I was talking to a close friend and fellow counselor the other day who had mentioned that it had been a while since I had posted anything; like a lot of us we have a tendency to get busy and yet I do regret it that I have not posted an article for a while. It was not long before our discussion turned to the Church and the need for Biblical Counseling to be a vital ministry of all churches. My friend, who I have known over six years, has been a member of two different churches in the time that I have known him. The church that he is currently a member of is a different denominational back ground than the one that I am currently a member of. Half way through the conversation we became aware of the differences between one denomination and another. Some of the circles that I have had the privilege to work with would say that we are in different camps. We are both members of the “Church” but members of different camps with in the church.
I must say that the word “Camp” almost always strikes an odd chord with me when spoken of about the church. I am not referring to “Christian Day Camps” or “Christian Youth Camps” but camps of the same sort such as medical, political and even Christian. With some medical camps you have those who are driven passionately to treat all things solely with medicine while others look to surgery as the main avenue of treatment. With political parties you have the Republican party (or camp) and the Democrats (as the other camp), both saying they know what is good for the country but when you look at their voting record, you will find that they strongly lean to please their party (or camp) in lieu of the need of those who have helped them get elected. We have the same thing in Christianity, some camps say salvation is in works while others emphatically deny that and say that it is by faith alone, sadly there are camps with in these camps. I am saying all of this to say that in most Christian circles it is camps that keep us from achieving all that God would have us to do. For years I have made it a practice of reading various blog sites, articles and books by Christian Counselors and the camp lines with in them are becoming more and more evident every day.
The truth is that camps are separators. It is the separation of camps that get us focused on the minors. We often find that one camp is writing and gearing up for an attack against the other. They do so as if to say let’s not worry about what the true issues are as much as getting their point across that the writer of one camp wants to come across as more right than the one that he is writing about. I am finding out that many of these writers are spending much more time and effort attacking each other than they do on the problems. In doing so it is almost as if they become another problem incarnate. Book stores and Blog sites are filled with volumes written and being written about various issues but many of the average reader find themselves losing heart in their efforts. They spend hours trying to sort through the attack language and get weighed down in the authors ego mire. Finding themselves finished before they get to the answers that the author originally intended to write about. Sadly the truths in some of these books and articles are never found as readers too soon tire of the search and toss them aside.
It is sad in that you often find one counselor promoting the acronyms of the group(s) that he belongs to and talking against the acronyms of another group. One group supports a certain group of authors and the other an entirely different group. Humility is often replaced by pride and arrogance as their history and experience with working with others increases. They sit by watching and witnessing the Holy Spirit as He works in the counselee’s heart and life at times in spite of the sin of the counselor. Do they not see that their sin will soon find us out (Numbers 32:23)? Could this sin possibly be revealed in an open session or in open writing? With some of these counselors it seems that the truth of His Grace and Mercy does not extend toward some Biblical Counselors that they do not see eye to eye with. In essence we hear them say, I love you brother but…, I love you sister but…, well, “Billy goats butt”. Grace, mercy and forgiveness is what we are called to minister yet we find that some fail to practice especially in written form.
I do not believe that any of us are really exempt, we are all in danger of being caught up in the “your camp my camp mentality.” We find that many of the writers take a sectarian stand when it comes to their group or camp. Yet if we are truly Biblical we should turn first to the Scriptures for the answers. It is interesting to note that when confronted with sectarianism Jesus himself forbid it as we see in Luke 9:49-50, “‘Now John answered and said, “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow with us.’ (50) But Jesus said to him, ‘Do not forbid him, for he who is not against us is on our side.’” Sectarianism is a word which can conjure up a plethora of emotions, opinions and perspectives this is because the term can take on different meanings depending on how it is used. According to one definition, “sectarianism is bigotry, discrimination, or narrow-minded hatred arising from attaching importance to perceived differences between subdivisions within a group, such as between different denominations of a religion, class, or factions of a political movement.” I bet that this does sound a bit familiar to some.
The right question to ask is, “Is it really important for the cause of Christ?” Is Jesus being glorified as we openly and unapologetically attack our brethren in Christ? Are we really doing more damage to the Biblical Counseling Ministry that He has called us to by constantly attacking and bemoaning other counselors? We should not walk into the counseling room to help someone before we get the splinter out of our own eye. I do believe that there are some who carry a forest of beams in their own eyes. We find this truth in this familiar passage of Scripture, Matthew 7:3-5 “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? (4) Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? (5) Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” In doing so are we not guilty of grieving the Holy Spirit as well? I do believe that we would all do well to have a permanent book mark in our Bibles to the fourth chapter of Ephesians. We do well to teach the biblical rules of communication but some are still far from grasping them, from fully understanding the impact that they have on every relationship that we have.
It is now time to stop the separation and start circling the wagons and fighting the true enemy. It is time to circle the wagons and protect that which is precious from the one who is trying so hard to destroy it. If not we will be destined and determined to minimize the true fight by fighting ourselves while the real enemy laughs at us. He has taken the tactic of divide-and-conquer to a new level by dividing us and getting us to fight each other. This is what is evident among most Christian groups today. A horse of a different color does not make it any less a horse. We must learn to set our differences, our prejudice’s aside and start working together. As believers in Christ we have just one mission and that is to bring honor to and glorify Christ. Remember Luke 9:50? “‘… Jesus said to him, ‘Do not forbid him, for he who is not against us is on our side.’”
I am reminded of author Walt Kelly, he wrote of a comic strip character named Pogo who is quoted as saying, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
