Baptist schools vary approaches to training counselors

For those who feel called to study Christ-centered counseling, there are multiple options to consider.

All six Southern Baptist Convention-owned seminaries offer courses in the field, and five offer counseling degrees. In addition, two Texas schools with ties to the SBTC, Criswell College and Houston Baptist University, offer counseling degrees.

Yet different programs vary in their counseling education. Some emphasize biblical teaching and secular psychology, seeking to prepare students for licensure as state-certified counselors. Others focus almost exclusively on Scripture and deem state licensure unimportant, arguing that secular psychology is based on a flawed worldview and often unhelpful to the counseling ministry. Still others focus on Scripture but see some value in the work of research psychologists.
The following is an overview of the offerings at each school.

CRISWELL COLLEGE
At the graduate level, Criswell College in Dallas offers a master of arts in counseling ministry as well as a master of divinity in which students may opt for a pastoral care and counseling track. For the master of arts, students may select either a 36-hour non-licensure track or a 48-hour licensure track that prepares them to take exams to become licensed professional counselors in Texas. Undergraduate students may minor in counseling.

According to the college’s catalog, the master of arts program is “designed to prepare students for counseling individuals, couples, and families from a Christian worldview.”

David Henderson, Hope for the Heart Chair of Biblical Counseling, professor of psychology and counseling and a medical doctor, described Criswell’s program as an “integrative” approach that combines insights from Scripture and secular science to help people in a holistic way.

“In an integrative approach, we believe that all Scripture is true, that all men are in need of a Savior and that the Bible is the ultimate source for spiritual restoration,” he said. “Science, however, is also God given and we can learn a great deal about human behavior from studying commonalities in our thoughts, our emotions and our behaviors. We seek to integrate these in order to help hurting individuals find healing physically, mentally and spiritually.”

GOLDEN GATE SEMINARY
While Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary offers no degrees in counseling, the Mill Valley, Calif., school offers more than 20 courses in counseling at the graduate level. Those courses may be incorporated into a number of master’s degree programs.

Course offerings include “Pastoral Counseling,” “Ministering in Crisis Situations,” “Pastoral Counseling of the Addicted and Abused” and “Psychopathology and Diagnosis.”

“GGBTS does not offer a counseling degree at this time, but does include counseling courses in its M.Div. curriculum,” Gary McCoy, chairman of the department of leadership skills formation, told the TEXAN in an e-mail. “The courses are currently taught by adjuncts, often professional Christian counselors.”

HOUSTON BAPTIST UNIVERSITY
Houston Baptist University offers a master of arts in Christian counseling (MACC). This 49-hour degree seeks to integrate Christian faith with the disciplines of psychology and counseling and prepares students to take the licensed professional counselor exam in Texas.

Electives in the MACC allow students to work toward a sub-specialty in counseling and psychology.

According to the university’s website, “One objective of the program is to provide the coursework and training that will help the student work out a Christian counseling perspective that will help guide their counseling practice.” The site adds, “The MACC prepares the student to work in churches, church-related institutions as well as secular counseling locations using a Christian perspective.”

MIDWESTERN SEMINARY
Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo., offers a 62-hour master of arts in Christian counseling (MACO) and a 30-hour doctor of ministry degree in counseling. The MACO is designed to help students meet the requirements to become licensed professional counselors in Missouri.

The seminary’s counseling faculty of two full-time and four adjunct professors label their approach the “Biblically Prescriptive-Clinically Descriptive Model.” Under this model, a counselor uses accepted clinical terms to describe a client’s problem but incorporates the truth of Scripture into treatment and solutions.

“Recent Midwestern graduates have become licensed in several states including Missouri and Texas, and are successfully practicing and impacting the world for Christ in various settings such as ministry positions, private out-patient clinics, hospital in-patient settings and both religious and secular community-based agencies,” Larry Cornine, associate professor of pastoral care and counseling, wrote in an article for the seminary magazine.

NEW ORLEANS SEMINARY
New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in New Orleans, La., offers three degrees in Christian counseling, including two master of divinity degrees and a master of arts in marriage and family counseling. The counseling faculty includes four professors.

The 114-hour master of divinity with specialization in counseling combines Bible and theology classes with the 60 hours of counseling coursework needed for licensed professional counselor certification in most states. The 106-hour master of divinity with specialization in psychology and counseling includes similar coursework but does not provide the required number of counseling courses for licensure in many states.

The master of arts in marriage and family counseling is an 87-hour degree that fulfills the academic requirements in most states for licensed professional counselor certification and for clinical membership in the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy. This degree also meets the course requirements in many states for licensure in marriage and family therapy.

“The NOBTS counseling programs provide training and supervised experience in evidence-based counseling methods to help people deal with life issues in a biblically sound way, and prepares students for licensure as professional counselors,” Kathy Steele, associate professor of psychology and counseling, told the TEXAN in an e-mail. “We stand on the principle that true healing comes from God. We offer a program that prepares students to become equipped to be instruments for the Lord, guiding people to biblical solutions to life’s problems.”

SOUTHEASTERN SEMINARY
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., offers both master’s-level and doctoral degrees in biblical counseling. Courses are taught by three counseling professors.

A master of arts in biblical counseling requires 63 hours of coursework while a master of divinity with a concentration in biblical counseling requires 96. A 69-hour master of arts in Christian education with concentration in biblical counseling is also available. At the doctoral level, students may earn a 32-hour doctor of ministry in counseling and a 60-hour doctor of philosophy in applied theology with concentration in counseling.

In contrast to schools that prepare students for state licensure, Southeastern’s catalog says it regards secular behavioral science as non-essential for counseling ministry and focuses on applying Scripture to life issues. Still, Southeastern does offer extra courses beyond degree requirements for students who wish to prepare for licensure in order to work from a missiological perspective in secular mental health roles that require state licensure. Most Southeastern counseling students aim to serve in vocational Christian ministry.

“While biblical counselors can benefit from the empirical findings of the human and medical sciences, we believe the Bible is the only infallible source for counseling theories and models,” the catalog says. “Our perspective is that the theories, practices, and institutions of the secular mental health establishment are not essential for constructing a Christian counseling model or for providing an effective cure for the soul, psyche, or mind. Particularly in the counseling domain, secular and naturalistic personality theories and psychotherapies are fundamentally flawed because they excise the God of the Bible from the human equation.”

SOUTHERN SEMINARY
Biblical counseling is the focus of master’s and doctoral degrees at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. The master of arts in biblical counseling (51 hours) prepares students for counseling and marriage and family ministry. The master of divinity with a concentration in biblical counseling (88 hours) combines counseling courses with biblical, theological and pastoral ministry studies.

The doctor of ministry in biblical counseling requires 32 hours of coursework while the doctor of philosophy in biblical counseling requires 66.

In 2005 Southern moved away from a “pastoral care” model of counseling that sought to prepare students for state licensure. At the time of the change, the seminary said its new biblical counseling model was both more helpful to hurting people and more faithful to the Scriptures than an integrated approach.

“It will mean moving beyond the clinical professionalism of what historically has been dubbed ‘pastoral care’ in the therapeutic guild, but it will mean recovering true ‘pastoral care’ as defined by the Scriptures,” said Russell D. Moore, dean of the school of theology and senior vice president for academic administration. “The ramifications of this course correction will be felt in congregations throughout the Southern Baptist Convention and the evangelical world. It ultimately is not about curricular changes or faculty additions, but about the love of Christ for hurting people in the church and in the world.”

SOUTHWESTERN SEMINARY
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth is preparing to launch a new master of arts in biblical counseling (66 hours) in the fall, focusing on applying Scripture to life issues.

The school will also offer biblical counseling minors for its master of divinity and master of arts in Christian education programs. A doctor of philosophy program in biblical counseling is in development. These new programs mark a shift away from degrees designed to prepare students for state licensure as counselors.

“Our focus as a seminary is to provide preparation for those called to minister in the local church,” John Babler, Warren C. Hultgren Chair of Ministerial Counseling and one of five counseling professors, said. “The primary goal of our counseling program is to equip students to effectively minister God’s Word as they counsel. We help students to recognize and take advantage of informal opportunities to counsel and also prepare them to counsel formally in a church or ministry setting (such as a Pregnancy Help Center). In addition to counseling classes our degree provides a strong foundation in theological and biblical studies.”