The Biblical Counseling Movement After Adams by Heath Lambert, Reviewed by Bob Kellemen

Note: This review was first posted at The Gospel Coalition and is re-posted with permission. You can read it there at The Biblical Counseling Movement After Adams. 

Book Details

• Purchase a Copy: The Biblical Counseling Movement After Adams

• Author: Heath Lambert

• Publisher: Crossway

• Publication Date: September 2011

• Pages: 224

• Category: Biblical Counseling, Church History

• ISBN: 978-1-4335-2813-2

• Retail Price: $17.99

• Reviewer: Bob Kellemen

What Is Biblical Counseling?

During a recent presentation at the Evangelical Theological Society, I was reminded that well-informed Christian leaders continue to hold stereotypes about “biblical counseling.” During the Q/A time after my paper on A Theologically-Informed Approach to Sexual Abuse Counseling, one attendee stated, “That’s a more robust and relational approach to biblical counseling than I’ve heard before. Previously, I would not have referred a victim of sexual abuse to a ‘biblical counselor’ because I assumed they would simplisticly and heartlessly quote Scripture at them, and not empathetically grieve with them.”

Heath Lambert’s, The Biblical Counseling Movement After Adams, addresses whether that was ever an accurate depiction of “first generation biblical counseling”—Jay Adams’s nouthetic counseling. It also explores whether it is an accurate portrayal of “second generation biblical counseling”—the focus of Lambert’s work.

Understanding the Historical Context 

From the outset, Lambert clarifies several important misconceptions. First, he notes that “counseling is ministry, and ministry is counseling. The two are equivalent terms” (p. 21). Second, Lambert explains that “if counseling is equivalent to ministry, it means that it must be informed by the Bible and that those who do it are theologians” (p. 21).

He notes that even conservative, Bible-believing, Christ-exalting ministers of the gospel fail to grasp that counseling is an essential part of ministry. “They demonstrate the misunderstanding every time they say things like, ‘Oh, I don’t counsel people; I’m a preacher.’ Or, ‘Counseling takes too much time way from my other ministries.’ Or, ‘I don’t think the Bible has anything to say about this problem; you need to see a professional’” (p. 22).

It is at this point that Lambert connects his own view of biblical counseling to Adams’s original purpose and calling in launching the nouthetic counseling movement. “I was captivated by Adams’s vision to reclaim counseling as a theological and ministerial task and of his mission to make counseling an enterprise that was centered on Christ, based on his Word, and located in the local church” (p. 23).

This is one of numerous times where Lambert demonstrates his understanding of the historical context behind nouthetic counseling and his respect for the role that Adams played in returning the church to the personal ministry of the Word. Lambert traces the history of pastoral counseling in America and builds the case that “the absence of theology in counseling was the order of the day when, in 1970, Jay Adams published Competent to Counsel” (p. 35). It is impossible to understand or appreciate the pioneering work of Adams apart from grasping that “it was the role of Adams to begin to restore to the church an understanding that it had held before the American Civil War, namely, that counseling was within the realm of the church, every bit as much as its counterpart in public ministry, preaching” (p. 36).

Lambert is careful to express his appreciation for Adams. “This is a book about how biblical counselors have grown up and matured since the initial leadership of Jay Adams, but it is not a strike against Adams…. His work revolutionized the way thousands of people do ministry…. God has used him mightily to recalibrate the church’s thinking about how to help hurting and struggling people. I have no interest in any sort of unkind or ungodly attack on a man to whom the church owes much” (p. 47).

A Family Metaphor

That said, The Biblical Counseling Movement After Adams is not hagiography. “Jay Adams’s work was imperfect…. Adams built a movement from scratch, almost alone, and was doing so against powerful forces opposed to his model. It is my goal to honor Dr. Adams by carefully considering his work and the context in which he built it and by highlighting the efforts of the men laboring in the tradition he began, to improve upon the good work he started” (p. 47).

It is within this context that Lambert selects the family or generational metaphor. He references Adams as “the first generation of biblical counseling” and refers to the leadership of David Powlison and others who followed him in improving Adams’s thoughts as “second generation biblical counselors.”

It is here that Lambert’s solid historiography could have been strengthened. In introducing this second generation, Lambert opines that “…by the late eighties and early nineties new leadership began to rise up, mostly out of one of the organizations founded by Adams, the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation (CCEF)…. The new blood consisted of men such as Ed Welch and Paul Tripp, but the clear leader was David Powlison” (p. 44).

While many familiar with the biblical counseling movement might agree with Lambert’s summary, he provides only anecdotal support for who should be considered representative of each generation. Lambert’s two-generational model could have been reinforced by an operational definition of first generation and second generation biblical counseling followed by a quantitative examination of the literature over the past forty years to determine who best represents which generation. This might have raised to the surface additional counselors and organizations that could have broadened, deepened, and enriched the contrasts/comparisons between these two proposed generations of biblical counselors.

Families Grow and Develop 

Still, The Biblical Counseling Movement After Adams is a valid and valuable book for anyone who wants to understand what makes biblical counseling truly biblical, and how the modern biblical counseling movement has developed over the past forty years. Throughout the book, Lambert focused on three areas of advancement from the first to the second generation:

• Advancements in Counseling Theory/Conceptual Models: How counselors think about counseling; fundamental beliefs; counseling models of people, problems, and solutions.

• Advancement in Counseling Methods: How counselors do counseling; foundational roles; the process of change.

• Advancement in Counseling Apologetics: How counselors talk to and about other counseling systems; the tone of the conversation; the level of engagement and investigation.

In each section, Lambert culls from Adams’s writings to summarize Adams’s approach to theory, methods, and apologetics. He then compares and contrasts Adams’s views with those of second generation counselors like Powlison, Tripp, Lane, Welch, and a few select others.

Advances in How Biblical Counselors Think about Counseling

Lambert highlights two areas of perceived development in counseling theory: advancement concerning sin and suffering, and advancement concerning human motivation.

Regarding sin and suffering, Lambert provides a helpful summary of his view of the contrast. “The model that Jay Adams developed included a heavy emphasis on confronting sin patterns observed in counseling. While the second generation has not abandoned the need to confront sin, it has sought to advance the movement by seeing the counselee in a more nuanced way as both a sinner and a sufferer” (p. 50).

Lambert places Adams within his historical context—the need to draw the church back to a focus on responsibility. He sees Adams as someone who understood human suffering and the Bible’s teaching on it, but who, because of the historical context, did not develop a robust theory or methodology for counseling the suffering.

In contrast to the stereotype illustrated in the beginning of this review, Lambert provides copious documentation of second generation biblical counseling writings about a parakaletic approach to sufferers. Their biblical “sufferology” includes biblical comfort (2 Corinthians 1:3-11), biblical connection (Romans 12:15), biblical compassion and identification (Hebrews 2:10-18; 4:14-16), and much more.

The section on advancement concerning human motivation is likely to be hotly debated by people “within and outside the movement.” Lambert explores the charge that Adams’s model was behavioralistic (a charge Adams ferociously denies), and he provides documentation proposing that second generation biblical counselors have constructed a more thorough understanding of heart motivations.

Advancements in How Biblical Counselors Do Counseling

Lambert begins this section by noting several areas of overlap between first and second generation biblical counseling methodology. He then contends that Adams’s overall methodology was “overly formalized” (p. 87), and that “Adams’s emphasis on pastoral authority tended to obscure the importance of building loving relationships with counselees” (p. 88).

While appreciating the historical context behind Adams’s strong emphasis on formality and authority, Lambert applauds second generation methodological advancements. These include counseling that: is familial (pp. 90-91), demonstrates affection (pp. 91-92), is sacrificial (pp. 92-93), is person-oriented (pp. 94-96), sees the counselor as a fellow sinner and sufferer (pp. 96-97), and addresses suffering before sin (pp. 97-98).

Advancement in How Biblical Counselors Talk about Counseling

Lambert tells the fascinating story of eight stages in the history of biblical counseling dialogue with “non-biblical counselors.” In the process, he outlines three primary areas where second generation apologists matured:

• Construct: To “construct” is to highlight a positive focus on the development of a robust biblical model of helping people with their problems.

• Confront: To “confront” is to speak the truth in love out of concern by demonstrating how secular models fail to understand people, and fail to offer people the hope that is found only in the living Word (Christ) and the written Word (Scripture).

• Consider: “In a tertiary way, biblical counselors should consider what there is to learn from alternative models” (p. 116).

In this section, the changing tone (more gentle) and attitude (more respectful) of the second generation counselors was touched upon, but could have been examined further.

Increasingly Competent Counseling 

Readers who are unfamiliar with the modern biblical counseling movement would be wise not only to read The Biblical Counseling Movement After Adams, but also The Biblical Counseling Movement: History and Context by David Powlison. In many ways, Lambert’s work is “the sequel.”

While not everyone will agree with all of Lambert’s contrasts and comparisons, especially those most loyal to Jay Adams and his nouthetic counseling model, the book successfully breaks down many still-existing stereotypes about the modern biblical counseling movement. More importantly, it articulates a robust, relational approach to one-another ministry while teaching about the history of the movement.

Join the Conversation 

What is your evaluation of The Biblical Counseling Movement After Adams?

RPM Ministries: Equipping You to Change Lives with Christ’s Changeless Truth

Comfort Food for Mutual Ministry by Paul Tautges

Note: Pastor Paul Tautges shared this blog post this week at his Counseling One Another blog. You can read the entire post at Comfort Food for Mutual Ministry.  

Here’s an excerpt from his post about his favorite page from Equipping Counselors for Your Church.

Comfort Food for Mutual Ministry by Paul Tautges

Last fall I posted a review of Bob Kellemen’s new book, Equipping Counselors for Your Church. You can read that review here.

Today, I draw your attention to one of the best pages in the book, which calls us to the mutual ministry of comfort. Bob effectively argues for balance in two areas of biblical counseling: confrontation and comfort. Both, he rightly affirms, are Scriptural priorities we must grow in as we counsel one another. Here’s a lengthy quote that received a smiley face and a “Yes!” in the margin of my copy. In the context of this quote the author has just finished explaining the importance of noutheteo, warning, and now urges for the equally-important ministry of parakaleo, coming alongside in mutual ministry to comfort and strengthen one another.

Paul never intended Romans 15:14 to be the final or only word on the nature of biblical counseling. Nor did he use noutheteo as the only or even the primary concept to describe the personal ministry of the Word. For instance, in 1 Thessalonians 5:14, Paul uses five distinct words for biblical counseling. “And we urge [parakaleo] you, brothers, warn [noutheteo] those who are idle, encourage [paramutheomai] the timid, help [antechomai] the weak, be patient with [makrothumeo] everyone.”

Among the many New Testament words for spiritual care, parakaleo predominates. Whereas noutheteo occurs eleven times in the New Testament, parakaleo (comfort, encourage, console) appears 109 times. In 2 Corinthians 1:3–11, Paul informs us that we are competent to comfort (parakaleo) one another. Those who have humbly received God’s comfort, God equips to offer comfort to others.

Continue reading at Comfort Food for Mutual Ministry.

Join the Conversation

What does comprehensive, compassionate one-another care look like?

RPM Ministries: Equipping You to Change Lives with Christ’s Changeless Truth

Blog Tour Morsels, Part Four: Equipping Counselors for Your Church

I’m very grateful for the many bloggers who have reviewed Equipping Counselors for Your Church.  

I’ve collated links to a dozen of the reviews and interviews. They’ll be running throughout this first week of 2012 with brief “snippets” from each review and a link back to the full review.

In Part One, I posted samplers from David Murray, Brad Hambrick, and Thabiti Anyabwile.

In Part Two, I posted summaries from Jonathan Holmes, Paul Tautges, and Andy Naselli.

In Part Three, I posted selections from Mark Tubbs, Phil Monroe, and Mark Kelly.

Today you can enjoy review “morsels” from Elizabeth Hankins, Julie Ganschow, and Conrad Yap.

Elizabeth Hankins, Part One

“Equipping Counselors for Your Church is helpful for all those who are passionate about one-another ministry. It helps the reader establish a Biblical vision for God’s Church and personal ministry. There are a number of useful lists within this book including Scripture passages and doctrine/theology to study; qualifications and proficiencies to pursue, character traits to cultivate; and commonly used materials for Biblical counseling. One of my favorite features is the excellent evaluation/application questions throughout the text and at the end of each chapter.”

Julie Ganschow 

“I recently had the pleasure of previewing a fantastic new resource for those interested in how to equip others for the work of Biblical Counseling and Discipleship. Our work goes by many names, but it is essentially intensive biblical discipleship. Bob Kellemen’ new book, Equipping Counselors for Your Church, may just be the most complete resource I have encountered on how to equip others for this task.”

Conrad Yap 

“Kellemen’s teaching passion and wisdom is evident. His experience is wide, and his knowledge deep. Obviously, the material is compiled from his many years of teaching and ministry. I recommend this book for Church leaders, boards, and anyone in the congregation who is passionate about equipping the called.”

Join the Conversation

What resources do you recommend for equipping one-another ministers in the local church?

Note: If you are a blogger and would like to review Equipping Counselors for Your Church, email rpm dot ministries @ gmail dot com

RPM Ministries: Equipping You to Change Lives with Christ’s Changeless Truth

Blog Tour Morsels, Part Three: Equipping Counselors for Your Church

I’m very grateful for the many bloggers who have reviewed Equipping Counselors for Your Church.  

I’ve collated links to a dozen of the reviews and interviews. They’ll be running throughout this first week of 2012 with brief “snippets” from each review and a link back to the full review.

In Part One, I posted samplers from David Murray, Brad Hambrick, and Thabiti Anyabwile.

In Part Two, I posted summaries from Jonathan Holmes, Paul Tautges, and Andy Naselli.

Today you can enjoy review “morsels” from Mark Tubbs, Phil Monroe, and Mark Kelly.

Discerning Reader/Mark Tubbs, Part One 

“Equipping Counselors for Your Church is the climax of Bob’s many decades of work in the biblical counseling and pastoring fields. What this book is not: a resource only for senior pastors and denominational executives. It is also not a book about creating and equipping a ‘professional’ corps of biblical counselors. No, Bob’s vision is far more sweeping than that. Rather, this book is an apology for both formal and informal biblical counseling in the church, which Bob defines biblically as every member speaking the truth in love to each another. The aim is to cultivate Christians who are ‘4C’ disciples: biblically convicted, Christlike in character, competent in counseling, and an integral part of Christian community.”

Discerning Reader/Mark Tubbs, Part Two 

“This section on enlisting was refreshing on numerous levels. Kellemen employs Nehemiah’s leadership qualities in a fresher and more faithful way than many preachers through the decades have done. He uses Old Testament Nehemiah and New Testament Paul in harmonious counterpoint, demonstrating how these two leaders were themselves changed people so that they in turn could shepherd others through change. The primary change being, as Kellemen is at pains to point out, reconciliation with God leading to whole-life worship.”

Mark Kelly 

“Dr. Kellemen is a dear friend from whom I have learned much through his resources he’s printed, email conversations we’ve had, and face to face discussions about a variety of topics. I pray that our own church, Calvary Baptist, would consider using Equipping Counselors for Your Church as we move forward in evangelism and discipleship.”

Phil Monroe 

“Why is Equipping Counselors for Your Church an important book? Here’s why:

• Most prior books on this topic present lay counseling either as an anemic listening only task or speak only in theological terms and fail to actually train lay counselors to listen well. This book considers both the biblical basis for lay counseling AND is concerned about listening skills as well.

• Most prior books forget to bring the WHOLE church along in the vision of biblical counseling. Bob has the readers consider the church culture and health. If the church (leaders)aren’t buying in to this, there won’t be a counseling ministry.

• Bob focuses on the character of the counselor. This is HUGE. What’s worse than a poorly trained counselor? One who is well-trained but arrogant and un-reflective.

• Bob covers practical matters of a counseling ministry including the ethics of lay counseling. This is extremely important if a church doesn’t want to make mistakes that could lead to lawsuits.”

The Rest of the Story

Tomorrow you can read some “samplers” from Elizabeth Hankins, Julie Ganschow, and Conrad Yap.

Join the Conversation

What resources do you recommend for equipping one-another ministers in the local church?

Note: If you are a blogger and would like to review Equipping Counselors for Your Church, email rpm dot ministries @ gmail dot com

RPM Ministries: Equipping You to Change Lives with Christ’s Changeless Truth 

Blog Tour Morsels, Part Two: Equipping Counselors for Your Church

I’m very grateful for the many bloggers who have reviewed Equipping Counselors for Your Church.

I’ve collated links to a dozen of the reviews and interviews. They’ll be running throughout this first week of 2012 with brief “snippets” from each review and a link back to the full review.

In Part One, I posted samplers from David Murray, Brad Hambrick, and Thabiti Anyabwile.

Today you can enjoy review “morsels” from Jonathan Holmes, Paul Tautges, and Andy Naselli.

Jonathan Holmes 

“In this seminal and landmark work for the church, Equipping Counselors for Your Church, Dr. Bob Kellemen has given us a go-to manual for raising up a new generation of counselors while nurturing the ones currently in our care. Built and crafted from years of experience and based on the solid foundation of God’s Word to us, this book will be a vital, practical, useful manual for generations to come.”

Paul Tautges, Post One 

“Equipping Counselors for Your Church is like having a personal conversation with a private consultant who is committed to coming alongside church leaders—walking step-by-step and hand-in-hand—to equip us to empower the Body of Christ toward biblical, one-another ministry that progressively moves believers toward Christlikeness. I highly recommend it!”

Paul Tautges, Post Two

“Today, I draw your attention to one of the best pages in the book, which calls us to the mutual ministry of comfort. Bob effectively argues for balance in two areas of biblical counseling: confrontation and comfort. Both, he rightly affirms, are Scriptural priorities we must grow in as we counsel one another. Here’s a lengthy quote that received a smiley face and a ‘Yes!’ in the margin of my copy. In the context of this quote the author has just finished explaining the importance of noutheteo, warning, and now urges for the equally-important ministry of parakaleo, coming alongside in mutual ministry to comfort and strengthen one another.”

Andy Naselli 

“Endorsed by Paul Tripp, Elyse Fitzpatrick, Ed Welch, and several others, Kellemen’s 4E’s teach: 1.) Envisioning God’s Ministry, 2.) Enlisting God’s Ministers for Ministry. 3.) Equipping Godly Ministers for Ministry, and 4.) Empowering/Employing Godly Ministers for Ministry.”

The Rest of the Story

Tomorrow you can read some “samplers” from Mark Tubbs at The Discerning Reader, Phil Monroe, and Mark Kelly.

Join the Conversation

What resources do you recommend for equipping one-another ministers in the local church?

Note: If you are a blogger and would like to review Equipping Counselors for Your Church, email rpm dot ministries @ gmail dot com

RPM Ministries: Equipping You to Change Lives with Christ’s Changeless Truth

Blog Tour Morsels, Part One: Equipping Counselors for Your Church

I’m very grateful for the many bloggers who have reviewed Equipping Counselors for Your Church.  

I’ve collated links to a dozen of the reviews and interviews. They’ll be running throughout this first week of 2012 with brief “snippets” from each review and a link back to the full review.

Today you can enjoy review “morsels” from David Murray, Brad Hambrick, and Thabiti Anyabwile.

David Murray, Top Five Books of 2011 

“Bob Kellemen shifted my thinking with this visionary yet practical book. I probably don’t reach up to Bob’s optimism about this task (who could!), but he certainly made me hope and work towards a much greater role for every-member counseling ministry in the local church.”

David Murray, Part One 

“Bob Kellemen is one of the reasons I love America. In fact, to me he is a classic American – enthusiastic, energetic, positive, cheerful, encouraging, stimulating, pioneering, and every other good “-ing” you can think of…. I deeply appreciate Bob’s brief, clear, and no-nonsense style of writing. He doesn’t waste words in pointless theorizing, but is always aiming at the practical and the helpful. It’s not often you find such fine balance and fervent passion combined in one person!”

David Murray, Part Two 

“Bob does not just dream big, he details small. He gets into the detailed practical steps that have to be taken. We’re not left with, “Great idea but how do we do it?” The book is full of bullet points, step-by-step guides, tabulated information, checklists, appendices and real-life case studies. And that practicality is maybe what gives the book so much credibility and persuasiveness. Bob not only draws from almost 30 years of counseling experiences in congregational settings, but has gathered together a ton of “best-practice” ideas from other pastors and churches as well.”

David Murray, Part Three 

“Bob’s exposition of this verse (Romans 15:14) was perhaps my favorite section in his book, and powerfully persuaded me of the biblical grounds and realistic possibility of what he was advocating. This verse is a huge encouragement and challenge to the church of Christ.”

David Murray, Part Four 

“As Bob says, ‘Everyone is a counselor. The question is really whether it’s good or bad counsel.’”

“Yes, it’s a change from thinking ‘I need to call the pastor…’ to ‘I need to call Joe or Mary, etc,’ but it’s a blessed change.”

Brad Hambrick 

Equipping Counselors for Your Church meets a real need in Biblical Counseling – helping churches cultivate a counseling ministry that is tailored to the needs of their particular congregation and community. Over the last several decades Biblical Counseling has produced a large number of excellent resources, but it has not always been clear what a church was supposed to do with those resources. If you want to begin to explore that possibility with your church, I cannot think of a better book to guide you in that process.”

Thabiti Anyabwile 

“Counseling might be the area of pastoral ministry that most quickly produces feelings of inadequacy for pastors. The pitfalls are man. Needs are varied and often complex. The tendency toward self-reliance gets amplified when people come to you in need of answers. Yet, the resources can be few or too difficult to digest in short order. Even pastors who love counseling find themselves emotionally and spiritually drained and in need of help. Bob Kellemen has come along with a very welcome and promising resource, Equipping Counselors for Your Church.”

The Rest of the Story

Tomorrow you can read some “samplers” from Jonathan Holmes, Paul Tautges, and Andy Naselli.

Join the Conversation

What resources do you recommend for equipping one-another ministers in the local church?

Note: If you are a blogger and would like to review Equipping Counselors for Your Church, email rpm dot ministries @ gmail dot com

RPM Ministries: Equipping You to Change Lives with Christ’s Changeless Truth