Truth • Discipleship • Community
It’s our desire to come alongside you and lovingly care for you and help carry your burdens. More importantly, we want to guide you to pursue your ultimate hope and comfort, Jesus Christ.
Core Values
Christ-Centered
Our counseling prioritizes the person of Christ and His finished work. He is the preeminent One who reconciles us to God.
Colossians 1:15-20
Biblically-Grounded with Truth & Grace
The Bible is our source of truth. We get principles for life and godliness from the Bible, and we want to give counsel that is a blend of both truth and grace.
John 1:14
Spirit-Dependent
The real counselor is God, who meets us through His Spirit. We want to be humbly dependent on His conviction and instruction through our study of His Word and not simply let our experience dominate the direction for our counsel.
Romans 8:26-27
Prayer-Saturated
Humility and dependence on God are shown most clearly through prayer. We want to practice and model both humility and dependence throughout the counseling process.
Colossians 4:2
Community-Based
God calls us to live life in the context of His people. Care, encouragement, exhortation, and healing happen most fruitfully in the church community.
Hebrews 10:24-25
Need Counseling?
We all at various times have needed or will need counsel.
Maybe you are aware of a sin area you are struggling with, or maybe it is someone else’s sin that is affecting you. It could be consequences of foolish choices, life-altering trials,or other things that bring us to a place where we need help and hope. It’s our desire to come alongside you during this time. We hope to lovingly care for you and help carry your burdens (Galatians 6:1-2) but, more importantly, we want to point you to and remind you of your ultimate hope, Jesus Christ.
We strongly believe long-term spiritual growth happens in community. God has chosen to work in and through the local church. We are here to serve our family at Harvest Bible Chapel as well as those in our community. If you do not have a home church, we will require you to be involved at a Bible-believing local church as part of the counseling process.
We believe that regularly attending worship services, being part of a small group, and shouldering the weekly kingdom responsibilities by serving in the church is part of growing in Christ. It is not only the natural desire of a growing disciple of Jesus Christ but is a way to fight isolation (Proverbs 18:1). The Scriptures warn us to be regularly involved in and devoted to fellowship and encouragement (Hebrews 3:12-14; 10:24-25).
We believe that God’s Word has answers for our problems. We have seen lives radically changed by submitting to God’s will and ways. Our source of truth is the Scriptures. Biblical counseling requires you to be willing to change as you grow in your understanding of how God’s Word applies to your situation. God has much to say to people who are hurting and broken by sin and suffering. We are excited to walk with in this stage of your faith journey.
Steps Before Formal Counseling
In order to make sure we are most effective in caring for you and others who are seeking counseling, we ask that you evaluate whether you’ve gone through the following steps prior to applying for formal counseling.
- Share your concerns, problems, pain, etc. with your spiritual authority. This may be your Small Group leader(s) or your pastor(s). Your leader(s) may be able to give you the counsel you need to see healing, change, and victory.
- If your leader(s) feels they need help in caring for you, then, with your permission, they would ask for wisdom and direction as well as practical ways to care for and counsel you. At Harvest, this may mean a small group leader reaching out to their coach, or a coach reaching out to the pastor(s).
- If it is determined at this point that more help is needed, your leaders will refer you to be considered for formal counseling. At that time, we would ask that you fill out our application form.
Once the form is submitted, a staff member will read over your request and determine the best plan of action. The counseling ministry will follow up with you as soon as possible to help you take the next step. Our goal is a response within 48 hours, so if you have not heard a response, please follow-up with our counseling office by emailing counseling@harvestdesmoines.org.
As you wait, and if you have not done so, we would ask that you prayerfully consider who may be able to come alongside you as an advocate. Ideally, your small group leader will help you do that early on in the process, but if you have not found someone at this point, please continue to pray and let the counseling ministry know about the status of finding an advocate.
For more information about the role of an advocate, click here: Biblical Counseling Advocacy Form and Agreement (HBC DSM)
To review our counseling consent form and agreement, click here: Biblical Counseling Consent Form and Agreement (HBC DSM)
Have Questions?
If you still have questions about receiving care or are not sure about your situation and eligibility after reading through the information above, please contact us.
Harvest Counseling Application
Please ensure that you have reviewed the "Need Counseling?" section and completed the "Steps Before Formal Counseling" section above before filling out this application.
This form does not work on mobile devices. Please use a laptop or desktop to submit your application. Thank you for your understanding!
Our goal is to respond to your application within 48 hours. If that does not happen, please follow-up with our office, as your application may have been missed in our system.
Please understand that filling out an application is not a guarantee that we can counsel you immediately. Our goal is to connect you with a counselor as quickly as possible, but we may need to put you on a waiting list until a spot opens up. We will work directly with you on scheduling in response to your application.