Life's Addictions

November 18, 2008

The 2008 CCEF conference held at the Valley Forge Convention Center in King of Prussia, PA, was an inspirational testament to the influence that Biblical Counseling has had on the broad scope of conservative evangelical Christianity. This is evident by the fact of a SOLD OUT symposium.

This year’s forum was labeled “The Addict In Us All”, a hot psychology topic in contemporary circles.  The Westminster graduates and faculty of the CCEF staff (Ed Welch, David Powlison, Winston Smith, Tim Lane, Mike Emlet,) brought Biblical truth that contrasts with popular psychological theories.  In Friday night’s case study panel discussion, Winston Smith, (Westminster M.Div., D.Min. candidate) guided the dialogue to engage the CCEF staff. 

The workshops addressed familiar topics of addiction: body image, drugs, sexual addictions, and providing love to addicts.  However, other workshop topics extended to less familiar addiction concerns: addiction to approval, and love, temptation and self-deception, even the addiction to religion. 

The conference served as an opportunity to help all Christians sharpen their skills as well as their minds. From ministers to school-teachers, a wide array of vocations learned the tools needed to thoughtfully engage in interpersonal ministry with the goal of helping addicts to overcome their bondage to sinful dependence. In the words of Westminster student Jonathan Brack, “It was great to see practical theologians deliver Bible-based apologetics to the spheres of the ministry that these days are either engulfed in pop psychology or naively addressed with pat-answers from the pulpit.  Instead, the struggles of addictions, as well as the authority of the living, breathing word of God, were taken seriously.” 

Westminster would also like to thank executive director Tim Lane and the staff of CCEF for their solid impact on the current dialogue between Christianity and Psychology.  It is starkly obvious that CCEF is a strong Christ-centered voice that speaks to a predominately Man-centered culture.

Click here for comments from Tim Lane on this year's conference.