Overview
The Biblical Counseling Institute is a Christian education program
designed to train professional counselors, vocational ministers,
and laypersons in the application of Biblical principles in counseling
and therapeutic settings. Through a combination of didactic and
experiential training, participants will develop the skills necessary
to counsel individuals, couples, and families in various states
of crisis.
The Institute is founded
upon the sufficiency of God’s Word
and its capacity to address all aspects of life,
along with the inner workings of the Holy Spirit
as the core features of any counseling or change
process. The Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3:16-17:
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable
for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every
good work.
Therefore, any position of support, counsel, training, discipline,
or teaching should be grounded in the inspired Word of
God. We believe the Scriptures provide a template that defines normal and abnormal. Humans
operate and function at their optimum when they are aligned
with God’s principles of order and structure. Anything
outside His order places us in discord with the Holy
Spirit and will produce psychological, relational, and
spiritual consequences.
Counseling is a process of realignment:
bringing those aspects of life that have fallen outside
God’s proposed boundaries
into agreement with His teachings, commands, callings, principles,
and promises. It is impossible to counsel someone into “healthy
alignment” when using the template of the world.
As a result, a counselor must become intimately knowledgeable
and responsive to the Word of God and to the leading of
the Holy Spirit if he/she is to be effective in the delivery
of Godly care.
Purpose
Accordingly, the Institute exists for this
purpose: to place God’s written Word at the center
of any setting where counseling occurs. Our programs
serve vocational ministers, missionaries, and pastors
who counsel individuals daily on all matters spiritual
and relational. We also teach and train Lay Counselors
to use Scripture and to support the church as extensions
of the church staff. Finally, we are committed to training
Professional Counselors who work with clients in clinical
and/or church settings. Each area of training is unique
in its design, but unwaveringly consistent in the integration
and application of Scripture in all counseling matters.
… that we should no longer be children, tossed to and
fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery
of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but,
speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him
who is the head—Christ—(Ephesians 4:14-15).
Objective
The objective of the Institute is to train approximately
250 candidates each year to rightly apply God’s Word
in all counseling settings including the church, discipleship
programs, youth and family ministries, the mission field,
and in clinical mental health settings. We further seek
to certify approximately
100 candidates every two years who may assume leadership roles
in the U.S. and in foreign countries, teaching and advancing
the objectives of the Institute in Extension Centers throughout
the world.
Go therefore and make disciples of
all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching
them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and
lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen
(Matthew 28:19-20).
By doing so, the Institute can provide an alternative and
an expansion to traditional learning models that focus
primarily on secular methods of psychological intervention. This
process will empower and engage the Body of Christ, through church
and clinical settings, to care for its people while also bringing
evangelistic truth to those outside the Body.
But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that
part which lacks it, that there should be no schism in the body,
but that the members should have the same care for one another.
And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or
if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it (1
Corinthians 12:24b-26).
You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill
cannot be hidden (Matthew 5:14).
