My thoughts on the 2021 ACBC Conference at Hickory Grove Baptist Church in Charlotte, NC. See the last paragraph if you do not know what ACBC or Certification is.
Since become a ACBC member and certified biblical counselor a couple years ago I have not had the opportunity to attend a ACBC conference. Last year, I had the opportunity to attend the virtual conference. While this was a great opportunity, there was still something lacking, relationships. Since this was the first in-person conference since I was certified, I was able to participate in the graduation ceremony. The conference is not just great teaching and materials but a whole experience. I want to thank Dr. Dale Johnson and the team at ACBC for putting this on.
We started with Matt Boswell leading us in worship. Hearing the hundreds or thousands of attendees worshiping in unison brought tears to my eyes. It was a refreshing reprieve from the busyness of life. This was my first exposure to Boswell’s music. His songs proclaim the truths of the Gospel and stir your affections for the Lord. If you have not heard his music you need to spend a few hours going through his YouTube or Spotify playlists. Here are a few I have been playing on repeat:
The preconference started early Monday morning as people from around the world started trickling in. The theme was Counseling Across Cultures and included five, one-hour sessions. Andrew Rodgers started the morning off by walking us through Paul’s missionary trips in Acts. Rogers used the topics of Observations, Optics, and Operations. Rogers set the tone and built excitement about biblical counseling as missions. He convicted us that international church needs less church-planting and more equipping. Biblical Counseling is essential to shepherding and creating a culture of discipleship. While the problem is similar to all missions, Biblical Counseling needs to be contextualized to best minister to the culture. To learn more about, go to https://discoveroic.org.
Charlie Xu spoke on What Can the Nations Teach Us? Most of his ministry seems to be directed to missions in East Asia and the difficulties with the culture, government, and understanding of sanctification. One thing that stuck out to me was the willingness to accept biblical counseling, but only seeing as just another tool in their toolbelt. Xu reminds us that “If Christ is not your Lord of all, he is not your Lord at all.”
Juan Moncayo’s topic was The Need to Establish Training Centers Internationally. Moncayo started off through a history lesson of missions and pointed out the fact that the Reformation missed Latin America. It wasn’t until much later that Protestantism came to his home country of Ecuador. Thought there are many mission groups that go to Ecuador, the Gospel is not understood. Moncayo shared a story of a short-term mission group that ministered to the local tribes. They came in, proclaimed the Gospel, and received many confessions of faith. The group packed up and left but was unable to fit everyone so Moncayo stayed behind a little longer. The locals were noticeably on edge, so he asked what was wrong. They were use to groups coming in and quickly realized that if they didn’t raise their hand and go forward; no one would buy their trinkets. Moncayo was recognized during the ACBC member’s meeting as the starting first ACBC certified training center in Latin America. He pointed out the need Biblical Counselors to participate in missions. “Videos do not train counselors.” It needs a personal touch.
Sybrand de Swardt who was filling in taught on Biblical Counseling Across Cultures. He brought up many cultural challenges that needs to be overcome to counsel. We need to be sensitive to history, perceptions, and cultures that influence interpretation of Scripture. Do you counsel from a Western understanding of Scripture even when it may break cultural norms. To do so may unnecessarily estrange someone from their people. de Swardt did not give answers to all of the questions and concerns but cautioned us think through the implications of our counsel within the culture context.
The final speaker of the pre-conference was Tom Sugimura who encouraged us to question how can we participate in missions through Biblical Counseling training? We need to see Biblical Counseling as missions. The churches are full of people in need of shepherding.
Dr Dale Johnson lead off the conference by giving an impassioned plea for the church to arise. He lamented as he asked, “why is the church the last resort for the hurt and broken?” This cut to the heart, there is such a great need but many do not see the church as a safe place to suffer or to find healing. But it’s a sad truth that the church has not done soul care well. In speaking of the DSM, Johnson points out that in a book filled with 400+ disorders, it fails to identify what normal is. Johnson rightly notes that Jesus is normal – our goal is to be Christlike. We need to encourage our counselees to be mature, not tossed to and from human cunningness. Human wisdom has the appearance of wisdom but has no power to stop the indulgences of the flesh. We must speak the truth in love.
Kevin DeYoung used his comical and convicting style as he spoke about caring for souls in the proclamation of the word. In using one of my favorite verses, DeYoung likened raising kids to our growth in Christ. We become what we behold. We must behold Christ. He also encouraged church members not to come to church ready to be disappointed. To have a fertile heart that is ready to receive God’s word from their Pastor.
Stuart Scott spoke on the methodology of Biblical Counseling and to not follow after man’s wisdom or Folly-ology. When we have wrong beliefs, it leads to wrong methods which do real harm to real people.
Michael Kruger taught on church discipline as an act of true soul care. Church discipline must be motivated by love and have at its aim restoration and the good of all involved. Kruger rightly pointed out that God disciplines those whom he loves, likewise, we discipline our family (kids). Love must be the primary motivation. “You can be right about a person’s sin but wrong in how you deal with it.” Like parents, sometimes churches discipline poorly. This happens in two extremes – A church that doesn’t do discipline, and a church that is harsh, unloving, overbearing in discipline. Imagine if Christ disciplined us every time we sinned.
Steve Viars closed the conference by sharing of the good work that Faith Lafayette is doing in their community. They were able to better use their funds by building the neighborhoods. They sought areas that the area needed the church to help and built community centers, skate parks, rehab facilities and programs for the city. We need to get outside of the walls of our churches and minister to the people.
One of the best parts of the conference was meeting other counselors, pastors, and fellow laborers in the faith. This is always a challenge for me, as I prefer to stay in my own bubble and avoid large crowds. It was good to see former professors, authors and teachers that have done so much for my faith and ministry. Lord willing, I hope to continue to go to the ACBC annual conference.
The Conference also had various booths from seminaries, training centers, software providers, and publishers. There was a bookstore with a huge section of biblical counseling and theology books. Many were at a large discount. I think I went a little overboard. At the end of the conference, they announced next years conference will be In His Image: Recovering Human Dignity October 3-5 in Memphis, TN.
ACBC is the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors. More information may be found at http://biblicalcounseling.com. They seek to strengthen the Church to speak the truth in love by providing a quality training and certification process, a global network of like-minded individuals and institutions, and a source of practical and biblical resources for the Church. In short, ACBC seeks to bring biblical solutions for the problems people face, upholding that the method God has given to do this is truth in love.
Certification is a process through which ACBC equips and certifies Biblical Counselors. It involves 30 hours of instruction through ACBC or one of its many training centers or seminaries. There is 10 hours of observing a biblical counselor or counseling videos. Two short essay tests. Finally, it requires 50 hours of supervised counseling.