Official Launch of the National Association of Christian Counsellors Malaysia
THE National Association of Christian Counsellors Malaysia (NACC) was officially launched by Rev Eu Hong Seng, Chairman of NECF Malaysia, on 29 Oct 2011 at the New Life Restoration Centre in Petaling Jaya. The launch was held in conjunction with NACC's Inaugural Annual National Counselling Conference and Pre-Conference Workshops which were held for two days.
Eu said NECF is "110 per cent in support of NACC" because its formation was both timely and needful since the Christian community in Malaysia is lacking in trained Christian counsellors. He said it was also timely given that the government of the day is currently controlling efforts to do good works by religious groups. NACC President, Edmund Ng, said one of the association's main objectives is to voice the interests of those practising Christian counselling in this country. However, he added that this would only be possible when the number of Christian counsellors were sizeable enough to be taken seriously.
Besides promoting Christian counselling in churches and equipping lay counsellors, Ng said that NACC also aims to articulate Christian counselling on an authentic biblical basis in a culturally sensitive context. "We also want to set the standards in our country for knowledge, skills and ethics in Christian counselling, as well as provide resources and networking." At the same time, NACC aims to promote care and counsel as missions in response to the Cape Town Declaration.
The Cape Town Declaration was issued in 2010 as a follow up to the Third International Lausanne Congress. The declaration emphasises the creation of a new paradigm in care and counselling as mission and calls for an urgent global conversation to realise the potential of this movement, Dr Jerry Vuncannon, a member of the declaration drafting committee, said at the NACC conference.
Dr John Court, a board member of the International Network for Christian Counselling and formerly Professor of Psychology at Fuller Theological Seminary, spoke on the emergence of Christian counselling in the 1980's and its implications when counselling is given from the Christian perspective.
Vice President of the American Association of Christian Counsellors and Senior Editor of Christian Counselling Today, Dr Eric Scalise, spoke on the sacred role of Christian counsellors as ambassadors for Christ.
Two other plenary speakers at the Conference were Dr Goh Chee Leong, Vice President of HELP University and Vice President of the Malaysian Psychological Association, and Simon Neo, Acting President of the Singapore Association of Christian Counsellors. On the Pre-Conference day, a total of eight workshops on various core topics on Christian counselling were conducted by a balanced mix of foreign and local speakers.
The NACC was registered as a national association on 9 May 2011 under the Societies Act 1966. It is governed by a seven-member Executive Committee with an eight-member Council of Reference as oversight. The conference was packed to full-house capacity by 450 registered participants from 130 churches throughout Peninsular and East Malaysia as well as Singapore. Conference organisers regretfully had to turn away many last-minute registrations.
Ng said the overwhelming response confirmed that NACC's formation was indeed the work and timing of God to prepare His people for what is to come. Many participants said they were looking forward to the next national conference in 2012. To date, some 300 participants have signed up as members of the NACC.
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