The moral evil was Pilate murdering a group of worshippers. The natural evil was the tower of Siloam falling and killing eighteen individuals. Albert Mohler has a good article describing the difference and even overlap of natural and moral evil: The Reality of Natural Evil and Moral Evil: Devastating Earthquake in Afghanistan, Genocidal Attack in Israel (click to open). Floyd concludes, “Crises and traumatic events have been a part of human experience since the creation.”[2]
Read more"Punch a Pillow" not your Wife?
Jeremy Pierre and Deepak Reju in their book The Pastor and Counseling posed this counseling scenario: Let’s say a professional Christian counselor and a professional secular counselor advise your member to go into his bedroom and punch a pillow when his wife angers him. This seems reasonable. It’s certainly better than punching his wife, and the pillow is replaceable. If the professional Christian counselor has advised this, your member might assume that this is biblically-based advice. After all, it doesn’t seem unloving to others or dishonoring to God to treat a pillow viciously. A professional Christian counselor giving such pillow advice would likely cite Scripture to make his point, maybe showing how Jesus directed his anger appropriately by overturning the money changers’ tables and not striking the money-changers themselves. And this would seem reasonably biblical to your member (Jeremy Pierre, Jeremy, and Deepak Reju. The Pastor and Counseling (9Marks, pp. 123-124. Crossway. Kindle Edition).
Read moreWhen to Do Counseling Referrals
I have had two church members who were threatening suicide whom I had to refer to professions. My dad while in a nursing home, threatened suicide. When I informed the nursing home personnel of Dad’s threat, they immediately called the police who transported dad to the hospital. This is the law in N.C.
Read moreIs Suicide the Unpardonable Sin?
Morgan Lee, at Christianity Today interviewed Al Hsu, the InterVaristy Press senior editor shared this story: I was on a radio show recently where one caller said, “I’ve always believed that suicide automatically sends you to hell, and that has prevented me from killing myself. Now I’m confused because if you tell me that suicide doesn’t automatically send you to hell, doesn’t that let people off the hook?”
Read moreReview of Two Sides of the Counseling Coin by Heath Lambert
Heath Lambert gives this analogy: Explaining the difference between nouthetic counseling and biblical counseling is a bit like asking whether a coin is heads or tails. A coin is both heads and tails. In talking about the heads side or the tails side of the coin, we are merely emphasizing different surfaces of one thing.
On October 8, 2012, Heath Lambert former executive director of ACBC (Association of Certified Biblical Counselors) formerly NANC (National Association of Nouthetic Counselors) now professor of counseling at SBTC contrasted and compared Nouthetic and Biblical Counseling at The Gospel Coalition.
The critics (click to open) of these two biblical models say the only difference is the spelling. But, Lambert will show there are major similarities and differences.
Read moreBiblical verses Non-biblical Models of Counseling
Whether the counselor believes the counselee is made in the image of God determines which model counselors use.
Psychology is “the study of the soul” and Psychotherapy is “soul healing” (psyche=soul and therapeuo=to heal) and yet one study reported statistics showing academic psychologists to be among the least religious group of scholars, with 50% reporting no religious preference. Secular Psychology denies the soul in its view of human nature.
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