Nouethic Counselor, Jay Adams, has died at 91

I did not want this week to go by without acknowledging the life of Dr. Jay Adams. Dr. Adams was the pioneer of the Christian Counseling movement who died a couple of days of ago at the age of 91. I have been meditating quietly about his words and perusing a couple of his works during writing breaks.

God has been gracious in allowing me to meet godly men throughout my life. Among them, was the joy of meeting Dr. Adams on at least seven occasions and interviewing him a couple of times and speaking on the phone at least twice. The last time I spoke with him, many years ago, I had a pastoral question that needed some wise counsel. I will never forget our opening exchange: “Good morning, Dr. Adams, this is Pastor Uri Brito. How are you this morning? “I am 80-years- old. What do you expect!?”

That kind of succinct humor and a heavy dose of directness characterized his 100+ books as well as lectures and life. Adams was a forthright man in methodology and in matter-of-fact-ness. I mentioned in a lecture several years ago on the Christian Counseling Movement that Adams came into the scene to offer something Christian after over 100+ years of silence on the topic. I once surveyed Counseling books written between 1900-1950 only to find that there were only a handful of books that made reference to the Bible, and those that did only mentioned it tangentially to preserve the “Christian Psychologist” status.

Adams was not like that. He took the tabula rasa of Counseling material in the day and filled it, nay, saturated it with Biblical texts. He was an unashamed biblicist who sought to bring God’s truth into every facet of life. I have no interested in investing time in criticizing his style or his disciples, and there is some criticism to go around, rather I want to acknowledge that God has used Adams to instill habits among men who are lazy, gluttonous, addicted, unlawful, and uncaring. He has done the same for women who are rebellious, angry and mourning. For every one who says they were hurt by the Adams’ nouthetic model, I know another who was comforted and happily confronted by it.

As I mentioned above, Adams’ counsel was direct. How direct? In his 1972 work on “Christian Living” he opened a paragraph on the lack of love in the home with these words: “If love has grown cold in your family, husband, you must do something about it.” There is more to this advice, but it summarized Adams’ vision to set men to action. If anything, Adams viewed life as action; a series of habits which formed and informed our lives. While only in the last few years we have seen a tsunami of works on the role of habits and rituals in shaping the Christian experience, Adams was already talking about the need for renewed habits in the 70’s.

He was a theological rebel in his Presbyterianism. He held to partial-preterism, was not a sabbatarian, was not particularly fond of the Puritans, and detested much of Reformed preaching. It was this unique flavor that Adams brought to everything he endeavored and as one who changed important theological positions by reading him, I am indebted.

I am grateful for his legacy and am actively involved as a certified pastoral counselor in the continuation of that pioneer work, though the movement has certainly morphed in these last 30 years. Adams was that inimitable voice that the Church needed to wake her up from her slumber. She did, and millions of people give thanks to God for the work of competent counselors who serve the sad, the sick, and the sinner who can only find refuge in the lover of our souls, Jesus Christ.

R.I.P. Jay E. Adams 1929 – 2020