{"id":1098,"date":"2015-04-23T19:34:03","date_gmt":"2015-04-23T19:34:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vxbd7vrmeo.wpdns.site\/?p=1098"},"modified":"2026-09-30T15:33:39","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T15:33:39","slug":"afraid-to-counsel-stop-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bcmw.org\/es\/afraid-to-counsel-stop-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Afraid to “Counsel”? Stop It!"},"content":{"rendered":"
Watching God Change Lives<\/strong><\/h5>\n

One of my greatest joys is watching God change lives.<\/p>\n

That statement could probably be made by all of us in the biblical counseling movement.<\/p>\n

For most of us that would mean watching God change the lives\u00a0of our counselees<\/em>\u00a0by revealing the focus of their idolatrous heart, graciously bringing them to brokenness and repentance, and patiently transforming their heart\u2019s desires through the work of the Holy Spirit as the biblical counselor skillfully teaches and applies the Scriptures.<\/p>\n

But that first statement means something different for me. My joy occurs when I watch God change the lives\u00a0of our counselors-in-training<\/em>\u00a0by moving them from a formal and clinical conception of \u201ccounseling\u201d practice\u2014one that produces uncertainty and fear\u2014to the ministry of personal soul care\u2014an activity that generates confidence in the sufficiency of the Bible and faith in God.<\/p>\n

What Prompts Their Fear?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

BCM Worldwide\u00a0(BCMW) includes a counseling practicum component in both our modular and academic programs around the world. Our student\u2019s response to the announcement that they will actually need to counsel as a part of their training is always the same: \u201cI can\u2019t do that. I need more training.\u201d (I suspect that if they had several more\u00a0years<\/em>\u00a0of training the answer would be the same!)<\/p>\n

What Is the Source of Their Fear?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

A Bible story gives us the answer.<\/p>\n

Because Jesus\u2019 disciples did not understand the significance of their Lord\u2019s feeding of the 5,000 in Matthew 14 (compare Mark 6:52), another lesson became necessary. When Jesus came to them walking on the water (in the middle of the night, in a storm) they were\u00a0terrified<\/em>\u00a0and cried out in\u00a0fear<\/em>, \u201cIt\u2019s a ghost!\u201d<\/p>\n

Lesson:\u00a0If you walk in fear you will imagine things that are not real<\/em>.<\/p>\n

When Jesus responds, \u201cTake heart; it is I. Do not be\u00a0afraid<\/em>,\u201d He identifies their problem. They didn\u2019t yet understand Who He was and what He could do.<\/p>\n

What Is the Reason Counselors-in-Training Are Afraid?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Counselors-in-training often have the same problem. They fail to understand the power of the Person and work of Jesus in the remolding of a soul. They tend to think of counseling wrongly\u2014as a counselor-dependent, one-time-a-week, appointment-driven, authoritarian exercise. The well-known Bob Newhart sketch called \u201cStop It!\u201d\u2014while funny\u2014reinforces the one-up, one-down stereotype of a counseling setting where the counselor is the expert and is expected to dispense answers to life\u2019s problems.<\/p>\n

So, What Is the Answer for Their Fear?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

\u201cStop it!\u201d Counseling, that is.<\/p>\n

When, in our narrative, Peter responded to Jesus\u2019 invitation to come to Him on the water, he did it, eyes fixed on Jesus.<\/p>\n

Lesson:\u00a0If you walk in faith you will attempt things that seem impossible.<\/em><\/p>\n

But when Peter looked at the circumstances around him, he was\u00a0afraid<\/em>\u00a0and began to sink. Once He rescued Peter, Jesus rebuked him, \u201cO you of little\u00a0faith<\/em>, why did you doubt?\u201d<\/p>\n

Lesson:\u00a0The opposite of fear is not courage; the opposite of fear is faith<\/em>.<\/p>\n

When first assigned their counseling practicum, our student\u2019s often ask, \u201cWhat if no one comes to me for counseling?\u201d This question illustrates a misunderstanding of our task.<\/p>\n

My question in response is this, \u201cDo you know any believers that are hurting?\u201d When they assure me that they do, I say, \u201cGo help them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Counseling is scary. Ministering to a struggling brother or sister in Christ by compassionately and strategically opening the Scriptures with them is not.<\/p>\n

When our counselors-in-training make the shift to becoming patient, humble, and gospel-centered soul care providers, their fear is replaced by faith.<\/p>\n

Join the Conversation<\/strong><\/h5>\n

What is your experience with \u201ccounselors-in-training\u201d? Do they balk at actually helping people?<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Watching God Change Lives One of my greatest joys is watching God change lives. That statement could probably be made by all of us in the biblical counseling movement. For most of us that would mean watching God change the lives\u00a0of our counselees\u00a0by revealing the focus of their idolatrous heart, graciously bringing them to brokenness […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1411,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sq_banner_image_id":1411,"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[79],"class_list":["post-1098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-theology-biblical-counseling","tag-theology-foundations"],"meta_box":{"group_4rft1b1l2tt":[],"video_id_or_url":"","itunes_url":"","language":"","duration":"","type":"post","featured":"0"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcmw.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcmw.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcmw.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcmw.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcmw.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1098"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/bcmw.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1474,"href":"https:\/\/bcmw.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1098\/revisions\/1474"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcmw.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcmw.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcmw.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcmw.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}