About
Mission
The AACC is committed to encouraging, strengthening and serving Christian mental health professionals including licensed psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, psychotherapists, marriage and family therapists, addictions counselors, and counselors, as well as Christian life and mental health coaches, pastors, lay counselors and the community at large. Our goal is to equip those in the helping profession with research-based biopsychosocial knowledge and spiritual truths to aid in counseling and ministering to those who seek assistance in achieving mental wellness, personal wholeness, interpersonal competence, and spiritual maturity. In addition, the AACC is on a mission to help the church worldwide become more caring and mental health friendly, as we seek to champion for spiritual practices and spirituality within mental health care.
Vision
The AACC’s vision statement is derived from 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, Ephesians 4:11-13, and Philippians 1:4-6.
The vision of AACC has two critical dimensions. First, we seek to serve the Christian church worldwide by helping it become more mature in Christ, while taking on God’s heart of love and sacrificial care. Secondly, we seek to serve, educate, and equip professionals in the mental health field through continuing education opportunities such as our World and National conferences, live webinars, other training events and our printed education and training materials. We are committed to helping the church equip God’s people to love and care for each other in the same spirit that Christ loves and cares for us. We recognize Christian counseling is a unique and case-based form of Christian discipleship, assisting the church in its call to bring believers to maturity in the lifelong process of sanctification and development of their identity in Christ. We recognize that some are gifted in the context of a clinical/professional or pastoral manner. We also believe that selected lay people are gifted to care for others (even though they lack a mental health degree or license), and that they need the appropriate training and mentoring to do so. We believe that the ‘seat’ of any ministry in the church that is focusing on mental or behavioral health issues must be supported by three strong legs. These legs are the mental health informed pastor, the equipped lay helper/coach, and the clinical professional, and it is to these three roles that the AACC is dedicated to serve.
Core Values
“In all of my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:4-6 NIV
OUR SOURCE: We are committed to honor Jesus Christ and glorify God, remaining flexible and responsive to the Holy Spirit in all that He has called us to be and do.
OUR STRENGTH: We are committed to Biblical truths, and to clinical excellence and unity in the delivery of all our resources, services, training and benefits.
OUR SERVICE: We are committed to effectively and competently serve the community of care worldwide—both our membership and the church at large—with excellence and timeliness, and by over-delivery on our promises.
OUR STAFF: We are committed to value and invest in our people as partners in our mission to help others effectively provide Christ-centered counseling and soul-care for hurting people.
OUR STEWARDSHIP: We are committed to profitably steward the resources God gives to us in order to continue serving the needs of hurting people.
Statement of Faith
AACC BELIEVES THAT:
There exists only one God, creator and sustainer of all things, infinitely perfect and eternally co-existing in three personsâ Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The Scriptures, both Old and New testaments, are the inspired, inerrant and trustworthy Word of God, the complete revelation of His will for the salvation of human beings, and the final authority for all matters about which it speaks.
Human nature derives from two historical personas, male and female, created in God’s image. They were created perfect, but they sinned, plunging themselves and all human beings into sin, guilt, suffering, and death.
The substitutionary death of Jesus Christ and his bodily resurrection provide the only ground for justification, forgiveness, and salvation for all who believe. Only those who trust in Him alone are born of the Holy Spirit and are true members of the Church; only they will spend eternity with Christ.
The Holy Spirit is the agent of regeneration and renewal for believers in Jesus Christ. He makes the presence of Jesus Christ real in believers, and He comforts, guides, convicts, and enables believers to live in ways that honor Christ.
Ministry to persons acknowledges the complexity of humans as physical, social, psychological, and spiritual beings. The ultimate goal of Christian counseling is to help others move to personal wholeness, interpersonal competence, mental stability, and spiritual maturity.
Who are the members of AACC?
AACC is committed to assisting Christian counselors, whether those counselors are licensed professionals or caring church members with little or no formal training.
AACC proudly recognizes the diversity within the helping relationship and provides membership opportunities in three separate categories:
Professionals include psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, licensed counselors, and others who have advanced training in one of the mental health professions.
Religious leaders include pastors, youth leaders, missionaries, pastoral counselors, Christian educators, and others with theological and/or counseling training.
Lay counselors include church members of parachurch organizations, spouses of professionals or religious leaders, and others who are interested in Christian counseling, but who have little or no professional training.
Executive Advisory Board & National Board of Reference – leaders and experts in mental health and the mission of the church.
AACC Code of Ethics – members of the AACC, as well as Christian counselors everywhere (both nationally and internationally) are invited to adopt this Code of Ethics in their work as Christian mental health practitioners, lay and pastoral counselors, ministers and chaplains, and caregivers and helpers.
AACC Foundation – is our non-profit worldwide resource that exists to encourage the development of Christian counseling worldwide through funding of various programs that are not priorities in a for-profit, business model, but are nonetheless crucial to the comprehensive development of a Christian counseling ministry.