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A Call to Counseling Ministry

Truth in Love 151

Dr. Heath Lambert continues to help us get to know ACBC's new Executive Director, Dr. Dale Johnson.

Apr 23, 2018

Heath Lambert: We are in the midst of an interview with the man that the ACBC board voted in March, to be the next Executive Director of our organization. I want you to know how excited I am personally about this change. When I went to the ACBC board last year and told them we needed to find somebody to replace me, they ask me to sit on the transition committee that would look for my replacement. It became very clear to me very early that Dale Johnson was the man who should have this job. And so I was thrilled to be able to be the one on the committee that made the motion that we refer Dale to the board of ACBC for their consideration and approval because I could think of nobody better to lead our organization than him. And so, Dr. Johnson, I want you to know what an honor it is for me to sit here with you and how much expectation I have about the leadership you’re going to offer to our organization.

I want to just continue asking you some questions about your life and ministry. You said last week on the podcast about your call to Christian ministry in general, why don’t you share with us the ministry that you’ve been having over the last few years? 

​Dale Johnson: Yeah the ministry is kind of split in two different directions once leaving Seminary I began to serve in a local church setting. I served as an associate pastor of family life. My responsibility was anything from children all the way up to young marriages. As a part of that task, one of the things I was responsible for was beginning a counseling ministry. Our current Pastor really had a vision to allow counseling ministry to be very missional to be a great service to the community. So, I was able to lead that ministry for about seven years. Once I left seminary, however, I’d always had the desire to teach and to pursue the Ph.D., but I really wanted the ministry experience. And so, I left to go serve in the local church, got a chance to meet a lot of wonderful people, and had a lot of great experience counseling a variety of issues and topics. Then the Lord sent us out to Fort Worth, Texas, at Southwestern seminary.

In 2012, I began the program, my wife and I moved out there at the time we had four children, and we began the process of pursuing, a Ph.D. degree in biblical counseling. During my studies there, a position was open to teaching on the faculty in that particular area. Southwestern made a particular change in the direction, of biblical counseling at the master’s level, we began a Ph.D. program as well, and there was the opportunity to serve on the faculty. I didn’t even have to ask that question. It was something I had desired to have the opportunity to teach pastors to think biblically about the ministry of Soul Care, taking care of their people, and shepherding. And so, for the last four and a half years that’s been the direction that that we’ve gone. My ministry is taking more of a teaching role in the seminary. 

Heath Lambert: That’s great. I shared that there was a transition committee and there was board involvement, and there was ultimately agreement that you were the man to lead ACBC, starting in October. Tell us your experience of this process that has led to you being the man. 

​Dale Johnson: That’s an interesting question. I’ll start way back in my days at Southeastern Seminary, where I got my Master of Divinity in biblical counseling, and I was a part of one of the first on-the-road training led by Steve Iris and Randy Patton, back when ACBC was called NANC. And I fell in love with the ministry and what they were doing to encourage churches, build churches, teach, and train relative to discipleship. And so, fast forward a little bit to where we are at Southwestern, and the opportunity comes up to have a discussion about ACBC and the potential leadership. I can recall a conversation that I had with Dr. Keith Palmer, who also is on the board, and he came up to me and mentions that you would be stepping down. And he says something to this effect he says, you know, or what I thought I heard him say was, “we need some help finding a new person to serve as the executive director.” And so, I responded, thinking yeah, Keith, I’ll help you do that. I don’t mind helping you find somebody. And he’s like, “No, no, I don’t think you understand like I want to know if you will consider that.” And that moment was completely shocking to think that this was an organization that I loved and respected so much for the work that had been done for so many years. And so, he invited me to a conversation back in October. And it was a conversation I wanted to explore myself, to hear about ACBC and that particular role. And then give the transition committee an opportunity to vet me a little bit, and for them to get to know me, and to ask some very good and pointed questions. And so, the conversation got started at that point, and it continued over a period of months, and what’s unfolded in the last couple of months is we’ve moved in the direction, and the board has voted, and we look forward to that transitioning happening fully in October.

Heath Lambert: Great, I can’t wait. You’ve mentioned your care and your regard for the ministry of ACBC over the years, why don’t you explain a little more fully what it is about that kind of regard for the ministry that led to the kind of passion you would have that would say, I want to lead that going into the future?

​Dale Johnson: Yeah, I think my love for ACBC is really driven by my love for Christ first of all, but my love for the local church, the church setting. One of the primary roles I see in pastoral ministry and even in lay ministry is our responsibility to stand as a guardian, a pillar of the truth. And historically, when you see the impact of secular psychology and psychologies, the practice of counseling, when you see those ideas impacting the church, especially in the early part of the 20th century. ACBC and folks who are beginning the ministry of NANC early on really took note of that, and they saw some of the dangers and really wanted to reassert Biblical ideas relative to the church’s responsibility, their particular role, and really empower people through the word and the Spirit to minister to their people. And so that was something that excites me to see that there’s been a long history of their faithfulness, ACBC’s faithfulness in ministering to people and in equipping people to understand the problems of folks, to share empathy with the problems that people have, but then also look to the scriptures being the place that we find the sufficient answer from God himself, as he reveals himself to us. And that we have the ability and the responsibility as a church to respond to these issues and to give people ultimate hope in the Lord Jesus.

Heath Lambert: Well, I am excited that ACBC is now going to be able to look forward to adding your faithfulness to Christ to that long faithfulness of Christ that you just talked about.