Our History & Mission

Pursuing Excellence in Biblical Counseling Since 1976

The Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (ACBC) was founded in 1976. In the previous decade Jay Adams had created the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation (CCEF) as a center for the training of biblical counselors. As his model of biblical counseling developed it became clear that the biblical counseling movement needed more than training. It needed certification. 

Certification is necessary because biblical counseling is a private ministry of the Word of God. In a public ministry of the Word, like preaching, one can evaluate the faithfulness of a minister publicly. Counseling happens in a private, one-on-one setting, and cannot be publicly evaluated in the same way. Certification is necessary to evaluate a counselor’s faithfulness to the Bible. 

Recognizing this crucial need, Jay Adams and the board of CCEF created an independent certifying organization to do this work. Originally named the National Association of Nouthetic Counselors (NANC), our association began using a three-part process of evaluation including training in the fundamentals of biblical counseling, testing in counseling and theology, and supervision to demonstrate counseling skill. This three-part certification process is still in use today. 

Since 1976 we have grown from a handful of certified counselors to membership in the thousands, making ACBC the oldest and largest biblical counseling certifying organization in the world.   

How we Define Biblical Counseling

What is the Nature of Biblical Counseling? 

Biblical counseling is the personal discipleship ministry of God’s people to others under the oversight of God’s church, dependent upon the authority and sufficiency of God’s Word through the work of the Holy Spirit.  

What is the Goal of Biblical Counseling? 

Biblical counseling seeks to reorient disordered desires, affections, thoughts, behaviors, and worship toward a God-designed anthropology in an effort to restore people to a right fellowship with God and others.  

What is the Method of Biblical Counseling?

This is accomplished by speaking the truth in love and applying Scripture to the need of the moment by comforting the suffering and calling sinners to repentance, thus working to make them mature as they abide in Jesus Christ. 

What we Accomplish

• Counseling

  We refer counselees to trusted certified biblical counselors who provide faithful counseling and we promote trusted certified counseling centers that provide robust counseling ministries with training in biblical counseling.

• Certification

  We certify individuals and institutions who know how to do counseling and counseling training in a way that is faithful to Scripture. Counseling certification is crucial because counseling is a ministry of the Word that happens in private, and is thus more difficult to assess for faithfulness than more public ministries. A careful process of training, evaluation, and supervision demonstrates counseling skill.

• Training

  We train Christians desiring to grow in personal ministry of the Word in biblical counseling. We foster training among churches, theological schools, and counseling centers for practical preparation in biblical counseling. Additionally, we encourage frontier training in national and international locations where a faithful biblical counseling presence has not been established.

• Networking

  We provide a network of trusted and like-minded biblical counselors and training centers within our association. We provide opportunities among pastors and counselors for fellowship, encouragement, and training in local cohorts, training centers, and conferences. We also provide public maps to showcase trusted certified counselors and certified training centers as a ministry to the church.

• Standards

  We uphold theological faithfulness and counseling excellence through setting and maintaining rigorous standards in counseling practice. From our charter as a certifying organization in 1976, we have set standards of counseling excellence for the biblical counseling movement.

• Resources

  We produce practical and helpful biblical counseling resources to build up the church as a culture of care and equip Christians to counsel with confidence. This includes an ever-growing list of free online content, purchasable training curriculum, and other publications that teach biblical principles for counseling.

• Research

  We advance biblical counseling through academic research and writing dealing with biblical principles in counseling and current counseling challenges in our culture. In addition to long-form essays and articles in our premier academic journal, The Journal of Biblical Soul Care, ACBC also facilitates an annual colloquium where leaders across the biblical counseling spectrum are invited to discuss, debate, and work through critical issues that impact the biblical counseling movement.