A Guest Post by Sarah Puebla
You’re reading the second in a series of posts about the recent Association of Biblical Counselors (ABC) 2025 Conference: Called to Counsel. On Facebook and X/Twitter, I put out this call:
Did you attend the ABC Called to Counsel Conference? Would you like to share a public testimony that I could post at RPM Ministries?
Several people have already responded. The first post was by Dr. Tim Allchin. You can read it here: Similarities and Differences Between the ABC and the ACBC Conferences.
Meet Sarah
Today’s post is by Sarah Puebla. Sarah is the director of the Oak City Biblical Counseling
Center in Bartow, Florida. She received her biblical counseling certification through the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors in May of 2021. Since then she has been serving in her local church to give hope, healing, and joy through the teaching of the Word of God to women in the context of counseling. Sarah is wife to David, mom to four grown children, and “RaRa” to a sweet granddaughter. Adoption is a big part of her story! Sarah is in seminary at Birmingham Theological Seminary working on her MA in Biblical Counseling.
Here are Sarah Puebla’s reflections on her time at the 2025 ABC Called to Counsel Conference.
Reflection #1: Extreme Gratitude
As I’m sitting here in my hotel room, thinking over the last three days there are a lot of emotions that come to the surface. The first one being extreme gratitude for the Lord and His kindness and reminding me whose I am! As a biblical counselor, I hear some of the hardest stories of people’s lives on a daily basis, and without knowing I can become jaded. I can become callous or fragile, even in my own emotions.
Over these last three days, the Lord has reminded me of all that He is for me. What Christ has done on my behalf changes my story as well as all the stories that I hear! How quickly we can read over Romans 8 and become very familiar with the truth. The speakers for the ABC conference reminded us of the depth of all of those truths! I needed this more than I knew!
Reflections #2: Sadness
The second emotions that I am experiencing right now is sadness. Over this last year-and-a-half, there has been so much division in the biblical counseling world. I didn’t really know what to expect coming to this conference for the first time, but all I knew is that the names that were going to be part of the lineup have been drug through the mud on social media.
If I didn’t know any better, I might think there wouldn’t be much depth of Scripture and biblical teaching at this conference.
Boy, was I wrong!
In fact, I have been to three different biblical counseling conferences, and this conference by far dove into the deep water of theology and Christ-centered teaching that builds us up—taking biblical truths and applying them to our lives and ministries. Yes, we need biblical knowledge. But we also need more of the ability to stand with open hands receiving the promises of God for us, even as counselors!
At the ABC Called to Counsel Conference, again and again I received biblical truth wisely applied to my life and to my biblical counseling ministry.
