Essential Practices for Christian Disciples
Many EfM graduates have expressed a desire for additional curricula that will build on thefoundation they built in their four years of small group community work, learning, and theological reflection in EfM. Essential Practices for Christian Disciples is in development as the first of what we hope eventually will be a collection of EfM postgrad opportunities. This one-year program will be open to EfM graduates who want toparticipate in a group ministry project while learning together to develop skills in ministry discernment, design, and team building.
The emphasis is not on identifying a 'permanent' ministry, but on identifying a need and formulating an appropriate response as the group creates and enacts a project together. The group will learn how to articulate the mission to get others on board with the vision, and how to translate the vision to actual on-the-ground ministry. The group’s prior experience in EfM will allow it to move forward immediately with a shared language and culture, confident in the skills and background of individual members as the process engages time-honored EfM practices and learns new ones drawn from the ministry discernment and design processes used in VocationCARE and the work of the Leadership Development Initiative in community organizing grounded in spiritual practice.
As in EfM, the year will consists of 36 meetings over a 9-month period and the enrollment fee wil be $350 in sponsoring dioceses, with all curricular materials provided. Groups will have a minimum of six and a maximum of twelve participants. Mentors will be accredited according to EfM standards. A specially designed formation-level training for those who would like to mentor a postgrad group using the Essential Practices curriculum will be held in Sewanee June 20-22. John de Beer, one of the curriculum development team, will be the trainer.