ACBC Counseling Fees

Selling Jesus

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As part of our Christian duty, our Master has commanded us to teach and admonish one another and to warn those that are unruly, as Paul says in Colossians and 1

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Thessalonians. Yet rather than speaking truth and wisdom to others freely, as they have received it from God, some

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Christians sell their biblical counsel as though the wisdom had originated from themselves. By God's grace, this is not the practice of a majority of biblical counselors, but it is unfortunately very widespread, even among otherwise reputable biblical counseling organizations such as the

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Association of Certified Biblical Counselors, known as ACBC. One of the hallmarks of the biblical counseling movement is the firm conviction that Scripture is sufficient for all non -medical problems.

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In the words of Ed Bulkey, God has provided absolutely everything man needs for physical and spiritual life.

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If Peter is correct, in 2 Peter 1, 3 -4, then God has given us all the information we need to function successfully in this life.

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Every essential truth, every essential principle, every essential technique for solving human problems has been delivered in God's word.

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If this is true, God's word should also be sufficient for answering the question as to whether or not counseling should be supported or sold.

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We believe the Bible is crystal clear that Christian ministry should never be sold, but rather freely supported by the body of Christ, and we want to encourage the biblical counseling movement to embrace this scriptural truth.

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As long as biblical counselors teach and function as though the Bible is insufficient to answer this question, they unintentionally undermine their own foundational premise.

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The Association of Certified Biblical Counselors is an esteemed organization devoted to counseling according to God's word.

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I myself am ACBC certified, and I greatly appreciate and admire the work they have done in equipping both pastors and laymen to rightly handle

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God's word in counseling. However, when it comes to Jesus' teaching that the ministry of the gospel should be offered freely, this organization has opted to turn a blind eye.

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Rather than take the position of its founder, J. Adams, who clearly assumed that biblical counseling would be offered for free always,

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ACBC instead leaves the door open for individual counselors to decide for themselves whether or not they will charge and how much.

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I quote, The Bible is clear that the ministers of the gospel of Jesus are entitled to earn their living from the gospel.

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Biblical counselors must seek to love their counselees in discerning whether to charge fees and how much to charge.

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That was from the ACBC's standards of conduct. Notice that they wrongly assume that earning a living from the gospel means charging their counselees for speaking the truth in love, putting a price tag on wisdom, and requiring people to obtain the gift of God with money.

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And when I say, obtain the gift of God with money, this is how Peter described the misguided thinking of Simon the

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Magician in Acts 8. Also, they imply that it can be loving to charge people for healing, pointing them to Jesus and for other spiritual gifts that are involved in biblical counseling.

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But it is never loving to disobey God by selling access to the ministry of His word and spirit.

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As the data shows, this confusing stance regarding money and ministry has created a biblical counseling landscape in which everyone simply does what is right in his or her own eyes.

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To see how the ACBC financial policy plays out in practice, I went to the websites of each individual

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ACBC training center that offer counseling. Their data on whether or not they charge was usually available on their website, although sometimes

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I had to reach out via email to ask. If you'd like to see all the data I compiled, check out the link in the description of this episode.

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Of all the ACBC counseling and training centers I was able to gather data on, 55 % of the centers offered their counseling without any fees.

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25 % of centers charge for each counseling session, while 20 % do not charge per session but still include and require some kind of administrative fees, such as an initial setup fee or a cancellation deposit.

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If you look at those centers that charge per session, the average cost for an hour -long session was $100, with the least expensive center charging between $25 to $40 an hour, and the most expensive charging $260 per hour.

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To compare this to secular therapy, the average cost of a cognitive behavioral therapy session is reported as being about $60 to $200 an hour, with an average of $130.

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These numbers are not substantially different from the cost range of the average biblical counseling center

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I saw. And at that average cost of $100 a session, even a diligent counselee may spend upwards of $1 ,000 before they've managed to resolve their sin issues.

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This cost can be daunting and prohibitive to those seeking scriptural help in a time of great crisis.

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Even for counselees who are financially stable, having to pay for biblical counseling puts an unnecessary consideration in the way of their growth and maturing.

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Imagine the pressure a counselee may feel knowing that every 15 minutes they spend talking to this trusted counselor, another $20 drains from their bank account.

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And I saw counseling centers that would charge for every additional 15 minutes. Can there truly be trust or openness in such a situation?

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ACBC board member Steve Vires clearly explains this difficulty. Quote, This is one reason it is so valuable to do counseling ministry in the context of a local church where counseling services are offered free of charge.

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The conversation is not rushed by financial concerns, and we are free to take the necessary time to get to know a counselee on a deeper level.

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The counselee in turn becomes convinced that we are not simply going to toss out pat answers or shallow solutions.

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End quote. In addition to the prices that match secular counselors, I noticed one more practice that seemed to be borrowed from the secular counseling realm.

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Several centers had a fee scale that was based on the skill of the counselor. Where lower fees were charged if you were counseling with an intern, mid -level fees if you were counseling with a regular certified counselor, and the highest fees were charged if you counseled with the director.

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The unpleasant implication of this practice is that the true value of biblical counseling is found in the counselor himself rather than in God and his word.

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Now to be fair, ACBC in their standards of conduct does say that counselors, quote, will do everything possible to avoid refusing care to those unable to pay, and will never limit their conversational care only to those who are able to compensate their counselors, end quote.

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And to adhere to this standard, most of the centers that charge a fee also have some kind of income exemption to make counseling more affordable to those of lesser means.

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This usually comes in the form of a financial hardship application that the counselee must fill out to prove their need, or a sliding scale based on income.

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However, in addition to this process being cumbersome and potentially embarrassing, this type of accommodation does not always end up helpful.

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On one example, fee schedule, I saw an unmarried person who made less than $6 ,000 annually could qualify for free counseling.

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But if this person made $6 ,001, he would be charged $25 an hour for counseling.

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At his income, that would be over a day's wages. While no genuine biblical counselor would intend to lay such a heavy burden on their counselees, these dilemmas are inevitable when trying to force a secular compensation model into what should be a grace -filled and compassionate ministry supported by the free generosity of God's people.

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Here are some of the absurd sounding results that occur when counseling centers offer their ministry in exchange for money.

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From Summit Biblical Counseling Center, which charges up to $125 a session plus a $25 admin fee, they say,

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Quote, Using a pastoral model rather than a clinical model, our counseling and training proclaim the sufficiency of God's word through the

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Holy Spirit to change lives and glorify God. Can you really claim that such a financial practice is pastoral rather than clinical?

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Another counseling center, called 180 Ministries, which charges up to $210 per session, has a waiver they require each counselee to sign.

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On this waiver, citing 1 Corinthians 9 .13, they say, I commit to pay before each appointment for the services rendered.

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While of course we should fulfill our obligations, and while we do believe ministers should be supported, the whole point of 1

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Corinthians 9 is that ministers shouldn't lay heavy financial burdens on the people they are ministering to, which is exactly what the counseling center here is doing.

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This last example is from Reigning Grace Counseling Center. This was the most expensive center we found, charging up to $390 per session.

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And here is the outlandish way they describe themselves on their website, and I quote, We do everything we can to make our costs affordable.

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Whether you are seeking counseling or training, you will find our rates are competitive to others in the field.

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Because we are not affiliated with any insurance plans, your costs are considerably lower than other counseling.

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I don't know who they think they're lower than. They are not lower than any other ACBC training center, and they were not lower than the average secular counselor.

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I agree with the former executive director of ACBC, Heath Lambert, when he says, The fact is that counseling is ministry, and ministry is counseling.

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The two are equivalent terms. Again, scripture is clear that Christian ministry should be supported, but never sold.

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ACBC must take a firm stand on this issue by changing their standards of conduct to reflect a biblical ethic of fundraising, and require their members to offer biblical counseling free of charge.

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My hope is that a ministry that I love and admire might one day truly reflect

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God's radical generosity and free grace to a broken world, and unequivocally condemn the peddling of God's word just as scripture does.