Erskine Theological Seminary Announces Appointment of Dr. Timothy Lane as Research Professor of Pastoral Counseling

Erskine Theological Seminary now offers a Master of Arts in Christian Counseling. This program leads to a professional degree that prepares students to be effective, licensed counselors with a strong Christian worldview. The Seminary is committed to strengthening the counseling skills of pastors and recognizes that many seminaries only provide a course or two to help support this vital work. Erskine Seminary recognizes that this is simply not enough in today’s broken world. Erskine has now called one of the finest counselors in North America to raise the bar in pastoral counseling for the sake of the hurting, the broken, and the wounded. Dr. Tim Lane, a minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and former senior minister of Clemson Presbyterian Church, will begin to design courses immediately that are Biblical, pastoral, and, also, integrate the wisdom and insights of a long career of counseling for pastoral students.

Dr. Timothy S. Lane is the Founder and President of the Institute for Pastoral Care, a non-profit that equips local churches to care for their people, and Tim Lane & Associates, a counseling practice located in Peachtree City, GA. He is a minister in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), having been ordained in 1991 and a member of Metro-Atlanta Presbytery. He has a Master of Divinity degree and a Doctor of Ministry degree in Pastoral Counseling.

Tim has authored Unstuck: A Nine-Step Journey to Change That Lasts (2019), Living Without Worry: How to Replace Anxiety with Peace (2015), and co-authored How People Change and Relationships: A Mess Worth Making (2007). He has written several mini-books including PTSD, Forgiving Others, Sex Before Marriage, Family Feuds, Conflict, and Freedom From Guilt.

He has experience in both campus ministry (University of Georgia, 1984-1987) and pastoral ministry where he served as a pastor from 1991 until 2001. He served as a counselor and faculty member (2001-2007) and then Executive Director (2007-2013) of a counseling organization in Philadelphia, PA.

The Provost of the Seminary, Dr. Michael A. Milton remarked, “The local church should be a place of healing: healing through preaching, healing through worship, and healing of the human soul through Biblical and Pastoral Counseling. The call of Dr. Tim Lane underscores our commitment to prepare Christian shepherds, and others, in the work of assessing, diagnosing, and treating the malignancies of the human soul through the wise application of Biblical truth. Dr. Lane will report to Dr. Robert Elsner who leads our Counseling programs.”

In 2014, he and his family re-located to his home state of Georgia where he continues to write, speak and travel both nationally and internationally. He is an adjunct professor of practical theology at several seminaries where he teaches about pastoral care in the local church. Most recently, he has taught classes at Reformed Theological Seminary in Atlanta, Georgia as well as SEMBEQ in Montreal, Canada.

Dr. Lane and his wife, Barbara, live in Atlanta, Georgia. They married in 1989 and have four children and two grandchildren.