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Education for Ministry

The History and Scope of the Program

    The Education for Ministry program began with a vision of enrolling a few hundred students. Within a few years it developed into a program reaching several thousand students with groups around the globe. In addition to EFM groups throughout the USA, EFM can be found in Germany, Great Britain, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the Bahamas, Hong Kong.

    Over 60,000 students have participated in the program, and in the United States more than 20,000 students have completed the full four years. The 2002/2003 USA enrollment reached nearly 9,500. More than eighty-five dioceses of the Episcopal Church as well as other denominations have contractual arrangements with EFM.

Why EFM?

    Lay persons face the difficult and often subtle task of interpreting the richness of the church's faith in a complex and confusing world. They need the kind of theological education which supports their faith and which also trains them to express that faith in day-to-day events.

    As the emphasis on lay ministry has grown, EFM has come to be an important part of that growth by providing a program that develops an informed and knowledgeable laity.

    While the EFM program does not evaluate or recommend individuals for ordination, some dioceses use EFM as part of the preparation for ordination under rules which permit ordination to special ministries without a seminary diploma. We do not recommend EFM for this purpose unless it is used as part of a comprehensive program of preparation for ordination.

Our Call to be Ministers in the World

    Many people think that one must be ordained in order to be "a minister." The fact is that all baptized Christians are called to be active participants in the church's total ministry. This Total Ministry is nothing less than the exercise of the church's vocation to continue the ministry of Jesus. He reconciled the world to God. We are called to incarnate that reconciliation in our own time and in our own place through worship, service to others, and by proclamation of his Word to all people.

    The EFM program is preparation for the ministry to which we are called. It is that vocation for which we pray at the end of the eucharist: "And now, Father, send us out to do the work you have given us to do, to love and serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord."

    The preparation for ordination vows usually takes place at a residential seminary. There candidates develop their knowledge of Holy Scripture and theology and grow in the skills of preaching, leading worship, and administering the church's sacraments, as well as in their ability to be spiritual directors. The EFM program does not teach these skills.

    The Program: How It Works

    The Seminar Group

      The seminar group is the nucleus of the Education for Ministry program. A group consists of six to eleven students and a trained mentor meeting weekly over the course of a nine-month academic year. These meetings are usually from two-and-a half to three hours in length.
      Through study, prayer, and reflection, EFM groups move toward a new understanding of the fullness of God's kingdom. This process can be illustrated by a two-rail fence. One rail is the Christian tradition. The other is the collective experience of the group's members. The rails are linked by fence posts which represent the seminar sessions where life and study meet. The fence is grounded in the soil of regular worship which is vital to the life of the group.

     

    Study

      Students are given weekly lesson assignments to study with the help of resource guides. Students are responsible for setting their own learning goals. They spend between two and four hours in study and preparation each week. In the seminars students have an opportunity to share their insights and discoveries as well as to discuss questions which the study materials raise for them.

     

    Reflection

      Through discussion and guided reflection, the seminars furnish an opportunity for students to deepen their understanding of the reading materials. More important is the development of skills in theological reflection. The goal is that students learn to think theologically. By examining their own beliefs and their relationship to our culture and the tradition of our Christian faith, students can learn what it means to be effective ministers in the world.

      In coming to terms with the notion that everything we do has the potential for manifesting the love of Christ, we discover that our ministry is at hand wherever we turn.

     

    Worship

      The seminar is supported by a life of prayer and regular worship. EFM groups are encouraged to develop a pattern of worship appropriate to their situations. Liturgical materials are furnished with the course materials.

     

     

    Academic Contents

    The Scope of the Program

      Participants in the EFM program study the entire sweep of the Christian tradition, from the earliest period to the present. Students learn the disciplines of biblical exegesis and interpretation, systematic theology, church history, ethics, liturgics and ascetical theology. These are the disciplines which form the core of a seminary education. The traditional content is not studied in a vacuum, however. Students belong to small "communities of learning" in which the events of each person's life may be examined in the light of the materials being studied. While the academic material is substantial, the focus of the program is on life as ministry and understanding that ministry. EFM does provide adult Christians with that basic skill which is the foundation of all Christian ministry -- theological reflection. In doing this, it sharpens the skills of personal and cultural assessment and enhances students' ability to be effective in a variety of ministries.

    Outline of the Reading Materials

      There are thirty-six group meetings during the course of an academic cycle. New students always begin with the first lesson of the first year. Frequently students in the same group may be studying at different levels.

      Students read thirty-three chapters of academic content and five common lessons which help the group get started, learn to reflect theologically, develop its spirituality and life of worship, and examine the potential for various kinds of ministries. Each year the students encounter a new cycle of common lessons so that they complete four different cycles during their time in an EFM group.

    The First Year| The Second Year| The Third Year| The Fourth Year

     

    The Role of The Mentor

      Seminar groups work under the leadership of mentors who contract to serve as guides and administrators. They are not teachers in the traditional sense who are expected to impart information about the Christian tradition. The teacher's role is built into the program materials.

      As administrator of an EFM group, the mentor is the person through whom the group communicates with the Extension Center. A mentor must work as an enabler rather than as an informer of people. Mentors may be lay or ordained persons. Criteria by which mentors are selected include: having experience in serious religious study, having a familiarity with methods of biblical scholarship, possessing a mature faith, being able to live with the ambiguity within the interpretations of the biblical tradition, possessing skills which help a group to develop its own life, and demonstrating a willingness to perform administrative duties.

      Mentors receive an honorarium in appreciation of their service. They are independent contractors rather than employees since they determine the time, place and conditions of their work with their groups. Where and when mentors choose to meet with their seminar groups, as well as exactly how they will work together, are decisions they reach with their own students.

     

    Prospectus

    Purpose

      Every baptized person is called to ministry. The Education for Ministry (EFM) program provides people with the education to carry out that ministry. During the Service of Confirmation we ask God to "Renew in these your servants the covenant you made with them at Baptism. Send them forth in the power of the Spirit to perform the service you set before them." EFM offers an opportunity to discover how to respond to the call to Christian service.

     

    Enrollment, Tuition, and Credits

      The Education for Ministry program is a four-year curriculum. Each "year" is a nine-month cycle of study. Students enroll for one cycle at a time. Groups may enroll in any month from September through May. We do not enroll students or new groups in June, July, or August.

      Each EFM group must be financially viable; therefore, groups must have a minimum of six students. To maintain an effective learning envi-ronment and to provide participation or everyone, EFM groups may not have more than eleven students.

      At the time of enrollment students pay the full year's tuition. In case of a move during the academic cycle, a student may transfer to another group.

      The tuition for the academic cycle 2003/2004 is $450. Participants in groups under institutional sponsorship (parochial or diocesan) pay a 2003/2004 tuition of $340. Fees pay for the EFM materials and the honorarium for the mentor. In addition, students need a Bible and may wish to obtain additional reading materials suggested in the bibliographies. To assist students in need, a tuition reduction provision is available on the basis of the total enrollment of the group.

     

    Credits for EFM

      Continuing Education Units (CEU) are granted to participants in EFM at the rate of 18 CEU for each year of study. There are no examinations or papers. EFM is not a course which offers college credits towards a degree.

       

       

      Yearly Program

       

      The First Year

      The Old Testament

       

      • Overview of the History of Israel
      • Introduction to the Critical Study of the Scriptures
      • The Book of Genesis
      • The Themes of Creation, Sin, Judgment and Redemption
      • Beginning the Study of Theology, Ethics and Liturgics
      • The Exodus-Sinai Event and the Establishment of the Tribal Confederacy in Canaan
      • The Covenant of God with His People
      • The Books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Joshua, Judges, and 1 Samuel
      • The Rise of the Monarchy
      • The Books of 2 Samuel, 2 Kings, Deuteronomy, Amos, Hosea, Micah,
      • Isaiah of Jerusalem, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel
      • Exilic and Post-Exilic Judaism
      • Judaism and the Beginning of Christianity
      • Second Isaiah
      • Ezra-Nehemiah
      • The Chronicler
      • The Psalter
      • The Wisdom Literature
      • The Maccabean Revolt
      • Judaism and the World of Jesus
      Return

       

      The Second Year

      The New Testament

       

      • Greek Culture
      • The Roman Empire
      • Judaism and the Second Temple
      • Galilee
      • Biblical "Criticism" and the Gospels
      • The Gospel of Mark, Matthew and Luke
      • The Gospel of John
      • The Life of Jesus
      • The Mighty Acts of Jesus
      • The Cross of Jesus
      • The Exaltation of Jesus
      • The Acts of the Apostles
      • Pauline Christianity and the Epistles
      • The Letters of John
      • The Revelation of John
      • Hebrews
      • 1 Peter and James
      • 2 Peter and Jude
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      The Third Year

       

      Church History:

      • The Early Church Fathers
      • Gnosticism
      • Montanism
      • The Apologists
      • Irenaeus
      • Clement and Origen
      • The Great Cappadocians
      • Athanasius
      • Tertullian to Augustine
      • Nicea to Chalcedon
      • Early Liturgies
      • Spirituality: Monasticism, Mysticism, and Prayer
      • The Medieval Church
      • Aquinas and Bonaventure
      • Secularism, Religious Dissent
      • The Reformation: Luther and Calvin
      • The Catholic Reformation
      • The Radical Reformation
      • Anglicanism, Puritanism, Pietism
      • The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
      • The Industrial Revolution
      • John Wesley: The Methodist Church
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      The Fourth Year

      Theological Choices:

      • Nineteenth-Century Anglicanism
      • American Church History
      • The Emergence of Modern Religious Thought
      • The Rise of Science
      • Kant, Schleiermacher, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Sartre, Camus, Whitehead
      • Tillich, Niebuhr, Moltmann, Cobb, Pittenger
      • Modernism
      • The Rise of Biblical Criticism
      • Ritschl, Barth, Bultmann
      • De-Mythologizing and Neo-Orthodoxy
      • The Rise of Fundamentalism
      • The liturgical Movement
      • The Crisis of Suffering
      • The Theology of Liberation
      • Christianity and Religious Pluralism
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