Our Work Serves a High View of the Centrality of the Local Church

Preach it, Dr. Powlison!

The Local Church is THE Place for Biblical Counseling

I appreciated every word, but especially the postscript (emphases mine):

Postscript. By the way, these wonderful advantages to local church counseling do not mean that  “para-church” ministries are per se unhelpful or wrong. God blesses the counseling that occurs through educational institutions, campus ministries, military chaplaincies, publishing houses, crisis pregnancy centers, mission agencies, and many other para-church Christian works. CCEF is a para-church ministry, and I happily work here, as well as participating in my local church.

But there are pitfalls that any para-church ministry must avoid. We must guard against generating an autonomous existence. We must genuinely serve the church.

There are particular things that a counseling ministry like CCEF does— distance education, seminary teaching, counseling training, and publishing—that a local church would have a hard time replicating. But that said, our work serves a high view of the centrality of the local church. Local expressions of the body of Christ are God’s primary point of interest and activity.

Amen!