Pillar 1

Pillar 1: Christ-centered counseling

Christ-centered counseling means that your relationship with God through Jesus Christ will be our primary focus in counseling. Jesus Christ has center stage in my office because He "is all, and in all" (Col 3:11). Therefore, in your sessions with me, I will attempt to practice the presence of Jesus Christ at all times and co-labor with the Holy Spirit in His ministry to you (1 Corinthians 3:9). I view our counseling relationship as God's instrument of healing for drawing you closer to Christ.

Christ-centered counseling also means that our focus will be on the unique "chemistry" between you and Jesus. In the book of John, we read how Jesus interacts in different ways with Nathaniel (John 1:49-51), Nicodemus (John 3), the woman at the well (John 4). Jesus does not interact with any two people in exactly the same way. God knows you far better than you know yourself. You may be a mystery to yourself and your loved ones, but not to Jesus. You are made in God's image (Genesis 1:26); therefore you are a unique mold for His dwelling. Your unique set of gifts, talents and adversities you suffer reflect how you can glorify God in some unique way through Christ. As C. S. Lewis wrote: "Each of the redeemed shall forever know and praise some one aspect of the divine beauty better than any other creature can. . . If all experienced God in the same way and returned Him an identical worship, the song of the Church triumphant would have no symphony, it would be like an orchestra in which all the instruments played the same note. (Problem of Pain, 1962, Collier Books, p. 150).

Christ-centered counseling also means that you have a story to live out, but your life-story is not center stage. It is only a sub-plot of Jesus' own story, as recorded in the gospel accounts, "the greatest story ever told." God has a mission, a calling, for each of us, and it always involves our being more and more "conformed to the image of His Son" (Romans 8:29.  The meaning of your life-story will become more deeply understood and fully appreciated only when we see how you are being called upon to live out the life of God in your unique set of circumstances. And as you do, you become more and more shaped into the image of Christ.