Biblical Counseling Engages with the Voices Around Us

And that number seven, biblical counseling, engaging with the voices around us, is where we'd like to put our attention today.

So I'd like to start by reading the description for distinctive number seven that is on our website at ccef.org slash about.

And here is that description to flesh out what we mean.

Biblical counselors are not alone in our desire to help others.

There are many helpful Christian voices out there, and yet there are differences among us.

Differences in practice usually reflect different theological emphases, particularly differences in how to understand people and how people change.

There are also many secular voices whose differences in practice reflect more fundamental differences about who God is and his activity in our lives.

Our view of science is not a primary difference with other Christian and secular voices.

Like others, we make observations about people that are useful to our counseling practice.

We are also intentional to learn from the observations and experience of others, which includes the burgeoning Christian and secular literature.

Biblical counseling adds, however, that all these sources are then interpreted and refined by the question, who is the Lord and what does he say? When we do find differences between biblical counseling and other counseling theories, we aim to identify the strengths in those theories and represent others and their viewpoints accurately.

When we disagree, we want to engage with respect and a generous spirit as if we were face to face.

Friends, what stands out to you about that description as you hear it read again and start our reflections here?

I think one of the things that stands out is that there are many voices out there that we can listen to.

And so what will we... what would we do with those voices? And I think it's our temptations perhaps to go in a couple of different directions to just warmly embrace or the opposite extreme kind of just coldly dismiss.

But I think this, what stands out from the description is that approach of charitably and critically engaging.

So the difference between just embrace, dismiss, no, let's engage.

So that's, I think, one of the things that immediately stands out to me.

I think another thing we notice the science portion of that, it's just identifying that there is true correspondence between what we feel and see and taste and touch and hear and what is real.

That because we are image bearers and God has given us capacities and powers to engage reality, we can trust those things to some degree.

There's this common ground that whether we are secular or Christian, because we are made in God's image and likeness, we have access to the reality that he has made around us.

And that is that common ground that we can do life with.

Yeah, one of the things that stands out to me when I read the description is just really CCF's approach to not only people that we meet and how we want to interact with one another, but how we engage voices around us and that when we disagree, when we're having conversations, we always want to approach those conversations with gentleness, respect, humility, a willingness to listen.

And I think that that's something that is tough right now in our culture to do when we think about engaging with voices around us.

You know, like Mike, you said, we can either warmly embrace or coldly dismiss.