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Biblical Counseling Ministries Classes Streamed Live

By February 13, 2012June 17th, 2014No Comments

WISCONSIN RAPIDS, Wis.—For several years churches in Wisconsin—or those willing to drive there—have benefited from Biblical Counseling Ministries’ instruction in Biblical counseling. Now BCM has good news for churches who could benefit from BCM’s excellent curriculum but whose members live too far away to commute to classes. This January the organization began live-streaming its winter discipleship development classes, starting with Basic Skills 201: Theology of Biblical Counseling the weekend of Jan. 6 and 7.

BCM began in 2002, when five churches in central Wisconsin, four of which fellowship with the GARBC, decided to team up to bring reliable Biblical counseling resources into local churches. Now a certified training center with the National Association of Nouthetic Counselors, BCM offers one-on-one Biblical counseling by pastoral referral and, as a larger goal, trains church workers to disciple others Biblically through seminars and classes. BCM says its discipleship seminar, Basic Skills for Giving Wise Counsel, is available on the road. However, up until now students have had to travel on snowy roads to Plover, Wis., for further Basic Skills classes.

“The basic premise is this,” says BCM: “People in our churches should be reaching out to one another Biblically, but most lack Biblical skills for various reasons. BCM works with local Baptist churches to develop leaders who will disciple others, who, in turn, will continue to disciple those around them.”

Biblical Counseling Ministries maintains its headquarters at Calvary Baptist Church in Wisconsin Rapids, the site of last year’s Basic Skills for Giving Wise Counsel seminar. Dan Pugh, pastor of Montrose Baptist Church, Montrose, Mich., and his wife, Kathy, were two of the speakers.

BCM classes take on a variety of forms: for personal enrichment, to enhance a student’s ministries at church, in preparation for pursuit of a college degree, or to fulfill the educational requirement toward certification as a counselor with the National Association of Nouthetic Counselors.

Six Basic Skills classes run on a two-year cycle, with three classes offered during even-numbered years, and four different classes during odd-numbered years. The next class will be Basic Skills 301: Topical Applications of Biblical Counseling, Jan. 17–Feb. 21, with BCM Executive Director Sue Nicewander, area pastors Rich Riley and Steven Svendsen (Rice Lake Baptist, Rice Lake, Wis.), and Kathy Parker, R.N. Basic Skills 401: Strengthening Marriages and Families Biblically will end the winter schedule, March 6–April 3, with pastors Jonathan Jenks (Calvary Baptist, Wisconsin Rapids) and Stephen Steinmetz, along with Nicewander.

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