Question: Please define “biblical counseling”.
Answer: Biblical counseling involves applying God’s word to the specific hurts, problems, situations, and challenges of an individual’s life. As with any counseling, this takes earnest listening, but unlike secular counseling, biblical counseling seeks to reframe thinking according to the Scriptures and what God says about us. In biblical counseling, the Scriptures are applied directly to someone’s thought life and actions, because in the Scriptures, our greatest needs are addressed (2 Tim 3:16-17). Sometimes people are looking for help or guidance and so they reach out for counseling, but biblical counseling is not limited by this, as pastors should seek to shepherd their flock, giving biblical counsel as occasion arises.
Question: Explain the difference between “mentoring”, “counseling” and “discipleship”.
Answer: Discipleship is the only biblical term of these three, and practically speaking, it is the umbrella term for the other two. Both mentoring and counseling are ways of doing discipleship, just with different occasions and purposes. Discipleship is teaching someone to follow Jesus’ teaching (Matt 28:19-20; Jn 8:31). A disciple is a follower, and so the goal of Christian discipleship is to make someone a (better) follower of Jesus. Both mentoring and counseling are forms of discipleship, because they both share the goal of growing someone in Christ-likeness.
Christian mentoring is a way of doing discipleship. Specifically, mentoring is when a more-experienced person seeks to train up or support a less-experienced person in leadership (or more broadly, some particular ministry work). We could think about Moses mentoring Joshua, or Paul mentoring Timothy. So, the context of mentoring is leadership or future leadership, and the purpose is to grow and prepare the younger/less-experienced through the godly counsel of the older/more-experienced. Because biblical mentorship is a subset of discipleship, the goal of biblical mentorship is Christ-likeness, particularly in the area of leadership.
Christian counseling, as described above, is also a subset of discipleship. Biblical counseling is needed for a variety of reasons, such as ongoing hurts or present difficulties. The purpose of biblical counseling is to help an individual follow Jesus through these hurts and difficulties, with the ultimate goal of biblical counseling being Christ-likeness in the midst of the challenges of life in this fallen world.
Question: At what point might you (as a pastor) be comfortable in referring a counselee to a professional Christian counselor?
Answer: The rapid increase in professional counseling has coincided with the secularization of society and the collapse of the family. This is unsurprising, because the God-created institutions of family and church should ideally cover any counseling needs one might have. For example, a pastor is required by God to keep watch over the souls of the congregation; it’s not supposed to be the job of a professional Christian counselor (Acts 20:28; Heb 13:17). But just because I don’t believe professional counseling should have to exist does not mean that I would not ever refer a counselee to a professional Christian counselor. If I were getting nowhere with a counselee (with us going around in circles, such that it was clear I was not helping), and it was evident my time was not wisely being spent, I would then seek out a good Christian counselor for him/her.
These questions, and my answers come from a recent application.