What is Heartbeat Pregnancy Counselling Care Centre?
Heartbeat Pregnancy Counselling Care Centre is a ministry of Lynnwood Baptist Church (LBC) which desires to save the vulnerable lives of the unborn and their mothers. The goal of the Centre is embodied in our vision:
Heartbeat Pregnancy Counselling Care Centre exists to bring God glory;
- by counselling mothers biblically about life, crisis and the gospel
- by providing care for the vulnerable through the body, His church
- by equipping believers to be effective counsellors.
Why a pregnancy counselling care centre?
Each individual is personally and skillfully created by God with all their days planned out before any have taken place. Mankind has been intricately woven by God to be the pinnacle of His creation and the primary tool used to bring Him glory (Ps. 139).
Abortion was legalised in South Africa in 1997. Since then, it is estimated that over a million reported abortions have been done, with more than 120,000 annually. World Wide abortion rates are between 40-50 million annually. In our presence and environment, there is a very real silent holocaust taking place.
In a dark society that measures the value of life by size, level of development, environment and degree of dependency, we need to bear the fruit of light characterised by goodness, righteousness and truth on the sanctity of life. Exposing the truth and caring for the vulnerable is pleasing to the Lord (Ps. 82:3).
How does the centre operate?
The operation of our Centre is explained in an expansion of our vision:
- Counselling mothers biblically about life, crisis and the gospel
Mothers of unborn, miscarried and aborted children, amidst their crisis and sense of shame, fear and guilt, must be helped to recognise that their greatest need is God. Through the sufficiency of God’s Word, we want to guide them in the biblical perspective and practical theology on the sanctity of life, their privilege and responsibility towards the life they carry, the life-affirming options, the process of decision making and the consequences of abortion (2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Cor. 5:10). Ultimately, the goal of the Centre is evangelism, with a concentrated focus on the heart and its inner workings, and facilitation of a life in Christ-like behaviour through the only lasting hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ (1 Tim. 1:1; Prv. 4:23; Jn. 14:6; Rm. 8:28-29). Transformation of a mother’s life can only come by the Holy Spirit’s work in her heart as she responds to the gospel and biblical instruction (Mt. 6:33).
- Providing care for the vulnerable through the body, His church
Both through the church family at LBC and through partnering with the wider church body, we desire to provide spiritual and physical care by building relationships through compassionate discipleship towards vulnerable mothers, children and the wider family system (Jms. 1:27; Mt. 28:16-20).
- Equipping believers to be effective counsellors
We desire to equip believers in the theologically accurate and practical use of scripture in understanding and solving crisis pregnancy-related problems, and thus promoting growth and usefulness for Christ in the church and the world. Through the provision of biblical counselling training through the LBC’s Strengthening Ministries Training Institute (SMTI), we present specific training on crisis pregnancy-related problems, the opportunity to be certified with the Association of Certified Biblical Counsellors (ACBC), and a potential internship at the Centre.
Meet the team
