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Training for Ministry in England's North West
One of our hopes for the region is the establishment of a training centre in our region. We want to be able to offer robust evangelical theological training for people entering Christian ministry. There are a number of reasons why we want to do this. First we know that there are some who are in ministry now, who didn’t get the opportunity to be trained as they would like. For some their only training was our one day a week ministry training course. There are others who don’t train for ministry because they are put off leaving the region to train. And then there are those who would love to train, but for whom full-time residential training is too expensive.
Over the last year we have been working on how we might be able to realise this hope.
First we have been working with Oak Hill College. Oak Hill is one of the leading evangelical college's in England. They have been really helpful in wanting to serve us as local churches and are happy to work with us to think about ways in which they could help us deliver high quality theological training for ministry in our region. Therefore we have been exploring ways in which in might be possible to study for their new foundation degree, based here in the NW. The good news is that the new Oak Hill Foundation degree had has been accredited by Middlesex University, for both full-time and part-time students.
They are in the process of submitting for the part-time course to be able to be delivered in our region, and from this September students will be able to enrol for the course as auditors for the year 2011-2012. This means students will study with Oak Hill material and teaching for that year, and after appropriate assessment, get credit for those modules and register as full crediting students from 2012-13., with modules taken gaining credits towards the degree.
We can now actively recruit our first cohort of students, to begin study which will lead to the Oak Hill degree in Theological and Pastoral Studies.
We are also in discussion with the relevant authorities within the Church of England for this course to be accepted for ordination training. Please pray that this will happen. People thinking about ordination in the future can also use this degree course. Any modules for which they complete the appropriate assessment will gain credits.
There are lots of practical things to sort out quickly. Things like, which days of the week will the course run, and what the costs will be, and exactly how the ‘training’ will be delivered on site here in the North West.
The second thing that we have been pushing forward with is a building. We need a place where students can have lectures, can study and where we can have a library. We need a building that we can grow into.
After long consultation with ministers and churches we decided to look for a building in Liverpool. And just before Christmas we exchanged contracts on a suitable building. The plan is that the building will be owned by an independent trust and used by both North West Partnership and Christ Church Liverpool. That will mean the building is used more of the time. The total cost of buying and refurbishing the building will be approximately £1 million, and we have generously been given approximately £700,000 of this money already. If you would like a brochure with more details about the NW Theological Centre, please contact the NWP office. You can also view the progress on the building at http:blackburneplace.wordpress.com