A Guest Post by Kïrsten Christianson
You’re reading Part 8 in a blog mini-series of guest posts by biblical counselors who attended the 2025 Association of Biblical Counselors (ABC) Called to Counsel Conference. 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?
- Tim Allchin crafted the first post: Similarities and Differences Between the ABC and the ACBC Conferences.
- The second post was by ACBC Certified biblical counselor Sarah Puebla: The 2025 ABC Called to Counsel Conference: Christ-Centered Truth for Life.
- Rusty Dawson’s post was next, #3: The 2025 ABC Called to Counsel Conference: Speaking the Truth in Love.
- Brooke Shepherd wrote the fourth post: The 2025 ABC Called to Counsel Conference: Grace and Truth.
- Dan Brewer was up next with #5: The 2025 ACBC Called to Counseling Conference: What Is All the Fuss About?
- Our sixth post was by Chris Moles: The 2025 ABC Called to Counsel Conference: What Is Unique About ABC?
- Kaitlin Niles shared our 7th post: The 2025 ABC Called to Counsel Conference: The Transforming Power of Christ.
Meet Kïrsten
Today’s post is by Kïrsten Christianson. Kïrsten is a biblical counselor and congregational care
consultant through her practice, Side-by-Side Biblical Counseling. She speaks at conferences, helping churches, counselors, and helpers learn how to recognize and care well for families caught in domestic and other kinds of abuse. She contributed chapters to Caring Well for Families Caught in Domestic Abuse. Kïrsten is a co-founder of a local church’s crisis care ministry, through which she helps families navigate abuse and other hard issues using a team approach. Kïrsten has her BA in Christian Theology, holds three CCEF counseling certificates, and is a Level II Certified Christian Trauma Care Provider.
A Taste of Heaven
I’ve been reflecting on Revelation 7:9-12 of late:
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
Two things leap out to me, a who and a what. Who: “every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages.” What: they cry out “Salvation belongs to our God.”
We learn a great diversity of people will be in Heaven. And it is God who decides, by Christ’s blood.
What I love about the ABC Called to Counsel Conference (this was my sixth) is that it images and gives us a taste of the reality in this pericope in Revelation. A great multitude of biblical counselors come together, from all tribes and peoples, and even a few languages, and we teach and learn about biblically-saturated, gospel-oriented counseling as our obedience to and worship of God. It’s our way of saying to each other, to our track participants, and then to our counselees,
“Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
We desire to counsel from Revelation reality, and so we gather together to “make it so.”
Mutual One-Another Ministry
Throughout the conference—through the plenaries, the sessions, the visiting around the building, and taking meals together—we sharpen one another (Prov. 27:17); we encourage one another (1 Thess. 5:11); we correct each other (2 Tim. 3:16; 4:2); we learn from one another (Prov. 1:5; 9:9; 18:15); we fellowship with one another (1 Jn. 1:7; Heb. 10:24-25); and we laugh together (Jn. 13:34-35; Rom. 12:10).
Mutual Iron Sharpening
One of my biggest joys, and reasons I am grateful to God for the opportunity to teach at ABC, is that my fellow track teachers—Chris Moles, Tim St. John, Darby Strickland (in previous years), and Greg Wilson—and I don’t see everything eye-to-eye. God has taught us different things, he has given us different ways of seeing things, and he brings us to different biblical convictions on some things.
I think that makes for a more biblical, richer learning experience for everyone in the room—the attendees and us.
Diversity in the Body of Christ
I also experience this body of Christ diversity from the plenary speakers as well as the meals I enjoy with friends and colleagues from across the world. One of Paul’s primary metaphors for the church is diversity in the family—and we enjoy that at ABC, praise God!
To the Glory of God!
I particularly appreciated Jeremy Pierre and John Henderson’s plenary presentations. These men continue to encourage and teach conference attendees through rich theological application to the counselor’s life, for the good of our counselees, to the glory of God. In fact, the whole conference truly upholds Paul’s exhortation to the Colossians:
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (3:16-17).
A Public Thank You
Finally, I want to publicly thank Dr. Tim Allchin for his willingness to attend the ABC Conference, as well as his honest, generous, and fair review of the weekend. May God continue to grant the biblical counseling family more men and women who practice Colossians 3.12-15 engagement with each other.
I am grateful for conferences like ABC that allow us the opportunity to grow in Christlikeness, both in biblical content and in practicing the one-anothers with each other as the family of Christ.
