Training
Latest Training News
for Lay Preachers...
Our Synod Lay Preaching Advocate is Faith Paulding. Faith is there to help new and existing lay preachers with their development. Whether you are seeking to become an Assembly Accredited Lay Preacher, a Locally Recognised Worship Leader, or to keep your skills up-to-date drop Faith an email faith.paulding@ntlworld.com
for Ministers and CRCWs...
Spring and Autumn Schools – Please check our calendar for the next schools coming up!
EM2 and EM3 – Financial support is available for continued ministerial training, please click here for more info. If you need a conversation about your training or development needs, or help in identifying a course, please do get in touch with our Mission and Training Officer here.
Safer Sacred Spaces – Ministers need to complete this training course every three years. The Synod runs initial and refresher courses for this. Check on our calendar or get in touch for dates.
Interim Moderator Training – A short course to prepare you for helping to guide a church through vacancy – if you have been invited to serve as an interim moderator and would like some support please get in touch. You can also read this helpful booklet about being an Interim Moderator here.
Sabbaticals – These are organised in diaglogue with the Mission and Training Officer. They usually last three months and are offered to a minister or CRCW every ten years. Grants and funding are available to ministers and CRCWs for their sabbaticals.
for Elders...
Eldership is, without doubt, challenging – and in some ways, as the role has developed and changed over the past ten years or so, the challenges have grown. But so too has the level of fulfilment and the potential for Elders to make significant, creative and exciting contributions to the life of their local church and community and the wider United Reformed Church.
They’ve asked me to be an elder – Check out this, and other helpful booklets on the URC website here.
Church Coaching Programme – We can help cultivate any aspect of church life, and if we don’t already have a course we will create one! So whether its communion, baptism, admin, chairing or social media get in touch with our Mission & Training Officer.
Other Roles – As the old saying goes, if you want something done ask a busy person! You might have been asked to take on another role in your church, the synod or the denomination, like safeguarding coordinator, health and safety, or a committee convenor – have a look at the handy range of guides books here.
Interim Moderator Training – A short course to prepare you for helping to guide a church through vacancy – if you have been invited to serve as an interim moderator and would like some support please get in touch. You can also read this helpful booklet about being an Interim Moderator here.
for Children's and Youth workers/volunteers...
Simple – we have loads to offer you! PLease get in touch with our CYDO, or visit the dedicated Children’s and Youth page here.
for everyone...
Whether you are looking to deepen your discipleship, take the first steps in worship leading, or learn to chair a meeting, we can help!
Stepwise is the discipleship development programme from the United Reformed Church. It is for everyone: all ages, shapes and sizes – including you! Find out more.
Stepwise
preparing for pioneering…
Following Stepwise’s Faith-filled Life and Faith-Filled Community to prepare you for pioneering!
If you have a brilliant idea or just want to do church differently then doing Stepwise can help. The first step wise course is Faith-Filled Life. This friendly group-based course, on Zoom or in person, can help you explore your discipleship, readying you to talk to others.
- Who am I? Exploring identity and faith
- Where do I fit? How faith shapes our daily life
Where do I fit in my community? Thinking more about God’s mission in the world and how you are part of it.- My walk with God – what journey am I on?
- Dealing with challenges? Building confidence and resilience for facing life’s challenges
Once you have completed Faith-Filled Life, the second step is Faith-Filled Community
Looking with fresh eyes at your neighbourhoods and communities and exploring how your church can serve and bear witness to God’s love within them.
- to get to know your communities better using a variety of tools and techniques for effective community engagement.
- to explore how God calls Christians to work within our communities and sends us out to join in with God’s work in the world.
- to investigate some of the things that help communities to flourish and see how you, as a disciple of Jesus, can contribute to that flourishing.
- to explore some biblical ideas about justice in society and look at ways that the church can be a positive agent for justice and change.
- to examine new ways of being the church in your communities with examples from Fresh Expressions and pioneering Christian communities.
- to work together with a group to initiate and develop a faith-based community project in your neighbourhood.
Certificate in Pioneering Mission
The CMS Certificate in Pioneering Mission is a foundational course designed and led by experienced pioneering practitioners, for practitioners. Church Mission Society has offered this course around the UK and will now make it be available to all, rooted in the United Reformed Church and planted in a live pioneering context in inner city Birmingham. The course starts annually and will usually include six units run over three weekend residential (The Greenhouse at Barnes Close), hybrid seminars (online and in Lodge Road Community Church, Birmingham) on three full Saturdays and three Wednesday evenings as well as personal coaching. There is also a final pitch of your pioneering project to a resource panel and graduation.
These are our six units:
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Pioneering Mission
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Missional Spirituality
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Church and Mission
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Mission and the Bible
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Community Development
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Missional Entrepreneurship
This course takes place in the newly formed Newbigin Pioneering Hub. Find out more here!