One of the most important skills a believer can develop is the ability to utilize God’s Word to help those who are hurting. That ability lies at the heart of biblical counseling. I am excited to share some news at Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary that will enable us to better serve local churches by helping to strengthen their counseling ministries.
DBTS has been officially recognized as a training center for the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors, becoming the first training center in the lower peninsula of Michigan. DBTS is now able to help men and women who desire to assist people with God’s truth pursue certification with ACBC.
The certification process consists of three phases: learning, exams and application, and supervision. At DBTS, there are two paths interested students can pursue in working through these three phrases.
The first path is our biblical counseling concentration in the Master of Divinity program. The second path for pursuing ACBC certification at DBTS is for current pastors, men and women who are not pursuing a seminary degree, or for seminary students not in the biblical counseling concentration. You can learn more about the two paths and the specific coursework they entail here.
In particular, I would like to encourage you to consider whether you or others in your church could benefit from pursuing the second path so that you will have individuals in your congregation better equipped to disciple others through God’s Word. We will be offering the first course, Foundations for Biblical Counseling, on Monday evenings during the 2021 spring semester. We will offer the second course, Basics of Biblical Counseling, during the summer of 2021.
We are excited to be able to strengthen the training we provide in biblical counseling at DBTS and offer this additional benefit to our students. If you are interested in seeing how DBTS might help your church train and equip members to better utilize God’s Word to help those in need, please contact our seminary office for more information.
