Building up biblical counselors around the world through training & resources
In 2 Timothy 2:2, Paul instructs church leaders to entrust what they’ve learned to faithful people who can teach others in turn. That instruction is at the heart of BCMW’s work. We connect with churches around the world and then send teachers to train their pastors and leaders in biblical counseling. Our partners provide the room, the board, and the students; we provide the curriculum and the teacher. Once a region commits to training, the curriculum gets translated into the local language and is adapted by local pastors who understand the culture.
Our ultimate goal is to leave behind churches that are equipped to train their own counselors indefinitely, sustained by their own community long after BCMW’s part in the work is finished.
Our ultimate goal is to leave behind churches that are equipped to train their own counselors indefinitely, sustained by their own community long after BCMW’s part in the work is finished.
A SMALL TEAM WITH A GLOBAL REACH
Biblical Counseling Ministries Worldwide (BCMW) operates as a small executive team supporting a global network of coordinators, teachers, and missionary counselors. A handful of staff manage strategy, finances, and communications from a home base in California, while the actual training happens almost entirely overseas, led by country coordinators who know the region.
Our leadership
Dr. Andrew Rogers serves as BCMW's Executive Director, leading the ministry Wayne and Susie Vanderwier founded in 2006 after two decades pastoring a single congregation through biblical counseling. Andrew spent years assisting with Church Leadership Training modules and teaching graduate courses before stepping into this role in 2019. The full leadership team, including BCMW's Board of Trustees, is introduced on our Leadership page.
Our location
BCMW is headquartered in Walnut Creek, California, where a small staff handles administration, finances, and communication. The actual ministry reaches far beyond that office, into dozens of countries where coordinators live, teach, and counsel in their own communities and across the globe. Wherever a partner church is willing to host training, BCMW sends a teacher to meet them there.
BCM Worldwide
c/o NorthCreek Church
2303B Ygnacio Valley Rd
Walnut Creek, CA 94598
USA
c/o NorthCreek Church
2303B Ygnacio Valley Rd
Walnut Creek, CA 94598
USA
What we believe is at the heart of everything we do.
Our passion for the work of Biblical counseling training is grounded in our beliefs about the sufficiency of Scripture, the nature of sin, the purpose of the church, and the work of Christ in salvation and sanctification.
How we got here
Wayne Vanderwier reached a crossroads in his pastoral ministry, recognizing his congregation's need for proper soul care without having the training to provide it himself. He spent the next twenty years learning to counsel biblically, then teaching his church to do the same.
After two decades transforming their own congregation through biblical counseling, Wayne and Susie Vanderwier founded BCMW to carry that same training to pastors in other parts of the world, starting with a single conviction: every church could learn to counsel its own people.
BCMW's first training programs launched on the islands of Luzon and Mindanao in the Philippines, then continued to Moscow with a six-module curriculum. Teaching in Russia convinced Wayne that Russians could train Russians better than any visiting teacher, a lesson that reshaped BCMW into our distinctive train-the-trainer mission.
BCMW's ministry expanded beyond local church training into graduate-level academic work, beginning with a partnership with the National Theological College and Graduate School in Egypt. This step opened a path for pastors to pursue biblical counseling to the same academic depth as any other graduate discipline.
Rod and Mary Huber joined BCMW as its second missionary couple, taking over training coordination in the Philippines while Wayne moved into Ukraine and Lebanon. The Hubers later helped establish Biblical Soul Care Philippines, then spent years preparing pastors across Central America to lead their own discipleship ministries.
BCMW hosted its first Missionary Training Conference, bringing four more couples onto the team and setting the pattern for the growth that followed. From this point forward, BCMW began planning graduate programs and Church Leadership Training modules in new locations almost every year.
Dr. Andrew Rogers completed a three-year transition into the role of Executive Director, after years of serving BCMW as an Associate Teacher in both the Church Leadership Training and graduate programs. Wayne stepped back from daily leadership and was released, with Susie, to continue traveling the world to equip and encourage local churches.
Under Andrew's leadership, BCMW launched its Missionary Soul Care Network, headed by Sara Shannon, in response to a growing number of requests from missionaries seeking counseling support. The network now connects roughly 40 trained counselors with missionaries and disaster relief workers across a range of countries and languages.
The BCMW Japan team participated in the inaugural Asia Pacific Biblical Counseling Conference in Tokyo, Japan, hosted by Tokyo Baptist Church.
