Online Christian Counselling - Sheppard Counselling Mission Statement
MISSION STATEMENT
To be used by the Holy Spirit to touch lives, to offer hope and spiritual maturity.
To counsel in practical, results-oriented, holistic ways.
To recognize that the combination of the infallible Word of God in conjunction with current proven ethical, psychological and alternative medical knowledge can provide positive, practical solutions to people's problems, hurts, stresses, and frustrations.
To practice the Biblical injunctions of love, care, support, and restoration.
STATEMENT OF FAITH AND COUNSELLING PRACTICE
1. Tenets emphasizing Christian beliefs:
There is one true living God, who created and sustains everything that
exists. God is the Eternal King, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent and
immutable and exists in the persons of the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit.
Satan rebelled against God, and God cast him out of heaven along with those
angels that followed him. Satan then established a counter-kingdom of
darkness and evil on the earth.
God created mankind in His own image, male and female, for relationship with
Him, and to govern the earth. Under the temptation of Satan, man fell from
grace, bringing sin, sickness, emotional pain, and god's judgment of death to
the earth. Creation now experiences the consequences of Adam's orginal sin.
Humanity is born in sin, subject to God's judgment of death, and is in need
of forgiveness and reconciliation.
God became incarnate in Jesus Christ, who was born of a virgin, lived and
ministered among men and died on the cross. He was raised bodily from the
dead to reconcile human beings to their Creator, and who has promised to
return personally in judgment to complete the establishment of His kingdom.
God works in and through people in the person of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit inspired the human authors of the Bible and in the orginal
manuscripts, it is without error. The character and purposes of God are
revealed in the Bible, which is the basis of what Christians are to believe
and how they are to live and relate to others and their world. The sixty-six
books of the Bible are the divine, inspired Word of God, and are infallible
and unchangeable.
Jesus Christ calls all Christians to be a caring community and a corporate
witness to faith in Him.
Christ will return to the earth as King. After Christ returns to reign, He
will bring about the final defeat of Satan and all of his angels and evil
works, the resurrection of the dead, the final judgment, the eternal blessing
of the righteous, and the eternal punishment of the wicked.
2. Tenets emphasizing human relationships and responsibilities:
Every individual is a person of worth, with basic human rights and essential
human responsibilities.
The uniqueness of each human being and the distinctiveness of social groups
are derived from factors such as age, gender, race, ethnicity, national
origin, religion, life philosophy, family, culture, and economic and social
structures.
Human beings are interdependent with each other and with their social and
physical environments.
Jesus Christ is Lord over all areas of life, including social, economic, and
political systems.
3. Tenets emphasizing counselling practice:
Christians in counselling practice ought to examine and evaluate all human
ideologies and counselling theories and methods, first as to their
consistency and agreement with the infallible Word of God, and then with
their consciences, social laws, and professional codes of ethics.
Christians in counselling practice ought to work for the temporal and eternal well being of all human beings, and for the redemption of human
communities and social institutions.
Christians in counselling practice ought to submit themselves to their local
church body, and to the highest standards of professional education, practice,
and ethics.
Christians in counselling practice ought to use the insights of their faith
in helping people, and to treat everyone, as Jesus Christ would have them
treated them as set out in scripture.