Discovering Your Call to Ministry

Discovering Your Call to Ministry will help you discover your call and gifts for ministry. During the course you will take a spiritual gifts inventory and explore your gifts for ministry, read how God called those in the Bible and consider how your call might be similar to theirs, and finally develop a clear statement of your call and gifts for ministry.

Your guide and facilitator is the Rev. Dr. Carl K. Ellis, an ordained pastor in the United Methodist Church, who has taught and mentored hundreds of lay persons moving into ministry. His goal is to help each person discover God’s call and gifts which will guide their ministry in the days, months and years to come.

This course is available as a 4-6 week online course with colleagues or as an independent study.

Course Objectives

1. Students will explore and be able to articulate their spiritual gifts for ministry.
2. Students will be able to share their call to ministry and identify a biblical theme that has informed their call to ministry.
3. Students will be able to understand the mission and ministry of the church.
4. Students will understand the varieties of leadership in the church.
5. Students will understand the steps into ministry.
6. Students will either develop a Mutual Ministry Team (if serving as assigned pastor to the local church/churches) or a Covenant Ministry Team if preparing to serve a local church or ministry beyond the local church.

Required Texts

Please obtain your textbooks before the course begins.

Bryant, Charles V. Your Spiritual Gifts Inventory. Nashville: Upper Room Books, 1997. (This pamphlet will be sent to you in the mail after your registration is complete.)

United Methodist Publishing House. The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church 2016. Nashville: The United Methodist Publishing House, 2016. You can also read the 2016 Book of Discipline online.