A Bridge of Hope – CIU alumni filling the need for counseling in rural SC
October 4, 2024
By Bob Holmes
Pastor Steve McGee recalls how in an act of kindness, he allowed a man who was trying to overcome drug addiction to sleep in his church study. But after about nine months, McGee discovered the man had been cooking meth inside the church building and then selling it.
“I think that’s what drove me to (study) counseling,” said McGee, a СƵ alumnus who shepherds Hillcrest Church in the small town of Gaston, South Carolina. The church basement now houses Bridge of Hope-Gaston Counseling Center designed to assist people in southern Lexington County, encompassed by the towns of Gaston, Pelion and Swansea.
McGee earned a Master of Divinity degree from CIU in 1989 when it was known as Columbia Bible College. He and his family attended Hillcrest Church when he was a CIU student. After serving on the mission field, he returned to South Carolina in 2013 to become pastor at Hillcrest, a church that had supported his missionary work. But the Gaston area had changed.
“I was shocked at the amount of addiction and drugs,” McGee said. “I was trying to minister to drug addicts … and after a few years of being here I knew I needed to get some more understanding.”
That desire for understanding the needs of the people he was trying to reach led him back to his alma mater. He enrolled in CIU’sClinical Counseling program.
“When I looked at the amount of drugs and the amount of alcohol sold in Swansea, Pelion and Gaston and surrounding areas, it was more than any other cities in the whole state of South Carolina,” McGee said. “When I looked at all of that, I said we need something here because the closest center for someone to get professional, licensed counseling is at least 30 minutes away.”
In addition, he says most counseling would be $80 to $100 per hour, a cost out of reach for most rural Lexington County residents.
“My heartbeat was to get counselors here who would look at this as a ministry as well as to sustain income, but be more affordable than other counselor centers,” McGee said.
The basement of his church was not being used, so he approached the church elders who gave approval to remodel the space for counseling.
A Shared Vision
The vision for a counseling center in rural Lexington County became a key part of McGee’s Master of Counseling degree — it fulfilled an advocacy project within the degree. And he was not alone in that vision. Joining him in the project was classmate Linnette Mullin, who is today the assistant director of Bridge of Hope-Gaston. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Psychology from CIU in 2021 before entering CIU’s Master of Arts in Clinical Counseling program where she met McGee.
“We saw this as an opportunity to minister through clinical counseling coming from a biblical worldview,” said Mullin who didn’t begin college until after she was a mother of four children.
Bridge of Hope-Gaston is a satellite location of the original Bridge of Hope Counseling Center at First Baptist Church of Lexington, located in the county seat. It is led by another CIU alumnus, Paul Bishop who has a master’s degree inIntercultural Studies (1998) and a master’s degree in Counseling (2001). He also had a vision for expanding Bridge of Hope. He says there were already 14 counselors at First Baptist of Lexington and they were running out of room when the idea for a satellite location was discussed. That’s when Steve McGee shared with Bishop his vision for a counseling center in Gaston and wanted to be a part of what Bishop was doing in Lexington.
“The Lord just brought it together,” said Bishop. “It’s a God thing.”
But the CIU influence at Bridge of Hope-Gaston runs even deeper. Three other counselors at the site are CIU counseling alumni, each with their area of expertise:
- Steve McGee focuses on addictions, depression, anxiety, grief, PTSD, trauma, and marriage.
- Linnette Mullin has a heart for women who have experienced relationship trauma. Her other areas of focus include women-specific counseling, depression, grief, anxiety, trauma, and complex post-traumatic stress disorder(long-term trauma).
The others are:
- Juliana Cook who also earned a Master of Arts in Counseling from CIU in May 2024.Her main area of focus is children and families.
- Karis Johnsonearned her bachelor’s degree in Psychology from CIU in 2020 and went on to achieve the Master of Arts in Counseling in 2023. She is focused on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), trauma, and anxiety.
- Craig Boxwell walked the graduation stage of CIU’s Shortess Chapel in 2024 with McGee and Mullin. He earned a master’s degree inPastoral and Care and Counseling. His focus is pre-marital counseling, addictions, and spiritual growth.
“It’s phenomenal the way that God has brought this team together,” McGee said, a team shaped by CIU. “My education there was phenomenal with the professors.”
And McGee is especially “happy and thrilled” that during the two decades that passed between earning his two CIU degrees, “CIU has not left the foundation of Scripture.”
“They have a high view of Scripture which is very important to me,” McGee stressed, plus from a practical aspect he notes, “The counselors have their own practices. So, they’re not just talking theory.”
“Phenomenal” Professors
As for Mullin, she says, “I don’t think I could have attended any other school and have been prepared for what we’re wanting to do.
“I didn’t want to go to any other grad school because I wanted to keep an integrated biblical perspective in my training, and high quality in the clinical department, as well,” Mullin added while noting particular Clinical Counseling professors who influenced her.
“Dr. (Seth) Scott has been phenomenal — a huge part of my growing and learning experience. AndDr. Steve Johnson — he is in a class of his own. He is so wise. He is so humble. And he is so ready to help.”
Getting Out The Word
McGee and Mullin are getting the word out about the Bridge of Hope-Gaston. For example, they have visited the Gaston Police Department where officers were excited knowing they could refer troubled residents to counselors. They have made their services known to the local school district office and the Lexington Baptist Association. They even set up a booth at the annual Collard Festival in Gaston.
Meanwhile, McGee is still thinking like a missionary, and already looking beyond Gaston.
“What we hope to do is take this model and expand it to other rural communities,” McGee said. “When you look demographically at the United States, the most overlooked population for missions is the rural communities. There are lot of churches like (Hillcrest Church) who have property that is paid for and have space. It would be a model to go into these communities and bring the counseling to them, and eventually evangelize as God opens up the doors.”
Back at the Bridge of Hope parent location in Lexington, Paul Bishop, who like McGee is also a former missionary, says today’s #1 mission field is mental health.
“(People) are not knocking on doors saying ‘How do I get saved?’” Bishop explains. “But they are coming saying ‘I have anxiety, or substance abuse.’ That’s where we can point them to the real solution.”
Learn more about Bridge of Hope Counseling Center-Gaston at.
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