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, a pastor in Indiana who was already teaching biblical counseling in two other schools, was asked to teach an introductory class in biblical counseling at a Bible Institute in Hungary. As simple as that seemed to be, his question to the ministry's director was, "Who's helping the pastors?" Because the answer was, "No one," Wayne deduced that if that was true in Hungary it was probably also true in other nations.
After more than a decade of praying together that God would raise up someone from within the modern biblical counseling movement to answer the call to train pastors and other church leaders in the nations of the world, Wayne and Susie realized that they just might be the answer to their own prayers! Having trained people in his own church and in other places in Western and Central Europe, this ministry was born as Overseas Instruction in Counseling (OIC).
Our initial pastoral training programs were conducted on the islands of Luzon and Mindanao and in Moscow, Russia. God used these experiences to help Wayne develop a curriculum, discover the need for between-module assignments, learn the optimal chronological spacing between modules, and become convinced of the biblical necessity of a train-the-trainer approach (2 Tim. 2:2) to doing this ministry.
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.
