Our Mission and Philosophy

Our Mission

The mission of Grace Biblical Counseling Ministry is to glorify God by providing a ministry of discipleship to the Church, which is the Body of Christ, and to do so in two chief ways: (a) primarily by means of offering biblical counseling (within a Christian worldview) to individuals who desire help in dealing with personal life issues and concerns; and (b) secondarily by means of offering leadership training and service (within a Christian worldview) to local churches and other Christians organizations who desire help in becoming more proficient in the discipleship area of biblical counseling.

Our Ministry Philosophy

The philosophy of Grace Biblical Counseling Ministry (hereafter referred to as GBCM) is a philosophy grounded in and drawn from the Holy Scriptures. These sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments are the divinely inspired record of God’s revelation to mankind and, among other things, are given to reveal to humanity God’s character, the sinful condition of all people, and truths which allow them to know how to live lives that are pleasing to God. These are the same truths that set people free from guilt and hopelessness; truths that are given by the God of grace, which not only diagnose humanity’s feckless and culpable condition, but also reveal the only way of salvation—a way of grace alone, through the Scriptures alone, through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, who is himself the gift of salvation, the very incarnation of truth and grace. It is this fourfold grace philosophy (viz., sola gratia, sola scriptura, sola fide, solus Christus) that the name “Grace” in GBCM is intended to represent. And it is this grace philosophy which GBCM embraces in the practice of biblical counseling.

The fourfold grace philosophy upon which GBCM is grounded is a philosophy which highlights God’s special revelation. Yet GBCM also recognizes God’s general revelation which is given in his acts of creation and in his works of providence. These works of God attest authoritatively to man’s moral accountability before God, yet these, by themselves, are insufficient to supply humanity with either the means for apprehending eternal life or the data people need for living a godly life in this world. Such a resource is available, however, but God has chosen to provide it exclusively and completely by means of special revelation, i.e., the Holy Scriptures. These Scriptures are able to make one “wise unto salvation” and by attending faithfully to them people will find that they can become “thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:15, 17). That is to say that the Holy Scriptures reveal truths that must be believed and practiced in order for anyone to experience a transformed life which pleases God.

Moreover, (a) because Adam/mankind needed special revelation even before the entrance of sin into his world, and (b) because his fall into sin has increased the need for special revelation due to his active misinterpretation of God’s world and (c) because of the fact that every person who descends from Adam willfully exchanges the truth for a lie and suppresses that truth in unrighteousness, therefore, GBCM has an unswerving commitment to the Holy Scriptures as the only reliable and trustworthy source of counsel that will effectively and sufficiently address a person’s condition and sate the innate thirst of his or her soul. Therefore, GBCM is committed to a counseling system—including its presuppositions, principles and methodologies—that is solely grounded in and drawn from the Scriptures. Because of GBCM’s confidence in God’s fidelity to his Word, it seeks to offer hope and help to others by ministering Scriptural truths in the power of the Holy Spirit with the aim of enabling counselees to love God and their neighbors as God desires them to do.

Moreover, GBCM denies that secular theories and practices are manifestations of either General Revelation or Common Grace, but instead, are (either wittingly or unwittingly) vain attempts to substitute prideful human thought for God’s divine and gracious truths revealed in Scripture. And since there is an inextricable relationship between truth, methods, and goals, GBCM therefore refuses to integrate any such system of thought into its own counseling ministry. That is to say that spiritual problems presented in the counseling room cannot properly be diagnosed and defined by recourse to the categories of secular psychology or psychiatry. This is because the origination of these categories did not begin with the Scriptures but with secular reasoning and therefore GBCM does not believe it can be validly integrated into biblical counseling. While there may be useful facts and practical methods in the world of counseling that were not derived from the Scriptures, GBCM affirms that any such fact or method can be recognized as factual or useful only if it can be authenticated by the Scriptures. Thus, GBCM firmly grounds its philosophy and overall counseling system in the teaching and principles of Scripture.

Moreover, GBCM affirms that the Scriptures sufficiently address everything that pertains to life and godliness. There are, however, certain organic and physical maladies which lie primarily outside the purview of the “care for souls.” All such bodily afflictions are best treated by those trained in the practice of medicine (i.e., physicians). As for GBCM, its chief aim is to address the spiritual needs of the soul, which is a pastoral function. Yet, because the body is closely tied to the soul, those who suffer physical affliction often need help in knowing how to cope in a way that pleases God. GBCM recognizes the importance of this and is committed to providing biblical counsel for such individuals.