Lay servants--Please check with your District Director PRIOR TO REGISTERING to verify that you qualify to count this course as continuing education. Online courses may be counted as continuing education on the same basis as Alternative Advanced Courses.
Our standing policy is: “Online Courses may be counted as continuing education on the same basis as Alternative Advanced Courses can be counted (every other time a Certified Lay Servant completes continuing education for credit).” We are suspending this policy through the end of 2022. You may take an on-line class to meet continuing education requirements for Certified Lay Servant and Certified Lay Speaker without prior approval from your District Director. (Please remember that you must submit your certificate of completion of any on-line classes with your next annual report.)
Throughout the year, BeADisciple.com hosts a number of online courses. Some of these courses have been approved by Discipleship Ministries as an Advanced Course in Lay Servant Ministries and are designated by the logo "Learning and Leading." See http://beadisciple.com/layservantministries.html
Five of the six required Advanced Courses in the Certified Lay Speaker track of studies in the IGRC are among those offered online through BeADisciple.com. Preaching (either option) must to be taken in person and is not offered online. In the IGRC, individuals on the Certified Lay Speaker track may take up to four of the required courses online for credit. Preaching and one other (your choice) must be attended in person.
Since 2006, BeADisciple.com has been committed to providing quality, online educational experiences with roots in Wesleyan theology. They offer online studies, workshops and courses on a variety of ministry, formation and leadership topics. Their goal is to make rich learning experiences accessible to church leaders and laity, no matter their location or life situation.
BeADisciple.com is a ministry of the Richard and Julia Wilke Institute for Discipleship which is dedicated to providing educational opportunities that nurture and enrich Christian leaders–lay and clergy–for effective living and ministry. The Institute is an affiliated ministry of Southwestern College, a United Methodist institute of higher education founded in 1885 in Winfield, Kansas.
If you don't see the course you are looking for listed currently, check back periodically for updates. Contact Lisa Buffum if you have questions concerning BeADisciple,com.