A classic from the dean of Christian counseling! Adams has helped thousands of pastors, laypeople, and professionals to implement a nouthetic, or Spirit-led, approach to counseling. Promoting use of biblically based discussion, he offers profound insight into the way sin affects human personality, and how confession and taking responsibility restore counselees to wholeness in Christ. Hardcover.
This classic has helped thousands of pastors, students, laypeople, and Christian counselors develop both a general approach to Christian counseling and a specific response to particular problems.
Average Rating: 4 out of 5 stars(4 out of 5 stars)
5 of 5 Reviews Showing:
0.5 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by Sam Lowry (Brazil, MS), January 28, 2010
This is a good book for people who are intimidated by counseling someone. It gives a lock-step approach to counseling based on select scriptures and isolated experiences. It gives the Counselor the ability to declare success (i.e. victory) over a "client" (as Adams refers to counselees) without the messy need to know the client or understand his problems. For example, Adams has decided that all depression is the result of the client's sin, based on a few verses from a Psalm of David, but ignoring the entire book of Job. If Adams had met Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, Adams would have told an agonizing Jesus he needed to confess his hidden sin. Then Adams would have walked away, confident in his superior understanding. That is, Adams gives his Counselors a simple way to deal with complex issues such as depression: tell the client he is hiding some sin, and unless the client identifies and confesses the sin, the counseling is over. It's that easy. The Counselor doesn't even need to name a specific sin. If the Counselor is a Pastor, he can even threaten excommunication. Whether or not a sin actually exists doesn't appear to be the issue. The issue seems to be extracting one's self from a difficult situation. (It's the same concept as throwing a woman in water to determine if she's a witch. If you're wrong, she can't defend herself, anyway.) Adams is very big on the need for the client to confess and take responsibility, but the Counselor can shed all responsibility by blaming the client for failure. Indeed, all of Adams' examples are success stories, based on his presuppositions. It's a good book, if you love the praise of men more than the praise of God.
4 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by Rhonda Sanders (Glendale, AZ), November 18, 2009
I ordered 25, then 5, then 6 of this book. That's how satisfied I was in reading it. I believe it will be a good book to show the sin issue in people's lives.
5 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by Daniel Markham (Fort Worth, TX), November 07, 2009
A "five star" work. I first read this book in 1986 but bought a new copy recently to refresh myself in the necessities of counseling bibically. This book is not just for counselor's, but for every believer who truly wants to reach those around him or her effectively and biblically.
5 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by Donald (Arlington, TX), April 28, 2008
I don't know if a few words in a review will do this book justice. This book is a real eye opener. If a pastor/elder in a church could only read one book on counseling, this would be it. Every person in the ministry should read this book. It is well worth the price and anyone who chooses not to read it is doing themselves as well the people they shepherd a disservice.
5 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by Allen Blake (Haven, Kansas), November 14, 2001
Jay Adams is a leader in the movement to restore Christian counseling to its proper foundation - a biblically based world view. In Competent to Counsel, Adams reveals the anti-scriptural ideas on which various schools of secular psychology are based and the inroads those ideas have made into the church. He explains that the root problem of man is sin and shows that the biblical model is one in which Christians counsel one another. He especially addresses the role of a pastor as counselor, emphasizing that the basis for good counsel is good applied theology. Adams also draws from his experience to outline practical ways to impliment a counseling ministry.
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