Education for Ministry

Discipleship
participants gather on a Zoom call participants gather on a Zoom call

Education for Ministry 

“As Christians, we are to live in community, work in community, and learn in community. In order to create a space for community to develop, we must learn to listen deeply, respectfully, and well to each other. That is central to what we do in EfM. This listening aspect is key to deepening connections with whom I worship. It makes it possible to gently carry the Christian message into my everyday life and reach out to those who are not currently Christian or attend church." 
- Mary Lou Platt 

Every baptized person is called to ministry, but lay persons face the difficult and often subtle task of interpreting the richness of the Church’s faith in a complex and confusing world. A theological education supports individuals’ faith and teaches them how to express that faith in their daily lives. One does not need to be ordained to think theologically or discern one’s ministry.

The Education for Ministry (EfM) program provides people with the education to carry out their ministry. Sponsored by the University of the South School of Theology in Sewanee, Tennessee, EfM is a four-year study and group reflection process for the formation of Christian ministry through the development of knowledge, attitude, skills, and identity as Christians. 

All of this is accomplished via a seminar group that consists of 6-12 participants and a trained mentor who meet weekly over 36 weeks during the academic year. These meetings are usually 2-3 hours long. In the past, EfM groups in ECMN were based at individual parishes and met in-person. (This is still an option if a parish wants to start a group.) Now, we have a single ECMN-wide group which meets online and includes participants from multiple parishes.

Year One of the program studies the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament). The second year offers a study of the New Testament. Year Three provides study of Christian (church) history. Theology and Ethics constitute study in the fourth year.

There is also a new Wide Angle year, which offers a participant to fully participate in a year of EfM by getting a “taste” of the program, reading small portions of the four-year program over the course of one academic year alongside participants in other years.

Participants register for a year of the program at a time. New participants can opt to start with either Year One or Wide Angle. Returning participants can either move to the next numbered year or take a break from the four-year program and do Wide Angle instead.

Click here for a full catalog of the texts for each year of the EfM program (note that they have been updated for 2025-26 and include Bible Women by Lindsay Hardin Freeman, a Minnesota priest and writer, for Year One).

Through discussion and guided reflection along with worship, EfM furnishes an opportunity to deepen understanding of the reading materials and engage in theological reflection. By examining their own beliefs and their relationship to our culture and the tradition of our Christian faith, EfM participants learn what it means to be effective ministers in the world.

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The cost per participant per year includes: 

  • Registration fee: $340 tuition, plus a $10 copyright fee and a 5% credit card processing fee
  • $50-100 for books, which participants purchase for themselves

ECMN provides $100 scholarships to help offset the above costs. 

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The ECMN online EfM group currently includes 10 participants representing six ECMN parishes, as well as other participants from elsewhere. Mary Lou Platt and Mark Capaldini, both from Trinity Excelsior, find EfM purposeful and helpful to their faith journeys: 

Mary Lou: 

“As Christians, we are to live in community, work in community, and learn in community. In order to create a space for community to develop, we must learn to listen deeply, respectfully, and well to each other. That is central to what we do in EfM. This listening aspect is key to deepening connections with whom I worship. It makes it possible to gently carry the Christian message into my everyday life and reach out to those who are not currently Christian or attend church. 

My favorite part of the program is theological reflection by which we engage in creative exploration of a personal experience, scripture, social concern, or other, and arrive at new faith insights. The Holy Spirit works among us, and invigorates, strengthens, and renews my beliefs.”

Mark: 

“Through reading the Bible in the first two years of the course, I learned to appreciate its richness, complexity, and poetry. While I had hoped EfM would provide me with answers about the Christian faith, it provided me instead with a better list of questions to ponder for myself. 

Taking the EfM course has contributed to my decision to volunteer for a Priest Selection Committee for our parish. It has also clarified for me how I might serve our parish and diocese in the future.”

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More questions? Ready to register for EfM? Email efm.ecmn@gmail.com for more info.