Agenda Volume 3 - Methodist Conference

57. The Fruitful Field Project
is anticipated that student ministers
following the full-time pathway do so
as their primary occupation, while
student ministers following the parttime
pathway are likely to be doing so
alongside other commitments, and
not as their sole undertaking. Student
ministers following the full-time
pathway receive a bursary of around
£12,000 per annum, from which all
maintenance costs must be met,
along with means-tested dependent
child payments where relevant. For
student ministers following the parttime
pathway, travel expenses and
some other expenses incurred during
the course of following the pathway
are reimbursed.
50 All student ministers seek to meet
a common set of competencies
clustered around six headings:
Vocation (call and commitment);
Being in relationship (with God,
self and others); The Church’s
ministry in God’s world; Leadership
and collaboration; Learning and
understanding; Communication.
Although the competencies are
common for all student ministers and
across the ten learning institutions,
the courses and curricula offered
at each institution are different
and designed by the institution
itself. The vast majority of courses
and curricula involve the student
minister working towards a Higher
Education award. The Higher
Education awards are made available
through partnerships negotiated by
each institution. Student ministers
who are judged by the local
and the connexional Oversight
Committees to have met the required
competencies are recommended to
the Conference for stationing, usually
as probationers.
51 The 2007 Conference decided to plan
to support 120 student ministers
at any one time, half of whom were
projected to follow full-time pathways,
and half to follow part-time pathways.
This projection has proved largely accurate
over the intervening five years.
The pathways for those preparing to
be admitted as Local Preachers and
for those preparing to be appointed
as Worship Leaders
52 Faith & Worship is the standard
course for those preparing to be
Local Preachers: seventeen units
of study, grouped into four sections,
typically tutored in the Circuit.
The course was first published in
1990, and revisions intended to
give another five years’ ’shelf life‘
were phased in from 2001. At this
point examinations were replaced
by submission of exegeses and a
worship portfolio for each section.
Each unit (after the introductory three)
is assessed by written assignment,
marked by a local tutor and submitted
for second marking and moderation
by connexional assessors. A pass
mark of 40% is required for each
piece of work in order to progress.
The Local Preachers’ Meeting has
oversight of the key elements of the
pathway and its progress: providing
a mentor, arranging for service
660 Conference Agenda 2012