Jay Adams. Just the mention of his name for those in the counseling world (and often church ministry in general) produces a response. For those of us who knew him, read him, and understood him, this brings a smile. For those who did not, there are any number of responses. Mostly what I found is that people respond to a caricature of Jay Adams, not the man particularly.
Why this varied response?
Jay Adams: the Polemicist and Father of Modern Day Biblical Counseling
As a new professor at Westminster Theological Seminary in 1963, Adams was asked to teach a course on Pastoral Theology. In his initial semester, he used the notes from the previous semester as his outline to get started, which included a unit on pastoral counseling. What he found in the notes was a dearth of any type of Bible content or principles related to counseling church members; instead, the notes were primarily from a secular counseling perspective. (For more details of this story and more, check out Donn Arms incredible tribute to Jay Adams here.) The inability of anyone to produce a theologically-driven construct for counseling in the church provoked Adams to pour over the Bible and research everything available to understand this issue better. He found that pastors had essentially ceded this area of ministry over to secular thinking at that time.
As he developed his thinking and class notes, his class lectures became the seed thoughts for the book Competent to Counsel in 1970. The first book written on the subject of pastoral counseling and soul care for nearly a century called pastors to return to the Scriptures as the sufficient Word of God as the way to help people with their problems in living. Rather than use secular philosophies of psychology, Adams pointedly called pastors to repentance. He viewed the way a pastor counsels as a theological issue (Rom 15:14). His book turned the Christian counseling world upside down. With a desire to not have his name primarily associated with what he viewed as the biblical model of counseling, he chose the word nouthetic to describe this counseling model (from the Apostle Paul’s use of the Greek word nouthesia).
As a result of his teaching, training, and writing, Adams became known as the Father of the Biblical Counseling Movement. In the subsequent years, he helped form the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation (CCEF), the National Association of Nouthetic Counseling (NANC), the Journal of Pastoral Practice (now known as the Journal of Biblical Counseling), and a degree at Westminster in biblical counseling. In addition, as a prolific writer, he wrote over 100 books on various topics which includes a New Testament translation, a New Testament Commentary series, books on preaching, aging, and many, many more on counseling. Donn Arms quoted an introducer of Adams as referring to Jay as “a man who has never had an unpublished thought.”
Jay Adams: the Friend, Counselor, and Pastor
I was introduced to Jay Adams (First Generation) in October 1999 by the late David Powlison (Second Generation – Adams’ student). As a new student in biblical counseling at Westminster (Third Generation), David told me that I needed to read Jay, meet him, and become part of the group that he had founded (NANC). David invited me to the annual meeting of that organization and introduced me to Jay at that time. In addition, David had me read Adams’ Ready to Restore. Over the years, I have had opportunities to talk with Jay, listen to him, and hear many others talk about and of him as well. For those who knew Jay Adams, he was not the lightening rod of Competent to Counsel who called the pastoral world to repentance as much as he was a gentle teacher, discipler, counselor, and friend.
As an observer of Jay Adams over the years, I made a couple observations of him that make me smile ~ and go against the caricature of many of his critics.
First, Jay loved the Word of God and the local church. He labored hours on a New Testament translation and commentary set. As a student of the Bible, he wanted people to understand it completely; as a theologian, he understood how the Bible contained the answers to the issues of life. The proper setting to connect God’s people with God’s Word, as Adams understood it, was the local church, for which he both loved and labored.
Second, Jay dedicated his life to helping the people of God in the body of Christ by helping their pastors. He wrote extensively to pastors. He wanted pastors to Counsel the Word as clearly and precisely as they Preached the Word. He wrote extensively developing this newly formed discipline of modern biblical counseling. Without any formal training himself, he developed the initial ideas and constructs.
Third, Jay practiced what he taught. His system of pastoral care developed from a mix of his time in his study, the classroom, the counseling room, and in pastoral work. He literally almost worked himself to death in those early years. I have heard Howard Eyrich describe what those early years were like. Everything was new. They would move in and out of counseling sessions straight into conference sessions to help each other think better related to their care of others from the Scriptures. Jay and his contemporaries at CCEF developed a way of counseling that was rich in case studies as they sought to help people through the Scriptures.
Fourth, Jay loved his family immensely. You could not know Jay or his friends without knowing his deep love and care for his family. What he desired for the family of God, he sought to live out within his own family as well.
Jay Adams: His Legacy
The modern biblical counseling movement stands on the shoulders of Jay Adams. From the meager days of the publication of Competent, the start of CCEF and NANC, and the thousands of miles he traveled to often very contentious meetings with pastors and Christian counselors to discuss counseling, the biblical counseling movement stands strong. NANC became the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors which continues to grow and impact the church of Jesus Christ (www.biblicalcounseling.com). CCEF continues to train and produce biblical counselors – of which I was a doctoral product, and the Journal of Biblical Counseling continues.
Students and coworkers of Jay Adams have gone on to continue and extend his work worldwide. From one man to many (www.biblicalcounselor.com), the voices of biblical counseling continue to expand and impact those in the church. God continues to bless Jay’s foundational work even as Jay enjoys now the presence of God.
Jay Adams produced the foundation. David Powlison and so many others in his generation built on that foundation. Many of us in my generation continue that work of seeking to understand the Scriptures’ meaning, implications for living, and practical help for people in day-to-day living as we teach others in the fourth generation. But it is not finished. The fourth generation already teaches the fifth generation in churches, schools, and institutes all over the world.
Does biblical counseling look just like Jay Adams initial work? No. Does any field look just like its founders? No. But God richly blessed us with Jay Adams as a person and brother in Christ with his passion, his writing, and his faithfulness. He took a road less traveled in 1970 and it blossomed by God’s grace to what we have today. As the good work of biblical counseling continues, each of us in the field and those who are served by us benefit from the life and ministry of Jay Adams. We thank God for him.
A stack of Jay’s books from Sean Perron