Faith Bible Seminary could offer the MABC program 100% online. But we do not because we think that the in-person face to face experience of counseling a real person is too valuable to give up.
To give our students this experience there are five one-week residencies that occur in Lafayette Indiana. The residency weeks are one week embedded into a 15-week course. Students only need to come to Lafayette 5 separate times throughout the course of their whole program no matter how long they decide to complete the degree.
Three of our residencies occur in June and the other two occur in January.
Incoming students should know that you can complete ACBC certification while you are in school earning your MABC! If you desire to take this route, as a student of the program, FBS will provide you with observational videos to watch and material to help you write your exams.
ACBC’s mission is to equip Christians “to provide biblical solutions for the problems people face.” FBS, meanwhile has a mission to provide “biblical education for effective Christian ministry.” ACBC is focused on equipping you to help when you do not know how to help. Many seeking ACBC are looking to go from limited counseling knowledge to basic counseling knowledge. FBS is looking to train its students to lead ministries and train other counselors.
FBS’ MABC | ACBC Certification |
3 to 5 years to complete. 12,935 costs for tuition and fees “Biblical Education for Effective Christian Ministry” The MABC is advanced training and requires some basic training. | 2 to 3years to complete. 1500 (approximately) fees. “ACBC equips Christians to provide biblical solutions for the problems people face.” ACBC is basic training that will help face the most common counseling issues. |
If you are currently in ministry, the MABC is often the best route because you may need help getting mature Christians trained to counsel others. If you are a lay person, ACBC can be the right choice if you just want more knowledge. Many will fall somewhere in between.
What kinds of ministries earn an MABC? The table below will show you what position our graduates hold.
Ministry Position |
# Graduates |
Locations |
Lay Counselor |
25 |
USA, Canada, Australia |
Pastor |
15 |
USA |
Ministry Professional |
7 |
USA, Hungary |
Missionary |
5 |
Brazil, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, |
Author |
4 |
USA, Brazil |
Adjunct Professor |
1 |
USA |
Both ACBC and FBS will require substantial commitments of time. ACBC requires hours of observation videos and supervised counseling. FBS’ MABC will take a minimum of three years. In terms of cost, ACBC is significantly less expensive than MABC.