During his time in college, Adrian Martinez felt a call to Christian ministry, specifically to a capacity or role that would best serve to help others combat sin and sustain righteousness. In Adrian’s early pastoral career, he was told that he should be a psychologist instead of a pastor because of his interest in relational ministry. But, by that point, he had already come to recognize the most powerful tools available for transforming lives, “All major transformations have come from the Word of God and being accountable to the local church.”
So, he continued to pursue ministry within the local church with much consideration about how the Lord was specifically calling him to use his relational gifts to best serve. His conviction led him to pursue further ministry education in Los Angeles, California, where he completed his Master of Arts in Biblical Counseling at The Master’s University and a Master of Divinity at The Master’s Seminary. From there, the Lord moved Adrian to Australia where he has been ministering in significant ways to the hearts of Australians.
Adrian began his biblical education at a liberal Bible college in Vancouver, Canada, where he became convinced of Reformed theology as the true understanding of the Scriptures. He soon moved to Los Angeles to study for his graduate degrees and there met his wife, Jennifer, in a Bible study. They were married in 2005, and several years later the Lord called them back to his wife’s home in Melbourne, Australia, where Adrian began working to support and pastor churches in Australia.
In 2017, the Martinezes switched gears, planting a new church before the COVID pandemic put a pause on this work. Along the way, Adrian became connected with Biblical Counseling Australia, a group in Australia that seeks to establish greater soul care resources for churches throughout Australia. He also met Wayne Vanderwier, now the Director at Large for Overseas Instruction in Counseling (OIC), who sought to come alongside the Australian church, including Adrian and his congregation.
Adrian was attracted to the way OIC approaches ministry, because it seemed to be the exact fit he had been looking for to bring more biblical counseling resources to Australian pastors. Right from the beginning, it was clear from Wayne that OIC’s ministry would make for a great partnership. So, approximately six years ago, Wayne began traveling to Melbourne to teach Modules one through four of OIC’s Church Leadership Training program (CLT) and two years ago Adrian became an OIC Team Member and Coordinator for the Oceania region.
Adrian and his family have been in Australia for 12 years, and he has acclimatized to Australian perspectives and ways of thinking. This has impacted his ministry to be sensitive to the American stereotype that can imply, or even assert, that “We’re going to tell you how to do it.” OIC is different in that the team does not try to recreate itself in a country or region but rather works to teach biblical counseling principles to local Christians in ways that reflect the country in which the training is happening. OIC team members desire to come alongside local churches to help equip them for ministry in their own current contexts.
Knowing that Australians can be resistant to American missions organizations, Adrian was immediately attracted to OIC’s strategic movement. Cultural sensitivity is always key, as Adrian notes. To secular Australian culture, biblical counseling looks more like “soul care” from friend to friend, rather than counseling from pastor to member, as is often the case in America. This major cultural difference can have a monumental impact on the way the local people accept help from their pastors. They do not have the therapeutic-influenced mindset of America that facilitates receptivity to teaching, reproof, and correction. For the average Australian, soul-care is equivalent to “just being a mate,” that is two friends talking together and helping each other out.
The benefit of OIC teaching and helping to train pastors in Australia to do biblical soul care well is tremendous. Adrian recounts a pastor-friend and CLT Trainer who came back and said he had been a pastor for 20 years but never saw the worth of Biblical Counseling. After being trained by OIC, he not only sees its immense worth, but highly recommends it for other pastors, commenting “The church really needs this intense discipleship.” After completing the latest series of modules in his church, he can already see the congregation members growing and maturing.
From here, Adrian seeks to go full-time with biblical counseling ministry in his new home country, including travelling to churches not yet exposed to biblical counseling. He has also started working towards a PhD in Biblical Counselling from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has a personal heart for pastors and seeks to establish a network of support for those serving full-time, because he personally knows from his 25 years’ of experience in pastoral ministry the burdens they bear. Compassion for others overwhelms Adrian’s heart, as he noted that “every time I start a new counseling case I am awakened to a new area of sin in my life. Those same desires evident in my counselees are just as true for me. I continually see the need to deal with my own depravity before the Lord. Whenever we’re dealing with someone else’s sin, this should bring to mind the grace of God to deal with our own sin.”
Having seen the fruit experienced in and through pastoral ministry informed by and infused with biblical soul care, Adrian urgently encourages churches and individuals to support the ministry of OIC as it seeks to bring training to equip pastors for soul care ministry around the world, whether partnering in prayer and/or through financial or other means. Very few churches have any type of biblical counseling, but, as previously noted, the need for such ministry is vital for the growing and maturing international body of Christ, including in the amazing country of Australia.
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