Anxiety and the non-use of Scripture in Counseling

During our day long faculty meeting, moderated by Pat Keifert from Luther Seminary, he mentioned an interesting bit of research he had done in the early 90s. His research on the use of the Bible in mainline churches found that when anxiety and distress rise, the positive use of the Scriptures decreases. Does that strike you as a little odd? Wouldn’t we find ourselves running to the Scriptures for comfort during times of anxiety?

Here’s an exerpt of his that describes the results of not having a positive use of the Scriptures during difficult times. You  can find the whole chapter here: http://www.luthersem.edu/word&world/Archives/20-4_Congregation/20-4_Keifert.pdf 

Within many mainline Protestant congregations this defensive stance toward fundamentalism and evangelicalism ends with little positive use of the Bible in the exercise of day-to-day Christian practices. This lack of a positive use of Scripturethreatens the existence of congregations when the anxiety within the congregational system rises. When tough issues relating to congregational life or ethics arise,the positive habits for the use of Scripture that remain in atrophied forms disappear and very dysfunctional patterns arise.

Many Christian counselors also fear looking like a fundamentalist who might use the bible to exhort or beat down someone with the “truth” (e.g., Its sin, stop it; Don’t be afraid). But our lack of using the Scriptures will cripple us and lead us to some distructive responses when we face troubles with our clients (e.g., being overly critical of church leadership, encouraging an easier way out of some kinds of troubles).

In our Christian psychology world, we do not do enough to argue for a better and more God-honoring use of Scripture in the face of trouble. We cannot allow the misuse of it by some to cause us to avoid it alltogether. If we do, we withhold comfort, hope, and direct connection to God from our clients.

 I’ve tried to give some examples of that in my how to use Scripture essay (link found on the bar to the right of this blog).