A common thread through many Palmer stories, and stories throughout the broader university community, is that our students and alumni are equipped in multidisciplinary ways. Many come expecting to learn one thing, and find that come graduation they have a skillset and knowledge that exceeds what they anticipated.
The Rev. Dr. R. Ernest Flores came to the Eastern community to study for a doctorate in marriage and family therapy. At the time, the program was a Doctorate of Ministry. He pursued the program in response to a growing need in his congregation. “I realized many couples coming to see me needed something more than I could offer. But when I tried to refer them to professional counselors, they would say ‘but we know you, and want to see you!’”
By the time Dr. Flores enrolled in the program in 2011, it had shifted to the PhD in Marriage and Family Therapy through Eastern’s College of Education and Behavioral Sciences. He graduated with his PhD. in 2016. This meant that summer family vacations in Maine were devoted to study. “I would make breakfast for everyone, then go to the local library to study at 9am, then come back in time for dinner after 5. My wife and kids were going to the beach and I was writing papers,” he laughs. “But now I get to bless my church in counseling.”
Dr. Flores found that his education transcended pastoral counseling. It offered new insights as he read Scripture as well. He recognized therapeutic techniques in Paul’s epistles. And it shaped his preaching. Sermons series about family dynamics, healing familial wounds, and the relationship between one’s passion for God and passion for one’s spouse, are part of Dr. Flores annual sermon rhythm. And all find their roots in Scripture, read through the lens of family psychology.
The Palmer mission, the whole Gospel for the whole world through whole persons, is lived out in this blending of preaching and marriage and family therapy. Dr. Flores says that to serve whole persons, we need to embrace how God has revealed God’s self through the sciences. “Those of us who stand in Christ should have no fear of scientific inquiry. The whole person includes psychology, including mental health. We need to share how science has discovered what God has been saying all along.”