Continuing Ministerial Development
We minister in an ever changing world. To be equipped to face new challenges and to ensure that we are serving God to the best of our gifting, we all need to continue to learn and grow in ministry.
CBM have created a flexible pattern for Continuing Ministerial Development which will build up Ministers and also be recognised by churches and if necessary by employment law. Such a pattern will embrace different forms of learning and different strands of ministry from understanding to skills and from discipleship to spirituality.
NINE STRANDS OF CONTINUING MINISTERIAL DEVELOPMENT
Being the best ministers we can be for God demands Continuing Ministerial Development (CMD), growing in our understanding and practice of Christian ministry. There are at least nine strands of activity which can sustain us and help us to keep on growing in ministry.
Accountability – regularly opening our lives to the supportive scrutiny of one or two others.
Applied Practice – gaining new insights through reflecting on our experience of ministry and church life, learning through failure as well as success, pioneering new ways of doing mission and ministry, creating courses that help our people grow in their faith, becoming more effective as a preacher, developing new skills in managing change, resolving conflict, building team, and in leading God’s people forward
Collegiality – meeting together with other ministers to strengthen, encourage and support one another.
Learning – through attending courses, reading books, working for a formal qualification, or simply going on a broadening sabbatical.
Ministry/Ministries – this strand applies particularly to retired, bi-vocational or sector ministers and is a space to indicate aspects of ministry alongside your primary ministry.
Practical competencies – relating to some of the more practical competencies of ministry identified by the Baptist Union of Great Britain, in such areas as IT skills and Safeguarding policies
Regular Review of Ministry – on an annual or biennial basis allowing others to help us review our ministries, affirming all that has been positive in the past year, and agreeing the shape of ministry for the coming year. (This is our preferred alternative to “appraisal”.)
Spirituality – sustaining and deepening our walk with God.
Other – the catch-all category for other experiences which enrich our ministry, not least involvement with churches and missionaries outside UK
There are many advantages in keeping a record of our experiences in CMD in a Portfolio, similar to those kept by teachers, social workers, doctors and others, which provides a personal record of each minister’s CMD experiences, endorsed by The College.
Each member of The College of Baptist Ministers will keep their own record of their CMD experiences by completing the attached pro-forma at least once a year as they renew their membership. The form has spaces for brief entries of each CMD experience according to the strands above together with the date. Apart from the Spirituality strand, where it would not be appropriate, each experience could link to a way in which it could be confirmed, for the rare occasion where verification could be helpful to the minister. Forms will remain confidential to CBM.The completed form should be attached to an email sent to portfolio@collegeofbaptistministers.com.
Members are encouraged to send entries in their portfolio as often as they like. Over a year most ministers would have at least one entry in most if not all of the strands. Becoming a member of The College of Baptist Ministers implies a commitment to Continuing Ministerial Development and this would be affirmed by each member’s Personal CMD Portfolio. Over time the entries will build up into a personal and verifiable record, which the member can choose to print out and share with others as evidence of their involvement in Continuing Ministerial Development, to the minister’s church (for example as part of a regular Review of Ministry) or to a prospective church during settlement, or if any other need arises.