Central Church Pastoral Counseling Ministry

The pastoral support & soul-care process at Central Church is Christ-centered, biblically based and Spirit-empowered. Pastoral support is made available on a priority basis to members/regular attenders of Central church. The pastoral support & soul-care process includes one-to-one, couples, and family sessions, support group participation, and involvement in specific workshops and classes as well as making use of other literature and appropriate information.

The focus of the Pastoral Counseling Ministry is (1) to help you know God, enjoy Him forever, mature in Christ and become more inclined to obedience to God's will; (2) to help you understand and trust the Lord for your worth and dignity and, (3) to equip you with more effective ways of relating with people in your family and community through Christ's love. As a result, the Pastoral Support Ministry process is designed to help you make appropriate changes in your behavior, belief system and emotional responses.

However, there are potential risks as well as benefits of the Pastoral Support & Soul-Care Ministry process. For example, a) this process may involve remembering and talking about matters that result in strong or uncomfortable feelings; b) some people report feeling worse before feeling better; c) some people may conclude that they need to make some difficult changes in significant relationships/areas of life.

In the Pastoral Counseling Ministry, we recognize the sovereignty of the triune God over all of His creation. It is within this Framework that our counseling efforts, guidance, wisdom, and direction are taken as we look to God as the Source of all Truth. We further recognize that under this sovereignty of God, there is a collusion of: a) the World - the humanistic system which is hostile to God and God's people, b) the Flesh - our individual, fallen, corrupt human nature, and c) Satan - the real, evil personality who, at the head of a great kingdom of evil, hates God's people and tries to destroy them. It is from this evil consortium that flow most of the (non-organic) problems individuals and families experience that are presented in the Pastoral Counseling office. However, this model does not assume that all emotional suffering and anguish is due to personal sin or the sins of others. At times, such anguish may be part of God's process of perfecting His children in the image of Christ. Therefore, we seek God's discernment between sin-induced suffering and anguish or deep distress that may be part of obedience to God's will and growing as a Christian.

To address these issues, an integrated effort is undertaken using various tools, which God has provided that include:

Soul-Care - the use of Scripture, healing prayer (i.e., Spirit-led prayer to address the core source of woundedness and present false beliefs which are dispelled by the experienced Truth of Christ as in Theophostic prayer and formational prayer, and the spiritual disciplines (e.g., meditation, listening/guidance, fasting, repentance/confession, study, yielding/submission, worship, etc.);

Cognitive - challenging one's thinking to ensure that it is along truthful, factual ways of looking at life-issues;

Behavioral - encouraging one to choose to do that which is truthful, right, and beneficial as a loving response to the way God shows His unconditional love for the individual;

Solution-Focused - helping one to see what is working right, what has worked better in the past, and what can possibly work better in the future as different approaches are attempted which instills a more hopeful outlook;

Directive - involves various assignments such as reading certain helpful material, possibly attending targeted support groups, as appropriate. Also, includes referral to sources of specialized expertise as needed (e.g., legal, medical, psychological).