Name: Jim Sabin

Ministry Role and Place: I’m an elder here at Grace Community Church.  I also serve on our counseling leadership team.  Before the Covid lockdowns, I also served through the chaplains office at Oakdale prison for about ten years.

Role/Responsibilities/What you enjoy on the Core Team:

There are a couple of things about serving on the core team that are really important to me.  There is an openness and transparency among the core team that makes it easy for me to function there.  This is nothing new to you folks, but life is hard at times and regularly stepping into the lives of folks who are already struggling can be draining.  I’ve had other members of the team speak into my life when I was struggling, and I ‘ve been able to be an encouragement to others in the same way.  The other thing that I really appreciate is that I think we have a good mix of skills and personalities on the core team  – we have big vision folks and detailed folks, planners and executors.  In industry we used the terms trappers and skinners – you need both and we have both on the team.

When did you begin serving on the EIBCC Core Team? 

I think I’ve been on the core team for about five years now – I’m not really certain, but I think that’s about right.

Why did you want to serve on the Core Team of the EIBCC?

I don’t think I active sought a role on the core team.  Rather it was a role that I kind of evolved into.  I’m very passionate about Biblical counseling.  Without hesitation, I would state that it saved my life the summer after my freshman year in college.  I took early retirement from Collins Aerospace after 40 years in order to be more involved in ministry.  I was actively involved and helping out behind the scenes at EIBCC events at a time when a couple of founding members of the core team moved on.  As I took on more teaching responsibilities I was recognized as a core team member.

How have you been blessed by the EIBCC? 

EIBCC has been a real blessing in my life.  It is encouraging to me to be around like-minded people – people who are willing to invest time and effort in order to be better equipped to care for those around them.  When I started counseling, I really didn’t have any kind of support or encouragement other than my wife Peggy.  Sydney and I were in the same MABC program at Lafayette.  When we realized we were essentially neighbors, she invited me to an EIBCC meeting.  I can’t describe how that felt for me.  I realized I wasn’t alone.  There were other folks around me that had the same passion, the same concerns, the same need for support and encouragement that I had.  All of a sudden, there were others I could talk to, pray with, seek counsel from, and find accountability with.  It was like a giant weight was lifted from my shoulders.  I get excited every time I see a new face, or a see a new church represented at one of our meetings.  I hope that we are as life giving for them as that early group was to me.How has your church been blessed by the EIBCC? 

Grace has benefitted and is benefitting from EIBCC in many ways.  While we have a robust, well established counseling ministry already in place, we certainly don’t have all the answers.  We don’t even know what all the questions are.  The opportunity to network and interact with other like-minded men and women brings new insights, fresh ideas, and renewed energy into our counseling ministry.  This in turn helps us serve our church body and our local community better.

Favorite memory you have about the EIBCC? 

My most memorable experience associated with the EIBCC is a 2019 weekend conference Dave Kirk, Aimee Marino, and I put on at the E-Free church in Oelwein.  Dan Driscoll (former pastor) sponsored us there.  When you get invited to do that kind of conference you really have no idea what kind of audience will be there. 

 Dan had done an incredible job of creating awareness and interest throughout the entire region.  I think we had between 120 and 150 folks there.  They were interested, engaged, and excited.  Before we left, they were already planning a follow-on conference for the next year. After we left, they purchased the basic soul care video series and took their leaders through that training.  As a result of that conference (and pre-covid) EIBCC gained about five churches from that area.  Some of those folks drove two hours one way to attend our meetings.

Dan has gone home to be with the Lord.  He was a dear friend to Peggy and I and we miss him dearly.

What is a struggle the EIBCC has gone through and how did God provide?

We’ve certainly had some struggles, but God has been extremely faithful to this ministry.  Covid put a big hit on us and set back some big plans.  Prior to Covid we outgrew two different meeting venues and had 37 churches with some level of engagement.  Different members of our leadership team were routinely invited to some of these churches to provide equipping and training.  

As we continued to grow, we were considering starting smaller regional coalitions with the current organization serving as an umbrella organization.  We had been contacted by the BCC and engaged with them in discussions about their vision to launch regional organizations.  Our annual conferences were getting bigger each year.

Today, like many organizations, we are much smaller than we were – BUT, we are still here.  Its my belief that we are on the verge of beginning to grow again.  I am very excited to see what the future holds for us.

How would you like to see the EIBCC grow in the future?  

It would be great to recover the momentum and energy that was lost through the Covid lock-downs.  I don’t mean to just be bigger again.  I’m more interested in having a positive impact in more communities and churches.  We are constantly struggling to manage our backlog for counseling here at Grace.  I realize that most every church with a counseling ministry has the same problem.  We currently have four folks that are getting close to certification and more in the training pipeline – and that will help.  But what will help even more is when more and more churches are equipped and actively providing Biblical counseling to their people and to their communities.  I would like to see the EIBCC play a major role in this equipping ministry.

Bonus Question: How can the EIBCC be praying for you?

If you were interested in praying for me, I would just ask for both wisdom and endurance in counseling.  Its not so much the numerical load right now, its just the level of suffering we’re seeing – abuse, trauma, dissension within churches.  Its draining – and I don’t want to grow weary or calloused in this vital ministry.