Time for a Great Cartoon! (counseling)

Don’t you just love Calvin’s grasp of psycho-babble?  He is able to use psychological terms to resist taking out the garbage for his Mom!

One of the great joys of my life over the last 15 years or so is co-teaching a course entitled “The Integration of Psychology and Theology.”  My fellow teacher, Dr. Allan McKechnie, is a gifted counselor — and I’ve learned a lot about myself over the years.

I’ve also gotten all the free counseling that I want!  The downside is that it has come from a class of students who are only beginning to learn how to do what we call “soul-care.”  I don’t hesitate to quote to them Job’s statement to his critical friends, “MISERABLE COUNSELORS ARE YOU ALL!”

Seriously, so many of our “issues” have a psychological dimension, don’t they?  Years ago a church I was quite fond of criticized me for making a positive statement about Christian counseling.  The critic, it turned out, was later sadly accused of a serious sexual sin (which might have been helped had he sought out biblical, godly counseling).

We are indeed “fearfully and wonderfully made” — and this includes our psychological make-up.  [I’ve been encouraged by Larry Crabb’s book Connecting if you want to pursue this area further].

Your thoughts?

 

 

Who Gives a HOOT about Good Theology? (time for a good quote)

“The disappearance of theology from the life of the Church, and the orchestration of that disappearance by some of its leaders, is hard to miss today, but oddly enough, not easy to prove. It is hard to miss in the evangelical world–in the vacuous worship that is so prevalent, for example, in the shift from God to the self as the central focus of faith, in the psychologized preaching that follows this shift, in the erosion of its conviction, in its strident pragmatism, in its inability to think incisively about the culture, in its reveling in the irrational.”

― David F. Wells, No Place for Truth: Or, Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology

Questions:

1.  Have you noticed the disappearance of theology in your church?  What evidence did you find of its disappearance?

2.  What is one suggestion you would make to re-focus our attention on the centrality of a solid, biblical theology?

 

First Day of Integration of Psychology & Theology Class!

Friends;

One of the great joys of my life is co-teaching a course at Columbia International University Seminary and School of Ministry (we have very l-o-n-g cheers at sporting events!) called “The Integration of Psychology and Theology.”

My fellow teacher is Dr. Allan McKechnie and we have a great working relationship with each other.  We don’t sugarcoat the differences between the two disciplines of psychology and theology, but both agree that “all of life is psychological and all of life is theological!”

A video someone shared with me recently illustrates the challenge of trying to help others through counseling.  Please enjoy this short video.  Your comments are the questions which follow are welcome!

Questions:

1.  Assuming this was a husband and wife, what mistake does the husband seem to be making?

2.  What mistake is the wife clearly making?

 

A great week in DALLAS! 

  Just enjoyed a great week with my friend Dr. David Henderson co-teaching a one-week intensive course, “The Integration of Theology and Psychology” for Criswell College.

As a psychiatrist, David did a fine job of interweaving his knowledge with my material on the ten great doctrines of the Christian faith.

Here’s a couple of shots of David teaching during a very warm week in Dallas!

Thanks for a great week, David!