Counseling & Mentoring Ministry

COUNSELING MINISTRY

We are in the process of developing a counseling center here at Chapelgate. The center will include lay counselors as well as trained professionals with the goal being Biblical counseling offered at little or no price for the church body and community.

Currently, counseling takes place by individuals on a need basis. We will be a training body of laity and professionals - that helps provide a framework of Reformed biblical counseling - and establishes a way for the community and area church ministries to be able to use this ministry as a no or low cost ministry.

MENTORING MINISTRY

This is a ministry of equipping the saints to do soul care. In short, the mentoring program is a ministry that trains believers to walk alongside other believers - to ask good questions, surface heart issues, and apply the gospel at deep levels so that change takes place in hearts and lives.

EBENEZER MINISTRY

The Ebenezer Ministry is for those who grew up in difficult home lives where alcoholism, incest/sexual abuse, mental illness, verbal/physical abuse, trauma, and neglect were part of the family system. I Samuel 7:12 says:

“Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, ‘Thus far has the Lord helped us.’”

We call ourselves Ebenezer because God is our rock and our help.

Ebenezer I for women began on Sept. 11, 2007 9:30-11:00 am, at Chapelgate (for ten Tuesdays). An evening class for men and another for women is being planned at a sister PCA church.

Ebenezer I is a series of ten weekly meetings. The topics are:

  • Our Stories and Our Traits
  • Shame and Hiding
  • Perfectionism
  • Grieving and Mourning
  • Forgiving and Letting Go
  • New Identity and New Beginning

    • Ebenezer II (for graduates of Ebenezer I) is a deeper study in ten classes. Topics are:

  • Boundaries
  • Loneliness, Trust and Control, and the Struggle for Intimacy
  • Obsessive-Compulsive Behaviors
  • How Our Past Affects Our Marriage
  • Conflict and Intimacy in Marriage

    • These subjects are explored through God’s truth, focusing on who He says we are as people who struggle with the after-affects of our childhood. We seek to find our understanding and healing in our Great Physician.

    For more info, please contact:

    Mike Rallo
    Director of Counseling & Mentoring Ministry
    (410) 442 - 7677 ext. 106
    mrallo@chapelgate.org
     
     
     
    An article about counseling/mentoring:
     
    “Five Words,” by Elder Fred Avolio