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.
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 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 became a separate entity from our parent organization, and now operates as a specialized ministry under the auspices of Grace Bible Church in Escondido, California, 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 church planting efforts there. Upon his departure, he passed the baton to Jim Newheiser of Grace Bible Church in Escondido who is currently the director. As we near our 40-year anniversary, we continue in our efforts, by God’s grace, to equip pastors and church members to council others using the Scriptures.