The weekly classes are being offered as part of a ministerial training effort from Ministerial and Member Services. The curriculum is currently made up of two classes: pastoral care and fundamentals of theology. The classes are each two hours long, given once a week.

The pastoral care class is a survey class including sessions on counseling, speaking, peacekeeping and more. Victor Kubik, Roy Holladay, Randy Stiver and Tony Wasilkoff and others take turns teaching pastoral care.

Donald Ward teaches fundamentals of theology, a more advanced and in-depth version of the class by the same name he teaches at Ambassador Bible Center.

The participants in this first round of classes are primarily new ministerial hires with no background from Ambassador College or University. There are also a few ministers enrolled with decades of pastoral experience to offer additional insight. Enrollment will eventually be opened for non-paid elders, as logistical considerations are solved.

The program was developed to fulfill the requirement for “qualified candidates for the ministry” as well as to “improve the quality and effectiveness of pastoral care in congregations” as outlined by the strategic plan. It’s designed to be a full-on university-level course of study, with homework, writing assignments, testing and more.

This project came about when Victor Kubik, Ministerial and Member Services operation manager, had a conversation with Donald Ward, who has a doctorate of education.

“I shared my dream about some kind of a training center with a curriculum, and he just came to life. He was so excited about wanting to help,” said Mr. Kubik. He put an announcement in the Ministerial and Member Services  eNews, which goes out every week to all the ministry, and got many responses from ministers offering to teach a class.

Ken Graham took on the responsibility of overall program coordination. Dr. Ward suggested a meeting to flesh out the program, so in June they had a 3-day workshop with everyone who would be involved. The first semester’s worth of classes were mapped out, and the second semester’s classes are being planned now.

The cost of bringing a group of ministers in for a full year’s worth of training would be prohibitively expensive, not to mention disruptive to those men’s lives. UCG’s ministers aren’t young singles. They have families and lives back home. Doing it online means that an entire month’s worth of training for 25 people costs as much as half a night for a single room at the Holiday Inn.

A collection of software products, including video conferencing software and online classroom software allows the classes to take place.

Future classes that will be added will be a gospels class and epistles of Paul. Each class will be tailored to what ministers can learn about pastoring from these topics. A standard certification for program completion will be given once a minister completes all the courses, no matter how long it takes. Flexibility is key in allowing any given person to fit it into his schedule.