It has been my privilege to participate in the training of biblical counselors for the past twenty years. Many students enthusiastically embrace biblical counseling theory in the classroom, but then have trouble when they practice counseling in fictitious role play scenarios and later when they attempt to work with actual counselees under the supervision of an experienced counselor (for example, an ACBC Fellow).
After having listened to hundreds of hours of counseling and having read or heard thousands of case session reports, I am convinced that many counselors have Bibles which are way too thin. They need thicker Bibles if they are to be effective biblical counselors. The “thickness” of one’s Bible describes how much of the Bible a counselor knows well enough to be able to use spontaneously in a counseling situation.
In some ways counseling is more difficult than preaching in that the preacher can prepare extensively for his sermon and can control the direction the sermon takes. The counselor may seek to prepare for a session but doesn’t have control over the direction the meeting may take. The counselee may raise a new issue or may be facing a sudden (and unrelated) crisis for which immediate help
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