The Need to be Bilingual

I was reminded this week of the necessity for leaders in today's church to be bilingual (coined og by Ray Anderson, RIP Professor). We need to speak the language of theology and psychology. My reminder was sparked during a seminar on marriage and ministry. There are so many dysfunctional habits that the average person carries with them and often these habits do not disappear after one is saved. We all have particular ways of dealing with emotions and stress, which vary from trying to control others, escaping, blaming/anger, and internalizing into shame; unfortunately many of us rarely learn how to deal with our emotions in a healthy way. Family and/or school, often fall short in properly equipping us, it usually comes down to 'on the job training,' which seems to eventually work after lots of trial and error, but I also find myself feeling very frustrated in the church at times because we often over spiritualize relational issues that can often be significantly remedied through proper psychological counseling. A retraining of how to deal with emotions and others, especially your significant other, can be so beneficial! As the saying goes, 'knowledge is power!'
Coming from an Asian American background makes things a little more difficult, actually potentially a lot more difficult because of the 'taboo' perspective on mental health. I know we are now much more open to it, but I still observe many Asian American churches reluctant to go there!
I believe with all my heart that no matter how much counseling an individual receives, it will not result in salvation! We all need to be accepted and embraced by God's love for our souls to be redeemed. However, I also sincerely believe that psychology should play an integral part in sanctification, aka, being transformed more and more into the image of God...