COUNSELING COMMITTMENTS
NBCC is a biblical counseling center. We do not possess nor plan to obtain licensure, nor do we use psychology or psychiatry in our counseling. Instead, we have distinctly Christian commitments in counseling.
COMMITTED TO SCRIPTURE
We are committed to the use and priority of Scripture in counseling. We believe that the Bible is God’s authoritative revelation of Himself to mankind, and that it contains what is necessary for our lives, for salvation, and for righteous living (Psalm 19:7-11; 2 Tim 3:14-17; 2 Pet 1:3). Because of this, we believe that Scripture is sufficient for counseling, and it provides answers of hope and restoration due to sin and suffering.
Because we are are under Scripture’s authority and are committed to its sufficiency for counseling, our methodology for counseling begins and ends with the Bible (Rom 15:14; 1 Thess 5:14). The Bible informs us as to the core of man’s problems and God’s ultimate solutions. Our counseling does not point the counselee inward or to their past experiences for solutions to their present problems. Instead, we utilize Scripture as the source of true spiritual solutions for life in a broken and sin-filled world.
To this end, we believe the Bible contains the information that people need for lasting and meaningful solutions. The Bible deals with complicated topics such as suffering, relational conflict, marriage, parenting, depression, and anxiety and provides God’s answers to these problems.
COMMITTED TO THE TRIUNE GOD
We are committed to the centrality of God in counseling. As orthodox Christians, we confess that God is a Trinity; one God in three persons— the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. By having a commitment to the Triune God in our counseling, we point counselees to the only One who is able to create true change in their lives.
We are committed to the glory of the Father’s plan in redemption. Life is not meaningless; God the Father has an eternal plan and purpose to save people from their sin and its effects (Eph 1:1-14). This plan is for the good of God’s people and for His ultimate glory (Rom 8:28; Eph 1:14). Ultimately, the main purpose of this plan is to make sinful people more like Jesus, and to one day fully renew and transform them into His glorious likeness (Rom 8:29; 1 Cor 15:42-49). We believe that this plan of redemption provides clarity, comfort, and guidance to counselees.
We are committed to the importance of the Son’s incarnation as Jesus Christ. While the Son is eternal, without beginning or end, He became flesh and united Himself to a truly human nature (body and soul) while maintaining His full deity (John 1:1-18; Phil 2:5-11). Jesus lived a perfect life and died a sinner’s death as a substitute in His people’s place, and as a result, He provides perfect righteousness to those who trust in Him alone by faith (Is 53; Rom 3:21-26; 2 Cor 5:21). Three days later, He rose from the dead, triumphing over sin, Satan, and death (Heb 2:14-15). Now He stands as the Advocate and Intercessor for His people, sympathetically giving them abundant grace and mercy and being able to help them when they are suffering or tempted (Heb 2:18). We believe that Jesus’s example provides the basis for hope, relational reconciliation, humility, and obedience to God’s will for counselees.
We are committed to the power of the Holy Spirit in changing lives. Counselors can give wise counsel, but it is the Holy Spirit who actually sanctifies counselees and is able to transform them in their hearts, minds, and habits (Rom 8:1-13; 2 Cor 3:16-18). In this way, the Holy Spirit is the ultimate Counselor (Jn 14:15-17, 25). It is the Holy Spirit that produces the characteristics of goodness and godliness in a person’s heart (Gal 5:22-23). Because of this, our approach to counseling is a prayerful one that is dependent on the Holy Spirit’s help and power.
COMMITTED TO PEOPLE
We are committed not only to the Scripture’s description of people, but to people themselves. This requires our counseling to take both the sin and suffering of a person seriously. Because we believe that all people are created in the image of God, we believe that it is a disservice to human beings to treat their problems as neutral or meaningless (Gen 1:26-27; Jas 3:9). Instead, we approach each person as an individual and consider their sin and suffering with great care and significance (Gal 6:1-2). Because we believe that God has an incredible and grace-filled plan for the lives of His people, our joy is to help counselees experience the healing, restoration, repentance, sanctification, and transformation that is found in knowing Him (1 Jn 1:1-4).
Since we do not view counseling as clinical or people as projects, we place high value on the importance of compassionate relationships with counselees. At the core of Christian relationship of any kind is love, and this is true for counseling (Jn 13:34; Rom 12:10; 1 Cor 13, 16:14). Because we as counselors are fundamentally in need of the same spiritual resources as our counselees, we approach our counselees with patience, kindness, honesty, grace, and truth instead of clinical distance (Eph 4:15; 1 Thess 5:11).
Because humans have an immaterial and spiritual nature, we are committed to the spiritual health and growth of our counselees. Though we know that life and people are complex, we believe that the fundamental problem of mankind is sin, which is a spiritual issue. Because of this, we approach counseling as a spiritual matter, providing wisdom and truth rooted in Christian doctrine drawn from the Scriptures. We believe that this is God’s mechanism for Spiritual growth (Eph 4:15-16; Col 1:28).
COMMITTED TO THE CHURCH
We are committed to the importance and health of the local church. As counselors, we do not operate in isolation from local churches, but in partnership with local churches. We believe that the center stage for God’s work is the local church, and biblical counseling must be deeply connected to this reality (Heb 10:24-25). Because of this, an integral part of our counseling is strongly encouraging counselees to be involved in a local church under the spiritual authority of pastors/elders and in relationship with other Christians (1 Tim 3:1-7; Heb 10:24-25; 1 Pet 5:5; Heb 13:7, 17). These relationships are vital to stability and growth in the Christian life, and God provides immense blessing and help through the means of His people and corporate worship (Rom 12:3-8; Gal 6:1-2; Col 3:12-17; 1 Thess 4:9; 2 Thess 1:3; Heb 3:13; Jas 5:16; 1 Pet 4:9-10).
Because of the importance of the local church as God’s main plan for discipleship, we believe that it is necessary for us to work with the pastors of those we counsel. This does not mean supplying sensitive or confidential details from a counseling session, but maintaining communication about a counselee’s progress and ways that the pastor/church of the counselee can serve them.
Additionally, our approach to counseling is not an indefinite one. Though some situations may take longer than others to to work through, our goal is to equip counselees with the tools they need to biblically address their problems and then pass the baton of primary spiritual care back to the local church and its community of accountability. Discipleship and counseling does not stop once formal counseling is completed, it merely takes a different form and is found in a different context.