Meet Our Team
IBCD (The Institute for Biblical Counseling & Discipleship) exists to strengthen churches in one another care.
We serve organizations and individuals who share a passion to see believers equipped through life’s struggles with the Word of God. We do this by offering training through our Care & Discipleship program, as well as offering counseling resources, events and free resources that are helpful to anyone interested in learning how to better help others.
JIM NEWHEISER
Executive Director
Jim Newheiser, DMin, is the director of the Christian Counseling Program and Professor of counseling at Reformed Theological Seminary, Charlotte, NC. He also serves as Director of IBCD and is a board member at both the Biblical Counseling Coalition and ACBC. He is the author of "Money: Seeking God’s Wisdom," and several other books and minibooks. Jim and his wife Caroline have three grown children.
Scott Mehl
Managing Director
Scott pastors Cornerstone Church of West LA, a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-generational church on the westside of Los Angeles. He is also the Chair of the biblical counseling department at Eternity Bible College and an adjunct faculty member at the Los Angeles Bible Training School. He has authored Loving Messy People and co-authored IBCD’s Intro to Messy Care and Discipleship curriculum.
DON ROY
Training Center Director
Dr. Don Roy is an ACBC Fellow, has been certified since 2006. He has a DMin in Biblical Counseling from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Don also serves as a missionary with Overseas Instruction in Counseling as the Country Coordinator for Madagascar and serves as a Senior Advisor with Fallen Soldiers March. Don is the Director of Northshore Biblical Counseling and Training Center in Slidell, Louisiana.
LAUREN STERLING
Operations Director
Lauren is an ACBC Certified Counselor and an active member of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, CA. Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, she moved to California to pursue Biblical Counseling at The Master’s University, where she graduated with her B.A. She and her husband currently serve together in Grace’s Counseling Ministry.
Tanya Wilson
Administrative Manager
Tanya lives in Louisiana where the main IBCD office is located at First Baptist Church Slidell. She obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Biblical Counseling and completed an internship with Vision of Hope Residential Treatment Center in Lafayette, Indiana. She has been involved in lay counseling for the past 10 years with her local church.
CHRISTINE CHAPPELL
Podcast Host
Christine is a wife, mother, certified biblical counselor, conference speaker, and the author of several books, including Midnight Mercies: Walking with God through Depression in Motherhood, Postpartum Depression: Hope for a Hard Season, and Help! I've Been Diagnosed with a Mental Disorder. She also serves as a council member for the Biblical Counseling Coalition. To learn more about Christine and her ministry, visit christinemchappell.com.
The history of IBCD
Since 1968, we have been involved in the exciting challenge of researching, developing and testing a counseling methodology that can be used to train pastors and others.
The Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation was founded by a small group of Christian pastors, psychologists and educators who began meeting in Short Hills, N.J. in 1966 to discuss the impact of psychological counseling on Christianity. Their burden for a fully biblical counseling model that would be carried out in the context of the local church led first to a counseling service and then to a training program for pastors. The growth of both ministries led to the incorporation in 1968 of The Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation (CCEF). Dr. Jay Adams was one of the key leaders of this movement. His book, Competent to Counsel (1970), set forth many of the main ideas of this new approach. The overwhelming response to this work made Dr. Adams the unofficial leader and philosopher of this counseling movement and this has been reflected in his many subsequent publications and international speaking engagements.
In 1968, our former director, George Scipione, began his involvement with biblical counseling by taking courses at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia.
He spent the next two years in training with Dr. Adams and from 1970 to 1974, worked as a staff member and director of the Hatboro, Pennsylvania office of CCEF. From 1974 to 1982, he pastored Calvary Community Church in Harmony, New Jersey. In 1982, he came to San Diego and founded CCEF West. To facilitate growth, CCEF West eventually became a separate entity and now operates independently as the Institute for Biblical Counseling & Discipleship (IBCD).
In the summer of 2006, George Scipione resigned as director of IBCD and moved to the East Coast to pursue other ministry opportunities. Upon his departure, he passed the baton to Dr. Jim Newheiser of Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte, North Carolina. Dr. Newheiser currently serves as our Executive Director. We are thankful that for more than 30 years the Lord has given us the privilege of helping churches grow in one another care.
Find a Counselor
If you are looking for counseling, we suggest the following process:
Contact your pastor
IBCD is passionate about one another care.
We believe this happens within the context of the local church, and that pastors are the shepherds entrusted with soul care (1 Pet 5:1-4; Heb 13:17). The qualified counselors on staff at IBCD focus on strengthening the church by producing high quality resources and training materials. We do not provide counsel. If your pastor would like assistance in helping you, you can refer him to the IBCD resources.
Find a biblical counselor in your area
Visit the listing here.
If you are seeking counseling outside of your local church we encourage you to visit the listing at The Association of Certified Biblical Counselors. You can also find a counselor list at The Biblical Counseling Coalition. While we know that ACBC, CCEF, ABC, and IABC work diligently to screen any ministry or individual in their list, it is important for you to personally research the church, ministry, or individual listed. If you search these recommended links and find a biblical counselor in your area, please exercise due diligence and contact them.
In case of an Emergency
If you are facing a crisis or an emergency, be sure to call your pastor, doctor, or the police.
Our Beliefs
The biblical counselor, by definition, is committed to the Old and New Testaments as the only authoritative rule of faith and practice.
Both the faith and conduct of the biblical counselor, as well as his counseling theory and practice, are formed by the standards of Scripture. Therefore, we affirm:
- That the Bible is the only inspired, infallible and authoritative Word of God;
- That there is only one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit;
- The deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, His virgin birth, His sinless life, His miracles, His substitutionary and atoning death through His shed blood, His bodily resurrection, His ascension to the right hand of the Father and His personal return in power and glory;
- That for the salvation of lost and sinful man, regeneration by the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential;
- That a person becomes justified by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ;
- The present ministry of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a godly life;
- The resurrection of both the saved and the lost: they that are saved unto the resurrection of life and they that are lost unto the resurrection of damnation;
- The spiritual unity of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ and His church.