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Category: pastoral theology

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Published on 14 Comments on Christian thoughts on CBT

Here's excerpts from a longer paper from my website appraising Cognitive Behavioural Therapy:

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a

  • short-term,
  • practical,
  • client-based,
  • collaborative,
  • problem-solving,
  • life-skill learning

‘talking therapy’ which has had excellent and well documented success in alleviating certain emotional problems.

...

CBT represents a small number of different counselling schools which understand the process of change to involve the re-habituation of thoughts and (secondarily) behaviours.  The underlying assumption is that faulty emotions and behaviours flow from faulty thinking.

Thoughts =>  Feelings => Behaviours

These thoughts are themselves the result of faulty beliefs which underlie them and need to be confronted and changed.

...

The chief benefit of CBT for the church  is perhaps the myriad tools that have been developed to uncover faulty thought patterns and beliefs.

Christians have always known that beliefs and thought-patterns are life-altering, but three or four decades of clinical practice at ‘digging down’ into the beliefs of counsellees has produced very useful tools which can also be used by the Christian.

Identifying Negative Automatic Thoughts (NATs)

  • Ask directly – What are you telling yourself when you feel X…
  • Guided discovery (ask around the issues, get them to unearth)
  • Note emotional change as they speak – these are ‘hot cognitions’
  • Worst consequence scenarios – What would be so bad if…?
  • Imagery (some NATs are images) – Do you have a picture of yourself or of your environment when this is happening?
  • Exposure exercises – go to uncomfortable situations either physically or in your mind. How are you now thinking?
  • Offer multiple suggestions of what the NATs may be
  • Offer suggestions opposite to client’s expected response. They will usually say ‘No, no, I’m telling myself X’

Question the assumptions underlying the NATs:

  • What would be so terrible about X?
  • What would it be like for you not to do or feel X?
  • What does it say about you that you have done or felt X?
  • Are there verdicts being passed on you from God, the world and yourself associated with X?  What are they? Could you put them in words?
  • On what basis are these verdicts being passed?
  • On what basis are you believing them?

At this stage, CBT identifies the faultiness of such thinking as certain cognitive errors:

  • Arbitrary inference: e.g. ‘I was much happier when I happened to be X, therefore I must regain X’
  • Selective abstraction: e.g. ‘X (and nothing else) is what makes me special.’
  • Over-generalisation: e.g. ‘Everyone who has X is happier and more successful.’
  • Magnification (of the bad) and minimisation (of the good): e.g. ‘I may have Y and Z, but that’s nothing.  X is everything.’
  • Personalisation: e.g. ‘My performance of X wasn’t bad, I was bad. Everyone must hate me.’
  • Absolutist, dichotomous thinking: e.g. ‘It’s black and white, all or nothing.  Either I’m X or I’m nothing.’
  • Mind reading: e.g. ‘I know what they’re all thinking…’
  • Crystal ball: e.g. ‘I know what’s going to happen now…’
  • Catastrophizing: e.g. ‘It’s all over now. X is out of the bag, all hell will break loose.’
  • Emotional reasoning: e.g. ‘I feel X so strongly, therefore it must be a fact.’
  • Self-labelling / blame: e.g. ‘X makes me an idiot!’ ‘X makes me ugly!’

Beneath these faulty cognitions are the schemas or core beliefs that feed such thinking. CBT also offers helpful techniques in bringing these to the surface.

To identify core beliefs, look for…

  • ‘If…, then…’ statements: ‘If I’m X, then I’m a failure.’
  • ‘Shoulds’ and ‘Musts’
  • Themes in the NATs
  • Family sayings, mottoes, memories

The CBT practitioner should then get the counsellee to put this core belief into words.  Make them identify it as a rule: e.g. “I need everyone in my environment to be ok with me or else I will be destroyed.”  Simply the process of articulating this rule – exposing it as the dominating force in a person’s every decision, act and feeling – is incredibly powerful.  In Christian contexts it should lead to heart-felt and deep confession.

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[Summary of intervening points]  In John 16:9 Jesus identified the criterion by which the Spirit would condemn the world for its sin - "in that people do not believe in Me."  Through loving Christian community, the tools listed above can be a means of the Spirit uncovering those false faiths.

A key verse in Christian counselling is Proverbs 20:5: "The purposes of a man's heart are deep waters but a man of understanding draws them out."  When I encounter a Spirit-filled 'man of understanding' in these circumstances I am exposed for my sinful beliefs and purposes - not simply my behaviours - and therefore may be brought to a broken and contrite heart.

I say may because it is always the Spirit's work to convict me of sin - never simply the work of logic.  More on this below...

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Perhaps the chief criticism that could be levelled at CBT from a Christian perspective is this: It is not wise and persuasive words that are required but a demonstration of the Spirit’s power.

At the core of CBT is the challenging of irrational beliefs with logical standards.  However the deceitful and unfathomable heart will take more than good reasoning to shake it from its madness.  The truth of God’s gospel must be driven home to the counsellee with living power by the Spirit.  Faith does not come by reasoning but by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.  Therefore there ought to be a healthy dose of proclamation to pastoral counselling, a worshipping community to surround it and the regular table fellowship of the Lord’s Supper. All the means of grace ought to be employed by the Christian counsellor.  This goes far beyond pointing out faulty cognitions!

It is not our intellects that need changing but our hearts.  The heart is the centre of a person according to Jesus and the source of our thoughts and actions.  Our true hope is in the change of hearts.  This means:

a) we will not look for non-rational means (the heart is not an anti-intellectual concept in the Bible)

b) we will employ emotional, artistic, sensory means also

c) true change is ultimately the work of God

...

The whole article, including a potted history of the development of CBT, can be found here.

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Published on 5 Comments on Ever Needy

Passive. Dependent. Weak. Empty.

We hate those words.  We might spend our time indulging in self-pity - brandishing weakness like a sick note from life - but we still hate it.  No-one wants to be needy.  Even the person in our churches most described as "needy" hates their neediness.

But what about our Christian lives?

Just think of the I AM statements of John:

  --  Jesus is Bread - therefore we are the hungry ones, perishing without Him;

  --  He is Light - therefore we are lost in darkness;

  --  He is the Shepherd - so we are helpless sheep;

  --  He is the Resurrection - we are spiritually dead;

  --  He is the Way, Truth and Life - we are lost, ignorant, lifeless;

  --  He is the Vine - apart from Him we can do nothing.

What does a healthy, mature Christian walk look like?  A graduation from such desperation?

Some speak like that.  I remember a few years ago preaching on Matthew 12.  It's the place where Jesus is described as never breaking bruised reeds or snuffing out smouldering wicks.  In commentary after commentary I read Christians who assumed that "bruised reeds" and "smouldering wicks" were a sub-category of Christian.  They were the weak and sinful ones... over there.  And isn’t Jesus marvellous for caring for those special-needs Christians!  Bless 'em.

But just think of Jesus in Matthew's Gospel.  He begins the Sermon on the Mount by defining the kind of people who belong to the kingdom: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn… Blessed are the meek… Blessed are those who are persecuted for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  The kingdom of heaven is populated by weak and needy sinners. Later in Matthew 9 Jesus says “It’s not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick… I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.”  Christians are not spiritually healthy, we are spiritually sickened by our sin. Elsewhere Jesus calls us “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”  Or “sheep among wolves.” That’s a very weak position to be in.  Or, in Matthew 18:3 Jesus rebukes His followers for their self-importance and self-reliance and says:

“Unless you change and become like little children you will never enter the kingdom.”

Christ’s Kingdom is for little ones, sick sinners who know they’re sick sinners.  Poor, meek mourners – that’s Christians.

We wish Jesus spoke differently.  We'd like Him to paint a picture of ‘the King with His wise courtiers.’  Or ‘the Commanding Officer with His strong soldiers.’  But while we're meant to be those things, a more pressing reality besets us.  The picture Jesus paints is of a patient Saviour dealing gently with weak and pathetic followers.

Christians – those in Christ’s Kingdom – are not mighty oaks and roaring flames.  Not yet anyway.  We are bruised reeds and smouldering wicks.  Brittle, vulnerable, ravaged by sin and suffering – that is the Christian.

Looking for strength?  Don't look within.  Follow the Father's advice:

"Here is my Servant, whom I uphold, my Chosen One in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations.  He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets.  A bruised reed he will not break, and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth."  (Isaiah 42:1-3)

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Published on 6 Comments on Idolising Idolatry

This is adapted from my fourth talk on Isaiah...

Idols are everywhere in the evangelical world.  Well, teaching about idolatry is.

Everyone is talking about the dangers of false gods.  This can be a very good thing.  Personally, I've been helped as I've considered my sinful patterns to be far more than 'bad choices.'  I'm constantly falling for false visions of 'the good life'.  "Career success", "people-pleasing", "the need to be right" - a thousand loves can capture my heart.  And, while I may imagine that I've chosen these things, in fact they've chosen me.  They dominate and enslave me, and as I continue to serve them, they harden my heart and steal it away from the true God.

This is a profound and helpful diagnosis of our problems.  But below I'll offer three caveats to all this idolatry talk.  It's not that idols-speak is wrong or damaging - not at all.  It's that idols-speak cannot bear the full weight of all our pastoral needs.

Idols-speak - the way we tend to do it - can under-appreciate the true depth of our problems.  And more than this, if we look to it for our solutions we can miss our true hope for change.

Three Caveats About Idols-Speak...

1) The Old Testament has a language for over-reliance on the flesh AND for idolatry.

The Old Testament constantly speaks of our foolish trust in man, in money, in power, in giftings, in intelligence, in beauty, etc, etc.  But, by and large, it reserves the term "idolatry" for false gods, foreign conceptions of god, foreign conceptions of worship.

It's true that Ezekiel 14 speaks of "idols of the heart" but even there we're thinking of false religion and foreign gods.  So in the OT there's idolatry AND there’s false trust in things.

Sometimes we read of idols in the OT and immediately spiritualize it: "Jeremiah was so right - I need to spend less time on Facebook."  Well... maybe you are in danger of idolising Facebook.  But the ultimate false-god to which you're liable to look is not Social Media.  It's Satan.

Within days of receiving the ten words from Sinai, the people were worshipping a golden calf and proclaiming that this Satanic image had saved them (Exodus 32).  This event is in Scripture as a warning for us. 

We imagine that ancient people might have fallen for Baal or Molech, but it takes an iPad to really capture our imaginations.  But this is just chronological snobbery.  If God's people of old were in danger of mistaking a foreign god for the living God, then that's got to be a danger for us also.  The real idolatry has always been to get God wrong.  And this remains today.

Of course we have all sorts of functional saviours today - and they can have a god-like grip on us.  But such false faith has always been the case, and the OT has (separately) dealt with it.  The ultimate idolatry is having our God look more like Baal than Jesus.  This is a danger for every age.

2) The New Testament knows all about idolatry as a fundamentally theological problem. 

When the LORD walked among His people as Man, their greatest problem was their understanding of God.  They did not recognize their Messiah and so they did not know the God they claimed to serve (John 8:19).   These biblical, religious members of God's people belonged to the devil and had a theology to match (John 8:44).  We are fools if we think that our struggles are different.

Of course "greed is idolatry" (Col 3:5) and "Mammon" is a rival to God, but the NT's conception of idols goes well beyond sex, money and power.  1 John, for instance, is full of the desperate need to confess Jesus as Christ, Jesus' coming in the flesh, Jesus as the Son of God, etc, etc.  That's why it finishes with the admonition, "Keep yourself from idols."  There is a constant theological battle which we must fight to understand God in Christ.  Apart from Him, we are possessed by the spirit of anti-Christ and begin to worship an anti-Christian god.  Once again we must insist - this is not a danger for other people.  It is our danger.  Constantly.

Someone who is convicted by modern idols-speak might well confess to "worshipping parental approval." (And that may indeed be a problem for them).  But, again, the real danger is worshipping the devil.  I mean that seriously.  It is not as though Christians have their doctrine of God sewn up and now we can focus on the lesser objects of our devotion.  In Old AND New Testaments, the deepest danger of idolatry is that we will worship Satan.  Which means we really need to get God right, don’t we?

3) Idols-speak as a solution is man-centred.

If my problem is defined as, 'Me worshipping the wrong thing', what’s the solution?  You might imagine that the solution is now 'Me worshipping the right thing.'  Thus, we might have quite a “God-centred” diagnosis of sin (to use the lingo of many who engage in idols-speak), but we’re in danger of recommending a "man-centred" solution.

I don't see this so much in the preachers and writers who champion idols-speak, but I do notice it in, for instance, the accountability groups that take this teaching on board.  There exists the distinct impression that my false worship caused this problem, so now my true worship will solve it.  I must put away my idols and refocus my devotion towards God.

Yet this is tragically ironic.  For if my hope lies in turning my worship from one object to another, I have cast God as the ultimate idol.  There He sits, passively, waiting for my worship.  He was passive and displeased when I worshipped money.  Now He's passive but pleased with my true worship.  But in both cases, He’s the passive one, I’m the active one.

The trouble is, a passive God is the Bible’s definition of an idol.  In Isaiah 64 the prophet gives us a profound definition of the true God:

Since ancient times no one has heard,
no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.  (Isaiah 64:4)

The living God works while we wait.  It's the idols that wait for us to work.  That's the fundamental distinction.  The living God is alive and He gives life.  The false gods are dead and simply take your life.

But here's the perennial danger - and it can be exacerbated when idols-speak is the be-all and end-all of discipleship - I cast God as a dumb idol to whom I make all the offerings.

It works like this: imagine a Christian, convicted of their over-commitment to career progression.  They publicly repent of this "idol" in their life and now determine to offer up true service to God, because, well, God is God and, you know, our Maker has certain claims on us.  Right there, the danger of idolatry is immense!  Because right there, there's every possibility that God is cast as the passive recipient of our resolute worship.

Who has delivered the sinner from their idolatry?  And how?

Even if idols-speak proves helpful in diagnosing our problems - and it definitely does - we mustn't rely on it to solve our problems.  Christ in His word must come to us again to cleanse us from sin and refocus us once more on the invisible God  who Christ alone reveals.  We must move off centre-stage, sit down in the audience and watch Christ work redemption for us.

When we are the ones who wait for Christ to work, then we're experiencing the living God. Then we are weaned off idols - both small and great.

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Published on 3 Comments on I’d like to appear on your behalf – gratis [repost]

Far and away the best Australian comedy ever made, The Castle is a must-see movie.  Brilliantly observed, funny, heart-warming and if you're not punching the air at the triumphant ending I fear for the state of your soul.

The Kerrigan family are threatened with eviction by a nasty corporation.  But 'a man's home is his castle' so they fight it through the courts and... (last second spoiler alert!)... win.

It taps into some deeply felt Australian myths.  It's about home and land - with overt references to aboriginal land rights.  It's about family and mateship and a fair go. Most of all it's the myth of the little Aussie battler winning through.

Or is it?

In the story, Darryl Kerrigan (right) is completely helpless.  He's all at sea in a legal world far beyond his understanding.  As much as he wants to protect his family, he's absolutely powerless.  His fate, and the fate of his household, lies with one of two advocates.

First, Dennis Denuto (left) makes terrible representation (see below).  All is lost.

But a saviour is found in Lawrence Hammill QC (centre).  Everything changes the minute 'Lawrie' utters those words, "I'd like to appear on your behalf - gratis... free!"

[youtube="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITUSZ6LRHrk&feature=related"]

To the court, Darryl Kerrigan only looked as good as his representative.  When his representative was poor, his case was thrown out.  When his representative was good, he was utterly vindicated.  His destiny lay in the hands of his advocate.

As an audience, we have a soft spot for the Kerrigans.  But Lawrie wins our hearts.  Only the emotionally constipated could watch his final speech (not shown above) with dry eyes.

The Castle's not about a working class hero who never gave up.  This is not the story of one man standing against the powers that be - much as we love that myth.  It's about the powerful one stepping down for the weak.  It's the strong advocate who graciously intercedes.

Therefore - two things.  1)  Go and see The Castle if you haven't already!

And 2) realise this:  You are not the determined little guy who'll make good in the end.  You're facing trial - powerless and guilty.  But you have a brilliant Advocate.  He says, "I'd like to appear on your behalf - gratis!"  And He makes faultless representation to the court of heaven.  You stand in Him completely vindicated.  What kind of Advocate is this!

24 Because Jesus lives for ever, He has a permanent priesthood. 25 Therefore He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them. 26 Such a high priest meets our need--one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens.   (Heb 7:24-26)

19 Even now my Witness is in heaven; my Advocate is on high. 20 My Intercessor is my Friend as my eyes pour out tears to God; 21 on behalf of a man He pleads with God as a man pleads for his friend.  (Job 16:19-21)

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Published on 1 Comment on A Story About Guidance [repost]

True story:

I sat opposite my, then, girlfriend in the restaurant.  I wanted to make her more than my girlfriend.  So I sought God's guidance in the way that seemed most obvious to me.

I fired up a silent prayer in the restaurant.  "Father, if it's right that we marry, please put into her head the thought of our wedding day."

Instantly she smiles.

I ask, "Why are you smiling?"

She says, "Oh, nothing."

"Were you just thinking about our wedding day??"

"How did you know??!"

"Because I just prayed that if we should get married, you'd think about our wedding!!"

...Awed silence...

Now let me come clean.  This woman was not Emma, who is my wife.  Had I married the woman from the restaurant, lovely woman though she was and is, it would have been an unmitigated disaster.  Nonetheless - I had sought guidance from on high.  And it seemed pretty clear she was the one.

So what do we learn?

For one, we learn that much seeking of guidance is in fact seeking God's rubber stamp for our own desires.  I was not looking for guidance, I was looking for a "Yes."

When we seek after signs we prove very adept at creating them.  I don't know what exactly was going on in that restaurant, but I do know that Derren Brown can create far more impressive tricks.  In a restaurant, in a serious relationship, after serious discussion, it doesn't take a genius to predict thoughts of a future wedding.  And it doesn't take much to turn my wish into a prayer and then take it for a sign.  If you're looking for one, you'll take anything as a sign.

We're not promised guidance through signs, we are promised it through the word of God and the people of God.

I was reminded of all this by reading Proverbs this morning:

Proverbs 18:1 Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment.

Later on I read this:

Proverbs 20:5 The purpose in a man's heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.

I don't know myself very well.  In fact I have deep desires hidden from my own sight.  Yet they drive me in all the wrong directions.  It's madness, but if these desires really get hold of me I want to avoid anyone with Wisdom.

I can maintain the facade of godliness, because - Hey, I'm still seeking God's guidance!

But I'm seeking it in signs and not where God has put His Wisdom.  He's put Wisdom into His book and into His people.  We must seek guidance there.

Proverbs 15:22 Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.

Anyway, here's an old sermon on guidance...

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Published on Leave a comment on Heroin is my shepherd

From this excellent article:

Heroin is my shepherd
I shall always want.
It maketh me to lie down in gutters
It leadeth me beside still madness
It destroyeth my soul.
It leadeth me in the paths of hell for its’ name sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
I will fear no evil,
For heroin art with me.
My syringe and spike shall comfort me.
Thou puttest me to shame in the presence of my enemies.
Thou anointest my head with madness.
My cup runneth over with sorrow.
Surely hate and evil shall follow me all the days of my life,
And I will dwell in the house of misery and disgrace forever.

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Published on 3 Comments on It’s for us BECAUSE it’s about Him [repost]

It's common to hear the argument that christological interpretations of the OT are at the expense of seeing the pastoral applications.  Effectively the argument is, "If it's all about Jesus then it's not about us."

Well... here's how Paul quotes the OT in Romans 15:3

Christ did not please Himself but, as it is written [in Psalm 69:9]: "The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me."

Psalm 69:9 is Christ speaking.  The One on Whom insults fall is Christ.  This is obvious for Paul.  It's not a conclusion he argues towards, it's a premise he considers to be self-evident so that he can argue from it to other conclusions (i.e. - because Christ is like this, so should you be).

Does this Christ focus detract from the Psalm's application to us?  Paul doesn't think so.  Here's how he immediately continues.

For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us.  (Romans 15:4)

The OT teaches us - not by putting us directly into the shoes of the Psalmist.  Christ is the Zealous Insult-Bearer - it's actually about Him.  But it teaches us because it brings us to Him.  Then in Him come the applications for us.

But first, this is what we need to be taught - we need to be taught Christ.

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