CHRISTIAN COUNSELING AND COACHING

This phase is a type of pastoral counseling called Deliverance Ministry with the goal of spiritual freedom and Inner Healing. If you’re on a plane and it loses pressure oxygen masks drop down so that you’re able to breathe. We’re told to put on our own oxygen mask first, and there’s a good reason for this. If you don’t, you won’t be able to help very many people put their masks on before you run out of air yourself. For some of us that’s what life feels like: no mask on, frantically struggling for air, unable to focus on anything else.  The focus of this phase is getting your mask on so that you can breathe. Once you’re able to breathe and have some measure of freedom we can begin to move into the next phase.

Deliverance Ministry is the process of being set free from demonic influence in the name of Jesus. It combines pastoral counseling with divine intervention, exorcism, and inner healing. I educate, counsel, and lead clients through the deliverance process, bringing lasting healing to the soul and spiritual growth. This service is for you if you’re suffering from demon possession, oppression, or harassment, or have problems conventional therapy and medicine doesn’t seem to be helping with. Alongside these things we partner with the Lord to identify spiritual hindrances and break legal rights, curses, and spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical strongholds. I have the spiritual insight, training, experience, and psychological know-how to assess your situation, help you understand what’s really going on, and help you get free and stay free.

This phase is Pastoral Counseling with the goal of life improvement. Let’s continue with our mask metaphor. So, unlike phase one, you now have an oxygen mask. You’re wearing it but there’s a hole in it so there’s not enough oxygen to breathe comfortably. Additionally, the head strap broke so you need to keep using one of your hands to hold it against your face. Though you’re still able to help others with one hand, you’re also limited since a lot of your focus and one hand must still continuously monitor your own crisis. You’ll never be as devoted to serve or capable of service as you could be until you fix your mask. There’s wisdom in recognizing areas that you need help in and getting it. Before you focus on helping others too much get your own house in order first.

Pastoral Counseling is a unique form of psychotherapy that also provides spiritual guidance from a Christian faith-based perspective. It’s mental health counseling with in-depth theological training. I also use spiritual resources such as prayer, faith, Bible study, spiritual exercises, and divine guidance and intervention by the Holy Spirit, for wholeness, healing, and growth. This service is for you if you’re working through or challenged by grief, loss, illness, conflicts around spiritual beliefs, spiritually-related mental health issues; marriage, pre-marital, family, or job conflicts; or some other crises of faith. While everyone should be part of a local church and receive counseling from their own local pastor, one who is qualified to help them, for many reasons not everyone has this. I’m happy to step in the gap as an interim pastor for you and provide the therapeutic support and spiritual guidance you need.

This phase is Pastoral Discipleship, Christian Life Coaching and Ministry Training with the goal of helping you discover your calling and fulfill your life’s purpose. In this phase the oxygen mask is already on and fully functional. You can breathe comfortably. You can relax enough to have peace of mind and be able  to focus on your own ambitions. You can move about freely and use both hands to help others around you. You have the personal freedom and life stability to then focus on pursuing what you desire. The question is then this: what do you want? What should you do with your life? How can you live up to your highest potential and be most fulfilled?

Through Pastoral Discipleship I provide biblical guidance, personally teaching and guiding you. My goal in this process is to help you become more like Jesus, deepen your faith and relationship with God, overcome sin, identify and develop your spiritual gifts, talents, and abilities; and discover your unique calling.

Christian Life Coaching includes but is less so about me teaching you, and more about me helping you discover what it is that you really want to do. It’s less about how to be more like Jesus, and more about how to share the Jesus already in you with the world. It’s about identifying and pursuing the goals that the Holy Spirit is putting on your heart. We work together to establish your goals, create an action plan, and outline tasks for you to follow through with. Then I hold you accountable as we monitor your progress towards your goals.

Ministry Training is for those already in ministry (or working towards entering ministry) to develop the character, competency and skills necessary to perform effectively. Ministry can be paid positions in churches or nonprofits but it could also be small group leadership, microchurch movements, volunteering in your church, local projects that you start, or any other thing the Lord lays on your heart to do with you life.

Pastoral discipleship, Christian life coaching, and ministry training are all combined in this category because your calling and life’s purpose as a Christian, and your service in the Kingdom, are intimately connected to being a disciple of Jesus. You shouldn’t do one without the other, though we will sometimes focus on one more than the other. The goal of this coaching service is to help you get from where you are now to where you should be (discipleship), where you want to be (life coaching), and doing it effectively (ministry training).