COUNSELLORS & COUNSELLING
By Noel Due
Rutherford House. 69 pages. £3.99
ISBN 1 904429 02 5
This little book is a 'quick-read' guide for church leaders on the essentials of the current counselling scene and issues a challenge to the church to develop a deeper biblical understanding of human psychology.
Short chapters cover the topics of who does counselling, what the roots (Freudian, Rogerian, etc.) of the various counselling schools are, who their clients are and what happens in a counselling relationship. The later, and for this reviewer the more interesting material, covers whether counselling works, and what the various responses of influential Christians (from Jay Adams to Gary Chapman) and secular sceptics have been to counselling.
The book ends by looking at how Christians as prospective counsellors and/or clients should approach the issue, and how the church should take pastoral care forward. One quote is a gem: 'We need to recognise the valid, preventative role of true Christian pastoral care (and) É the therapeutic effects of the worshipping believing community. When the church is operating truly as it should, with the Word of God at its heart and the ministry of the Spirit uniting hearts to God the Father through that Word É many of the situations that necessitate counselling intervention are circumvented.' Amen!
My review copy will be passed on to the eldership team on Sunday as a valuable little resource to that end.
