2016 Wesleyan Discipline:Ministerial Education: Course of study

2. Courses of Study

3200. The Executive Director of Education and Clergy Development shall develop courses of study for pre-ordination, specialized ministries, commissioned ministers, and special lay ministries (2016 Wesleyan Discipline:2341:1–3). Each course of study shall be composed of a number of courses, each course being implemented by a college or seminary course of two or more hours, or by a correspondence course involving the use of a study guide issued by the Ministerial Study Course Agency, the intensive study of one or more textbooks plus collateral reading, and other pertinent study assigned by the Agency, and an examination prepared by the Ministerial Study Course Agency and taken in the presence of an ordained minister. No credit shall be given for any correspondence course in which the final grade is less than passing.

3210. The following courses of study shall be provided:

(1) Pre-ordination Course of Study. It shall require as a prerequisite a high school diploma or its equivalent. It shall consist of four years of college and/or seminary-level work, and shall cover necessary general education courses as well as the full range of ministerial training subjects—biblical, historical, theological, and practical, including courses in Wesleyan doctrine, history, and polity.

(2) Courses of Study for Specialized Ministries. These shall consist of special adaptations of the pre-ordination study course (2016 Wesleyan Discipline:3210:1) for those who are called to the work of minister of music, minister of Christian education or others as deemed necessary.

(3) Commissioned Minister’s Course of Study. It shall consist of two years of college-level work, and shall incorporate biblical, historical, theological, and practical courses, including courses in Wesleyan doctrine, history, and polity.

(4) Lay Minister’s Course of Study. It shall consist of one year of college-level work, and shall include courses in Wesleyan doctrine, the history of The Wesleyan Church, the polity of The Wesleyan Church, including a study of The Discipline, and other basic ministerial subjects.

(5) Special Workers’ Courses of Study. These shall be designed to prepare lay members for special fields of service, such as director of music, director of spiritual formation, evangelistic singer, children’s worker, spouse in ministry, lay evangelist, and social worker. Such study courses shall consist of two years of college-level work, and shall include courses in Wesleyan doctrine, history, and polity, and such other subjects as are pertinent.