This volume helps ministerial leadership students engage the tools of discernment while introducing the various roles that seminarians may pursue, including pastors, varieties of chaplaincy, clinical pastoral educators, academics, and nonprofit leaders. It is an ideal resource for seminarians, particularly during theological field education.

This volume helps ministerial leadership students engage the tools of discernment while introducing the various roles that seminarians may pursue, including pastors, varieties of chaplaincy, clinical pastoral educators, academics, and nonprofit leaders. It is an ideal resource for seminarians, particularly during theological field education.

Field education is an opportunity for students to develop ministry skills, practice ministerial reflection, discern their call, experience professional collegiality, and undergo personal transformation. Field education offers them a place to practice ministry and a space to reflect on it, to integrate theory and practice, and grow towards competency. In Welcome to Theological Field Education eleven directors of field education in seminaries and divinity schools across North America pass on their wisdom to both students and their supervisors. Edited by Matthew Floding, director of field education at Western Seminary in Holland, Michigan, this volume covers critical topics such as the art of supervision and formation, the use of case studies and peer reflection groups, self-care and ministerial ethics, and assessment. Formation for ministry is especially challenging at this time in the church's life. First, the explosion of knowledge, pluralism, and consumerism and a host of other complicating factors make huge demands on what a minister must know to be effective in ministry. Second, with the erosion of thick religious subcultures, the novice minister has fewer sources of practical wisdom to draw upon. The next generation of ministers, if they are to be more fully formed for ministry, depends on skilled mentoring alongside wise supervisors. This book is the tool to help them make the most of their field education experience.

This book is a companion volume to Engage: A Theological Field Education Toolkit (2017) and Mentoring: A Toolkit for Supervisor-Mentors in Theological Field Education (forthcoming). Both books provide tools that aim to help students engage in their formational learning through integrating theories and practices (Engage) or to support supervisor-mentors nurture practical wisdom in guiding students' journey in formational learning (Mentoring). This book is not a toolkit; it is a textbook on selected key learning theories or models that widen and deepen students' engagement and supervisor-mentors' mentoring. Its target audience, accordingly, is both students and supervisor-mentors.

As the second book in the Explorations in Theological Field Education series,Empower is a toolkit for mentors working with beginning ministers. Chapters from ministry practitioners and field education program directors offer lessons gained through hundreds of hours of mentoring experience. Seasoned practitioners reveal how to do the work of mentoring in ways that are "fitting" to the particular needs of students with whom they have worked. This volume, then, is not a cookbook or a manual. It is itself a mentoring guide to those who wish to deepen and expand the craft of mentoring. Its goal is to meet ministry mentors in their journey towards skillful mentoring, and to provide guidance and support to help them hone their craft.

This book is a companion volume to Engage: A Theological Field Education Toolkit (2017) and Mentoring: A Toolkit for Supervisor-Mentors in Theological Field Education (forthcoming). Both books provide tools that aim to help students engage in their formational learning through integrating theories and practices (Engage) or to support supervisor-mentors nurture practical wisdom in guiding students' journey in formational learning (Mentoring). This book is not a toolkit; it is a textbook on selected key learning theories or models that widen and deepen students' engagement and supervisor-mentors' mentoring. Its target audience, accordingly, is both students and supervisor-mentors.

As the second book in the Explorations in Theological Field Education series,Empower is a toolkit for mentors working with beginning ministers. Chapters from ministry practitioners and field education program directors offer lessons gained through hundreds of hours of mentoring experience. Seasoned practitioners reveal how to do the work of mentoring in ways that are "fitting" to the particular needs of students with whom they have worked. This volume, then, is not a cookbook or a manual. It is itself a mentoring guide to those who wish to deepen and expand the craft of mentoring. Its goal is to meet ministry mentors in their journey towards skillful mentoring, and to provide guidance and support to help them hone their craft.

Theological field education, in which a ministry student steps out of the classroom and begins practicing with the supervision of a mentor, is a critical part of accredited ministry programs. Engage equips both students and their supervisor-mentors to engage in this important opportunity with energy and imagination, and it prepares students for the challenging work of integrating theory into real-world practice. Engage provides coaching from recognized experts in the arts of ministry: preaching, administration, evangelism, pastoral care, public ministry, leadership, faith formation, liturgical arts and more. Other chapters address themes such as race, gender, and ministry across faith traditions (or no faith tradition). The book addresses field education in a range of contexts-from churches to non-profits. Engage offers a valuable resource for students making the most of their transition from the classroom into real world ministry with all its joys and many challenges.

Theological field education, in which a ministry student steps out of the classroom and begins practicing with the supervision of a mentor, is a critical part of accredited ministry programs. Engage equips both students and their supervisor-mentors to engage in this important opportunity with energy and imagination, and it prepares students for the challenging work of integrating theory into real-world practice. Engage provides coaching from recognized experts in the arts of ministry: preaching, administration, evangelism, pastoral care, public ministry, leadership, faith formation, liturgical arts and more. Other chapters address themes such as race, gender, and ministry across faith traditions (or no faith tradition). The book addresses field education in a range of contexts-from churches to non-profits. Engage offers a valuable resource for students making the most of their transition from the classroom into real world ministry with all its joys and many challenges.