A New Name, A Bigger Dream

For some they are going to read this post and think, “Ah, I thought something was going on.” And for others this information will be found to be brand new. Yet, as we mentioned it our last newsletter we had an announcement that we wanted to share. Before I share the news, let me tell you a story of how we have arrived to where we are today.

Our story begins about 3 years ago with Pastor Mike DiSanto and a dream to bring Biblical Counseling to his local area. Pastor Mike was trained and certified in the practice of Biblical Counseling. Yet, this was not what birthed this dream in him.

Mike himself had been a recipient of Biblical Counseling in his younger years and had experienced the transforming power of the Gospel. Because of Mike’s love for God and people, he wanted others to experience this as well. This gave birth to the first Biblical Soul Care and Discipleship Conference.

Mike quickly realized that this conference was not something he could accomplish alone. Through some ministry connections he enlisted the help of Pastor Ben Sexton and Broc Buytaert. Ben and Broc attended the same seminary, one receiving his MDiv and the other pursuing his MABC. Both, like Mike, being trained in Biblical Counseling. From these three came the Noble County Coalition of Biblical Counseling (NCCBC).

After getting through that first conference it was quickly realized by this group that they would need more help. Here they brought on Pastor James La-Follette and Brad Chapman, both also being trained in Biblical Counseling. The first meeting of this new group brought about the question of our name. Did it really represent us well?

But this should cause us to ask, “What is the purpose of a name?” A name is a short way of answering the questions of who, what, and where. Who you are, or who you serve. What you are about. And where you are. We all agreed on these aspects, but did our name really represent who we were trying to serve? This was the question that we needed to answer. But as we became busy planning our second conference these question were set aside for more pressing matters.

What we could not ignore was the fact that our name was limiting our reach. Simply put in the days of Mike and Ben and Broc, our dream simply was not big enough.

As our God has continued to bless our endeavors we have reassessed who we are serving. With the addition of James and Brad, the guidance of the Biblical Counseling Coalition, looking at who our reach has already been extended too, and with much prayer we now have a bigger dream. This dream is represented in our new name, the Tri-State Coalition of Biblical Counseling (Tri-State CBC).

Our desire is still to connect, inspire, and equip others through the discipline of biblical counseling, we just hope to do it on a much larger scale. We would love to have you come along on this journey with us. We meet the third Tuesday of each month for our regular meetings. We follow these meetings up with a newsletter so there is no worry of missing out. We would also encourage you to save the date right now for our conference next spring, April 26th, 2025. And as always, we appreciate your continued prayers!