Robert B. Somerville

Dr. Robert B. Somerville received his Master of Divinity degree from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in 1970, and served as a Pastor-Teacher (Senior Pastor) in the Evangelical Free Church of America from October 1970 through July of 2005. In 1977, he received his Doctor of Ministry degree in Biblical Counseling from Westminster Theological Seminary. While pastoring in the greater New York area, he handled the crisis telephone calls for the Family Radio station for two years, after which he wrote the book, Help for Hotliners: A Manual to Train Telephone Crisis Counselors. In 2013 Bob wrote the chapter Men in Depression for the book Men Counseling Men edited by John Street and published by Harvest House. His book If I am a Christian, Why am I Depressed? was released August 28, 2014 by Xulon Press.

Bob has served as a member of the Board of The Association of Certified Biblical Counselors since 1986 and in 1989, he was appointed as a Fellow. He has spoken widely on the subject of Biblical Counseling, teaching seminars in the U.S. as well as speaking to missionaries in Europe, Central & South Africa, and Japan.

Bob served as the Pastor-Teacher of the Visalia Evangelical Free Church from February of 1980 – August of 2005. He was involved in an active counseling ministry in his own church and community, taught training courses to pastors and laymen and mentored other pastors in the area of counseling. Since July of 2005 Bob has served as Professor of Biblical Counseling at The Master's College in Santa Clarita, California.

Bob's wife of 45 years Mary has been a tremendous asset to his pastoral, teaching, and counseling ministry. Mary holds a Master’s degree in Pastoral Counseling from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. She has served faithfully setting the example of a godly wife and mother. As their two children reached their later teen years, the role of Homemaker became somewhat less demanding and God opened a new avenue of ministry for Mary. Young Life approached Mary to begin a ministry called ‘Mentor Moms’ where she matched up unwed teen moms with mature Christian women for the sake of friendship, mentoring, evangelism, and discipleship. She worked with Young Life as a consultant on this ministry on a national basis. She has authored the book, “Mentor Moms: A Handbook for Mentoring Teen Moms” and has written two chapters in the book “Women Helping Women.” which is edited by Elyse Fitzpatrick and published by Harvest House. In 2005 Mary authored, “One with a Shepherd: The Tears and Triumphs of a Ministry Marriage” under Kress Christian Publications. In 2009 she contributed a chapter to Women Discipling Women, also edited by Elyse Fitzpatrick. Sine 2005 Mary has served as an Adjunct Professor at The Master's College in Santa Clarita, California. Bob & Mary have two married children, Michelle and Dan and seven grandchildren. Michelle’s husband Tim serves as Pastor in Johannesburg in South Africa and Dan & his wife Tiffany live in Anaheim, CA where Dan teaches Junior High School.