Nouthetic Counseling, or is All Truth God's Truth?

An emerging ministry has caught my attention over the past few weeks: It is called nouthetic counseling. If this movement has not yet reached your radar, and you live in the Southern or Midwestern United States, it may soon.

According to the homepage of the National Association of Nouthetic Counselors (www.nanc.org), which is the certifying body for these counselors, "Nouthetic counseling is counseling that uses Scripture to confront people about their sin with the goal of helping to restore them to usefulness." It is an approach to pastoral counseling that was pioneered in the early seventies by a man by the name of Jay Edward Adams, as a reaction to what he (and others) perceived to be a growing disconnect between biblical truth and the type of "secular" counseling techniques taught to ministry students in seminaries.

This approach specifically rejects all forms of "secular counseling" or "psychology." The membership covenant, which must be signed by all those trained in nouthetic counseling before they can become members of the NANC, states: "We deny that secular theories and practices are manifestations of General Revelation or Common Grace. We affirm that they are, in fact, attempts to substitute the 'discoveries' of rebellious human thought for the truths revealed in Scripture, and are, therefore, in competition with a proper interpretation of General Revelation and with biblical counseling. They cannot be integrated with the Faith once for all delivered to the saints." In a nutshell, any secular approaches to psychology or counseling are incompatible with biblical Christian faith.

As I learned about nouthetic counseling, this aspect of it concerned me greatly, so I continued researching.

Come to find out, the NANC specifically traces their origins to the revival of the fundamentalist movement in the 1970s. Their lengthy "history" page on their website (LINK) begins to tell the story of the rise of nouthetic counseling by talking about the religious wars and denominational divisions of the 1960s, with the heroes of this time being designated as "those who had separated from the apostasy of the old mainline denominations." The main conflict in this fight, according to the NANC, had been "the battle for the authority and inspiration of the Bible." Coming toward the end of the lengthy history recording on the NANC's website, you will find that they quote Curtis Lee Laws, who coined the term "fundamentalist" back in the 1920s, a couple of times: His comments are concerned with the fundamentalists' war with "liberal" views of the inerrancy of the Bible. By the end of the historical account, there is even an oddly-placed (not to mention disconcerting) attack on the daughter of Billy Graham, Ruth Graham McIntire, who admitted to going to "professional counseling" after finding out her husband was having a secret affair. The NANC chides McIntire: "For Ruth Graham McIntire 'God and the Bible' were not enough!"

This illustrates well the reason for my concern with nouthetic counseling. Let me first be clear in saying this: I do not believe that nouthetic counselors are all Bible-bashing fundamentalists, nor do I doubt that the Holy Spirit can use even these nouthetic counseling techniques to transform individuals. I have learned long ago not to say where the Holy Spirit may or may not work. However, the underlying philosophy of nouthetic counseling (namely, biblical fundamentalism) is, I believe, fatally flawed.

Once again, the membership covenant for nouthetic counselors reads: "The counselor must build his [it's always his, never her] counseling system, including its presuppositions, principles and methodologies solely from Scripture." I want to contend that this simply cannot be done. If this logic is followed through to its conclusions, then the nouthetic counselor would be contradicting his own covenental statement by reading even Dr. Jay E. Adams' books, or any other texts outside of Scripture for the purpose of informing their counseling techniques. They simply cannot follow their own logic. I believe the reason nouthetic counselors are sometimes successful is because of this very fact: they cannot follow through with their own logic. They must import ideas from outside of Scripture to even begin to describe the situations they deal with in counseling (i.e. the Bible does not once use the term "depression").

More importantly, this outright refusal to accept that there is any validity to secular theories of psychology or counseling is an implicit rejection of the doctrine of Creation: All truth is God's truth. According to the NANC, secular psychological and counseling models are not even compatible with the General Revelation of God. For the NANC, as for all biblical fundamentalists, truth is reduced to that which is contained in the Bible. Anything outside the Bible is either unimportant or evil. This is a rejection of the doctrine of Creation.

But our God has created all things, and there are traces of his goodness, his love, and his truth even in places where the words of Scripture have yet to permeate. (How do the nouthetic counselors explain any transformation performed in counseling outside of cultures exposed to the Bible?)

We must, as Christians, affirm truth wherever we find it, and I would venture to say that there is a significant amount of truth even in the secular models of psychology and counseling. I am not defending everything in these secular models: I am no expert in psychology or counseling, and cannot speak for or against everything taught in these models. But St. Augustine puts it this way: We must "plunder the Egyptians." Just as the children of Israel were separated out from Egypt, but in the process took the clothing, gold, and silver of their captors, even so, as the Christian separates herself spiritually from the world at large, she also takes with her all that she has learned from the surrounding culture, using it for the purposes of the Gospel. This is a much more Christian understanding of the nature of truth and God's revelation than the narrow fundamentalist version. The Scriptures most certainly should inform pastoral counseling, more than any other source, but they are not the only source for truth that is relevant to psychology and counseling (the nouthetic counselors prove this themselves every time they read any other book outside the Bible).

In conclusion, while I am not speaking wholly against nouthetic counseling, I am concerned about the fundamentalism that so explicitly drives this approach to pastoral counseling. It is a movement that is mostly thriving where you'd expect it to thrive--independent Baptist congregations, who have bought into the fundamentalist version of the nature of the Bible. However, I have begun to see this approach make inroads into other sectors of the Christian world as well. It is still a very small movement (according to the NANC, they have less than 1,000 certified members), and perhaps it will not ever reach your radar. But it has reached mine, and I hope this blog will inform your thinking if and when it reaches yours.

Beginning with the End in Mind

Dr. Bowling, the University President here at Olivet Nazarene University, has always begun the first university chapel message of the school year with an address to the senior class that will graduate at the end of that year. During these messages, Dr. Bowling takes time to encourage these seniors to be rigorous in their studies, to continue to develop relationships, and to become even more attune to the Lord's work in their life during their last year at ONU. One of the phrases he uses every time in that message at the beginning of each schoolyear came to my mind this morning: Every year, he tells the senior class to "Begin with the end in mind."

At the beginning of 2010--a new year, a new decade--I simply want to offer the same piece of advice to the friends and family (and strangers!) who sometimes frequent my blog: Let's begin 2010 with the end in mind. Listen to the words of John the Revelator:

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, I am making everything new! Then he said, Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. He said to me: It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.”

May these be encouraging words, motivating words, words of truth to spur you on to holy living and hopeful expectation during this new year, 2010. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness! He is coming again! Let us be prepared, in season and out of season, for the day he fully reveals his glory to the world! May the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, be close to you this year. Amen.