For the past 18 months, Living Hope Baptist Church has offered biblical counseling services on an as-needed basis to its church members only, but as the need continued to grow, the decision was made to offer a formal service and call it Hope Center for Biblical Counseling for members and the community.

“More and more we saw a greater need for the community. Also, we saw a greater need within our own church. A lot of need, a lot of hurt, a lot of pain, a lot of issues that people weren’t reconciling in their life,” shepherding pastor Bill Wade said. 

The church is remodeling the building located next to the chapel with new carpet, paint, designated parking and new signage to officially rename the building Hope Center. The building was used for missions and senior adults, but Living Hope thought it was best for the counseling services to have a location of its own. The building has six offices, a meeting room and a kitchen.

“People are coming to us with very sensitive needs. So, having this facility all to itself and not sharing it with other ministries and other departments, allows for that confidentiality and it allows for people to come here, come in this building and feel secure,” communications director Roy Hutchins said. 

The church has taken several steps to put the program together before it opens to the public with a dedication at 3 p.m. Feb. 14. The church had to formalize a strategic ministry plan for what is needed to implement the services, including personnel training, structure and financial considerations.

It’s “almost like what you would think of when you start a new business. So, we had to look at all that,” Wade said. “We came up with a strategic plan and presented that to our elders and they approved it.” 

The services are free and the counseling available is individual counseling regarding spiritual and personal issues, pre-marital, marriage, family and adolescent biblical counseling. For addiction issues, the center will work closely with medical doctors and treatment centers if there is a physical issue that needs to be taken care of first, Wade said. 

“Our counseling is sort of two-fold. Number one it’s discipleship and it’s also evangelism. So, it’s also a way for us to reach our community with our mission,” associate shepherding pastor Clay Mullins said. 

Currently, the center has five counselors on staff and two volunteers who have completed 60 hours of training, 50 hours of supervised counseling and examination through the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors.

They also have 18 volunteers going through a basic three week training and six going through the advanced training. The volunteers will only be used if the church has the money to contract them. The counselors are all within the church and are prepared to service 50 clients a week.

“We just want everyone to have an opportunity that’s struggling with things to have a counselor that loves them and cares for them and wants to help them with their issues in their life. We love our community, we love the people in Bowling Green and the surrounding communities. So, we feel like this is somewhere we can help,” Wade said. 

— For more information, visit livinghopecares.org.

— Follow faith/general assignments reporter Simone C. Payne on Twitter at twitter.com/_SimonePayne or visit bgdailynews.com.