A pathway into Elim Ministry - Jenny Kimble

Have you sensed God may be calling you to Christian ministry? Have you considered joining with Elim in our mission to reach our nation for Christ and build His Church? This seminar will give you an opportunity to hear more about what ministry in Elim looks like and how you could explore the possibilities. Hear the stories of two young people who have stepped out and responded to God’s call to give their lives in serving Jesus today.

Jenny is the Dean of Undergraduate Studies and Ministry Foundation Certificate Course Leader at Regents Theological College, and also serves on the MIT Development Team.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Well, good afternoon everybody. Welcome to Queen Suite 2.
Thank you for coming when it's so beautifully bright outside
and you could have been enjoyingthe coffee in the sunshine or
something. Essentially, as I noted a couple
minutes ago, for those of you who were already in the room, we
are looking over the course of this next hour at exploring the
Eland ministry. So this is particularly the

(00:21):
pathway into ordained ministry within the Eland Pentecostal
Church. My name is Jenny Kimball, I'm
the Dean of undergraduate studies these and ministry
foundation certificate course leader at Regents Theological
college based down involved, which is great fun and it's my
26th birthday today. I gave my life to Jesus back in
14th of May 99. So it's, it's an honour to get

(00:44):
to do a seminar like this talking about how to help
release other people into ministry.
I've got a few other people who are going to be helping me
during this session. So Phil Worthington, who is
Stuart Blount, Director of Ministries, personal assistant,
is going to be taking us throughsome of the parts of the the
process, particularly application process for

(01:05):
exploring the Elim ministry. And then I've got Alicia Fuentes
and Dan Isaacs, who have been through the ministry journey
relatively recently, and I'm just gonna share a little bit
about their story with you. So essentially what we, we are
hoping you will get out of this session is to be able for us to
paint a current picture of the Elam movement.

(01:27):
Now I'm assuming, well, it's quite a dangerous thing to do
sometimes that probably everybody in here is in an Elam
church or at least connected to Elam in some way.
But we want to paint a broad picture of who, who are we as
Elam? What's the current kind of state
of the movement? If you like, what is it that we
might be hoping to encourage youto consider joining as an Elam

(01:47):
minister? We're going to describe what it
entails to apply to the Eland ministry.
So what are the things that you have to do?
What are the things that you have to put together?
We in particularly feel will explain the interview and
selection process. This isn't you fill in one form
and suddenly you're an Eland minister.
There is quite an involved process that happens alongside

(02:11):
this journey. And then we will also outline
the training journey towards ordination.
So let me just pray as we begin our session.
Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we thank you for the Elam movement.
Lord, I thank you for all the individuals and churches that
are represented here. Lord, I pray that as we talk

(02:33):
together over this next hour andthere's opportunity for
questions at the end, that Lord,if for any individuals in this
room, you are stirring their hearts to pursue this pathway,
that you are calling them to be involved in leadership in the
eland movement in an ordained capacity, that this would be a
stepping stone on that journey, that you would bring
confirmation to them. Lord, I pray that where there

(02:56):
are questions that need to be asked, you would give people
courage to do that. And Lord, ultimately in whatever
sphere of ministry, whether that's within the church or
outside, Lord, we thank you thateach and every one of us is
called. So.
Lord, we thank you that we will get to explore those things
together over this next hour. Bless every man and every woman
in this room. Amen.

(03:18):
As you will all know what hopefully should do by now part
way through Day 2, we are looking at over the course of
these few days, equipping the Saints and our our key text for
that is from Ephesians 411 to 12.
Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church, the
apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and

(03:40):
teachers. Their responsibility is to equip
God's people to do his work and build up the church, the body of
Christ. Now again as well, I've been
hearing over the, the course of the, the last couple of days or
so, there are, there are gifts that God gives to his church,

(04:00):
the apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds or
pastors, depending upon your translation and teachers.
And so there are gifts God callsto act in leadership, in
equipping and training and building up the body of Christ.
But what is the purpose of that leadership?
It's not for us to have a title or office.

(04:21):
If you're in here because you quite like having the idea of
people call you reverend, you know, there's nothing inherently
wrong with that, but that shouldnot be our primary motivation.
It's not about having a title. It's not about, you know, hoping
you might get an upgrade on yournext Virgin Atlantic flights or
whatever it might be. It is essentially about

(04:43):
equipping God's people. And so for those who are
exploring this pathway to Elam ministry, if, if, if it's
discern that somebody's primary motivation is, well, this, this
will make me feel like I'm accepted.
This will give me some value amongst other people.
This will complete me that that's not the right motivation

(05:03):
to be stepping into this. This is about equipping God's
people and in order for them them and not just us as the
ministers to do the work of Christ and build up the church,
the body of Christ. So it's always about that
equipping of others who will equip others that two Timothy 2
verse 2, making disciple makers.So that essentially is the core

(05:27):
of what Elim ordained ministry is about.
It's not just doing the work of the ministry ourselves.
You will be involved in that, but it is about equipping others
to be able to do that themselves.
So Elim today, now these figures, these figures are
subject to change. So you might have heard a
different number on one or two of these already.

(05:48):
But when we prepared this beforeit had to be sent in, these were
the numbers that that we had. So Elim today is 442 churches.
393 of those are EFGA or Elim Foursquare Gospel Alliance
churches which mean they come under 1 central charity as the
Elim movement. But then there are 49 Elim

(06:09):
Network or ECI churches who are self governed but are part of
the Elim family and connected inwe currently, and again, this is
based on when this data was done, we have 658 ministers in
the Elim church. 524 of those are men and 134 women.

(06:30):
Of those, 105 are ministers in training or MIT.
So if you hear MIT discussed, it's short for minister in
training, 67 of those are male and 38 are female.
So you can see in that, that first pie chart up there across
the board, there's about 80% male ministers in Elim, but in

(06:50):
ministers in training, that figure is shifting.
So it's about 2/3 now, male and female.
So Elim is increasingly a movement that is open to the
leadership and ordination of women.
And so again, if that's something you think, oh, I'm not
sure how I sit with that. That is something you'd be asked
to interview. Phil will talk a bit more about

(07:11):
the interview process, but thereare a number of things that you
need to think about. Is Elim the movement for me in
terms of stepping into ordained elim ministry?
Over the last three years, 90% of those who've gone through the
application interview process have been accepted. 30% of those
were women and 90% of people were stationed to, to the church

(07:34):
from which they applied. So they're based in a, a local
church congregation and most people, the overwhelming
majority, have gone back to, to serve in that local church.
Now there's nothing wrong with that, but if we are serious
about the call to extend the Kingdom of God in the UK and
beyond, some of us are going to need to not go back to our own

(07:57):
local church and stay there forever more.
But be willing to say, Lord and Elim, will you send me wherever
there is need? So I would want to encourage
you, if you feel that the call to Elim ministry in an ordained
sense is for you, pray about being open to being moved
elsewhere because there is a mission to be done in the UK and

(08:19):
beyond. You've heard Mark say that there
are towns and cities where thereis not an Elam church in the UK.
And if we believe in the call and the mission and the service
that we have to give to God for the sake of His Kingdom in the
UK, there's going to need to be more of us who are willing to
take that step and possibly moveelsewhere.

(08:39):
So I'm going to introduce you toa couple of our ministers who've
been through this pathway very recently.
They've got about 5 minutes eachto speak at the end.
There will be about sort of 1015minutes for Q&A.
So if you've got any questions you want to direct specifically
to them at the end, that will befine.
So Dan, Dan, Isaac, can I inviteyou to come up and share with us

(09:01):
for a few minutes, tell us a bitabout who you are and your
journey as Newland minister. Absolutely, yeah.
Thank you, Jenny. I'm going to put that there so I
don't speak too long because Jenny will shoot me if I go on
for too long. So good afternoon, everyone.
As Jenny said, my name is Dan. I'm married to Bobby who is sat
over here. And really my story in relation
to ministry is that I did not grow up aspiring to go into

(09:25):
ministry. I grew up attending a wonderful
Elim church in Swansea. But after I'd finished with
school and college, I went to work for my dad in our family
business, which he runs and really enjoyed the job.
And really the plan was that eventually when he retires, I
would take over the business. And so as far as I was

(09:46):
concerned, I I had my career allmapped out and a pastoral
ministry just was not in my thinking at all.
But over the course of time, I began to receive some
opportunities to preach at various places as well as
locally at our home church as well.
I discovered that preaching was something that I really enjoyed

(10:06):
doing. But to be honest, I still didn't
feel in any way that ministry was for me.
But over the course of time, what happened was that a number
of people, lots of people started to tell me that actually
the recognized something of the call of God on my life and you
know, that I should consider going into pastoral ministry.

(10:27):
And it strikes me, and actually this has been mentioned the last
couple of days in our sessions, that sometimes it's those around
us who notice that in US, even if we don't initially see it
ourselves. And so if you're just at that
place of still discerning whether or not ministry is for
you, then I would encourage you.Of course, you do need to reach
that place where you recognize that call of God on your life to

(10:49):
go into ministry for yourself. But I'd also really encourage
you to pay close attention to those around you, what they may
be seeing and sense in, even if it's not something that you
necessarily see in yourself straight away.
And that is exactly how it happened for me.
And off the back of that, I decided to do some studying in
Regents Theological College. I did the the MFC course, the

(11:12):
ministry foundation course there, which Phil or Jenny may
touch upon later on. I completed that.
I applied for the ministry and there was a moment after I
applied IA few months later received some communication to
let me know that I would be having my interview and to be
honest there was a moment where doubt started to creep in for

(11:35):
me. Not doubt about my calling, but
just about the timing of it all.Bobby and I at the time were
were expecting twin children andI suddenly thought, Oh my
goodness is what on earth have Iis this crazy?
You know, I'm potentially going to be starting MIT as a
volunteer. I knew that that would be the
likely starting place for me. And so I'll be working still my

(11:57):
other job alongside my dad and you're raising small children,
being a husband and so on and soforth.
And so I thought, you know, how on earth am I going to find the
time to do all of this? But it was during that time that
I chatted with a good friend of mine who is also an Ealing
minister. It happens that he began his
ministry trading in very similarcircumstances to myself.

(12:20):
And he said to me, Dan, there will always be a reason to delay
this. But if you have recognized the,
the call of God on your life to go into ministry and you've just
got to go for it and trust God that he will help you to
navigate to any challenges as and when they arise.
And so that is exactly what I did.

(12:40):
And our story is that we went for it, I applied, I was
accepted. And it's been a tremendous
journey. And God has helped us.
He he has strengthened us throughout the few years,
particularly those three years of the MIT process.
Everyone who goes through MIT has a mentor who just helps them
through that journey. I had a brilliant mentor who

(13:02):
held me accountable and helped me to make sure that I was using
my time wisely and getting the balance right.
And another part of the, the MITjourney is that we have a
portfolio which we work through,which can cause some people
worry and anxiety, but I found that very manageable.
And essentially what that portfolio is, is as you go

(13:23):
through your three years, you just reflect, you journal on
things that you're doing, ministry experiences that you've
had, mistakes you've made and lessons you've learnt.
You put all that in your portfolio.
And I just set time, time aside twice a month, even just to, to
work through that. And by the end of the three
years, I had a nice full folder and there was no stress.

(13:47):
And so by the grace of God, we, we managed that.
We got through it. I began, I did 18 months of MIT
in our home church. I then spent a brief time at
another church locally. And then I, quite surprisingly
really, my Elim regional leader,invited me to take up a paid
part time post over in the SouthWales Valleys pastoring a church

(14:08):
there called Cannon Valley Church.
And so we moved there in October2023 and Bobby and I remained
there and we are having a wonderful time there.
And so I just want to encourage you that the journey has been
excited. I also want to say that when I
applied that I, I didn't really know what, how things were going
to unfold. It was quite uncertain what my

(14:31):
ministry journey would look like.
But we just took a small step offaith.
And, and that has been the journey, continually taking
small steps of faith as and whenwe have recognized the prompting
of the Holy Spirit, we continue to follow his lead.
And it's been a really exciting journey.
And so that's it from me. I can see Jenny's looking at me,
so I'm all done. So I thank you so much for

(14:52):
listening. I'm going to hand over to Alicia
now, who's just going to share for a few minutes.
Thank. You.
Well, I'm Alicia. My journey is a little bit
different. Can I just ask before we begin,
how many of you are feeling quite pulled into ministry?

(15:17):
Let's hope we seal the deal. So I felt exactly that way but
didn't know what that was. I don't come from a background
that is ministry background. I come from a household that is
from 2 parents who are Christians.
Can anybody else relate to that?Open a saved household.
See, we don't all come from a background where everybody's
ministers and that can put you on your back foot because you

(15:40):
can be thinking, I don't know many people.
Well, I'm here to tell you when God's got a plan for your life,
he's got a plan for your life. I don't come from a background
that is hugely academic. I am a Romany Gypsy.
I have very limited schooling and I don't want to go on too

(16:01):
much about that because that's ahuge part of my journey.
But what I do want to tell you is for me to get a degree was a
big deal. Only God's grace could have
carried me through that. I'd like to read to you just
before I continue a scripture that I kind of hold to in my

(16:22):
life. And it's an Exodus 2.
And it says, then his sister asks Pharaoh's daughter, should
I go and get one of the E Bruinsto nurse the baby for you?
Yes, go, she answered. So the girl went and got the
baby's mother. Pharaoh's daughter said to her,
take this baby and nurse him forme and I will pay you.

(16:43):
So the woman took the baby and nursed him.
When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh's daughter
and she and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying I
drew him out of the water. Well, the drawing out sometimes
doesn't make sense. The drawing out of where you are

(17:07):
doesn't always make sense. And that's what it felt like for
me. I went from not knowing very
much to all of a sudden no qualifications to going into
Regents and going on that journey to go on and getting a
degree. I met my husband in Regents who
is also an all day minister alongside me, went through that

(17:29):
journey together. We moved initially and then
COVID hit and then we moved again and now we're in Telford.
The journey in MIT, Let me tell you, just like Jenny has said,
yes, you do get a credential, but let me tell you isn't all
glamorous. This is where the calling comes
in. This is where the leading and

(17:50):
the drilling outcomes in becauseyou don't always get an
automatic salary. You don't automatically get
those things, but what you do get is a fulfillment that you
stepped into God's perfect will for your life.
It doesn't make any sense, and that's what I'm here to say.
It doesn't make any sense and sometimes it still doesn't make

(18:12):
any sense in ministry now and just sometimes I just don't try
and make sense of it because youcan't make sense sometimes of
heavenly realms. Some things are not for us to
know. It's for us to trust the
process. And if you're here today to look
for a good script and a good reason why you should step into
the ministry, I haven't got one for you.

(18:33):
But what I have got is if you know that God is calling you and
he is drawing you out of the situation that you are in, maybe
just trust him. Just trust him.
So that's what I would like to say.
Trust Him, trust where you are at in your current
circumstances. And I'd also like to say that

(18:56):
when you step into who God's called you to be, there was a
release on your life, things just start to make a bit of
sense. So I am now currently the
assistant minister at Telford and I also continue to work with
youth and young adults. I'm on maternity leave as we
currently stands for not doing very much at the moment.
But I just want to encourage youto encourage everybody who's

(19:19):
here. If I, who had no educational
background, if I, you have very limited understanding of certain
things, if I can step into who God has called me to be, if
that's what God wants for you, so can you too.
So I just want to leave that with you.
Thank you. Let's give Dan and Alicia a

(19:42):
round of applause. Thank you.
Cool. There's no such thing as a
typical Elin minister. And if you're sat here thinking,
oh, I'm not sure I fit them all,there isn't 1.
There are some things that Elam ministers need to do and there
are some ways in which particularly the training
pathway and the application process is shaped.
But everybody is a unique individual because all of us are

(20:04):
needed within the Kingdom. So don't let that.
And you'll have heard a few people speaking about this
earlier, that talk in your mind that says this isn't for you.
If that's a God thought, then fine, but often that's not.
That's either our own words or voices or that of others,
sometimes even of the enemy. So, so, yeah, in in this kind of

(20:24):
moment here and in this weeks and and months ahead, do be
praying. God.
Is this something that you want me to step into?
And, and as Alicia has said, often it doesn't make sense.
It really doesn't. So before Phil comes up to talk
a bit about the application and selection process, it's going to
give you a few kind of headlinesaround the Elim ministry and Dan
Alicia have touched on these a little bit.

(20:47):
Elim does not guarantee you a job for life.
If you've come in thinking, oh, this sounds like a great career
pathway, this is training and development.
I can kind of move on up the ladder and maybe I'll get to
seniors, you know, super senior past the level, or I might get
to speak on the Els stage at onepoint.
It doesn't work like that. This Is Us effectively, you
know, being conscripted into a different kind of army and

(21:10):
saying, Jesus, send me where youwill.
You know, if if you step into eland ministry, there is
sacrifice involved, you know, there'll be some cost to
training. There may be some different, you
know, realigning of your priorities in your family life
if you have immediate family. So you are not guaranteed a job
for life. This is not a career pathway.
There are amazing opportunities that you would not get to

(21:31):
experience in in any other way, shape or form, but it is
primarily a service to the Kingdom and people of God.
Eland ministers are not employed.
So you are actually an office holder and and you receive
remuneration. So you don't get kind of a
guaranteed salary. Essentially you are, you might

(21:52):
have heard this phrase, paid from the plate.
If if enough money does not comein in the offerings.
As an inland minister, you are the last to get paid.
The priority is, you know, all the other bills that need to be
paid, any other sort of salariedemployed staff, because you are
there to serve and actually we give it as a as a sacrifice

(22:12):
first. So, so, so you don't have the
same kind of employment rights and protections.
Some people get a little bit panicked about that.
If you've got further questions,we can either unpack that a bit
at the end or we can chat to Phil or I at the end.
After that. She won't go into like all the
technicalities of that. But this is, this is not a job.
You are not an employee. You are an office holder who is

(22:33):
released in order to be able to serve the Kingdom of God.
You are stationed to serve in a local church.
So again, you, you are not, you're not necessarily once
you're in a church, that's it forever unless you spectacularly
mess up the national leadership team or the local church
leadership could kind of descendtogether, you know, after a

(22:54):
period of time is, is this continuing to work?
Is this being fruitful? And sometimes there are
conversations where actually it,it, it's not, it's not at that
particular moment in time. Or it might be that you discern
that God is calling you somewhere else.
And that's a process that is alloverseen by the national
leadership team who station individuals at a local church.

(23:15):
So you don't get to put out multiple applications like you
would for other jobs and, you know, send out 2030 and see who
bites. The National Leadership Team
station individuals in local churches.
Elim ministers are not salaried centrally, so there's not this
giant pot of money within Elim. And then you know that that gets

(23:36):
paid out to your local church and they pay you as an Elim
minister. If you receive any finance from
your local church at all, it is all the finances that your local
church raises through its tithesand offerings.
And so there is no guarantee of a particular level of salary to
come out of here from the business meeting.
What was just being debated at that point was the potential

(23:58):
rise in the minister's remuneration scales.
But that is a recommended minimum.
And the truth is actually there are a lot of Elam churches that,
that can't afford to give even the recommended level to
ministers. So you you need to recognize if
you step into Elam ministry, there is no guarantee of the
minimum level of remuneration. Churches do what they can, but

(24:20):
ultimately it is it is a conversation between the
minister and the local church asto to how that works.
Couple of other things. And Elam ministers are expected
to uphold the requirements of the Elam Constitution.
If ever you're struggling to getto sleep at nights, you suffer
with insomnia, you know, a read through the Elim Constitution

(24:42):
will will help you no end. But in all seriousness, it is
the governing document of the movement.
It sets out the way in which that the movement operates, the
way in which, you know, as as ministers, we are expected to
uphold the foundational truths of the moment.
So that's essentially our statement of faith.
And again, if you are seriously considering, you know, entering

(25:02):
the Elim ministry, you need to have a look through Elim
statement of faith. So if there's something on
there, you think, oh, I'm not sure about that.
That's a conversation you need to have early so that you can
work. Actually, is this a movement I
feel comfortable in, in terms ofit's, it's statement of faith
and it's, it's core beliefs. But we also have the
professional ministerial guidelines, which which call us

(25:24):
as ministers to a higher level of ethics and behaviour and
submission to leadership and so on.
And we all know and sadly have heard even in our own movement,
you know, in in recent years, but certainly in the wider body
of Christ, not every minister, every Christian leader makes it
to the end of their leadership journey without having some

(25:47):
significant moral failure. And so the professional
ministerial guidelines set out for us the, the level at which
as a minimum we are expected to conduct ourselves as a
linministers. So again, if you are thinking of
applying, I would encourage you in the early stages of the
application process to have a look at that and and work out
actually is, is this something Ifeel comfortable adhering to.

(26:11):
So that's a brief kind of few headlines I'm going to write
Phil to talk to us a bit about the application and selection
process. Thanks, Phil.
Hi there. Right.
Well, I'm Phil and yes, I, I basically manage in this
process. So if you apply, you'll get lots
of emails from me and lots of emails to me.

(26:31):
And just to reassure you, by theway, if your questions aren't
answered in an hour today, that's all right.
I'm actually running this seminar again next week for two
hours. And I continually have phone
calls and emails from people even then asking me questions.
So it's absolutely fine to have lots of questions beyond this.
Don't worry about that. So in terms of the process,
where's the clicker thing? Have we got the Oh, that's all

(26:52):
right. It's just nip me clicker right?
There we go. So in terms of the process, I
think an important thing to recognise is before you even
start the process, this is what we're looking for.
We're looking for an active Ealing member of a church for at
least two years, or actually somebody who's been a
missionary, an Ealing missionaryfor at least five years or

(27:14):
somebody who has studied at Regents Theological College.
Why did we ask for one of those three things?
Because we want to make sure that people who apply for Elim
ministry are connected to Elim and understand Elim before they
even come into ministry. What we're not looking for is
just to give somebody a credential.
We, I do get emails and phone calls on a regular basis just
going, I'm from such and such. Yeah, maybe a church over in a

(27:36):
different country saying, oh, I'd just like to get a
ministerial credential, please. And I'm like, that's not what
we're about. We are looking to raise up Elim
ministers for the Elim movement.And so if you're not already
connected to Elim, I'm sorry, but that's already, you know,
door barred to you. And that's not to say that
there's no possibility of it, but we want you to connect with
an Elim church first. Now, I'm assuming, to be honest,

(27:56):
that's a given if you're here, but you know, it is a it is a
consideration. The other part of that is active
Elim member, because increasingly what we want to
make sure is happening is that we have people who are already
serving in their church in some way.
We have had at least one person who came to interview and they
hadn't really had much experience of preaching and they
were very nervous about it. And what we understand is that

(28:18):
we're not there to put you into a church and then you get all
your experience. Actually, we want people who are
already starting to show signs of leadership and developing a
leadership before they even cometo this process.
So what that means is do you already lead something in your
church? Have you ever preached in your
church? Would your pastor in your church
trust you with a small group of people?

(28:38):
Most of the people that come through and are successful in
the interview process are those people, the people who have
already had some experience of leadership.
Now that doesn't mean that you have to have done everything,
doesn't mean you have to plan tothe church and yeah, LED 10,000
people to Christ in Africa or something else.
Don't stress about that. It does mean you have to have
shown some sort of aptitude, some sort of capability for

(28:59):
leadership before you come to this process.
That makes sense. And then support of Elim pastor,
well, that is again, to make sure you're connected to Elim,
but also to make sure that your pastor thinks actually they're
not just blagging it. They're not just turning their
cup and telling us all this Packer lies.
And also that their pastor says,yes, we're happy to say that you
are suitable for ministry, but also ready for ministry.

(29:22):
You know, that you might think Iam God's gift.
And then your pastor might go, yes, you are God's gift, but
maybe not in this way, you know,and that's not to be derogatory
at all. OK.
What I'm trying to say is that if you don't have the support of
people around you, actually you won't make it on this journey at
all, that you have to have the support of people.
That includes people encouragingyou into ministry as well as

(29:44):
encouraging you through ministry.
So if you don't have that, that's support.
Again, it's just not going to happen.
We need to know that you are supported by your church before
you come in. Now there are occasions where we
have people who for whatever reason, their pastor says, I'm
not so keen. And yet we they're people that
we know in other contexts and we're like, actually, OK, well,

(30:06):
maybe if you go to another Eden church and kind of come in that
way, I'm not saying it's a complete barrier to you.
I know that there are circumstances where people, you
know, they're like, my pastor will not let me do anything.
But actually I really feel called it's still worthwhile
having the conversation with us.OK, So don't feel put off by
that. But for the most part, yes, you
want the pastor to agree and then completed theological

(30:28):
studies, which we'll get into a little bit more in a bit.
But actually what we're looking for is people who have studied
theology to some level. The baseline level for us really
is the Ministry Foundation certificate, which is what we
supply as Regents. So it's not a full degree, but
it's the things that we feel youneed to know to be a Pentecostal
minister. And that's a key part of it
because you can have studied in all sorts of amazing ways.

(30:50):
We've had at least one person who came with a Cambridge degree
and you think brilliant, but actually what they hadn't done
was studying with the baptism ofthe whole Spirit, and they
hadn't studied about, actually had to pass through the church,
and that had not been part of that lovely theological degree.
So even that person still has todo a little bit more study from
our point of view to make sure that we're ready for Pentecostal
industry, not just a good theology degree.

(31:12):
OK Right. So assuming all that stuff's
good. OK, So what we asked for, first
of all, you do a registration ofinterest.
That's essentially the start of the application form.
You give us your details, you tell us who you are, and that's
it really. OK.
And then you go to the exploringand the ministry seminar, which
actually is this, but me doing it over 2 hours rather than
doing it over an hour. And at the end of the exploring

(31:34):
ministry seminar, we then sit down and have a look at what
you've studied and say, right, OK, you've done the correct
amount of studies or actually wefeel they could do a bit more.
So we assess that based on that,you then get an e-mail.
The e-mail is either or please carry on applying or the e-mail
is this is what we feel you needto study before you can continue
to apply. OK, so that's where it says

(31:57):
possible further study. If you, let's assume you get the
e-mail saying you're ready to apply, we'll talk about it a
bit. But if you get the e-mail saying
you're ready to apply, we then ask you to fill out a bit more
of the application form, a bit more detail about your job
history and actually ask you forreferences.
So we ask you for reference fromyour pastor, a reference from a
church minister, from another church you know, and also a

(32:19):
Christian friend that's known you for a while as well.
We also ask you to do a doctrinal assessment.
This is a really key one where we ask you basically, what do
you believe? Why do you believe it?
And actually a really key thing we're looking for is how would
you explain it? So it's actually not just what
do you believe in a textbook type fashion, but if you are
pastoring a church and somebody asks you what's your opinion on

(32:41):
women and leadership or what is the Baptist and the Holy Spirit
or what do you think about divorce and remarriage?
It's not just that, oh, I can I can reel off a textbook message.
But actually, what is it you would say to that person at that
point? Yeah.
So it's a pastoral thing we're looking for as well as just a
theological answer. And in the doctrinal assessment,
I would say it's well worth making sure you know, Elam's

(33:03):
stance on women in ministry, baptism and the Holy Spirit is a
very key one. These are areas where people
sometimes fall down his. I'm just, I'm prepping you on
giving you some extra hints here.
Women in ministry, baptism and the Holy Spirit, Very, very key
issues. Other things that people, yeah,
I mean, there's all sorts of things that go on in there and
there's all sorts of questions there.
But I think make sure you're really understanding those
issues particularly and the evenfoundational truths, you know,

(33:26):
you need to make sure you understand those and that you
you're clear on what those are. And then the other thing we ask
you for, which isn't up there iswe ask you for a little
safeguarding things like a sort of pre DBS, basically just to
say, is there anything we shouldknow about before you go into
ministry? Once all that's gathered
together a bit that's not mentioned on there is those
things are all assessed. So actually we have somebody

(33:47):
from Regents who assesses the doctor on the questionnaire
often, Jenny, to be honest, as well as other people.
We have people who also look at your, your application as a
whole part of the interview selection team will look at your
application and say, OK, we're happy with this.
So once they've given it the rubber stamp to say yes, we're
OK to invite them to interview, we then invite you to interview.

(34:10):
The way the interviews work is we have three sessions usually
per year, sometimes 4, but usually 3 in March, June or
September, occasionally Novemberif we have enough people.
And those interview sessions are12 people per session maximum.
So essentially you are invited to the next available interview
session that has spaces free. So you might finish all your

(34:31):
paperwork, you know, in say February, but actually the next
available interviews are June orSeptember.
We just however that falls OK, so the biggest gap is if you
finish it towards the end of theyear, it might well be March
next year before you get invitedto something and before you come
to the interview, we ask you fora little video introducing
yourself. We also ask you to prepare a 10

(34:52):
minute sermon which you'll preach as part of that
interview. Again, we'll talk a little bit
more about that later and and there's a few other bits and
pieces of grass for you, but we want to know a few bits about
you. And then you come to the
interview days, which is a couple of days, residential days
in Malvern itself, where you come for an interview process
that is not just simply you being sat down in front of a

(35:13):
panel of people. That's how it used to be.
It was a little bit Dragon's Dento be on this.
You sort of sat down in front ofpeople looking very serious.
Now it's much more about a relational thing.
You're sitting down for meals with people as well as having
various interview sessions. And then hopefully on the back
of that you get accepted at interview.
But being accepted interview is not the same as being made a

(35:34):
minister. You actually then have to be put
in front of the national leadership team who then ratify
that decision and say they're going to station you somewhere.
And if you are stationed to the church, then you become a
minister in training. That sounds good.
I think I'll stop there. There you go.
OK. Thank you, Phil.
OK. So I'm just going to talk very
briefly about the theological studies element.

(35:58):
And we don't expect that everybody who comes to through
the Elim ordained sort of pathway is going to have a PhD
in theology. Some people are called to do
that, and we need more of those within Elim because we need to
have robust critical thinkers. But there has to be a baseline
level of theological understanding, which which we

(36:19):
need if we're going to be leading churches, growing
ministries, reaching nations, ministering to children and
young people. You know what we need to have an
understanding of? What does it mean that we're
saved by faith alone in Jesus Christ?
If we can't articulate that, if we don't understand that, how
we're going to be able to share the gospel effectively, how
we're going to be able to, to lead people in, in understanding

(36:42):
faith and moving forwards in their own journey and
encouraging others to. So the the baseline level as as
Phil has mentioned for theological studies is the
Ministry Foundation certificate which we run at Regents.
Some of you might hear a bit later on and will do tomorrow in
the session that we are actuallyhoping to broaden out a little

(37:03):
bit over the next couple of years.
Where the Ministry Foundation certificate is offered.
At the moment it's primarily offered in our site in West
Malvern in Worcestershire at theElam headquarters where Regents
is based and you physically comeon site for a teaching week for
a particular module. So that the the core things that
we need people to engage with interms of their theological study

(37:26):
is, is biblical interpretation. Do we understand the Bible and
what it says, how it came together?
Christian doctrine, which soundssuper scary and very, very
technical, but that's really thekind of foundations of our
faith. And what do we believe about the
Trinity? The nature of Christ,
justification by faith, you know, the end time, some of

(37:46):
those types of things. We look at Pentecostal worship
and practice. As Phyllis said, sometimes for
some people, even if they've done studies elsewhere, you
know, they might have done a theology degree at Cambridge or
Belfast Bible College, Baptist College.
Sometimes that's the bit of study that people have missed.
So occasionally people will be asked to pick up that module.

(38:08):
And then evangelism and apologetics, which is about
sharing our faith and being ableto engage with some of those key
questions that people have, which might be be barriers to
them for engaging in faith. And then there's a couple of
other optional modules that people get to choose from in
practical areas of ministry or engaging with the Bible.
So that's the foundation, the baseline level requirement.

(38:30):
If you have a theology degree from elsewhere or indeed you
come and do a theology degree atRegents.
And as you, again, some of you will have heard if you were
around last night, we are, if you are a lay leader here or a
spouse of a minister on MIT, we have a Centenary scholarship
offer at the moment. And so 50% of our undergraduate

(38:52):
fees, 25% of our postgraduate fees if you start this
September. So if that's something that
you're interested in, please do come and chat to us on the
Regent stand or have a word withme afterwards.
We would love to engage with youon that.
So you can gain the theological studies requirement that way.
So if that's something that you you need to do, if you were to

(39:13):
start the undergraduate degree with us in autumn, you would
need to have the application in by the end of July and it then
starts in September. We have an interview process
that we go through as part of that.
And there's loads more detail onthe Regents website.
We have some little booklets available here and on the
Regents stand that give lots more detail about the undergrad,

(39:34):
postgrad programs and the MFC. So do feel free to come and grab
that from me either at the end or for any of the guys on the
stand. The fees for that are more
expensive. Most people if they haven't done
undergrad or postgraduate study before would be eligible for
student loan funding. And then we, we have our MFC and
that runs with three entry points per year in Malvern and

(39:57):
you'd need to apply by Septemberif you want to do that.
The cost is less for that, but there isn't any student loan
funding attached to that. So do check us out on the
Regents website if there are other things that you know
you've got questions about. We do have some open days coming
up. Again, that's the details for
those are on the back of the centenary flyer.
So do chat to me at the end if you've got any more questions

(40:17):
about theological studies. I'm going to hand back to Phil
to take you through a bit more of the application process.
Thank you, Jenny. What have we got here?
OK, so MFC, if you're doing the MFC, what we're looking for is
that you've done at least two modules before you can start the

(40:38):
application. Really.
So you can you do your MFC, we can start the actual full
application process. Once you've done your next two
modules, you're then eligible for interview, OK.
And then you can finish your final two modules while you're
doing the administering trainingprogram.
Does that make sense? Don't worry if it doesn't make
sense. You know what, you're not going

(40:59):
to pick up everything from this.You can always ask us questions
afterwards, that's fine. OK, So when we are going through
the whole process, what we're looking for from you is we want
the application form and references.
So obviously, as I said already,we're asking for references from

(41:19):
your pastor. We're asking references from a
minister that you know, asking references from a Christian
friend that you know. When we're asking your pastor,
if you say that you are wanting to be stationed in the church
that you come from, then we'll ask them some additional
questions. If they also say yes, we want
you stationed there. So for you to potentially be

(41:40):
stationed in your home church, essentially you have to say, say
I want it and your pastor has tosay I want it.
And then we can say I do. It's not a marriage.
That's right. What we do is actually we ask a
few questions about are you actually going to be able to pay
this person? If there's a salary required,
how are they going to support themselves if you don't pay
them? Are you going to pay a pension
for them? All these other questions that

(42:00):
we want to make sure that you are looked after.
So sometimes even if you're desire is to be stationed in
your home church, and even if the pastor says we want you in
your home church, that's not always the best thing for you.
We have had Mits where they've absolutely desired to be
stationed the church and when they get there, what they're
left doing is maybe filing paperwork and so on and not
necessarily doing all the thingsthey could be doing as an MIT.

(42:23):
So from our point of view, what we don't want is for you to
spend three years just kind of doing odd jobs and being the
general dog's body. We want you to get a full
experience of what it is to be an Ealing minister.
So we ask all those questions from your pastor as part of that
reference. The doctor on the questionnaire
I've talked about already, self declaration form, is that
basically making sure that you're all right and there's

(42:45):
nothing that's going to come up on the DBS if we ask that?
Obviously if it's if you're in Scotland, there's a different
system for Scotland. If you're in Ireland, it's a
different system for Ireland. But we need to make sure we go
through those checks with you wherever you come from and
that's it about all the references.
That's fine. So pre interview, yeah, there's
a couple of little short online courses. 1 is about basically

(43:07):
understanding elim in terms of its future, and the other one is
about understanding elim in terms of its past.
Some people really kind of skip past those.
And it's funny because I don't know if you've been to a lot of
different job interviews, but ifyou go to any professional
interview, most of what you would do or a lot of what you
would do is research who that organization is before you go
because that's just part of doing an interview.

(43:28):
But it's amazing how many peoplekind of just skip past that as
if it's not important and turn it with almost no idea about
elim's history or future. So don't do that.
That's a daft thing to do. Make sure you turn up
understanding a bit about Elim before you turn into interview.
Just do that. Otherwise you're not going to
get through personal statement video that is just basically

(43:49):
saying who you are. Some of the best ones are the
funniest ones. Don't feel they have to be like
super serious. I'm not don't mean crack a joke
every 5 minutes, but actually sitting there with your family
on the sofa is absolutely fine. We've had people talking about
their sports that like to do it.This is not digging deep into
your theology. This is who are you as a person?
One thing I would just mention, we've had people who sometimes

(44:11):
go all they talk about is churchand all they can talk about is
church. And you think, well, that's what
I want from a pastor, don't I? Well, actually, that's not
necessarily the case. What we want is people who are
rounded. I don't be rounded like me,
although you do see a lot of eeling pastors my shape.
What I mean is people who have abit more of a rounded
understanding of the world, who have interests outside of the
church because that's healthy. OK, so when we're asking for

(44:33):
your personal statement video, don't really have to make it
some deep theological thing. We actually want to know who are
you? What are your interests, what
are your hobbies? Who are you beyond just, you
know, being somebody in the church, OK, 10 minute sermon.
You are not evangelising the people that you're talking to.
OK, So they are saved. Don't worry about that.
I think they're saved either wayon few of them maybe.

(44:55):
No, no, no, they are all saved. That's fine.
And so actually your sermon is really just an example of how
well you preach. How well do you communicate?
Obviously I didn't impress him, so that's why he's gone.
How well do you communicate? And they want to know basically
your notes as well. So you bring along your notes
and they look through your notesjust to kind of follow along to

(45:16):
see how do you write out your sermon as well as how do you
preach your sermon. OK.
And you book accommodation, which again is relatively
obvious, but yes, you're coming to Malvern.
So unless you live right on the doorstep, then you need to book
some accommodation. You don't actually have to stay
at Malvern if you do live close by, but you do need to be there
for two days. So most people book
accommodation and it's actually quite nice.

(45:37):
If you haven't been to Malvern, the Conference centre's lovely
and it's a good breakfast. So yeah, you'll be good and we
feed you for the rest of the time you're there.
OK, selection interviews, right?So yes.
So you stay there for a couple of days.
It says 24 hour. I mean, it's basically two days.
So you turn up, it's usually a Tuesday and 1/2 day for a
Wednesday, sometimes a Wednesday, 1/2 day for a

(45:59):
Thursday. So you go home halfway through
the 2nd day. You have some discussion groups.
So you first thing you do is discuss some scenarios.
You're talking about things thatactually happens to other people
in churches. I've submitted some other people
have submitted some discussion scenarios.
So what would you do in this scenario?
And you talk about it. And at that same time, if you

(46:20):
bring your spouse with it, and Ishould say this is very
important. If you are married or just about
to get married, bring that person with you because nobody
goes into ministry as a couple and it's just the pastor who's
affected by that as you will, I'm sure, say that if you're a
married couple in ministry, bothof you end up involved in some
own way. That doesn't mean you both have
a platform ministry. It doesn't even mean that your

(46:41):
spouse will. This will be doing any role in
the church whatsoever, but what you do at church, you will bring
home. Ministry is a whole life thing
and you cannot do that without involving both halves of the
couple. So ideally we want spouses,
partners, you know, to be there so that we can interview both of
you. So that's the key thing.
And there's a separate discussion for those spouses

(47:03):
about what it's like to be a ministerial spouse.
And then a 10 minute presentation.
I think I need to reword that. It's a, it's the sermon.
People get very hungry. It's a, it's a sermon.
So you preach the sermon and then you chat to the interview
group. And then on the next day you
have a 45 minute interview. And in between we just kind of
spend time together, have some food, have a nice chat.

(47:25):
I did call it Phil's holiday club this time.
Maybe that's not quite appropriate, I don't know.
But we have a nice time. You know, if the weather's good,
there's even the swimming pool. It's quite nice.
So you can walk through the grounds.
It's have a swim. And then based on those two
days, the people have interviewed you.
We all talk together. And then as I said, they make
the recommendations to the national leadership team who
actually are mostly the same people anyway.

(47:47):
And then they kind of go, Oh yes, that's good.
This person could be there, thisperson could be there.
And based on what you've asked about stationing, a lot of
people now do go back to the church they came from, but
that's not actually our ideal. So if you are thinking about
ministry, please think about being able to move and we look
at where you could be and then hopefully get stationed in a
church. Now that part of it.

(48:08):
So after the interviews, you usually you're waiting for the
next NLT meeting, which is usually a couple of weeks
afterwards. So you probably won't hear for
about two or three weeks after the interviews.
And then of course, if they don't actually have anywhere to
put you, that could take longer.So we have had people who have
been accepted and it's been another year and a half or so

(48:29):
before they're even put to the church.
That, you know, is not guaranteed.
So just so you know, there can be a waiting period, but for
most people, that's not the case.
For most people, there's some sort of idea about where you
could go. And if you're willing to be
flexible where you can go, well,that opens up all sorts of
opportunities for you. Right.
So this is now getting on to what you do as a minister in

(48:51):
training. So I then look after the
ministers in training as well, which is for most people a
three-year programme. It's not exactly 3 years.
So it's based on you coming to the minister and training
conferences which are at Malvern.
Yeah, good. Take a photo.
Well done. He's done very well over there.
You can take photos if you want to, but I can give you these
things as well. So the ministering training

(49:11):
programme basically goes over three years.
You 3 MIT conferences and you come to Malvern for those
conferences. They're a brilliant conference
about this. And at first you might go, oh,
it's another conference I have to come to.
But actually by the time you getto the third one, you're
thinking, oh, can't I come to anymore?
No, you can't. Once you've done three, that's
it, you're done. And they're so good that most
people say they, they wish they could come to some more.

(49:33):
So I have the privilege of goingto as many as I want now.
So they go, I also have to organise it.
So it's a bit of a pain, but youknow, it's good.
And so you come to the MIT conferences and you're also
doing these various different. I'm going to get onto this next
slide. Yeah.
So you come to the MIT conferences, which are in June.
You're also submitting quarterlyreports.
So every three months you're basically feeding back to us at

(49:55):
head office how you're getting on.
Now for us, that's a really goodpastoral check on you.
What that means is we don't actually have face to face
contact with you for most of thetime over the year apart for the
MIT conference and Elam Summit. So what we want to know is how
are you getting on? Not just how is your ministry,
but how is your marriage? How are your finances?
You know, is everything OK? So it's an opportunity to

(50:18):
feedback and go, oh, actually there's some issues here.
It can even be I have issues with the the person who's
supposed to be supervising me. And so you can feed all of that
back to us. And the person who is
supervising you doesn't immediately read that.
Actually it's read by separate persons.
So you have the opportunity to say actually there's some issues
going on, or you can say it's going fantastic, which is what

(50:38):
most people say. And that is an MIT coordinator
who looks after you for the whole time you're there.
You also have, as I just alludedto, a supervisor who's trying to
make sure you're doing the competencies, which I'll go back
to in a second. And you also have a mentor,
which is somebody who's talking to you maybe about more pastoral
stuff as well. So the supervisor is making sure

(50:58):
you're doing the stuff that you need to do for the MIT.
The mentor is making sure that you're pastorally OK and
developing. And the MIT coordinator is there
is basically a sounding board and just as a bit of a check, a
sort of interface between you and us, but you can also talk to
the department as well. And then as we've got Elam's

(51:20):
summit, so you're required to come to Elam's summit, which is
this fair enough, MIT conferencein June.
And you have to attend three of those, otherwise you're not
going to get ordained. You do your quarterly reports
and we do make sure that we check who's turning those in
late. So please don't be late on that,
even though every single time there are people who are late to
it, please don't be late with those.
And then the big thing that people have already alluded to

(51:41):
is the portfolio. So the portfolio going back into
this, go back a step. There we go.
There are 8 different competencies that we want to
make sure that every minister intraining understands.
So over the course of your threeyears, we're trying to make
sure, do you have good biblical and theological understanding?
Do you understand much about mission and evangelism and so on
and so forth? A lot of people get themselves

(52:03):
tied up in knots about this because they think, Oh my
goodness, I can't possibly do it.
I have made it as simple as I possibly can.
So there is a little form that you can do just on your phone
and as you're doing things throughout your ministry, as
you're talking to people, havingleadership discussions, as
you're organising events, as youare just doing the do of
ministry straight away. Afterwards you can do a little
reflection on your phone and that gets submitted as evidence

(52:26):
for your portfolio. Sounds easy, doesn't it?
Tell all the other Mits that because they don't think it's
easy. OK, So, yeah, he's laughing
because he's, you know, right. But what happens is you tend to
get two types of MIT, the peoplewho do it as they go along and
the people who spent 2 1/2 yearsdoing ministry and then three
months panicking because they want to do all their portfolio

(52:47):
in that three months and they try to backtrack about
everything they've done. Don't be that person, OK?
Just do it as you go along. And it's not that hard.
And I will always help you with any evidence you need.
I will always help you sort of talk over ideas and we'll get it
done together. OK, I'll help you out.
It'll be fine. So we want to make sure that
you're doing all these things. That's all the different
requirements we expect from you,from ministry.

(53:08):
And your supervisor is there to make sure you get experience in
all those things. So your supervisor should be
providing you with opportunitiesto preach and to lead and to be
part of your leadership team to make sure that you're doing
outreach, admission and all those things.
Obviously you need to make sure you have some initiative in that
as well, but it's we expect the supervisors to be facilitating
this. OK.

(53:28):
So that's the supervisor's role from our point of view, that
they are giving you these opportunities and helping you to
develop in these different areas, right?
Assuming you do all of that and you do it all really well, then
what happens is you turn in yourportfolio after three years, we
look through it and go, right, have you done all the bits you
need to do? Have you shown evidence that

(53:50):
actually you've been not just busy?
Because that's what a lot of people think the portfolio is.
We don't want to look for busyness.
Have you developed, Have you grown as a person?
Have you changed from the personwho started the MIT to being the
person who finished it? If that is the case, then you
are then invited to an interviewwhere you will talk a little bit
about the portfolio, but you'll also just talk about your

(54:10):
journey. And hopefully on the back of
that you will be accepted to be put forward in front of the
conference here to say we think there should be a minister.
You then get voted for. So the whole business session
that's happening right now, we just did it yesterday where we
voted for the people who are being put forward for
ordination. So there's a chance for the
ministers to say, actually, we don't like their socks.

(54:32):
No, sorry, they can't go. I mean, that doesn't really
happen, OK. But there's there might be
options for the ministers to sayactually there's some reason why
we think that person shouldn't be ordained.
OK, don't get scared about that.But that's the kind of the
official thing that we need to do to make sure you're ratified
not just by a small group of people, but by the whole of
Elim, essentially. And so then if you are accepted

(54:53):
by the conference, you then get ordained, hopefully in a
ceremony a few weeks later where, you know, we ordained you
as a minister. But at that point, you already
have your full credential and you are then basically able to
pastor a church from our point of view.
Now, this does get brought up where some people want to come
in. I was asked a question already
today, multiple times actually. What happens when somebody comes

(55:17):
in as a chaplain or as a missionary or who else do we
attend to? Our evangelists as well.
So we do have chaplains, evangelists, missionaries and so
on who are Mits. This whole programme is still
quite church based, but we're trying to make it a little bit
more flexible so we can make sure that people are chaplains,
get a better experience with that, who are evangelists, get a
better experience and so on. But ultimately when you get

(55:39):
ordained, you are considered by Elim to have had the full
rounded experience that enables you to pastor a church.
So while you might feel called to chaplaincy and you want to be
ordained for that, you still need to get the church
experience in there as well. Because what we can't say is you
are ordained as a chaplain and only that, and you are ordained
as a missionary and only that. When we ordained somebody, we

(56:00):
ordained them to the Elim ministry in the full sense of
that. Does that make sense?
So don't worry if you've kind ofgot a specialism.
But actually, Stuart put it really well.
Just last year he said that if you're trained to be a doctor,
you start off as a generalist and then you specialized.
Yeah, you train as a doctor in the whole sense, and then you
decide you're going to be an earsurgeon or whatever you're going
to be. So actually coming through this

(56:21):
programme is a generalist training, but actually at the
end of it, you can then choose to specialized.
Does that make sense? Everybody cool, right.
I think I've talked a lot and it's time for Jenny again.
So there you go. She's much better.
Than that. Thank you very much, Phil Thank
you. OK, OK, we've got a few minutes
for questions. Now if anyone does need to dash

(56:44):
as soon as it gets quarter past because you've got another
session to be out, do feel free.We can take this slightly,
slightly over, but there will beanother session in here.
So if you've got individual questions we don't get time to
answer in this session, we will make ourselves available outside
afterwards. So yes Sir, in the middle and
nice and loud for us. Yeah, self supporting ministers

(57:07):
or by vocational ministers. So this this whole process that
we've talked through this afternoon is, is the same
whether you are remunerated by your church or not.
The expectation is that during the MIT journey you do a minimum
of I think is it 1212 hours in alocal church ministry setting

(57:29):
per week. So some people will be paid by
their church for that. Some people, people won't.
So it is possible to do the MIT journey even if you're not paid
by your church at all. And increasingly that's
happening because there are in, you know, numbers of ministers
in local churches or the the waythat churches want to excise

(57:51):
their ministry is to allow several part time staff.
So for a number of people, they will not be full time doing this
process. They might be bivocational, Co
vocational, they might be doing a job that's related to their
ministry. So they might be doing, you
know, a hospital chaplain role and serving in a local church,
or they might be doing another role working in a supermarket or

(58:12):
a school teacher that's not directly related to their
ministerial role at all. So it is possible to do the
ministering training journey whether you are paid by your
church or ministry context or not, but you need to be doing a
minimum of 12 hours per week in that setting.
Does that cover your question? OK, is that right?
Anyone else got a burning question?
Yes, over here. Yes, Yeah, great question.

(58:46):
So the question was should you start your your kind of
theological studies and then apply?
It's up to you. Doing the theological studies
does not guarantee that you willbe accepted onto the MIT
programme at all or that you will necessarily be ordained as
a minister. So very, very, very, very rarely
somebody will do some of their training in the expectation that

(59:09):
well, I want to become an eland minister, but they may not be
accepted by the ministerial selection board or national
leadership team. So I, I would encourage it not
for all of us doing theological training is never going to be a
bad thing. It's going to equip us and build
us up. So if you sense that this is
where God is calling you, whether or not you are accepted

(59:29):
as an eland minister in training, it's not going to be
wasted. So I would encourage you yet go
for it. Get stuck into the training
early. That is going to help you
regardless of whether or not youdo become an ordained minister.
For some people, they might think actually why?
I only want to make a start onceI've got through the
application, the first stage of the application process, but
fully explained it is a explained, it is a step process

(59:50):
anyway. So you cannot even apply until
you've done the equivalent of 2 Ministry foundation certificate
modules. So if you think you would like
to go this pathway, I'd encourage you to get on with the
theological studies early. But yeah, good question.
Thank you. Yes, Kelly and then Becca at the
back. Mm, hmm.

(01:00:24):
Yep. Yeah, good question, good

(01:00:55):
question. There's no automatic barrier age
wise to entering the Eland ministry.
If you're kind of late 50s, sixties, there might be some
questions asked why is it you want to do that at this point.
So it's not an automatic barrier.
So again, Stuart and and Phil and the team would would talk
that through early, but there there is no maximum upper age

(01:01:18):
limit in that sense. But if that's something you want
to ask Stuart or Phil about, do do feel free to but and again,
then whether or not you know, inany sort of formal pathway,
there are sort of limits in in the Kingdom of God, There are
not. So whether or not you become an
ordained dealing minister, thereis there is, there is no
retirement in the Kingdom of God.
So I would say some of you will go through this process and be

(01:01:39):
accepted. There might be some people who
who go through it and are not. That does not mean God does not
want you. It just means deal in ordained
ministry is not the context for you to serve.
A final question from Becca and then we'll need to formally wrap
up so the next seminar can get in and prepared.
But we will mark ourselves available in the sort of
mezzanine area there for any anyfurther questions.
Yes, Becca. Yeah.

(01:02:04):
So the stationing process, yeah.So essentially then NLT have two
lists, effectively ministers whoare or Mits who are looking to
be stationed to a church and a list of churches who are looking
for a minister or a minister in training.
So you don't get to kind of say,put ACV out to 15 different
churches and find out who's interested.

(01:02:26):
You let the NLT know I would like to be stationed somewhere.
They prayerfully discuss where do we think might be a good fit
for this person person? They will have a conversation
with the church and say, you know, we've we've got somebody
who we think might be a great fit and they will link you up
for the conversation. And then it's at a local church
level if they decide whether that seems like a good fit.
So it's the NLT who are the stationing committee.

(01:02:50):
I'm just going to pray to close and then we will formally wrap
up. And then the next seminar will
be getting prepared in here. But Lord, we thank you so much
for this opportunity to explore the Eland ministry together.
And Lord, I pray even over this last hour as hearts have been
stirred and you've been kind of raising up that expectation and
that vision for serving you in this little part of the Kingdom

(01:03:12):
of God that we serve in the Ealing Pentecostal Church.
Lord, I pray that you would givepeople faith to take the next
step that they need to, whether that's to commit to some
theological study, whether that's to get more stuck in at a
local church level in serving, whether it's to have that
conversation with their pastor about.
I feel this is what God is saying to me.
Lord, I thank you that there will be some in this room who go

(01:03:33):
on to serve as Elam ordained ministers.
But Lord, thank you that we all have a ministry to operate
within the Kingdom of God. And we thank you for the Elam
movement in which we currently get to serve our men.
Men bless you guys. Thank you so much.
If you want to chat to us more, we will be available outside.
We've also got some of the literature if anybody wants to
grab that. But thank you so much for

(01:03:53):
coming. Any further questions do e-mail
us. We're really, really happy to
talk more to you and hope to seesome of you guys at interview
and selection processes in the future.
Thank you.