Counseling
Our pastors offer counseling to anyone who makes an appointment. In our view and practice, a pastor is equipped to listen, to connect you with those parts of the Bible that would speak to your situation and condition, to apply the gospel, to pray with you and to recommend further counsel and therapy, if needed from licensed practitioners. Our pastors are willing to meet with you once to assess your needs and to refer you to a professional counselor or a physician for ongoing help, if needed.
Nearly everyone can benefit from meeting with a counselor. Most of us should have a complete physical examination annually so that we do not assume that any one of our problems is spiritual when it may be physical. While all fields and human faculties are interrelated there are significant differences between what a physician can do for your body, what a pastor can do for your soul, and what a licensed counselor/ Clinical Psychologist can do for your mind. Many of us need help from all three.
While our pastors are gifted and skilled in spiritual matters, able to apply the Holy Scriptures to all areas of life and human nature, they are not particularly trained or recognized officially to offer medical and psychological advice. You will find our pastors to be understanding and helpful. We do not charge a fee for counseling sessions. Evergreen provides pastoral counseling as a ministry of the church funded by the gifts of its members and friends. Make an appointment today by contacting the Evergreen office.
“Wise counseling calls for many different forms of wisdom.” David Powlison
“So often we act kindly to each other with the expectation of return. Doing this puts us at the mercy of others’ reactions.” Julie Smith Lowe
“Presumptive self-confidence may look like faith, but it has a very difference spiritual root. Faith and presumption look alive because both qualities are characterized by confidence, but faith begins in the recognition and acceptance of our total human weakness. It relies solely on God and his gracious willingness to empower us. Presumption, on the other hand, is a reliance on human moral abilities and religious accomplishments, on visible securities. It ultimately relies on human will power to serve God and people… a mix of presumption and faith produces a personal instability that surfaces in crises and major life transitions.” Rose Marie Miller, from “Fear to Freedom,” (Random House)
“I have said it countless times and written about it often; as a human being made in God’s image, you do not live life based on the facts of your experience, but based on your interpretation of the facts. No one acts, reacts and responds purely based on the actual facts of reality because the moment we are greeted with the facts, we take them into our hearts and process them. Our response is then based not so much on what is, but based upon what our heart has done with what is. Everyone of us is a philosopher, everyone of us is a theologian, everyone of us is an archaeologist who will dig through the past civilization of our own lives, trying to make sense of what has happened to us. Interpretation is an inescapable and profoundly important function of the human heart. The problem is that most often you and I are not aware that we are doing it, so our interpretation BECOMES our reality.” Paul Tripp
