Education for Ministry

Every baptized person is called to ministry. Education for Ministry (EfM) offers an opportunity to discover how to respond to the call to Christian service through study, prayer, and reflection. EfM is an accredited mentor-led course for lay people from the School of Theology at the University of the South. An EfM group consists of six to thirteen participants and a trained mentor who meet weekly over the course of a nine-month academic year for four years. The program may be taken one year at a time. Participants are given weekly assignments to study with the help of resource guides and spend between two and four hours in study and preparation each week. In the meetings members have an opportunity to share their insights and discoveries as well as to discuss questions which the study materials raise for them. 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. For more information, email Becky Strout at [email protected].