Plenary Sessions

Thy Word is Truth

Jeremy Lelek serves as the founder and president of the Association of Biblical Counselors and Metroplex Wellness and Counseling. He has been a counselor since 1999, and has been a Licensed Professional Counselor since 2003. He holds a Ph.D. in Counseling Education and Supervision, an M.A. in Counseling, and a B.A. in Psychology.
Jeremy is also a Certified Provider with IASIS, a Micro-Current Neurofeedback system that offers cutting edge treatment to the brain. IASIS treatments are a naturopathic alternative to psychotropic medications, and are designed to impact the parasympathetic nervous system in such a way that symptoms such as depression, anxiety, anger, inattention, impulsively, addiction, and insomnia are positively impacted in a relatively short period of time.
Jeremy’s aim as a counselor is to impart the divine truth of Scripture in a relevant manner to those he serves, and do so in such a way that it reveals the true nature of their problems (be it marriage, parenting, depression, anger, anxiety, addiction, homosexuality, sleeplessness, etc.).
Jeremy is the author of Biblical Counseling Basics (2018), co-host on the podcast, Speak the Truth, a council member for the Biblical Counseling Coalition, and a long-time member of Fort Worth Presbyterian Church (PCA).
Dr. Lelek is happily married to Lynne, and they currently have the joy of loving and parenting their four children.

Pierre has served as the sixth dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Ministry since 2022. He has authored several books, including *When Home Hurts: Responding Wisely to Domestic Abuse in Your Church* (Christian Focus, 2021), *The Dynamic Heart in Daily Life: Connecting Christ to Human Experience* (New Growth Press, 2016), and *The Pastor and Counseling* (Crossway, 2015). He also wrote the children’s storybook *God With Us: A Journey Home* (Shepherd Press, 2021) and has contributed to other journals and books, including *Scripture and Counseling* and *Christ-Centered Biblical Counseling*. His writing has been featured in Tabletalk Magazine, 9Marks Journal, Baptist Press, and The Gospel Coalition. He speaks at various engagements in the U.S. and overseas and serves on the board of directors for the Biblical Counseling Coalition. Pierre is an elder at Clifton Baptist Church, where he has served on staff in various roles. He and his wife Sarah raise their five children in Louisville, Kentucky.

Mark Vroegop has been Lead Pastor of College Park Church in Indianapolis since 2008. He previously served as Senior Pastor at Calvary Baptist Church in Holland, Michigan, from 1996-2008.
Mark and his wife, Sarah, have three married sons, and a teenage daughter. He’s the author of three books, including Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy: Discovering the Grace of Lament,

John Henderson serves as an Associate Pastor at University Baptist Church in Fayetteville, Arkansas, primarily overseeing the counseling, equipping, and family ministries of the church. John joined the biblical counseling faculty of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2020, and continues to serve as a council board member of the Biblical Counseling Coalition and a board member of the Association of Biblical Counselors. By God’s grace he has written *Equipped to Counsel*, a training curriculum in biblical counseling, *Catching Foxes*, a book for marriage preparation, and a number of articles, booklets, and book chapters. John and his wife Ruth live with their five children in northwest Arkansas.

Pre-Conference

Counseling through our Identity in Christ

Pastor Dwayne Bond is an elder and serves as the Lead Pastor, Teaching Pastor, and Visionary of Wellspring Church. As a native of the Washington DC area, he and his family relocated to Charlotte to plant Wellspring in 2006. After settling into the city, Pastor Bond, along with the plant team, launched Wellspring in March 2007. In January 2007, he became a member of Acts 29 Church Planting Network in which he currently functions as the Charlotte Area Coordinator.
Prior to receiving a Ph.D. in Professional Counseling from Liberty University in 2014, Pastor Bond also graduated from Capital Bible Seminary (M.A. in Christian Counseling & Discipleship), Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary (M.A. in Religion) and University of Maryland (B.S. in Finance). In addition to pastoring, he has a passion for equipping the next generation of Biblical counselors. For over ten years, he has served as an Adjunct Professor within seminaries. Currently, he is teaching in the Pastoral Counseling Department of Liberty University.
He has been married over thirty-five years to his beautiful wife Leslie and has three wonderful children. He enjoys reading, writing, traveling, gardening, cooking, basketball, ping-pong, billiards, vegan food, entrepreneurship, and having fun. He looks forward to meeting you.

Shauna loves opportunities to write and teach God’s Word, She has a passion to encourage, equip & empower others to walk more faithfully and joyfully in the midst of their circumstances. Shauna desires to teach others to have a deeper knowledge of God's Word and through obedience to the truth, to start living radical lives of freedom and purpose.
Shauna is married to Michael, a discipleship pastor in Texas, and they have two sons Dustin and Jaxson.

Darby is a faculty member and counselor at CCEF, where she has served since 2003. She has a master of divinity with a counseling emphasis from Westminster Theological Seminary. Darby brings particular passion and expertise in helping the vulnerable and oppressed, especially women in abusive marriages. She has contributed to Church Cares and the PCA Domestic Abuse & Sex Assault church training materials. She has counseled in a missionary church setting and has also held leadership roles in women’s ministry. She is the author of Is it Abuse? (P&R, 2020), has written a handful of minibooks, and has contributed to several other books. Darby and her husband John have three children.

**Joe Keller** (DMin, Westminster Theological Seminary) has served in Christian ministry and leadership development for more than 25 years. He currently serves as the executive pastor at Grace Baptist Church in Santa Clarita, California, and is a council member of the Biblical Counseling Coalition. He is married to Heidi and they have four children.

Track Options

ABC offers specialized tracks taught by leading practitioners in the field. Each of the following tracks will include eight insightful sessions. Attendees will choose one track during registration, and will attend all sessions in that track throughout the duration of the conference.

Note: Track sessions are listed in the order that they will be delivered.

Track A - Mental Health: Biblically Unpacking Diagnoses

We live in a culture where psychiatric diagnoses dominantly serve as the basis of most mental health treatment protocols. While diagnostic impressions may be helpful from a descriptive vantage point, they do extraordinarily little to help us effectively minister to those labeled as such. This track is designed to help biblical counselors wisely consider such prevalent diagnostic impressions while bringing to bear biblical and empirical truth that may help serve people diagnosed with some of the most challenging diagnoses in the mental health field.

Several of these diagnoses offer little hope for the sufferer when reading the research literature, but does the Gospel offer a hopeful alternative? Our aim is to show that it indeed does.

Objective One: Consider how Scripture may interpret symptoms associated with psychiatric diagnoses.

Objective Two: Provide empirical data and analysis of specific psychiatric diagnoses.

Objective Three: Provide practical methodologies to apply to varying psychiatric diagnoses.

Matthew LaPine is from Duluth, Minnesota. He is the Director of Christian Education at Citylight Church in Omaha, NE. He has been an adjunct professor for the last four years at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (2019-22) and Reformed Theological Seminary (2022), where he taught Old and New Testament, Theology, Hermeneutics, Ethics, Apologetics, and Theological Foundations of Counseling (RTS).
He holds a PhD from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (Deerfield, IL) under Kevin Vanhoozer. He writes on theology, emotion, and mental health. He published his book *The Logic of the Body* with Lexham Press in 2020. It was a finalist for Christianity Today’s book of the year in Theology and Ethics in 2021.
Matt is married to Molly. They have lived in Iowa, Texas, Ohio, and Wisconsin. They have three girls.

Nate Brooks has been counseling for over 15 years in a variety of contexts. He currently also serves as an Associate Professor of Counseling at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, NC. Nate and his wife, Kate, live in the Triangle region with their three children.
Nate is a board member of the Christian Trauma Healing Network and has written for Christianity Today, the Biblical Counseling Coalition, The Gospel Coalition, and several academic journals. He is the author of Identifying Heart Transformation and co-author of Help! Our Sex Life is Troubled by Past Abuse. He frequently speaks at conferences and church events on the topic of abuse and trauma.

Beth Claes is the Director of New Heights Counseling. She has a doctorate in psychology from Alfred University, and biblical counseling training from CCEF and ABC. Beth practiced as a psychologist for 10 years before shifting directions, and now practices only as a biblical counselor. She has experience counseling others through anxiety, depression, sexuality, marriage, and parenting concerns. Beth is passionate about helping people see how the gospel tangibly connects with their struggles and suffering. She uses a gospel-centered approach because of the profound hope we have in Christ, even in the midst of deep sorrows and pain.

Track B - Trauma

Objective: True, lasting healing from trauma requires wise, tender counselors who can access and apply biblical truths to the complex effects of terror upon an embodied soul. Through eight sessions together, the trauma track aims to equip counselors at a basic level for perceiving, thinking, and responding to the experience of trauma. After establishing a biblical anthropology of trauma, we will define trauma and trace how traumatic experience develops in a human being before presenting an approach to ministering the gospel of Christ and word of God to various aspects of traumatic experience. The experience of trauma involves a quality of grief, terror, anxiety, confusion, painful reliving, guilt, and shame that only Christ, His Spirit, and His word can remedy.

Curtis Solomon, PhD. serves as Executive Director of the Biblical Counseling Coalition and Assistant Professor of Biblical Counseling at Boyce College. He is the author or *Redeem Your Marriage: Hope for Husbands Who Have Hurt through Pornography*. He and his wife Jenny co-founded Solomon Soul Care which offers counseling, coaching, and consulting services.

Track C - Fundamentals of Biblical Counseling Methods

Objective: As believers, our call is to care for each other’s souls. But how do we do that? This track is designed to equip you with foundational truths on how to facilitate and cultivate a culture of one another care within your church or ministry. Together we will discuss things such as how to get a counseling session off to a good start, learn how to ask good questions that engages the heart, understand the importance of listening, and knowing the dynamics of the heart. We will also spend time sharing how to bring the gospel into every session, foundational scriptures in caring for others, and the importance of confession and repentance. Lastly, we will address common mistakes and the value of personal stewardship. It will be informative, relational, and interactive…so don’t miss out!

Emily Dempster is the Biblical Counseling Training Director at Salem Heights Church in Salem, Oregon, where she helps equip leaders and individuals for care in the local church through counseling. She also serves as the Training Center Advisor for the Association of Biblical Counselors (ABC), where she guides and supports training programs nationwide. Emily holds a Master’s degree in Pastoral Counseling from Liberty University and has earned her Advanced Biblical Counseling Certification through ABC. Passionate about the integration of biblical counseling within the local church, Emily loves collaborating with ministry leaders to further God’s work.
Emily and her husband Ryan have been married since 1998, and they are blessed parents of two college-aged children.

Track D - Practical Theology in Biblical Counseling

Objective: Coming soon!

Michael is the Co-founder and Executive Director of Truth Renewed Ministries, a biblical counseling ministry committed to providing free biblical counseling, a training center for ABC, and helping the local church equip biblically informed care through certification and consultation. He is a certified member of ABC and has been counseling for the last nine years. He is also the host of the podcast, Speak The Truth. He is a current student at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary pursuing his MDiv in biblical counseling. Michael loves helping others apply the depth of the gospel of Jesus Christ to their specific sufferings, brokenness, and sinful struggles. He is married to Shauna Van Dyke. They live in Fort Worth with their two sons, Dustin and Jaxson.

Jason Kovacs serves as a counselor and the Executive Director of the Gospel Care Collective. He is passionate about walking with people through whatever they are facing including: marriage, parenting, trauma, depression, anger, anxiety, addiction, stress, adoption related issues, and work related struggles. Jason received his Masters of Arts from Reformed Theological Seminary and utilizes a gospel-centered, clinically-informed approach.
He has specialized training in trauma care through TBRI® and is a member of the Association of Biblical Counselors. Jason serves on the Council of the Biblical Counseling Coalition and the board of the Canadian Biblical Counseling Coalition as well as an adjunct professor Heritage Theological Seminary and Millar College of the Bible.
Jason has been married for over 20 years to Shawnda and they have 5 incredible children. In his spare time he enjoys mountain biking, swimming, good coffee, and reading.

Track E - Counseling Through Colossians

Objective: Coming soon!

Lee and his family live in Austin, Texas, where he is Pastor of Soul Care Ministries at Radiant Church while also serving as a consultant for Soul Care Consulting. He began pastoral and counseling ministry in 2005 at The Village Church for nearly 10 years. He then spent three year in Canada where he served as the Pastor of Biblical Soul Care in Muskoka. He is member of the Association of Biblical Counselors and a counsel board member for the Biblical Counseling Coalition. Lee is married to Andrea, and they have four children, Luke, Abel, Leah, and Miriam.

Jonathan Holmes is the Founder and Executive Director of Fieldstone Counseling. He also serves as the Pastor of Counseling for Parkside Church Bainbridge and Green. Jonathan graduated from The Master’s University with degrees in Biblical Counseling and History and his MA from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He is the author of *The Company We Keep: In Search of Biblical Friendship*, *Counsel for Couples: A Biblical and Practical Guide for Marriage Counseling*, *Rescue Skills* & *Rescue Plan.*
Jonathan has written for a number of sites and organizations including *Christianity Today*, The Gospel Coalition, Biblical Counseling Coalition, the ERLC, and the *Journal for Biblical Counseling*. Jonathan serves on the Board of Directors for CCEF (Christian Counseling Educational Foundation) and the Council Board for the BCC (Biblical Counseling Coalition). He is a frequent speaker at conferences and retreats. He and his wife, Jennifer, have four daughters, Ava, Riley, Ruby, and Emma.

**Pete Potloff** serves as the Executive Pastor at Salem Heights Church in Salem, Oregon. In addition to being a part of the pastoral team, he oversees the Biblical Counseling ministry at Salem Heights and is an instructor in their Equipped to Counsel training program which trains individuals from churches throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington. He is also a certified biblical counselor with the Association of Biblical Counselors. He and his wife Holly have three children, Jamin, Jase, and Kyla.

Track F - Pastors & Church Leadership

Objective: This track seeks to serve and equip pastors and church leaders at three levels–personal, ministry, and leadership. We will teach and coach you on issues you face or want to address in your ministry. The track leaders, who have decades of experience as lead, executive, and care pastors, will teach collaboratively and engage interactively during each workshop.

Robert served in the nuclear-powered Navy after graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy. He worked for Michelin Tires before being called into ministry. He earned an M.Div. and Ph.D. from The Southern Baptist Theology Seminary. Robert served as Pastor of Care at Sojourn Church Midtown for over 16 years, where he trained the church to care for one another. He founded and leads Gospel Care Ministries, equipping churches worldwide to know and experience how Jesus makes a difference in a broken world through abiding in his love. Robert is the author of Restoration Story: Why Jesus Matters in a Broken World, Restore: Changing How You Live + Love, and God Redeeming His Bride: A Handbook for Church Discipline.
Married over 40 years, Robert and Karen enjoy walking, music, traveling, and spending time around the table with good friends and family– three grown children, two sons-in-law, and five precious grandchildren.

Garrett Higbee, Psy.D.
Garrett is the director of Lead Healthy Retreats for Twelve Stones Ministries. He is also a leader care specialist for the Great Commission Collective. Garrett is a seasoned counselor, teacher, and trainer with over 30 years of experience. He was trained as a clinical psychologist with a specialty in marriage and family counseling but had a radical conversion in 1992, which led him to trust in Christ and His Word for all things related to life and counseling. He helped start Twelve Stones Ministries, a biblical counseling retreat in 2004. In 2018 he founded Soul Care Consulting. He and his team have developed a highly effective church-based model of discipleship and soul care engaging every believer. He is dedicated to helping churches thrive both in their leadership cultures and as an authentic community. Garrett is a founding board member of the Biblical Counseling Coalition. He has been married to Tammy for over 25 years and they have three children, Rachel, Zach and Sarah. They live in Westfield, Indiana. His intensive retreats for leaders can be found at leadhealthyretreats.com and his training resources can be found at soulcareconsulting.com.

Track G - Abuse: Coercive Control

Objective: Join us as we seek to understand what abuse is, what it isn’t and the subtle forms it takes. We will also learn to recognize when it’s happening and appreciate the grievous damage it causes to individuals and church communities. We will then provide biblical ways of responding to promote healing and growth.

Greg Wilson, D.Ed.Min., LPC, is a Licensed Professional Counselor and board-approved counselor supervisor in the state of Texas. He leads Soul Care Associates, a counseling and consulting practice in Flower Mound, Texas. In his counseling practice, Dr. Wilson sees couples, families, and individuals, adolescents and adults. His practice areas include marriage and family, adolescent issues, domestic abuse, pornography and sex addiction, and trauma. As a consultant, Dr. Wilson works with leaders of churches and other organizations on adopting best practices and standards for care.

Rev. Chris Moles is an ordained minister with the Christian and Missionary Alliance. In addition to serving as a pastor, Chris is a Certified Biblical Counselor (ACBC and IABC) as well as a certified batterer intervention group facilitator. He is a popular conference speaker, the author of *The Heart of Domestic Abuse: Gospel Solutions for Men Who Use Violence and Control in the Home*, and the founder of PeaceWorks University, a membership website which exists to train and support people helpers in a variety of ministry contexts to address domestic violence with the gospel of peace. Chris holds a B.A. in Comprehensive Bible from Cedarville College, an M.A. in Biblical Counseling from Faith Bible Seminary

Kïrsten Christianson 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 abuse. She contributed chapters to Caring Well for Families Caught in Domestic Abuse. She 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 enjoys continuing to learn about God and his world. Kïrsten, her husband, and her son live in Minnesota, where they enjoy all the seasons—even the snow!

Timothy St. John, MDiv, ThM, serves as the counseling pastor at Lighthouse Community Church in Torrance, CA. His passion is to see the grace of gospel-centered counseling grow and thrive in local churches. Tim also serves on the council board for the BCC (Biblical Counseling Coalition), the editorial board for the SOLA network, and is a frequent speaker at conferences and retreats. He is the author of the minibook *Uncovering Domestic Abuse*.

Track H - Understanding Emotions: Anger, Bitterness & Pride

Objective: In Understanding Emotions: Anger, Bitterness & Pride, you will learn to differentiate and minister gospel-based hope to this set of emotions that are too often experienced as synonyms. When it comes to applying the gospel to our lives, there may be no more important trio of emotions to differentiate than these three. Life will never be as neat or tidy as our categories, but confusion about these emotions may cause us to misapply the Bible as much as any other factor in counseling.

Speakers & Sessions