Ministry Mentor Program

Please note: As of May, 2008, this site is no longer being updated.

Click here to visit the new seminary website.

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Please note: As of May, 2008, this site is no longer being updated.

Click here to visit the new seminary website.

Purpose and Objectives

As an aid to connecting classroom theory with practice, students will perform their practical ministry under the supervision of a personal mentor. Mentoring provides students an accountable way to report on their practical work each semester, and also provides them a unique opportunity to be personally influenced by a vocational minister whom they respect and admire. All M.Div. and Certificate students are required to participate in the Ministry Mentor program.

This program is not a curriculum-driven or formal design, but is intended to be flexible and highly personal. Three objectives are central:

The mentor provides supervision and holds the student accountable to be involved in practical ministry;
The mentor provides the student an opportunity to ask questions and discuss issues which might not come up in the classroom, providing a sense of what life in the ministry is really like;
The mentor provides guidance for the student's personal spiritual formation.

Mentors are individuals in vocational ministry whom students have come to respect. For men, mentors need not be senior pastors, but should be mentors of the ministerial team in the church selected as the site of each student's practical ministry service. Women may choose the option of mentoring under the wife of a pastoral team member or under a women's ministries leader in a local church. Mentors attend an orientation meeting at which the purpose of the program and the responsibility of a Mentor are explained and discussed. Students are responsible to find a vocational minister who will commit to mentoring them throughout their seminary experience by the end of the first semester at CBTS. A subsequent decision to change mentors must be made in consultation with and with the approval of the chaplain.

Program Requirements

The following meetings between student and mentor are required each semester:

An initial meeting takes place in the first or second week of the semester. During this meeting, the mentor assists the student in setting specific practical ministry goals for the semester and targeting areas where the student or mentor senses that more experience is needed. These goals and learning objectives are listed on a report form provided by the CBTS office.
Bi-weekly meetings throughout the semester provide opportunity for mentor and student to "re-connect," to evaluate how the student is progressing with the goals set in the first meeting, and to discuss any questions or issues which may have arisen during the performance of these ministry assignments.
A final meeting occurs within the last week or two of the semester. The student brings to this meeting a completed Semester Ministry Report (the same one on which the ministry objectives were listed in the initial meeting) along with a stamped envelope addressed to the CBTS office to the chaplain's attention. The mentor and student are to evaluate the semester of practical experience in light of the objectives listed at the beginning. The mentor then adds any personal comments and observations to the report form and mails it to the CBTS office.
Completed Semester Ministry Reports are reviewed by the chaplain and become a part of the student's permanent file. These will enable the seminary to assist the student in making future recommendations for ministry placement.

Please note: As of May, 2008, this site is no longer being updated.

Click here to visit the new seminary website.