Continuing Education for Pastors

The church’s Vocational Development and Training Policy sets out the church’s expectation that all church workers have access to development and training activities that support the development of appropriate skills, knowledge and experience to enable and equip our people to fulfil the roles and offices they hold effectively and safely.

The church expects that all church entities encourage and provide for the planned, and other ad hoc, development and training of their church workers, this includes pastors. Appropriate vocational, professional, and personal development activities should be identified, planned for, and scheduled. The church also expects that all attendances at development and training activities are appropriately documented and recorded.

To support the lifelong education and development of pastors the College of Bishops oversee a program of Continuing Education for Pastors (CEP). This program is based upon the following principles:

• Theological education and pastoral formation are lifelong processes.
• The undergraduate studies that prepare for ordination into the ministry of the church provide the essential basic training for pastoral ministry, and these studies are neither exhaustive nor sufficient for a lifetime of effective pastoral practice.
• Preparation for specialist pastoral ministry (eg school, hospital, armed forces, prison, aged care and other chaplaincy; specialist leadership positions; teachers and instructors at ALC; etc) is a task usually and best undertaken as a postgraduate activity.
• The increasing complexity of contemporary pastoral ministry places demands upon pastors can be mitigated to some extent by appropriate pastoral self-care, an important aspect of which is the ongoing pursuit of study related to each pastor’s specific needs and interests.
• An effective program of CEP, therefore, enhances the ministry of the individual pastor, and is of benefit and blessing to the pastor, to the congregations and communities, which the pastor serves, and to the life of the church.
• Continuing education is an integral part of the pastor’s vocation (not as an added extra to, nor apart from, regular ministry), and therefore 40 hours of continuing education activities should be factored into pastors’ annual calendars.

More details of the program are available in the LCA Portal for those with access.