Weekly Word Archives

Pneumanetics

Six Distinctives of Scope Ministries

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Imagine the trauma of working faithfully for fifteen years in a worldwide ministry, sharing the Gospel with great effectiveness, and then one day being informed that your oldest son is experimenting with drugs, which he got at a Christian summer camp. Imagine agonizing before God and asking, "Why has this happened to me?" only to hear the harsh rebuke, "You were out winning the world for Me, but losing your family in the process."

Crisis has a way of getting our attention. The pain of crisis alerts us to problems which God is actively seeking to solve by connecting us to Himself. It is oftentimes the pain which causes us to ask, "Why?" and "What should I do?" and which then leads us to turn to Christ for the solutions.

Jim Craddock, Founder and President Emeritus of Scope Ministries, was that faithful Christian worker. It was through that crisis and other critical events in his life and ministry that God taught Jim how to seek Him as Father, to discover God's love for him as a person, to address his own son's involvement with drugs, and to help individuals and families experience reconciliation to God and to one another.

Crisis does have a way of getting our attention. But, once crisis has our attention, where do we turn?

A critical event that taught Jim where to direct his attention had occurred just a few months earlier at a large conference on "Being an Effective Christian in the '60's." Dr. Henry Brandt had spoken on Biblical solutions to emotional difficulties. Jim, amazed by the clarity, simplicity, and effectiveness of Dr. Brandt's model of counseling, inquired of Dr. Brandt as to how he, Jim, could learn this model. Dr. Brandt challenged Jim to search the Bible for solutions to emotional pain, to connect hurting people to Jesus, and to ask how Christ is the solution to people's painful questions.

Crisis can have a way of getting us to direct our attention to God. It was out of real life pain and real life solutions through Christ that Jim began a Biblical counseling ministry called Scope Ministries and began to develop a philosophy of Biblical counseling called "Pneumanetics."

"Pneumanetics" is the term coined to describe the approach Scope takes in diagnosing people's behavior, needs, and desires and applying the Word of God to their lives in a practical way. It is essential that you grasp the full meaning of "Pneumanetics," not only as a word, but as a philosophy and a viewpoint.

WHAT DOES PNEUMANETICS CONSIST OF?

There are six basic distinctives. Here is a brief outline:

Pneumanetics is a model of Biblical counseling. It is one way (but not the only way) to counsel from the Bible. What we mean by "Biblical Counseling" is that it is making the Bible come alive in a person’s life as it is applied to the needs and desires of that person. The Bible is not just a religious book, but a book which provides the answers to life’s painful questions.

Pneumanetics has a single source. We believe that Scripture is a sufficient source for understanding people’s problems and their solutions. This idea can be clearly seen in 2 Timothy 3:16-17.

Pneumanetics has a single goal. Ministry can be defined as imparting the life of Christ to another person. The goal is to produce holiness, not to pursue happiness. Fulfillment and joy are natural results of being conformed to the image of Christ.

Pneumanetics asks two questions:


1.	"What is God doing in this person’s life?"

2.	"What does God want me to do?" Our desire is to cooperate with God’s plans as He works in a person’s life.

Counseling involves a four-step process.


a.	Establish the spiritual direction for the counseling. The behavior and attitude of the counselor communicates that God is the most important participant in the counseling process. We do not hand out Bible verse bandaids. We listen and care. We also direct individuals to a reliance on Christ, being sensitive to God’s timing.

b.	Diagnose the problems from a Biblical perspective and develop goals for dealing with these areas, challenging the counselee to follow the Biblical principles which relate to the problem areas.

c.	Disciple the counselee. We teach the counselee life in Christ and how to obtain a working knowledge of Scripture so that he or she will have the tools to deal with future problems.

d.	Challenge the counselee to minister to others.

Pneumanetics has a single intent. This intent is reconciliation — first to God, to others, self, and all creation.

This is a summary of the first lesson of Pneumanetics.