I recently listened to a presentation with this title given by Steve Viars, pastor of Faith Baptist Church in Lafayatte, Ind., at the 2002 National Association of Neuthetic Counselors (NANC) conference.
NoutheteĊ is a Greek word meaning, “the training by the word, whether of encouragement, or, if necessary, by reproof” (”An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words” by W.E. Vine, Thomas Nelson Publishers). The word appears in several biblical texts (Col 3:16, Rom 15:14, 2 Thess 3:15) and is typically translated admonish, instruct or exhort. NANC works from the premise that Scripture is sufficient to equip men for every good work (2 Tim 3:16-17) and is thus the only necessary tool for counseling.
Don’t get hung up on the word counseling. This simply refers to discipleship or ministering the Word. Sometimes people need more intense discipleship, which is particularly when people use the word counseling. But all believers need counsel every day: from the Holy Spirit, pastors and fellow members of their local church.
Viars’ church has had a biblical counseling ministry for more than 30 years and I found his insights to be enlightening. Here are my notes from his presentation:
“Does your church have a counseling ministry or is your church a counseling ministry?”
Faith Baptist has 12 counselors who minister to people from the community for free (to non-members). This is a great source of evangelistic contacts. It is their number one ministry for producing evangelistic contacts.
They have a counseling training program as well. The trainees sometimes sit in on the counseling sessions.
They have six people on their pastoral staff and no one on their staff counsels members of the church more than two to four hours per week. The vast majority of their counseling is done by lay people within their congregation.
After a church has a counseling ministry, a church has to decide how much their counseling ministry will affect the rest of their church. You must ask “Does your church have a counseling ministry or is your church a counseling ministry?”
There is a big difference between having a top down, everyone on board, approach to your counseling ministry and it being a side appendage. It works best when it is a top down approach. With this approach, the senior pastor is committed to biblical counseling and leads the charge.
Viars said his goal was to address three groups of people:
- Senior pastors and other pastoral staff in charge in churches.
- Staff members who don’t have the power to lead the way.
- Senior pastors who would get the tape of his message from a member of their congregation.
To the final group, Viars said he is not trying to go behind their back and influence them through members of their congregation who attend his conference. He is just seeking to share an approach to counseling that he has found to be helpful.
Side appendage counseling ministry
In some churches, the counseling ministry is a side appendage to the church. It is like someone walking around with a chair attached to their hip: it is strange and doesn’t fit. In that situation, someone in the church has a burden for counseling. The pastor does not share this burden, but accommodates the person by giving them an office, letting them have office hours, etc.
What is said in the counseling room must agree with is said in the pulpit. Senior pastors will answer for everything that is taught in their church (Heb 13 teaches that senior pastors will give an account for what takes place in their churches). Viars doesn’t want any side appendages in his church.
The church as a counseling ministry
On the flip side, it is a great thing when all of the ministries of your church are coordinated. When this takes place, people are hearing the same thing from the pulpit, in their Bible fellowship class (Sunday school) and in regular conversation with people in the church. In this kind of church, people are receiving counseling all week and in every part of the church.
Ephesians 4 speaks of a church like this, in particular verse 16: “from whom (Christ) the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”
Counseling, in essence, is discipleship. Individual counseling sessions are a form of concentrated discipleship.
The early church was a counseling center. It was set up with resources that enabled people to change, grow and handle the issues of life.
How can your church be a counseling center?
- Start with the church’s mission statement
You must speak about the sufficiency of Scripture and progressive sanctification in your mission statement. These are the twin doctrines that drive what local churches do. If you have that emphasized in your mission statement, it will be a short step to establish a counseling ministry.
God has given us limited ministry resources and unlimited ministry opportunities. Every ministry within a church must answer the question: “Why are we doing this?” If a ministry doesn’t fit in the vision of the church, then it needs to go.
Three questions (rate your church on a scale of 1-10):
- Do we have a counseling center or are we a counseling center?
- Does your church have a formal mission statement?
- Is it possible that if biblical counseling is not an integral part of what you do, then perhaps your church is an activity-centered church and not a mission-centered church?
Five key ministry philosophy emphases for Viars’ church
New members are taught these five things:
- Commitment to the sufficiency of Scripture.
- Commitment to progressive sanctification.
Until Christ returns, people must grow in sanctification. - Commitment to reaching out to non-believers (evangelism).
- Commitment to service.
Everybody in the church has to serve. Ten percent of the people doing 90 percent of the work is not acceptable. - Commitment to ministering to other churches.
- Church leadership embracing and practicing biblical counseling principles
The leaders of the church must embrace biblical counseling and be practicing biblical counseling with members in the church. The leaders of the church also must practice the above principles with each other. If a church staff doesn’t counsel one another, they should not be counseling anybody else either.
The most cantankerous person Viars counsels is himself. You must be counseling yourself and you must listen to the counsel of others.
Leaders must apply biblical counseling principles to their own decision making.
Leaders must apply biblical counseling principles to problems. A church steeped in biblical counseling should be a church that makes decisions and handles problems well.
Churches must practice church discipline.
- Discipleship funnel
The broadest part of the funnel represents large group meetings. The smallest part of the funnel represents one-on-one conversations. Every part of the funnel needs to be a counseling ministry.
The large end of the funnel includes Sunday morning corporate worship services. Viars said he loves to get a call on Monday morning from someone asking, “I heard what you said yesterday, but I don’t know how to apply it: can I talk to you about that?”
Bible Fellowship Groups (Sunday school classes) are a little ways down the funnel.
Life application classes. Viars’ church conducts classes on various different topics on Wednesday nights.
Point man groups and ladies Bible studies. These are groups of men and women who meet for Bible study, accountability and prayer.
At the narrow end of the funnel is the counseling ministry for people who need particular attention. New members often fall in this category.
- Lay counseling training
Monday nights for one year.
The church being a counseling ministry directly affects building disciple-making churches on the foreign mission field.
“Does your church have a counseling ministry or is your church a counseling ministry?”
Here are the websites for Faith Baptist Church and NANC.