Vintage

Philosophy Statement

Faith Counseling and Training is inspired by the strong conviction that God created and designed each of us, has a purpose for us and understands the challenges we face at the deepest possible level.  His understanding isn’t that of an objective onlooker, but that of the Creator who loves His creation so much that He would enter into our epic battle with sin to provide victory for us.  This gives Him the unique position of both understanding our situation and having the ability to offer us a solution. 

We at Faith Counseling and Training reject the notion that God no longer cares nor holds the answers to modern problems.  God not only has the answers, but has shared them with us through the Scriptures and His Spirit.  It is through learning the principles contained in the Scriptures and applying them through the power of the Holy Spirit that we find the victory that God has provided. Thus our philosophy is centered upon Biblical truths and how to apply them in our daily lives.

This does not mean that FCT is ignorant of the complexity of our modern problems or that we simply throw a Bible verse at a situation.  What it does mean is that we hold the belief that God has given us a detailed blueprint of His creation and that we can find solutions to modern problems by first understanding how God created and designed us to function.  With this understanding we can go to the source of problems much faster, gain insight into the corruption of the sinful nature, how the demonic realm entices and then ensnares us and how the cares of this world pull our attention away from Christ. 

By far, the greatest insight that we gain is about our corrupted nature that is commonly called the flesh, which pulls us away from God rather than to Him.  We believe that this latter issue is the highest priority in Christian counseling.  As believers, we must learn how to surrender ourselves to Christ and live a life that is pleasing in His sight.  Peter put it this way; “and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.” (1 Peter 2:24 NASB)

As counselors we are careful not to shortcut God’s refining process in peoples lives.  We find it much more fruitful to look not only at the presenting problem, but how God is using the problems, suffering, tests or trials in our life.  James chapter one verses two through four puts it this way; “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.  And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” NASB

FCT acknowledges that there is a great deal of information available in our modern culture that can be taken advantage of.  For example, recent studies show that the divorce rate between believers and non believers are virtually the same.  This is a tragedy that must be addressed in the Body of Christ.  Some go on to say that the reason for this is because non believers are simply not getting married.  They are just living together.  Another example would be some of the modern techniques such as cognitive therapy which tries to address peoples core beliefs, find that which is faulty and replace it with truth.  While the counselors at FCT may not entirely embrace cognitive therapy some of their concepts are very Biblical.

The real issue is that we must be very careful to examine the philosophy behind the information or technique to make sure it lines up with sound doctrine before incorporating it into our practices.  Therefore, we do not embrace secular philosophies such as secularism, humanism and so forth, but we do stay updated on current studies and other information that may be helpful to our clients.  We do not embrace everything that modern psychology would promote, but we do not intentionally stay ignorant of what they teach, their models or their scientific findings.