We always appreciate it when someone takes the time to contact us with a question or a request. By far, one of the most common questions we receive is inquiry about educational and training opportunities in Canada – which makes us very happy!

We are working to create more options, and plan to post a guide soon on what your options for training and education are as a Canadian interested in growing in biblical counseling competency.

In the meantime, we are excited to announce FOUR upcoming opportunities to grow your knowledge of biblical counseling … all in Canada!

October 18-19, 2019 – Calgary, Alberta
2019 TGC Canada Prairies Regional Conference: The Care of Souls
https://www.calvarygrace.ca/tgc-prairies-regional-conference

October 22, 2019 – Halifax, Nova Scotia (+ October 22-24 conference option)
2019 TGC Canada Atlantic Conference – Finding Our Identity in Christ
https://atlanticcanada.thegospelcoalition.org/registration

November 14, 2019 – Oakville, Ontario (+ November 15-16 conference option)
2019 TGC Canada Women’s Conference – Taking Refuge Under the Lord’s Wings: Bitterness and Blessing in the Book of Ruth
https://ca.thegospelcoalition.org/tgcc2019

March 24-25, 2020 – Oakville, Ontario
Save the date – registration opens soon
2020 Canadian Biblical Counseling Coalition Annual Conference – Let’s Talk Counseling from the Scriptures

 

Video content is now available for the 2019 national conference for the Canadian Biblical Counseling Coalition

Gospel Conversations
Let’s Talk Equipping the Church to Counsel

Thanks to the hard work of many generous volunteers we are delighted to let you know that the video content from this event is now live.

You can find this content, along with PDFs of the conference booklet and main session notes, on the 2019 conference web page: 
https://biblicalcounselingcanada.ca/2019conference/

This video content (along with the content from 2018 and 2017) is also available on our YouTube channel: 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsYrVhxvDVWHqLTuhiR0DBQ

We trust this was a time of learning and encouragement, and that you are hungry for more. Don’t forget to mark your calendar for next year:
Wednesday March 25th – Thursday March 26th, 2020.

Those of use who live on the West Coast of Canada know there are not a lot of biblical counseling based events out this way.

Dr. John Street is an instructor in biblical counseling at The Master’s University and he will be teaching Foundations for a Godly Family in April 5-6 in Sardis Community Church 45625 S Sumas Rd in Chilliwack, BC, Canada.

Register before March 31st for this conference. Additional details here:

https://www.gracefellowshipchilliwack.com/events/event/61/foundations-for-a-godly-family-conference/2019-04-05

A PDF brochure is also available.

Hard to believe the 2019 Gospel Conversations Let’s Talk Equipping the Church to Counsel Conference on March 21-22 is less than a week away!

If you haven’t registered already; you have a few short days left to register. Registration closes at 4pm on Tuesday March 19th, 2019.

A popular part of last year’s conference were our break-out sessions. We are doing break-out sessions again this year. There are five break-out sessions and these break-out sessions will run twice during the conference so you have the opportunity to attend two different break-outs.

To assist you in choosing, here are this year’s break-out sessions:

BE EQUIPPED – FOUNDATIONS FOR BIBLICAL CARE IN HURTING MARRIAGES
When the hurt begins to grow and the pain goes deep, when the conversations either grow quieter or louder, when there seems no way forward, how do you begin a conversation in hurting marriages? We want to look at some foundations of biblical conversation and care for marriages.
Taught by David Robinson

BE EQUIPPED – ADDRESSING THE BIBLICAL HEART OF A COUNSELEE TO FACILITATE CHANGE
Even experienced counsellors can be sidetracked by the immediate circumstances and needs of a counselee. Yet, addressing the heart is what brings out lasting change. This breakout reminds us why it is critical to address the biblical heart, and how to stay focused on the heart.
Taught by Jason Kovacs

BE EQUIPPED – DIFFERENCES FROM INFORMAL TO FORMAL COUNSELLING
Many starting out in biblical counselling find themselves in informal counselling relationships with questions on how to proceed. This breakout looks at the major elements of biblical counselling, highlights those that are more challenging in informal counselling, and provides tools for making progress.
Taught by Cam Barnard

BE EQUIPPED – COUNSELLING BIBLICALLY WITH EXTRA􀇫BIBLICAL TOOLS
As soon as we stop reading the Bible, we begin to use extra-biblical tools. In this session, we will consider what resources are available to us, how to discern their usefulness, and how to use them in ways that promote a biblical worldview and gospel transformation.
Taught by Betty-Anne Van Rees

BE EQUIPPED – EXHORTING ONE ANOTHER IN THE LOCAL CHURCH
Who are the people that you are openly sharing your struggles with? Who are the people who are coming alongside you, hearing you, and counselling you from the Word of God?  God is calling us back to biblical exhortation. In addition to ministering biblically to others; He’s also calling us to allow others to come alongside us in relationship and counsel us from the Word of God, in order that we too might be encouraged and urged forward in our own walk with Christ. Exhortation within community is not optional, it’s essential.
Taught by Nathan Penny

Please register today and join us March 21st and 22nd in Oakville Ontario!

Agenda and registration information

Helping hurting people can feel like a maze

Helping hurting people can feel like a maze. Sometimes that maze takes us into the territory of suffering and being sinned against.

Other times that maze leads us into a journey of helping people who have fallen into sin.

In one of his sessions, Bob Kelleman will provide a comprehensive, compassionate biblical and church history approach to helping people see it’s horrible to sin, but wonderful to be forgiven, and possible to grow in grace.

Equip yourself with a biblical GPS that maps out the ministry focus of an equipped biblical counselor in guiding counselees into reconciliation, growth in grace, and maturity.

Please register today and join us March 21st and 22nd in Oakville Ontario!

Agenda and registration information

The church in Canada appeared ill-equipped and seemed to have little vision for helping people who were hurting.

Many years ago I found myself in desperate need of counsel as I navigated the pain and disorientation of tragic loss. It was the first time I realized that the church in Canada appeared ill-equipped and seemed to have little vision for helping people who were hurting. The general position of the Canadian church was, ‘emotional issues were best handled by therapists.’ However my emotions were intertwined with big questions about God that I needed the church to answer.

The void in my own experience has been a driving force in pressing me to be used of God to equip the church for the work of personal ministry that He has given every Canadian church to do.

I am delighted with the way God is moving in these days. I believe the 2019 Gospel Conversations Let’s Talk Equipping the Church to Counsel Conference on March 21-22 has the potential to be life changing for churches who are looking to see their members grow in the grace of one-another ministry.

Betty-Anne Van Rees – serving on the board of the Canadian Biblical Counseling Coalition

So, you and your church are now excited about one-another ministry through biblical counseling. But what do we do after the hug? What do we say after we pray?

What are we equipping people to do when we equip them for gospel-centered biblical counseling? What does it look like to help hurting and hardened people—all of us as saints who face suffering and struggle against sin?

What does it look like to help hurting and hardened people—all of us as saints who face suffering and struggle against sin?

Truly biblical counsel must address the reality and depth of suffering in our lives; and it must show us that there is genuine, live-giving hope in the midst of the most difficult of circumstances.

In one of his sessions, Bob Kelleman will provide a comprehensive, compassionate biblical and church history approach to helping one another to face suffering face-to-face with Christ.

Please register today and join us March 21st and 22nd in Oakville Ontario!

Agenda and registration information

 

A conference is always a rich time for the bride of Christ to come together and mutually encourage one another in our growing relationship with Christ and His people.  I am always encouraged when I spend time with others that have a deep love and increasing desire to know God’s Word and to live it out with and among His people.

We are living in a wonderful time in the history of the Canadian church, where the sufficiency of God’s Word to speak to our everyday life and each of our situations is being upheld.  As the newest member to the Board, I am looking forward to this conference because I will get to learn from the seasoned saints that have sacrificed their time and abilities and have walked the “good works” that God has prepared for them.  God’s people have been greatly cared for by these saints and I am encouraged whenever I spend time with them.

Most of all when I attend the 2019 Gospel Conversations Let’s Talk Equipping the Church to Counsel Conference on March 21-22, I will enjoy having a front row seat to what God is doing in and amongst our churches and in our counseling ministries.  As I am filled to overflowing at this conference, I can return to my own province of Newfoundland more equipped to pour into others in my local church.

I am looking forward to getting to know many more of you, my brothers and sisters who are faithful in Biblical Counseling, representing our nation.

Jennifer Winger – serving on the board of the Canadian Biblical Counseling Coalition

p.s. Last Chance to book a hotel room for the conference at a discounted rate … our pre-booking rate expires in just a couple of days on February 21st, 2019.

We’ve secured a limited number of rooms at the nearby Sandman Inn Oakville for $110 per night. This special rate is available only until Feb 21st, limited # of rooms, quote “group #108514”, book today!

So, you are excited about biblical counseling; but what qualifies a Christian to become a competent biblical counselor?

In our upcoming conference one of Bob Kellemen’s sessions deals specifically with this question.

The world, and often even the church, communicates to us that unless we have a Ph.D. in psychology and a license, we should stay far away from ministering to hurting people.

But what does the Word of God say?

In this session, we’ll learn together from Romans 15:14 that God calls “the average, ordinary Christian” to become equipped for one-another ministry—for biblical counseling.

We’ll learn the Bible’s “4C” résumé qualifications that equip every believer for the personal ministry of the Word.

We also have a special breakout session this year dealing specifically with personal preparedness to counsel biblically taught by Nathan Penny.

Please register today and join us March 21st and 22nd in Oakville Ontario!

Agenda and registration information

I was being challenged in my walk as a follower of Christ to examine the guidance that was typically part of my work as an infant development therapist

I first heard about biblical counseling 20 years ago at the same time as I was being challenged in my walk as a follower of Christ to examine the guidance that was typically part of my work as an infant development therapist.

I launched into the training that was available at that time, most of which was south of the border. While I remain deeply grateful for all that our American forerunners have given and continue to offer, I am SO excited to be part of this phase of the biblical counseling movement that is seeing growing numbers of pastors/leaders/counselors/lay people across Canada come together to learn and grow in their understanding and ability to ‘let the scriptures speak’ into the lives of those we encounter whether over a coffee or in the counseling room.

I look forward to our national conference on equipping the saints with great joy and excitement, and I invite you to be part of what God is up to in Canada and around the world.

Hope to see you there!

Wendy Bowman – serving on the board of the Canadian Biblical Counseling Coalition