[This is the third blog entry this month by Dr. Sam Williams of SEBTS]

OK, picking up where we left off – CC, is distinctively Christian when it is properly related to and properly belongs to Christ, the person whose name it bears.

Maybe we could assert that Carl Rogers was not the originator of Person-centered counseling, God is.

Our definitive text, the Bible, is a collection of books and letters to persons, written by persons, from a Person, about a Person. And, as Christians we believe that lives are transformed, not by principles but by a Person.

We believe that a powerful Person greater than ourselves has come and can restore us to sanity. That’s good news.

Proposition: The Good News of God should be central to the process of Christian change and Christian counsel.

It would seem to me that Christian Counseling would bear the unique imprint of the Gospel of Christ.

How does the Gospel b/c an instinct, a style, an ever present vector in our counsel?
How do we b/c conduits, channels, means of grace?

Christian counselors, it seems to me, carefully think through the implications of the Gospel for any and every person and all types of problems.

If all of God’s promises are Yes in Jesus Christ then in what way does the Gospel meet this person at the point of their deepest need?

I am not saying that is all we should do, but I would say that is the most important thing we do.

Christ-ian counseling must, if it is to be worthy of the name of Christ, keep the main thing, the main thing. It should major on what the Bible and our faith majors on: Christ – risen, ruling and reigning, and in the process of redeeming you and me and our clients and our psychology and
counsel and everything else.

CC is a part of the Missio Dei, the mission of God.

Christian Counseling begins then, not with advice and guidance, but with an announcement of Good News.

CS Lewis, in a discussion about Christian apologetics once said that one need not defend a lion. What we must do however is “Let the Lion out of the Cage.” We must do the same thing in Christian Psychology and counseling.

This Lion would shock the mental health world, not only because of his power, but also because of his grace. He is not safe, but he is good.

Thus, it would seem to me that our particularly Christian worldview and the mega-narrative of the Gospel subverts and redeems the foundational narratives and metaphysical, epistemological, and anthropological presuppositions of the secular psychologies, rather than offering up junior versions of their systems.