Counsel Culture Not Cancel Culture

Hello, this is Will Hardy with ManTalk Radio.

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This is the Truth Network. Friends, the world is talking about cancel culture, but I'm sitting next to a guy who's all about counsel culture, because Jesus Christ is the wonderful counselor, and Dr. Tim Clinton heads up one of the largest Christian counseling ministries in the world. I'm in Lynchburg, Virginia. Dr. Clinton, I'm in a yogurt shop talking to you, author, counselor, man of God, mentor to me and so many. It is good to hang out with you, my friend.

It's so great to be with you, as always. We couldn't get a studio this late in the day, and this guy's moving at breakneck speed, so we've grabbed a Frogert, this delicious yogurt with all kinds of toppings, and we're in Lynchburg, Virginia. Now, tell us how you got started on all this Christian counseling. People see Tim Clinton, but here's my question.

Who is Dr. Tim Clinton? You know, Stu, I grew up in a pastor's home. My dad served in the rural hills of central Pennsylvania, had the call of God on his life, the kindest man I've ever met, had a profound influence on me, kindest man I've ever met, like I said. But out of that, grew this love to be involved in ministry, went to school to become a pastor, have an undergraduate degree in pastoral ministries, minored in Greek, and then I got involved in a double minor my junior year and double minored in counseling, and that led to a decision to stay at Liberty and earn a master's degree in counseling. Ultimately, to get ready to go on to Dallas Seminary and earn a THD, a doctor of theology, but I never made it there. I wound up going on and getting my doctorate.

I got my master's degree in counseling and got my doctorate in counseling at the College of William and Mary, and kind of the rest is history. And Dr. Clinton, I got to tell you, people know you from your amazing national radio show, Life, Love, and Family. You've been on thousands of podcasts. You've been in there with Dr. Dobson on Family Talk, do a great job with him all the time. You have written all these books, but what people are blown away by are these huge mega-conferences.

You pack out thousands of people at these venues, and you bring in all these speakers. At the end of the day, what is it that drives you? What is it that makes you feel alive with all that you're doing? You know, Henry David Thoreau, I think, wrote the statement, the mass of men live but quiet lives of desperation. I see a lot of broken people who are searching, and they're reaching for a lot of things that anesthetize the pain in their hearts, but nothing satisfies apart from a meaningful relationship with God and Christ. And so what drives me is to be able to give them what people describe my dad is doing, a fresh drink of cool water. That's a relationship with God and Christ.

I love it. And it is cancel culture where people literally, they have a bad night in a ball game, or they blow it. And hey, imagine a Christian falling into sin.

I can't imagine that. Can you, you know, like we're all, you know, what do we have? Glass, you know, we live in glass houses, right? You have pursued not cancel culture, but counsel culture. Talk about the restorative power you've seen, the transforming power of God's grace. You see when grown men walk forward at your conferences that's full of martial arts and giant four-wheel, you know, monster trucks and, you know, MMA and, you know, chainsaws.

Talk about what it's like when you see, you know, a Ben Rosenberg or Big Ben get up and speak and people melt. Well, I think the word says my people perish because of a lack of knowledge, a lack of understanding. A lot of people don't understand how their past or maybe what they're going through or some of the decisions they make really impacts their trajectory, you know, their outcome. And the more we can begin to help them see that, the more it can affect them in positive ways. Also, the Bible says that in the multitude of counselors, I like that, there's safety. And so when you have people around you who can meaningfully influence you, speak into your life in ways that help you live life with purpose and meaning and value, in the end, that's what brings joy. And when you see someone with great stature who, when you interact with them, you realize that they all have feet of clay, that they in a lot of ways have the same longings and deep down in their heart and soul, and you can speak into that, that's nothing but pure joy. And when they stand up and testify the goodness and grace of God, that just takes you to a whole different place. That's the voice of Dr. Tim Clinton, who's a prolific author, the founder of the, and the president of the American Association of Christian Counseling, AACC.

Nobody said that right. We're in Lynchburg, Virginia, in his hometown. It's a little loud in here because we're in a Sweet Frogs yogurt across the street from Liberty University. We're here in Lynchburg, where he teaches a lot of counseling courses. He's helped a lot of people. Dr. Clinton, at the end of the day, there's something that Jesus said, starts with a D, discipleship. Go and make disciples. Effectively, God's used your call to counseling, your training, to get the church to do what they're supposed to do, disciple, go deeper into the soul. We're talking parents and their kids, husbands and wives. We talk about how fundamental this is, like we need to get back into relationship because that's how Jesus built us, right?

Ultimately, to a place of freedom. You know, Galatians 5, 1 says, it's for freedom that Christ has come to set us free. I remember one of my early instructors or friends, mentors, colleagues, said to me, what good is it to have better adjusted people in hell? Tim, make sure and anchor what you do in the truth of the gospel. And when you do that, and you use those strategy and techniques that matter, that build healthy relationships, that help people pursue goals, that help people live beyond their past decisions and more, that's a gift.

That's a beautiful gift. And really, God's used you to equip or really weaponize thousands of counselors. How many people are associated with the AACC doc around the country, different counselors? People you go to get Christian counseling from, you may not even know they're associated with this austere group. Still, we've had tens of thousands of members, people who are just excited about bringing God into the equation, unashamedly. And what's interesting, too, is the majority of people who seek out mental health services still go to a pastor, priest, or rabbi first. And so when you recognize that matching someone up on matters of faith and mental health, you have much stronger therapeutic outcomes and more.

That's a big deal. Dr. Tim Clinton, people can get resources, they can get trained. Right now, there's easy ways for folks through all your different tracks to get a counseling degree, to get an associate's degree, a master's degree, a PhD all the way up there. Your son's getting a PhD.

Zach, I mean, his stock is soaring. Isn't it encouraging to see the next generation taken this passionately, isn't it? Yeah, we've got to pray that God raises up today's generations to step in to the moment for such a time as this. And, you know, I mean, they're taking over.

One-third of the voting bloc are millennials and Gen Zers and more. So you realize it's an important day for us as people of faith to take today's generation seriously and speak life into them. And Dr. Clinton, you have not divorced your faith from your involvement in policy, involvement in bringing back, you know, calling America back to repentance, calling America back to faith.

There's this, sadly, there's this kind of socialism communism that has invaded even the church. We have all this wokeness going on where churches are, you know, are advancing some of these racist agendas like CRT and other things. Give your challenge to pastors about just kind of being bold to prioritize the gospel, but speak out for life, speak out for marriage, and speak against some of these racist, you know, agendas going, you know, they're proliferating the church today.

Can you close us out with that? Still, I wrote a new book called Focus on the Future, why your faith, your family, and your voice matter now more than ever. And in there, we kind of unpack what I think are some of the greatest needs in the church. And when we become sensitized to those issues, everything from the significance of the family to the importance of mental health to the embrace of truth, that's the stuff that's going to guide us on the road forward. And when we deny and ignore that, it will lead to great peril. And we don't need that.

We need, and I think most of the people I talk to, they want, they want to see a different America. But at the end of the day, this is really about anchoring yourself in our relationship with God in Christ. He's still on the throne. We trust him, we look to him, and we press him to be more like him. And I think when that happens, everything around us, even the noise begins to fade, and we're strengthened in our heart and in our resolve on the road forward.

That's a good thing. And that's Dr. Tim Clinton. Thanks for hanging out with you, man, here at Sweet Frogs in Lynchburg, Virginia. Google, just Google Dr. Tim Clinton. There's probably 500 different websites, social media.

acc.net, timclinton.com. And you can get a course there. You can sign up, be encouraged, be blessed, and you will love what they're doing.

And they would love to have you a part of that. Dr. Tim Clinton, stand up, get connected, get discipled. Who are you discipling?

Who's discipling you? Who's your Paul? Who's your Timothy? Who's your Barnabas? If you're not, if your church isn't doing that, find a church that does because that's what we're here for, to advance the kingdom of God on this earth. God bless you. Thanks, Dr. Tim. You bet. This is the Truth Network.