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Our Call to Minister in the World
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 a theological education which supports their faith and also teaches them to express that faith in day-to-day events. As the emphasis on lay ministry has grown, EfM has come to play an important role by providing a program that develops an informed and knowledgeable laity.
The EfM program does not evaluate or recommend individuals for ordination. 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 God's Word to all people.
The EfM program is preparation for the ministry to which we all 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 workship, and administering the church's sacraments, as well as in their ability to be spiritual directors. The EfM program does not teach these skills.
EfM in Louisiana
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Contact Bonnie (bonniesiegrist@bellsouth.net) or Frances (fweeb15@cox.net)
The Program
The seminar group is the nucleus of the Education for Ministry program. A group consists of six to twelve participants and a trained mentor who meet 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.
Participants are given weekly 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 members have an opportunity to share their insights and discoveries as well as to discuss questions which the study materials raise for them.
Through discussion and guided reflection, the seminars furnish an opportunity to deepen understanding of the reading materials.
More important is the development of skills in theological reflection. The goal is to learn to think theologically. By examining their own beliefs and their relationship to our culture and the tradition of our Christian faith, participants can learn what it means to be effective ministers in the world. In coming to terms with the notion that everything we do has potential for manifesting the love of Christ, we discover that our ministry is at hand wherever we turn.
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.
Contents of the Four Years
Participants in the EfM program study the entire sweep of the Christian tradition from the earliest period to the present. Participants learn the disciplines of biblical exegesis and interpretation, systematic theology, church history, ethics, liturgics, and scetical theology.
The traditional content is not studied in a vacuum. 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 course materials provide substantial academic content, the focus of the program is on life as ministry and understanding that ministry. EfM provides Christians with that basic skill which is the foundation of all Christian ministry -- theological reflection. In doing this, participants sharpen their skills of personal and cultural assessment and enhance abilities to be effective in a variety of ministries.
Outline of the Reading Materials: The program recommends thirty-six group meetings during the course of an academic cycle. New members begin with the first lesson of year one. Participants in the same group may be studying at different levels. They read thirty-four chapters of academic content and five common lessons which help the group to get started, to learn to reflect theologically, and to develop its spirituality.
The First Year
The Old Testament: Overview of the History of Israel •The Book of Genesis • The Themes of Creation, Sin, Judgement, 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 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 and Nehemiah • The Chronicler • The Psalter • The Wisdom Literature • The Maccabean Revolt • Judaism and the World of Jesus
The Second Year
The New Testament: Greek Culture • The Roman Empire • Judaism and the Second Temple • Galilee • Biblical "Criticism" and the Gospels • The Gospels 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 • The Pauline Christianity and the Epistles • The Letters of John • The Revelation of John • Hebrews • 1 Peter and James • 2 Peter and Jude
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, Religous Descent • 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
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 • Liberation • Christianity and Religious Pluralism • Non-Christian Religions • Twenty-first Century Challenges
