EDUCATION FOR MINISTRY EPISCOPAL DIOCESE OF TEXAS
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Formation Events
FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MINISTRY OF THE LAITY
   
Mentor Formation Events

Mentor Formation Events are training events for mentors who have completed 2 Basic Mentor Training Events and have been approved as Formation Eligible.

Mentors who have successfully completed 2 Basic Mentor Training Events and 1 Formation Event are eligible to apply for Alternate Training. You must contact Sewanee in writing with a description of the event you plan to attend.


You are not Formation Eligible if:

You have not had an active EFM Seminar group in the last 12 months; or
You have not successfully completed a training event within the last 2 years.

The following events are the events currently offered through the EFM program for Formation Eligible mentors.

Advanced Theological Reflection
Group makeup: 1 trainer and 6 – 14 participants.
Purpose: To work with other mentors to integrate more deeply the function of theological reflection in the ongoing life of a seminar group. To explore the implications of the four-source model of learning, experiment with different methods of theological reflection, and find ways to “take home” the learnings to particular seminar situations.

As a result of this formation event, you may expect to:
• better understand the four-source model of theological reflection
• skillfully use several theological reflection methods
• develop a more confident and less defensive attitude toward groups or members who resist reflection
• articulate the purpose of reflection in the EFM program.

Design Skills
Group makeup: 1 trainer and 9 – 15 participants OR 2 trainers and 16 – 24 participants
Purpose: To learn to design seminar sessions that meet a specific need in the mentor’s particular seminar group, including guidelines for planning, administering, and evaluating designs.

As a result of this formation event, you may expect to:
• understand the steps involved in planning a seminar session
• use the actual situation of your seminar group as the basis for planning what will happen next
• become more confident in your own creativity and flexibility
• articulate your responsibility for the learning of your seminar group.

Equipping for Ministry
Group makeup: 1 trainer and 6 – 14 participants
Purpose: To understand lay ministry as part of the total mission and ministry of the church. To develop skills for equipping seminar members to exercise their ministries as the baptized people of God.

As a result of this formation event, you may expect to:
• to understand the ministry of the laity in relation to the ministry of the whole church
• to articulate the experience and understanding of ministering and being ministered to in the context of the church’s mission and ministry.
• guide EFM students to use the resources of the program – readings, parallel guides, common lessons, discussion, reflection, and worship – to develop their own understanding and practice of ministry
• encourage and equip students to discover and respond to God’s call in every aspect of their lives.

Experiential Learning
Group makeup: 1 trainer and 6 – 10 participants
Purpose: To increase the mentor’s ability to help seminar group members learn from their own experience and thereby take responsibility for their life together. This is achieved by learning basic theories of experiential education which will be tested and developed during our work together.

As a result of this formation event, you may expect to:
• understand the DO – LOOK – THINK – CHANGE cycle of learning
• enable your EFM seminar group to take responsibility for its own “life” by learning from its own experience
• discover the limits of your responsibility as mentor to provide the answers needed by your seminar members
• count on seminar group members to encourage and support one another in their education for ministry

Group Skills and Human Interaction
Group makeup: 2 trainers and 10 – 14 participants (registration fee may be adjusted to cover the cost of the second trainer)
Purpose: To refine our group skills through building community. To understand group dynamics as they relate to EFM groups. To become aware of group leadership skills and styles of human interaction. To gain confidence in using theories and learnings in our own situations.

As a result of this formation event, you may expect to:
• understand theories of groups life and development
• understand your own and others’ styles of human interaction
• apply group theory to foster community within your EFM seminar
• be comfortable with your own leadership style and flexible enough to use other styles when expedient
• describe your role as a mentor in realtionship to theories of group life and development

Living with Conflict
Group makeup: 2 trainers and 10 – 14 participants (registration fee may be adjusted to cover the cost of the second trainer)
Purpose: To enhance the mentor’s ability to be a point of God’s loving presence in the midst of conflict. This will be done by increasing the ways we can respond to the strong differences between people and by creating a community of support in which we can examine conflict in our lives.

As a result of this formation event, you may expect to:
• understand various sources of conflict - intrapersonal, interpersonal, intergroup
• identify ways in which people respond to conflict – denial, confrontation, capitulation, diffusion, compromise
• help seminar members find workable resolutions to conflict
• increase your ability to respond in the midst of conflict by reducing your own anxiety in conflict situations
• value conflict as a source of learning and an opportunity for deeper community within your group

Myers-Briggs
Group makeup: 1 trainer and 6 – 12 participants
Purpose: To explore and recognize, through use of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) categories and inventory, the varied talents and perspectives of different personality types and their relationship to group life and spiritual growth. Please note that this formation event does not certify the mentor to administer the MBTI instrument.

As a result of this formation event, you may expect to:
• explore the MBTI style of information gathering, decision making, and communication
• identify and experience ways in which the MBTI helps you increase your understanding of self and group dynamics
• be equipped to assess your seminar group’s strengths and weaknesses in MBTI terms
• explore the spiritual growth aspects of the MBTI for you and your seminar group

Power and Authority
Group makeup: 1 trainer and 6 – 14 participants
Purpose: To equip mentors to identify and explore the dynamics of power and authority in the life of the group. To identify and explore their own sense and sources of power and authority as mentors. To identify and explore “The Source” of all power and authority for themselves and the group. To assist EFM seminar members in identifying and exploring issues of power and authority in their ministries in the world.

As a result of this formation event, you may expect to:
• deepen your understanding of power and authority and source of power and authority in your own life and the life of an EFM seminar group
• explore the issues of power and authority in your life and the sources of that power and authority
• develop skills and resources for use in an EFM seminar group in order to assist member to identify and explore ways to exercise their own power and authority in their ministries in the church and in the world.

Spirituality of Mentoring
Group makeup: 1 trainer and 6 – 18 participants
Purpose: To experience and explore our own spirituality and draw implications for “mentoring” by having a time of refreshment and renewal. This is achieved through deepening our relationship with God and exploring resources for our spirituality.

As a result of this formation event, you may expect to:
• acquire resources to nurture the spiritual life of your group members
• use a variety of skills – silence, art work, forms of meditation – to open yourself and others to God’s presence
• deepen your aware of God’s presence in your own life
• understand your task as a mentor in the context of your relationship with God

Transformation in the Midst of a Changing World
In order to live creatively in the midst of our changing and diverse world, we will utilize the core EFM resources so that mentors may be equipped to identify, explore, plan and implement actions as we move through transitions to new life in the midst of change.

Maximum of 10 participants with one trainer
If more than 10 participants, at least two trainers

Training Objectives
• Provide opportunities for mentors to build awareness of change and transition in their lives.
• To use core EFM resources of theological reflection, stories and worship as the foundation of engaging change.
• Introduce transition theory.

WORSHIP
Purpose: To explore the interweaving of personal devotion and corporate liturgy in worship in order to equip mentors to develop their seminar groups as worshipping communities.

Results: As a result of this formation event you may expect to :
• Distinguish/articulate the relationship between personal devotion and corporate liturgy
• Acquire the “know-how” to design worship with seminar groups
• Use more fully the resources available through EFM materials (i.e. TR, CLSM and texts) for study and worship

6-10 participants, with one trainer