PURSUING ACBC CERTIFICATION
Be a trained, certified biblical counselor with ACBC, The Association of Certified Biblical Counselors.
8 REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD PURSUE IT.
1. PERSONAL GROWTH AND KNOWLEDGE
As you work through the required steps toward ACBC certification you will understand more of God’s Word and increase your knowledge of God, of Christ, of the gospel, and how it specifically applies to everyday situations of life. The studies for the exams and the preparation for the counseling sessions will all drive you to a humble dependence on God and a desperate longing for His grace as you seek to minister the Word to hurting saints.
2. DISCIPLINE AND ACCOUNTABILITY
A wonderful result of pursuing the ACBC certification process is personal discipline. The phases of certification are intense and quite involved. They require time, planning, diligence, study, prayer, and thought. It will teach you and hone personal discipline as you prioritize the time for study and writing. It also will develop accountability and foster close relationships as you walk through it with others in your local church who wish to serve the Lord in biblical counseling.
3. BLESSING TO THE CHURCH
Being certified as an ACBC biblical counselor will greatly bless your local church. It will allow the church to send individuals your way who are current members of the church and need guidance, direction, counsel and help. It will greatly bless the church as those in the community reach out and need help with the many struggles of life. As you pursue counseling, you will find it to be a rich occasion for evangelism of the lost and a glorious encouragement as you meet with the saints and minister the Word to them in the context of your church.
4. GREAT DEARTH OF BIBLICAL COUNSELORS
Tragically, many churches view counseling as belonging to the “professionals” and the clinically trained. Many pastors and church leaders refer hurting people to Christian counseling centers or, worse, secular counseling. There exists a great need for biblical counselors who stand on the all-sufficient Word of God, in the context of the local church, depending on prayer and the power of the Spirit, who believe that Christ’s gospel has the power to transform hearts and lives for His own glory!
5. SEE LIVES CHANGED
The Spirit of God has the power to save sinners and also to sanctify God’s people. He exposes sin, brings conviction, and enables biblical change that honors Christ because of His indwelling and glorious ministry of sanctification. As you meet with individuals for biblical counseling, you will have the immense joy of seeing God at work in changing men and women for His glory. You will see marriages restored, sins defeated, struggles endured, and joy abounding as God’s people see how the Bible provides the rich and sufficient guidance they need to help them through the issues of life. What a joy to minister God’s Word to the hearts of God’s people and witness the Spirit of God at work in conforming them more into the image of Jesus Christ.
6. A TOOL IN GOD’S HAND TO MINISTER TO HURTING SAINTS
One of the joys of biblical counseling (among many!) is when you are an instrument in the hand of God to help hurting souls. Your training and biblical knowledge, coupled together with your compassion and patient humility, powerfully serves men and women of all walks of life as they persevere through various trials of life in a way that honors Christ and obeys His Word. To walk alongside of people through this journey and see the hurting saints full of joy will enflame your heart with gladness in God and gratitude for what He’s done. Ponder how God may use you in a sharp instrument - honed, trained, chiseled, skilled, faithful - in ministering the Word to others for their greater sanctification.
7. THE PROCESS OF CERTIFICATION — ESPECIALLY PHASE 3
The entire process of certification is carefully designed to aid you in the equipping to be a skilled biblical counselor. But, in particular, phase 3 is one of the most profitable. This phase, the last of the preparatory steps, consists in you counseling individuals while being supervised by an ACBC “fellow” (a supervisor, a seasoned biblical counselor) who will meet with you and help you along as you counsel folks. This input is extremely valuable and practical. I found it to be the best part of my certification process. It helped me take many of the principles I had learned and been taught in the classroom and my ACBC fellow carefully, patiently, and specifically helped me implement these points in the counseling room so that I could minister the Word of God in the most effective way to my counselees.
8. THE HOPE OF HAVING A CFBC COUNSELING CENTER
One prayer that we have offered to God many times is that God would be pleased to raise up a solid biblical counseling center in St Louis. Think of having a biblical counseling center where there are trained, certified, skilled, and mature counselors who believe in the all-sufficiency of the Word of God, and who counsel under the authority of a local church, and who are available to minister to hurting people in the church, in the community, online, and through referrals. Everyone is either hurting themselves or knows people who are hurting. Biblical counseling can be great evangelism opportunities (for unbelievers) and wonderful occasions to counsel the all-sufficient Word to believers who need help and guidance in life’s journey. ACBC will aid you and prepare you to be part of this team that we pray that God may raise up in the St Louis area in the future.
Podcasts on Biblical Counseling | HERE
Biblical Counseling at Christ Fellowship Bible Church | INFO
Class Notes on "Biblical Counseling" | HERE