An online community for those called to ‘train the trainers’, walking through the Formation for Enabling Ministry course.

 

From January to April 2024, study 12 modules in your own time, join regular Zoom calls to discuss with peers – and learn how to equip church workers for whole-life disciplemaking.

What’s the role of a church worker, whether ordained and paid or lay and volunteer? Is it to lead worship? To preach and teach? To lead church-based programmes?

All these tasks are essential for our time as ‘gathered’ church, meeting together. But what about ‘scattered’ church – Jesus’ followers in their workplaces, caring for their families, pursuing hobbies? How do we equip them for the places where they meet and influence people who don’t yet follow Jesus?

These are essential questions for people tasked with ‘training the trainers’. Perhaps you’re a theological educator in a seminary. Maybe you offer denominational training to church workers in your area. Or maybe you’re teaching leaders within your own church.

If that’s you, this community of practice walking through the Formation for Enabling Ministry (FEM) course will set you up to grow effective, resilient whole-life disciplemakers.

In the words of course author Revd Dr David Heywood, ‘Formation for Enabling Ministry will provide you with the skills and understanding you need go beyond simply teaching your subject to equipping the church workers you teach to become enablers of others, so that God’s Kingdom advances in every place Christians live and work.’

This self-paced course was originally designed for those training Anglican ministers as part of the Common Award, and we’re now pleased to make it available to all. As you work through the 12-unit course in your own time, you’ll get the chance to process what you’re learning and apply it to your context in five regular Zoom conversations, led by David Heywood and LICC’s theological education consultant Dr Dave Benson.

You’ll need to have worked through each of the specified units before each conversation, allowing roughly four hours per unit for pre-reading and course materials. All together, you’ll get around 50 hours of high-quality professional development.

You can log in as a guest to preview the course ahead of booking, and watch an introduction from the author. Alongside the online pre-reading, you’ll need to purchase two books:

• David Heywood, Kingdom Learning: Experiential and Reflective Approaches to Christian Formation (2017)
• Jenny Rogers, Adults Learning, 5th ed. (2007)

 

‘To equip ministers to enable whole-life discipleship, we need to do more than simply teach our subjects. We need to show them how to draw on these subject areas to resource disciplemaking in every sphere of life. This requires an approach to teaching that is life-centred rather than subject-centred.

– Revd Dr David Heywood, course creator