Journal: Southeastern Theological Review
Volume: STR 15:1 (Spring 2024)
Article: SEBTS Counseling Professors Roundtable: As It Is And As It Could Be
Author: Anonymous

STR 15:1 (Spring 2024) p. 73

SEBTS Counseling Professors Roundtable: As It Is And As It Could Be

This essay is an informal conversation among the counseling faculty at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SEBTS). The tone of the conversation is casual, but the content seeks to accomplish two things: (1) address some of the leading questions currently being debated in evangelical counseling circles, and (2) provide the reader with an opportunity to gain an understanding of the unique flavor of SEBTS’s counseling programs.

Sam Williams serves as the emcee for this conversation. Kristin Kellen, Nate Brooks, and Brad Hambrick dialogue with one another around his questions. We hope you enjoy eavesdropping as we explore leading questions in the field of evangelical counseling together and gain an appreciation for why we enjoy serving together in the counseling program at SEBTS.

Sam Williams: In a kind and perfect world, how would you briefly label and define the truest, most loving, and effective approach to counseling?

Nate Brooks: You certainly start off with a softball question there, Sam. I think that counseling that’s true, effective, and loving will always be counseling that’s consistent with God’s heart and God’s revelation to his creatures. That approach to counseling will have special revelation, general revelation, and common grace woven together throughout, as that is how God has shown himself to us for our flourishing. This kind of counseling will engage the fullness of what it means to be human—we are covenantal, relational creatures with rational, affective, and volitional powers, ruined by the fall, and restored through redemption.

I go back and forth about what to label such an approach. It is biblical counseling to be certain, as it is an approach that emerges out of the Scriptures. But there are approaches to counseling labeled “biblical counseling” that I would understand as falling far short of this ideal. It’s also not Integrationism, as special revelation is not just the foundation of counseling but woven all throughout the DNA of everything done in counseling. I’ve found myself referring to this approach as “redemptive counseling,” as we seek to be part of God’s work as he redeems us and his creation, making all things new.

Kristin Kellen: I’d agree with Nate. The Lord has created us to function within our creation in a particular way such that we would flourish,

STR 15:1 (Spring 2024) p. 74

and when we do so, that’s what happens: we flourish. That necessarily entails the way we view people (our anthropology), how we understand the nature of truth and reality (our epistemology), or our actual methods, and eac...