Our Story

In 2007, two elders of Cornerstone United Reformed Church in Hudsonville, Michigan, reached out to pastor Jeff Doll with a significant concern. As they reflected upon their labors among their respective elder districts, both men felt underequipped to shepherd the souls under their care. They needed help. Dr. Doll led the two elders into the empty sanctuary to ask the Lord for wisdom in addressing this need. In that time of prayer, God planted the initial seeds of the Institute for Reformed Biblical Counseling (IRBC).

In the 1980s, Jeff Doll first encountered biblical counseling through the writings of Jay Adams. Interested in the sciences, the critiques of psychology in the works of Jay Adams resonated with his concerns about the prevailing materialistic worldview he encountered during his secular undergraduate studies at Colorado State University. Later, Jeff would pursue pastoral ministry and advanced training in biblical counseling. In the Lord’s timing, this conversation with the elders took place toward the end of Pastor Doll’s studies. After further prayer and reflection, the consistory (URC board of elders), council, and congregation of Cornerstone affirmed pastor Doll’s desire to devote his efforts to the construction of a Reformed biblical counseling ministry.

The original purpose of this ministry was to provide training and equipping for the church’s elders in member care, reflecting the strong tradition among the Dutch Reformed of elder visitation. As their training progressed and Dr. Doll continued to develop church-based counseling material, the IRBC began to offer seminars to local pastors and elders from congregations within the greater Grand Rapids area. These seminars were well attended and reflected a broader need for equipping within the community. Eventually, the demand for counseling training increased not only among church leaders but also among church members who desired to be trained in biblical counseling. In 2011, IRBC offered its first year-long basic training course.

The decade following the launch of IRBC’s first training course reflected slow and steady growth. Between 2011 and 2024, over 650 students from 12 different states and two international locations have participated in IRBC’s basic training course in Reformed biblical counseling. Some graduates of those first few classes partnered together to launch the first IRBC counseling center at Cornerstone URC. From that initial counseling center grew the Shepherd’s Way Counseling Ministry Network, a small network of counseling centers operating under the oversight of leaders from Reformed and Presbyterian churches within a local community. In conjunction with developing its basic training course, the IRBC began offering counseling certification for biblical counselors seeking to apply God’s Word according to their Reformed convictions in 2021.

Today, it is the vision of the Institute for Reformed Biblical Counseling to see pastors, elders, and church members within Reformed congregations growing in pastoral care and discipleship. We strive to fulfill this vision through training and certifying counselors, as well as supporting Reformed churches in their church-based discipleship ministries. We pray that God may use our humble efforts to help confessional, means of grace churches in the Continental Reformed, Presbyterian, and Reformed Baptist traditions to grow in their efforts to pastor, disciple, and counsel their flocks so that Christians may grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ (2 Pet 3:18).