In light of the doctrinal statement, and in order to prevent our pastoral practice from undergoing secular influences, the central theological premise, which should characterize the pastoral ministry of the CPC, is formulated as follows:

"The written Word of God, and the divine revelation therein concerning God, man, man's problems and their solutions, is the only adequate foundation upon which an approach to counseling that is totally Christian can be built."

The following statements sum up the working assumptions of pastoral counseling and may be considered corollaries to this central premise :

We believe that in order to help a person in any profound or lasting way, spiritual regeneration is necessary. The primary (though not exclusive) task of the Christian counselor in helping a non-Christian is to lead him to Christ.

We believe that Christian counseling is an essential element of the pastoral gift and ministry. Christian counseling need not be limited to those in a professional or full-time pastoral function but must be directly related to the ministry of the local church.

We believe that Christian counseling is to be conceived of as a means of progressive sanctification. That is, it is a spiritual ministry aimed at helping an individual grow in grace, truth and the image of Christ. The primary means that the Holy Spirit uses to this end are the Scriptures, the ministry of divinely equipped men of God, and prayer.

We believe that the inspired Word of God is completely adequate in equipping the Christian counselor for this work. Any theoretical premise or therapeutic practice that a) does not grow out of, or b) is not at every point thoroughly consistent with the Scriptures, is inadequate, incorrect, and unsuited for the practice of Christian counseling.

We believe that all truth is ultimately God's truth, but at the same time that all men by nature twist God's truth. Only the Scriptures enable us to discern and distil truth from error. Therefore, the Scriptures must function in an authoritative, formative way in evaluating various systems of humanistic psychological theory and techniques (for example those of Freud, Skinner, Rogers, Maslow, Adler, Ellis, etc.). While insights from such unbiblical approaches to man and man's problems may be useful in secondary ways, they provide no fundamental data which is necessary in order for the Christian counselor to carry out his ministry.

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