Dear Friend,
Grace and peace to you in this Christmas season!
I often struggle knowing how to talk to someone during the Christmas season. On the one hand, this is the most joyous time of the year, when we get to meditate on the coming of the Savior into the world and the advent of the most “Wonderful Counselor.” On the other hand, I know these long winter months can be the most difficult time of the year for many. Perhaps it’s the cold weather, the memory of a lost loved one, a protracted family conflict, or just a case of the “winter blues.” This world is not as it was meant to be.
But in Christ Jesus, this world can and will be made right again.
Naturally, the primary means of so doing is found in the preached Word and participation in the Sacraments. But mercy ministry plays a role in that as well. And I would love the opportunity to give you a brief update on First Presbyterian Church’s largest mercy outreach to the community.
The Christian Counseling Center of First Presbyterian Church is in our 28th year of operation, marking a partnership with the church going back into the late 1990s, when Dr. Barbian became our first counselor. Since then, the Center has grown massively, to now almost 30 clinicians, one psychiatrist, and four administrative staff across seven locations in the Midlands. We are the largest explicitly Christian counseling center in South Carolina and are one of the largest Christian counseling centers in the Southeast.
Each year we serve over 1,000 new clients from the church and the community, and we are on track to conduct in excess of 18,000 counseling and psychiatric sessions in 2025 alone.
For our math lovers out there, that means we have been able to squeeze about two full years of counseling into one year of work in 2025. That’s one way to “redeem the time!” These are truly astounding numbers, made possible by the grace of God and the generous and consistent support of First Presbyterian Church. One can only imagine the impact that the church is having on its congregants and the wider community by providing a safe, biblically guided, and affordable place to lay down life’s burdens with a fellow believer.
I can be more specific. Here at the Center, I have the privilege to hear about all the wonderful ways God is working through our ministry, and by extension, this church. I hear stories about marriages that have been saved and restored, individual faith that is reinvigorated, non-believers hearing about Jesus, people finding freedom from enslavement to addiction and sin, the medication needed to alleviate their suffering, and people getting help dealing with the darkest of human emotions and traumas. I hear about our financially disadvantaged clients who receive the highest level of counseling services because we value serving the least of these as Jesus did. And, of course, I get to see the faith of our counselors lived out in obedience to God’s Word in each of our thousands of sessions.
If the Christian Counseling Center were to evaporate off the face of the earth tomorrow, Columbia, her outer regions, and her wider Christian community would be in significantly worse off for the loss. Thankfully, because of First Presbyterian Church, that will not be the case.
One of our initiatives near and dear to my heart is our ability to provide affordable and low-cost counseling to those in need. To do that and to keep our lights on, we rely partially on financial donations from the public. If you could consider sparing something this year end, Please consider giving a donation to our ministry, either by mailed check or through our online portal. Your funds would allow this vital ministry to continue to reach the least of these in Christ’s name, as well as accomplish a number of initiatives and goals.
In Luke 16, our Lord tells the strange parable of the dishonest manager. This is a complicated parable which requires much exposition, but one of the Jesus’ clear teachings is that money exists to make eternal friendships. Jesus also encourages us to value eternal things more greatly than our possessions, for there is our greater joy. This Christmas season, would you consider being like this manager? There are many causes at this church that could use a friend. The Christian Counseling Center is one of them, and giving to us would help us to advance Christ’s kingdom “as far as the curse is found.”
Many blessings to you this Christmastime. Please know that you have a friend at the Christian Counseling Center.
In Christ,
Brian A. Mesimer, Ph.D., LPC/S
Executive Director