Gospel-Centered Counseling Conference addresses isolation, anxiety, depression

“Worry tends to move in on oneself, but faith moves towards the Lord and out towards others,” Stuart W. Scott told the attendees at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Gospel-Centered Counseling Conference held March 31 and April 1 on the campus of the Fort Worth seminary.

Through main sessions and panel discussions offered during the two-day event, attendees learned how to assist individuals who struggle with isolation, anxiety, and depression based on principles from the Bible.

Scott, who teaches biblical counseling at The Master’s University in Santa Clarita, California, explained that in 2020, anxiety and depression “increased 28 percent.” Identifying health issues and concerns, COVID-19 and different variants, politics, wars, and rumors of wars as areas that can be very “crippling and overwhelming,” Scott said anxiety disorders are “the number one disorder” among people.

Organized by Lilly H. Park, associate professor of biblical counseling in the Jack D. Terry School of Educational Ministries, and Jonathan Okinaga, assistant professor of biblical counseling in the Terry School, the conference was offered to students, pastors, church leaders, and counselors because “there are a lot of hurting people in the church, searching for answers and seeking help” due to the rise of anxiety and depression during the pandemic, Park explained.

Scott and Ed Welch, a senior faculty member at Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation, addressed the main themes of the conference during the event’s plenary sessions while also participating in panel discussions on the topics alongside Park and Okinaga.

The conference exposed Southwestern Seminary “students to the best thinkers and practitioners in the biblical counseling field,” Park said, while simultaneously allowing “individuals from churches and parachurch ministries to see God’s work at Southwestern Seminary, especially in the biblical counseling program, and meet our students and leaders.”

Addressing the topics of isolation, anxiety, and depression from the perspective of Scripture is necessary because “when we are suffering, we need God more, not less,” Park explained. “Through Scripture, we remember God’s care, our hope in Christ, and dependence on the Holy Spirit. Scripture is sufficient for salvation and godliness, providing biblical wisdom for life.”

In his session on counseling an individual with anxiety, Scott noted the words “concern” and “anxiety” are the same in Scripture and real concern can be “handled well” or “handled sinfully.” Examining Matthew 6:19-34, part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, he said a concern “rightly handled” focuses on the present and the individual’s trust and reliance are upon God. A concern “wrongly handled,” he said, is focused on “tomorrow,” and “hope is misplaced” as it is on one’s self, others, or circumstances.

In his encouragement to help those struggling with anxiety with a “biblical methodology,” Scott directed attendees to Philippians 4:4-9, and Paul’s encouragement to the church at Philippi to pray and focus on the “right ways,” identifying them as right awareness of God, right praying, right dwelling, and right action. He correlated each with doxology, dependency, dwelling, and doing, respectively, while reminding attendees, “God’s Word has to renew our thinking” while encouraging attendees to examine what God’s Word has to say about concerns.

“We have to be transformed by the renewing of our minds,” Scott concluded. “And that influences our affections and desires and then it strengthens our will. And then we end up, by God’s help, to do what glorifies God.”