Editor’s Word: This week’s mini-series on the Grace and Fact Weblog supplies annual updates from a number of of the most important biblical counseling organizations. On this fourth article, Dale Johnson provides an replace on the Affiliation of Licensed Biblical Counselors. In different contributions to the sequence, Jeremy Lelek presents an replace on the Affiliation of Biblical Counselors, Brian Stenson shares in regards to the Christian Counseling and Schooling Basis, Jeff Christianson provides an replace on the Worldwide Affiliation of Biblical Counselors, and Christine Chappell supplies an replace on the Institute for Biblical Counseling and Discipleship.
We now have arrived on the time of yr when Christians around the globe have fun the incarnation of our Lord Jesus. Candy ideas and meditations of the achievement of the promised Christ consolation our hearts with burning confidence within the certainty of His second coming to rule and reign. As we lengthy for and await the blessed showing of our Lord Jesus, it’s good to have fun the methods He’s persistently working within the hearts and lives of people who spend their affected person ready days serving the Lord with gladness and anticipation for His kingdom to return on earth and within the hearts of picture bearers.
It’s with this gladness of coronary heart, pleasure within the ministry, and confidence in Christ’s faithfulness that I present an replace on the work of ACBC. I intention to present a abstract of notable progress, have fun an unimaginable milestone, and search your partnership in prayer for the labors of ACBC in help of Christ’s church.
Notable Progress
As of right now, we’ve got ninety-one licensed coaching facilities which can be actively counseling and coaching future biblical counselors all throughout our nation, and 5 of those are situated in worldwide contexts the place we’re starting to realize rising curiosity in certification, together with facilities in Ecuador, Argentina, South Africa, Mexico, and Chile. Pray for us as we count on the variety of institutional companions to develop within the coming yr, and we see increasingly more curiosity in facilities becoming a member of the work from nations around the globe.
Whereas coaching knowledge for 2024 has but to be collected, in 2023, our licensed coaching facilities alone reported having taught our fundamentals course to almost 10,000 people. We at ACBC rejoice in that quantity! Regardless that not all of these will pursue certification, our hope is that every of those people will transfer on from their coaching higher geared up to serve their native church buildings and enter into the troublesome realities of damaged folks.
In our effort to proceed rising the standard of our membership, a number of years in the past, ACBC carried out a seamless schooling requirement for all of our licensed members. Every member is required to finish a sure variety of persevering with schooling items (CEUs) each two years to be able to not solely preserve their certification but in addition prayerfully develop of their counseling information and refine their observe within the ministry. 1000’s of CEUs had been earned in 2023, and I’m grateful for the efforts of our licensed members who’re dedicated to continued progress within the ministry of the Phrase.
This yr’s ACBC convention, one in all our largest, entitled The Care of Christ, befell in Fort Value, Texas. Along with 70+ breakout periods and compelling plenary periods, we hosted our first-ever Spanish pre-conference within the historical past of the group. As biblical counseling grows in Latin America, we hope to see such choices develop.
Milestone
We’re grateful the Lord continues to develop curiosity in biblical counseling at church buildings and amongst people. The persistently rising numbers we see in our fundamentals coaching, certification pathway, and progress in church counseling ministries point out a starvation to know soul care from the angle of the enough Scripture. One other indication is the report variety of new ACBC members from the yr 2024, as 371 newly minted licensed members had been added. One other trigger for celebration is that ACBC reached an unimaginable milestone, lately reaching 3,000 actively licensed counselors at one time!
Prayer for Future Ministry
Please be part of us in praying for our work overseas as we’ve got had a rising curiosity in increasing ACBC certification in locations akin to Germany, South Africa, the UK, Asia, and an ever-increasing presence in Latin America.
A few months in the past, I used to be thrilled to announce the subject of our annual convention in 2025: Historical Paths: Soul Care in Previous Locations. Our focus can be to current the sensible and biblically saturated care of souls from the Puritans. We hope you’ll think about becoming a member of us as soon as once more in Fort Value as we welcome world-renowned students and counselors to assist bridge the hole from previous prescription to devoted biblical observe right now!
Along with continued work in highlighting biblical counseling scholarship by means of our Journal of Biblical Soul Care, our weekly Fact in Love podcast, and persevering with to provide extra biblical sources for counseling by means of our Fact in Love publishing arm, we sit up for these and different thrilling initiatives in 2025, so be looking out for these and extra from ACBC at biblicalcounseling.com.
