Earlier this week, I posted a list of 12 Biblical Counseling Bloggers to Read in 2019. I affectionately called these “Mom and Pop Individual BC Bloggers.”

Today, I’m highlighting National Biblical Counseling Organizations. Some of these have blogs (as indicated below). All of these provide excellent biblical counseling equipping and/or resources.

Note: While launched in the US, the following organizations have both national and international impact. For international BC Organizations—those birthed outside the United States—visit 10 International Biblical Counseling Organizations to Follow. 

Note: To the best of my ability, the following information is accurate as of the original date of this post: January 2, 2019. Organizational and website changes after this date will be updated in the 2020 edition of The Annual Guide to Biblical Counseling Resources. 

Association of Biblical Counseling (ABC): Jeremy Lelek is the Executive Director of ABC. Here’s ABC’s mission:

ABC exists to encourage, equip and enrich all believers everywhere to live and counsel the Word, applying the Gospel to the whole experience of life.

• ABC seeks to encourage a robust biblical worldview of people and their problems while promoting Scripture as the supreme source wherein healing truth may be found.
• ABC seeks to equip members by offering training and certification that will enhance their knowledge of Scripture as it practically applies to the myriad of issues related to counseling.
• ABC seeks to enrich members by providing ongoing resources designed to complement their work as biblical counselors.
• ABC seeks to provide wisdom to help members apply the here and now relevance of the Gospel as it applies to all things counseling.

ABC has several ministry concentrations designed to fulfill our mission. These include, Church Equipping, Pastoral Life and Care, and Professional Soul Care.

You can find ABC’s Blog here.

Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (ACBC): Dale Johnson is the ACBC’s Executive Director. They introduce their ministry as follows:

For 40 years, the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (ACBC) has been certifying biblical counselors to ensure doctrinal integrity and to promote excellence in biblical counseling. In 1976 Dr. Jay Adams founded the National Association of Nouthetic Counselors (NANC) with the desire that the organization and its rigorous certification process would become the backbone of the biblical counseling movement. Today the organization is now known as the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (ACBC) and is the oldest and largest biblical counseling organization in the world. The training and certification of ACBC counselors is recognized worldwide with over 1,700 counselors in 30 countries that speak 30 languages with these numbers growing yearly. ACBC also has over 60 certified training centers ranging from seminaries to churches.

You can find ACBC’s blog here.

Biblical Counseling Coalition (BCC): Curtis Solomon serves as the BCC’s Executive Director. The BCC describes their vision as follows:

The BCC is all about promoting relationships and providing resources. There are many tremendous organizations and individuals involved in the biblical counseling movement. The BCC seeks to connect such men and women in a way that creates a natural and healthy synergy. We seek to build strong relationships among the leaders in the biblical counseling movement because we believe that God is honored when His people are “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3). We also believe this context of relational integrity will provide a marvelous opportunity to share resources with counselors, educators, students, and even potential counselees.

You can access the BCC’s Grace and Truth blog via their main site here.

Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation (CCEF): Here’s CCEF’s Mission Statement:

Our mission is to restore Christ to counseling and counseling to the church by thinking biblical about the issues of living in order to equip the church to meet counseling-related needs.

You can visit the CCEF blog here.

Faith Biblical Counseling Ministries (FBCM): Rob Green oversees FBCM. They describe their ministry as:

We believe that God’s Word, the Bible, is sufficient to resolve life’s most challenging situations and questions. Since 1977 we’ve used God’s word to help those most in need, and to train those who want to learn to help others.

You can read FBCM’s blog here.

Institute for Biblical Counseling & Discipleship (IBCD): Jim Newheiser serves as IBCD’s Executive Director. IBCD describes their purpose:

The Institute for Biblical Counseling & Discipleship exists to serve churches, organizations and individuals who share a passion to see believers equipped to counsel one another through life’s struggles with the Word of God. We do this by offering training through our Care & Discipleship program, as well as offering events and free resources that are helpful to anyone interested in learning how to better help others.

International Association of Biblical Counselors (IABC): IABC summarizes their purpose as follows:

The International Association of Biblical Counselors consists of men and women committed to serious reliance on Scripture as sufficient and authoritative, and devoted to helping God’s people apply His truth to their personal lives in practical ways.

Institute for Nouthetic Studies (INS): Donn Arms and Jay Adams lead INS. Here’s their overview of their ministry.

For almost fifty years Dr. Jay Adams has been at the forefront of a movement calling pastors and other Christian workers back to the Scriptures in their counseling ministry. Beginning with the publication of his book Competent to Counsel in 1970, Dr. Adams has been demonstrating the importance of understanding the sufficiency of the Word to bring about the kind of change that pleases God and genuinely helps the counselee. Dr. Adams has devoted his life to teaching others how to effectively minister the Word as an author, seminary professor, denominational executive, popular lecturer, and as a pastor. The Institute for Nouthetic Studies was established to make Dr. Adams’ teaching ministry readily available, in a structured way, to students around the world who desire to better prepare themselves to minister the Word of God as they counsel—and to do so under the tutelage of the founding father of the modern biblical counseling movement!

You can read the INS blog here.  

Overseas Instruction in Counseling (OIC): Wayne Vanderwier serves as OIC’s Executive Director. OIC state’s their vision as follows:

The vision of Overseas Instruction in Counseling is to glorify God through the spiritual strengthening of believers and churches around the world. The Apostle Paul is best known as a church planting missionary. But Paul didn’t just begin churches and leave them on their own. A vital part of his ministry was church strengthening, a ministry he accomplished both through personal visits (Acts 14:22; 15:41; 18:23) and through letters. Because developing—sometimes already mature—Christian ministries now exist in most places in the world, OIC is a church strengthening ministry. We exist to help the church provide biblical sufficiency-based soul care for believers that are struggling with the challenges of living in a fallen world among fallen people. Our training strengthens churches in their ministry of restoring broken believers to the grace of God.

Join the Conversation

What additional national (United States) biblical counseling organizations would you add to this list?