About Me

Short Version

[If you want a bio for reposting material from this site]

Brad serves as the Pastor of Counseling at The Summit Church in  Durham, NC. He also serves as Assistant Professor of Biblical Counseling at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, a council member of the Biblical Counseling Coalition, has authored several books including Angry with God: An Honest Journey through Suffering and Betrayal, and served as general editor for the Becoming a Church that Cares Well for the Abused (churchcares.com) project.

Narrative Version

[If you want to know a bit more about my story and journey]

My story is like the mingling of Jayber Crow (Wendell Berry) with Hillbilly Elegy (J.D. Vance). Growing up in a small farming community in the Mississippi River bottoms of western Kentucky, there were as many cows as people and it was a thirty-minute drive to the nearest McDonald’s. My younger brother and I spent much of our time fishing or exploring the multi-acre woods behind our house and the rest tossing a baseball in the back yard.

I came to faith as a 9 year old. While I didn’t understand much more than I was a sinner in need of what Jesus did for me on the cross, the simple truths of the gospel were enough to change my heart and change the course of my life.

After high school, I attended Union University; my first intentional step towards a call to vocational ministry. The opportunity to serve as Middle School Youth Director / Director of Urban Outreach at Calvary Baptist Church confirmed this calling.

During my final year at Union, on a second blind date with the same young lady, I began dating the woman who would be my wife.  Sallie and I moved to Wake Forest, North Carolina to attend Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SEBTS) where I completed an M.Div in Biblical Counseling and a Th.M. in applied theology.

We left SEBTS for Crossroads Counseling in Augusta, Georgia with one general goal – to learn how many ways biblical counseling could effectively benefit and interact with the life and mission of the local church. This was a challenging and rich eight years of ministry. During this time a fourth conviction began to emerge in my approach to counseling:

(1) the necessity of the gospel,
(2) the centrality of the local church,
(3) the primacy and finality of Scripture, and
(4) a balanced perspective on how the gospel speaks to both sin and suffering.

These are the central tenants of what I strive for the resource at bradhambrick.com to uphold.

Then in January 2011 our family moved back to Raleigh-Durham, NC when I accepted a position as Pastor of Counseling at The Summit Church and Instructor of Biblical Counseling at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. In 2012 we launched Bridgehaven Counseling Associates, a parachurch ministry to expand the scope of care for our members and our community. The exploration of how counseling can bless and advance the mission of the local church continues…

Brad Hambrick, Th.M., Ed.D.

Pastor of Counseling, The Summit Church (www.summitrdu.com)
Assistant Professor of Biblical Counseling, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (www.sebts.edu)
Council Member of The Biblical Counseling Coalition (www.biblicalcounselingcoalition.org)