Formation for Ministry is a year-long class which seeks to help students integrate the “inward journey” of prayer, silence, and contemplation with the “outward journey” of hospitality, advocacy, justice, and friendship, especially with those who have been pushed to the margins of society. Along with these spiritual practices, we invite students and leaders to regularly keep and celebrate the Sabbath and to be faithful stewards of their bodies and Creation.

Formation for Ministry classes are intentionally small and diverse, because in small, sacred communities of trust we can share the joys and struggles of Christian life. Through weekly shared reading and writing exercises, we emphasize the essential role of a sacred community in shaping, encouraging, and challenging leaders to take their own discipleship seriously – to make ongoing and lifelong growth in the faith a priority.

Through Formation for Ministry, our vision is to ground present and future faith leaders in covenants of accountability that will lead to lifelong theological learning, holy friendships, and a set of practices that will sustain pastoral excellence/virtue throughout the lifetime of the pastor/minister.