Interview with Chris Wittlinger, Counseling Director Grace Bible Church

Music Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem.

In today's segment, Pastor Rich interviews Chris Whitlinger, the director of Grace Counseling Ministry. Grace Bible Church's counseling ministry provides biblical counseling and support to those who are struggling with common, yet burdensome life challenges. Let's listen in as Chris shares about the soul care that's happening in the Grace Counseling Ministry and how you can find help in your own walk through life's hardships. Chris, we're so glad to have you as director of Grace Counseling Ministries at Grace Bible Church. It truly is an opportunity that God has provided for us to reach out to the community and be a blessing to the people of the church. So just for the sake of our listeners, give us a history of how Grace Counseling Ministries came to be. Well, it started as a prayer request. I know that the pastoral staff at Grace Bible Church have been praying for a number of years to be able to provide a quality counseling service, not only to our congregants, but to the community at large.

So that came to fruition in December of 2019. I was asked to come on part time to see what we could do with this, try and try and build it up and and see what type of ministry God wanted to to form this into. And we were part time. It was a part time ministry for the better part of, well, a little more than two years.

And then in March of 2022, we decided that, well, Grace Bible Church decided that they were going to fund the ministry so that it could offer its services full time. OK. And tell us a little bit about your background and your training. What credentials do you have as a counselor? As a counselor, the kind of the unique thing about counseling is in that profession, there's a lot of personal life history that might qualify someone.

So I have personal history in addiction and walking far, far away from God in a more professional, formal sense. I'm a certified substance abuse counselor through the state of North Carolina. I have worked in both faith based counseling programs and clinical counseling settings. I worked in the Department of Public Safety, adult corrections for a number of years, offering therapeutic services and programs to inmates in prison. Education wise, my my undergraduate is in biblical studies. My graduate work is in addiction counseling. OK, so this is a counseling ministry that I guess you call it a church based counseling ministry because it's not a separate entity of its own.

It's it's a part of the Ministry of Grace Bible Church. So talk to us a little bit about what a church based counseling ministry is. How is it different?

How is it the same? What would people expect when they come here? Well, primarily the underlying principle behind a church based counseling service is first and foremost, a biblically informed council.

Right. We want people to know that when they come here, they're coming to the church as it should be to help address their deepest needs. There used to be a time when the church was the primary option for for all needs that the community faced, whether physical or spiritual, emotional. We have a lot of other alternatives and options now and not necessarily bad things.

It's a good thing that we've progressed in the areas of psychology and science and medicine. But that's kind of distracted people from seeing the church as their primary go to for the needs that they face in life. And with our counseling service, with what we do here at Grace Bible Church, we are an intentional community of people that loves God.

We demonstrate that by loving people. And so that's the one of the ways we want to demonstrate our love for God and loving people is in helping to address their spiritual, mental and emotional needs through this this counseling service. So some listeners might hear this and think, well, I'm not a part of Grace Bible Church. I'm not a part of any church, for that matter.

So it really isn't for me. Who would you say this counseling ministry is for? Yeah, I would say if you're listening and that's kind of your perspective or your initial thoughts, then you are in the majority. A little over 80 percent of the people who have come to Grace Bible Church and Grace Counseling Ministry for our services are outside of either a regular attender or a member of Grace Bible Church. So we see this primarily as a form of outreach, as an opportunity to help serve and love our community.

Very good. We have seen the ministry grow in this last year. It started in March of twenty two. And tell us about the growth that you've seen in the ministry. Yeah, we've seen growth in a number of ways. In a little over five months into 2023, we already surpassed the amount of counseling sessions that we had in all of 2022. So we're we're looking at at least seeing or seeing at least double the amount of people and counseling sessions. We have another counselor, a lay counselor who's working on the ministry team. We've started a grief support group that meets twice a week that has been well attended and very fruitful for helping people process their grief and with coming alongside others as they are on their grief journey. We've seen the numbers grow to more than double or projected more than double.

Personally, I've grown this. This has really stretched me. And I know we are looking to train and develop other counselors as the the workload, the caseload, if it continues to increase. So, Chris, for the sake of our listeners, give us a rundown of all the services that are offered by Grace Counseling Ministry. Grace Counseling Ministry really operates from three main premises or purposes. We want to offer quality, competent biblical counsel.

And so that ranges from marital issues, premarital counseling, anxiety, depression, stress, trauma. We are focused on offering quality individual biblical counsel. We also offer seminars and group-wide training and education. I've done, through the counseling ministry, I've done seminars on emotions and mental health and depression and anxiety. And our third purpose is to help train and develop other lay counselors for the work of ministry. So Grace Counseling Ministry, from those three purposes, those really are what our services are born from. And the grief support group for grief counseling?

Yeah, we do have a grief support group that meets on Tuesday evenings and Thursday mornings that meets twice a week. Tell me about you personally. How has this impacted you being a part of Grace Counseling Ministry? You know, the startup, directing it, seeing it grow.

What's it been like for Chris Whitlinger? I guess I'm glad I can't say it's been easy. It's been super trying and testing and stretching, but I'm so thankful for that because working in a clinical setting when I was working for the state of North Carolina, that stretched me in different ways in how to present really life-saving truth in a clinically acceptable way.

And so here, thankfully, I don't have those restrictions. But on top of the counsel we give, you know, I'm stretched just in the different types of situations that we see from counseling young kids whose mother is dying of breast cancer to helping people understand their faith better, understand God better. That is always challenging and trying. And on top of that, training and developing our leaders for our support group.

That has been a challenge, but one I'm very thankful for that has helped develop me as a leader and as an equipper, as it were. And just the normal caseload, just being able to give everyone the best of me on good days, on bad days, on busy days, on slow days, just knowing that God has put me here to use me to help people in this season of life. And I need to depend on that no matter how I'm feeling. And people need to be able to expect that they're getting who God has called Chris Whitlinger to be.

Good. What's your favorite verse? What's your go-to verse for life and ministry? It's got to be, you know, Romans 12.2. I think, you know, that, be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Proverbs 4.32, right, above all outs, guard your heart with all diligence, for out of it flow all the issues of life. And so that is, that's our basis that we understand that no matter what's happening, whether it be the effects of our fallenness, whether it be our own sinfulness, we know that God, God has given us everything we need to live a life that pleases Him. He has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. And we understand that primarily because the way our life goes is really born out of our heart and the issues of our heart. So that's primarily what we address. So that would be probably the verse.

That's good. Thanks, Chris. Appreciate you coming today and having this talk with you. What's the best way for someone to contact Grace Counseling Ministries? You can reach out straight to Grace Bible Church.

You can call us at 336-760-9959, or you can go to our website, which is GBCWinston.com. Under the ministries tab, you'll find Grace Counseling Ministry and click on that. That'll take you to our page, which will provide some initial forms, an initial counseling request form that you could fill out and submit.

And that would be submitted to us via email or you can call the church office. All right. Thanks, Chris. Thank you. Thanks for listening today. You can find more information about Grace Counseling Ministry at www.GBCWinston.com. Just click on the ministries tab. We're so glad you could join us on Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Pastor Rich Powell, who pastors Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Join us again weekdays at 10 a.m. . .