Ministry is hard. Training other people for ministry can be even harder. In fact, sometimes it can feel impossible. But with the right plan, you can build the right internship, residency, or gap year program for your ministry context.
Step 1: Design – The Best Laid Plans
Great deeds start with even greater plans. Training ministry leaders for the next generation of God’s work is a worthy mission. To get there you will need to design the right plan for you, your team, and your goals.
Clearly Identify What Makes You, You
There are a lot of schools and training programs out there in the world. If you are adding to the plethora of training opportunities, then you will need to differentiate yourself from the crowd. That means you will need to clarify what makes you so unique. Do you have a model that is working that others are still trying to discover? Is your context or mission different from those around you? What makes you special enough that people should choose you for their training?
Understand the Strengths and Abilities of Your Team
A big part of what makes you unique is your team. Every team has their own set of strengths and abilities. What is your team like? What talents do you have that others would want to learn? What special knowledge, insights, or skills have your people learned that others are hungry for? Having a clear picture of who is on your team and what they can offer will not only let you identify your strengths but also where you have gaps or weaknesses.
Clarify Your God-Sized Goals
If you don’t know where you are aiming for you can’t ever get there. What do you as a ministry want to accomplish? What do you want your ministry training program to accomplish? What sorts of leaders are you hoping to prepare? Once you know these things, you can start gathering the resources you will need to accomplish your mission.
Step 2: Develop – The Steps That Make It Happen
Once you have designed the right program, you can develop an action plan that can bring it all to life. The action plan will help you identify the resources and partners you will need to bring your dreams into reality.
Get the Right Resources
Every quality ministry training program needs certain academic tools and resources. Some of these resources you likely already have. Some resources you do not have, but can easily acquire. And some you will need partners to help you learn how to use. This can be simple things like books and materials. But it can also be more complicated items like big school software that you can adapt for your own needs.
Partner. Partner. Partner.
A big part of your action plan needs to be assembling the right ministry training partnerships. Some of these partners will function more like simple vendors. You will need a reliable place to purchase things like branded or printed materials. But other partners will be more specialized and integrated. Like that big school software that you might realize you need. A Google search will not tell you how to use and implement something of that scale. You will need the right partner who can get you up to speed on that. The same goes for your accreditation needs. The best candidates will gravitate to programs offering accredited degree outcome options. If your team lacks that particular set of specialized skills, you will need a quality partner to help you.
Our university partner network connects with or offers degree pathways into accredited Universities and Colleges like Liberty University, Lancaster Bible College, Clarks Summit University, and more. View our complete list of partner schools here.
Step 3: Deploy – Start-Up Your Ministry Training Program
You have the plan. You gathered your resources and partners. Now it is time to launch. You will need to stay on schedule, manage your costs, and assess outcomes. Here’s what that looks like:
Stay on Schedule
A project of this scale will take some time, but, with the right plan and partnerships, it can happen quicker than you think. The biggest part of time management is realizing you do not need to do everything yourself.
Manage Costs
To help you manage costs, Eleven:6 charges nothing to help you design and set up your university level training program. We also do not have any kind of partnership fee or carrying charges for your program. When students sign up to your program, they pay tuition to one of the many recognized Christian schools in our network so they can earn academic credit. We make our money when schools share that tuition with us. So working with us carries no additional cost to you or your students.
Measure Outcomes
You designed a plan, developed your resources, and deployed your program. Did you accomplish what you intended? Do your interns or residents have the skills and knowledge they need? Go back to the beginning and adjust your program to fill in any holes you find.
It’s easier, faster, and more affordable than you think to build a customized academic training program that will fuel your ministry forward. If you realize you need a partner to help you build a plan that works, then schedule a call today. If you have a dream, we can help you build the plan.