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Pastoral counseling modeled in SBTS sessions
Andrew J.W. Smith, SBTS
January 29, 2016
4 MIN READ TIME

Pastoral counseling modeled in SBTS sessions

Pastoral counseling modeled in SBTS sessions
Andrew J.W. Smith, SBTS
January 29, 2016

Two leading biblical counselors role-played a typical counseling session, teaching a room of pastors and students by example during The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary’s Winter Alumni Academy Jan. 7-8.

Jeremy Pierre, associate professor of biblical counseling and dean of students, and Deepak Reju, pastor of biblical counseling and family ministry at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., led 10 sessions drawing from their 2015 co-authored book, The Pastor and Counseling: The Basics of Shepherding Members in Need.

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SBTS photo

Two leading biblical counselors, Deepak Reju (right) and Jeremy Pierre, role-played a typical counseling session, teaching a room of pastors and students by example.

With Pierre playing the role of a blue-collar church member struggling with occasional panic attacks and Reju counseling him, the two put their writing to action.

A form which Pierre sends to prospective counselees and reviews before the initial meeting was distributed to each attendee, which Pierre had filled out as a man named “John Stubb.” Reju did not discuss Pierre’s character before the sessions and only consulted the form, so he knew no more than the audience did when the simulation started.

“What I’m going to attempt to do in my role is just give you representative examples of things that we see in counseling, things you’re going to run into,” Pierre said before the session. Reju then modeled with Pierre’s character the three basic tasks of counseling: listening to the problem; considering responses of the heart; and speaking the truth in love using scripture.

Face-to-face counseling, Reju said during the two-day event, is the place where ministers of God’s Word apply biblical wisdom and encouragement during church members’ most pressing troubles.

“In the midst of the mess, we can’t lose sight of the privilege of caring for God’s flock,” said Reju, who also authored On Guard: Preventing and Responding to Child Abuse at Church and Preparing for Fatherhood.

Pastoral counseling must listen attentively to the problem at hand and address the truths of the gospel to it, Reju said. The good counselor does not merely offer “cheap advice” but instead demonstrates how the gospel preached every Sunday morning affects a struggling person’s life, he said.

“Consider all the typical self-reliant lies that people tell themselves: ‘I can fix this on my own’ or ‘Maybe this Gospel stuff is helpful at church but it won’t make a real difference in my life,’” Reju said. “Your job [as a pastor] is to throw a grenade right in the middle of that thinking, to not let people live by those lies.”

Pierre said pastors should first listen attentively to the presenting problem, then consider how the human heart responds to various factors that are involved.

Pierre described four aspects of believers’ heart response: the circumstances they face; the people who surround and influence them; how they feel about themselves; and how they relate to God. Pastors must think through each of the categories when counseling their people, diagnosing problems and revealing them gently and graciously, Pierre said.

“As pastors, you need to be heart specialists,” he said.

Pierre concluded the sessions with two case studies, during which he walked attendees through how to counsel church members dealing with pornography and marital conflict, respectively.

The academy also featured a panel and Q&A with Pierre and Reju, along with Robert Cheong, pastor of global care at Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, Ky., and Brian Croft, senior pastor of Auburndale Baptist Church in Louisville and senior fellow of the Mathena Center for Church Revitalization.

Alumni Academy provides free ongoing instruction for alumni and prospective students of Southern Seminary. To learn more about the program, visit events.sbts.edu.