If you missed Part I, you should really read it first. Now onto the second installment of a thrilling inteview with New Life Church counselor-in-residence, Tim Courtois:
M: Why counseling, and why the college campus?
T: Why counseling? I’ve already mentioned that life was lonely for me growing up, and that it was a total revelation when I realized it was possible to really open up about my internal world. The thrill and the terror of being deeply known – it’s incredible. I developed quite a hunger for it.
Around that same time was when I first heard that Thoreau quote: “I wanted to live deep and suck the marrow out of life.” It totally resonated with me. I had spent years missing out on what seemed like the most important thing: real relationships. So now I want to spend as much time as possible where “real life” is really happening.
People in counseling are in the thick of it: Fighting between the part of us that wants to be fully alive no matter what, and the part of us that wants to check out and be done with it. It’s a terrifying and exhilarating place to be, and it’s an incredible honor to walk with people in those moments.
In the Celtic Christian tradition, they say that there are certain places geographically where people seem to experience God more directly, where the veil between this world and heaven is “thin”. So they will say, “such and such is a very thin place”. In that sense, I would say that I love counseling because the counseling office is a very thin place.
Why the college campus? The same reason. In their mid to late 20’s, people seem to settle into their patterns of living and stop asking questions of life. But college is a time when people are either sprinting away from God, or passionately crying out to him. The college campus is a very thin place.
M: Finish the sentence: If ____________, then I would consider my ministry to be incredibly successful.”
T: I spent years of my life as a Christian wondering on some level if maybe I didn’t “fit” with the Church because I struggled emotionally. I remember at church, during times of worship, everybody seemed to be able to just ‘turn on the joy’ so easily. I thought, either there’s something wrong with me, or there’s something wrong with them. But after many years of wrestling, I believe there is a place in the Church for the strugglers, those for whom life, contentment – and even Christianity – doesn’t come so easy.
I’ve noticed others who are like that, who sit in the back of the auditorium at church, wondering if maybe there’s just no place for them because they can’t seem to pull off the “Christian” thing as well as others seem to be able to.
My dream is that those ones will find that they do belong, that there is a special place for “strugglers” in the Church of God. I’ve found a lot of solace in the fact that “Israel” means, “he struggles with God”, and that’s what God named his people.
I would also love to see generational patterns changed. My best friend got saved through New Life in college, and his wife learned to follow God through New Life as well. Today I look at their kids and think, “You don’t know how lucky you are to be in this family, being raised in a godly home that almost never was.” That blows me away.
So I would say, my ministry will be incredibly successful when a generation of babies are raised in godly, loving homes, free of abuse, with moms and dads who stay married. That will happen when people enter into relationship with God, and then walk closely with him through the complex process of redeeming their pain and breaking individual and generational sin patterns.
M: What is your hope for people’s involvement who are outside this ministry? (What does the ideal partnership look like?)
Two things.
First is financial support. I am focusing on a demographic that can’t afford to pay for counseling: college students. These kids are more broken than ever: sexual addiction is rampant; most of them come from broken homes; many of them are struggling with the wounds of abuse. Not to mention the crazy things they’ll encounter once they actually get on campus. They need help to sort through these things, and they can’t pay for it.
I am passionate about meeting this need, and in order for me to be there to minister to them, I need people who will give financially to this ministry. (You can find out how to do that by following the link on my website.)
Second (for those who want to go above and beyond the call of duty): Take some time to actually think about these things. Read my blog. Join in the ongoing conversation in the Church about matters of the heart: Have a conversation about these things with your friends, or with me.
Related posts: