I need your help, yes you! You are reading our little blog because you know, have read, have heard, or are otherwise familiar with Jay Adams. You have profited from his ministry and have been a greater blessing to others because of what you have learned from him.
But sadly, there are many who travel in Biblical counseling circles these days who have never heard Jay speak and, unbelievably, have never read Competent to Counsel. When I first began my journey as a biblical counselor Jay Adams was scheduled as the speaker for all five plenary sessions at the annual NANC conferences. Today, a large majority of those who attend an ACBC conference have never heard him speak. Now, this is not necessarily a bad thing. It is good that so many younger men and women now identify with the movement.
But the Biblical counselor, of any age, who does not read and learn from Jay Adams is missing a great blessing and, frankly, is derelict in his responsibility to grow as a counselor. Imagine the theologian who has never read Calvin. Is there a pastor anywhere, who is serious about growing as a preacher, who has never read Spurgeon? Can one be a conscientious WWII historian if he has never read Churchill? How about the Methodist who has never read Wesley, the Lutheran who has never read Luther, or the musician who has never heard Bach or Mozart.
One reality those of us who love Dr. Adams must face is the fact that since his retirement from an active speaking and writing ministry, Adams’ critics have been louder than his supporters. Some of those critics travel in our circles and are often the only voices new counselors hear. As a result, there has arisen a generation of biblical counselors who knew not Jay Adams. Our movement will be the poorer for it if we allow this to continue.
Thus, I come back to my initial plea—I need your help! You will soon be reading about a new initiative to bring many of Dr. Adams’ books back into print and make all of his books more readily available. Before we launch this initiative, I am collecting as many testimonies, endorsements, and recommendations as a can from folk like YOU who have profited from reading Jay Adams. Would you consider sending me a short “blurb” describing how reading Jay Adams has helped you?
First, I need comments from YOU. Please do not think that since you are not John MacArthur or R C Sproul no one will care what you think. I want to appeal to other counselors and pastors who are just like you.
Second, I need short, pithy testimonies or endorsements. Two or three sentences is great but also a short paragraph would be helpful.
Third, I need specific comments:
How has reading Jay Adams helped you generally? You have no specific book in mind, just his writing ministry in general.
Imagine you are telling a friend, “Here is why you should read Jay Adams.” What would you say?
Is there a specific book that has helped you? Now I am sure I will get many comments about Competent to Counsel or The Christian Counselor’s Manual, but what other books have helped you? How so?
Several of Dr. Adams’ books have been out of print for some time and are on our radar for republishing soon. If you have read one of these, and can provide us with an endorsement “blurb,” who knows, it may appear on the back cover of the book!
Committed to Craftsmanship
Insight and Creativity in Christian Counseling
What to Do On Thursday
Finally, you may be thinking, “there is no way I can express my love and appreciation for all I have learned from Jay Adams’ books in a short paragraph, can’t I say more?” YES! I am also entertaining guest blog articles from counselors and pastors who can do as suggested above—explain to readers why they should read Jay Adams. In fact, if you maintain your own blog, how about posting such an article there and telling us about it?
Send your articles, blog posts, endorsements, blurbs, and comments to me at [email protected].
Having just graduated from a Christian college with a degree in Psychology and a minor in Bible, I applied for a job at a pregnancy care center. At the end of my interview, the chairman of the board handed me, Competent to Counsel by Dr. Adams and suggested I read this as soon as possible. Well, I did. And am SO glad I did. During college I debated everyone I could about starting with Scripture as the basis for counseling fellow-believers. Now, I finally had a strong tool to help me. It changed my philosophy of counseling, my method of counsel and my hope in counseling.
As someone interested in mental illness for many years, due to family history; observations regarding alcoholism, eating disorders, anger management, schizophrenia, depression, relational problems – I came across the research, teaching and methods of Jay Adams through a book I read by John McArthur. It was like a veil pulled back and I saw how through Scripture and the Holy Spirit, repentance and ‘put on and put off’ changes, it is possible to get to the root of many problems and enable real lasting change. Sin, in some form, is usually the root cause. Of course, this is an unpopular message today but I came to see how it gives hope. The diagnosis must be right if the person is to proceed out of a place of confusion and depression to be released and renewed into a life of usefulness and closeness to God. If a person is willing to humble themselves and obey God’s commands they can be restored to sanity. Sadly, many find Jay Adam’s teaching on counselling offensive, but it does not make it untrue. I bought many of Jay Adam’s counselling books second hand and they have become my most treasured theology books. In my opinion, Jay Adams is truly the father of modern biblical counselling.
Finding Jay Adams “Competent to Counsel” back in the 1990’s was for me like finding a cool glass of water in the dry desert. Beginning in the 1960’s, when I was converted, I had been reading all of the books I could find concerning life problems faced by myself and other professing Christians who were my friends. Most of the books I found were less than helpful. Since then I have purchased mostly used copies of almost all of his books and I am thankful I have been able to take the training from the Institute of Nouthetic Studies. I don’t know where this training will take me in the future, but I am surely learning a lot and I find it so very helpful in my own life and also as I share with others.
“Insight and Creativity in Christian Counseling” is a book that I would not want to see discontinued. I read it about four months ago and am still trying to use daily the suggestions made at the end of the book as to how to discern and apply truths from Scripture to specific circumstances in the lives of people. Also “What To Do on Thursdays” presents some excellent guidance as to how to understand and make a difference in situations in which wrong habits have become deeply ingrained in one’s life. I haven’t yet read “Committed to Craftsmanship.”
Just yesterday I gave a copy of “The Case of the Hopeless Marriage” to a dear Christian friend whose adult son is suffering in a marriage he has called “hopeless.” I believe that Dr. Adams’ thorough teachings have shone the light on the Scriptures in such a way that the themes and truths from Genesis to Revelation shine as beacons that will clearly direct anyone who has “ears to hear” to Christ’s path of life.