Gain the theological training you need to grow as a lay leader in your congregation.
What You Will Learn
From preaching and teaching to providing pastoral care or designing worship, lay leaders serve their congregations in a variety of roles – often without the theological background or seminary degrees their colleagues may have. With the School for Lay Ministry, you’ll spend an entire year immersed in engaging course studies, new ideas, and a vibrant learning community of peers.
In the School for Lay Ministry, you’ll enjoy an immersive learning experience that includes:
- The focus and function of a sermon – from basic exegesis to the hermeneutical circle
- Pastoral ministry and congregational leadership
- Spirituality and Digital Culture
- Preaching at funerals – especially ones that feel challenging
- Biblical chronology, including the Pentateuch, creation, and matriarchs and patriarchs
- Church history, American Christianity, and the particulars of rural ministry
- …and so much more!
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What core practices will you engage?
During the School for Lay Ministry, you’re sure to connect with God and learn to tell the story of Jesus in new ways. Through the relationships you make, you’ll cultivate community that will provide support and encouragement as you practice justice and shift ministry models. It’s all happening in the School for Lay Ministry. Are you ready?
Rev. Marianne Ell, Missioner for Collaborative Ministry
The Rev. Marianne Ell has spent all of her 32 years in ministry serving in small and rural congregations, as well as in Chaplaincy positions in both a hospital and a retirement community. Her passion is in developing leaders and equipping them for the ministries to which God is calling them. Rev. Ell enjoys helping communities discover opportunities for mission and exploring possibilities for vitality. She received her Master of Divinity Degree from The Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, TX, and is currently working on a Masters in Organizational Leadership. Marianne and her husband live on a farm in Wittman, Maryland and have two sons and a daughter. She enjoys the outdoors and living near the water, grilling out with family and friends, traveling, exercising, and mowing grass (because she can see the lines). She is looking forward to building relationships in this learning community.