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Sign up now for fall EFM Contact Jan Ragsdale
(665-8046) Education for Ministry
Every Wednesday evening a small group of souls meet in the Parish Hall at St. Matthew's, hungry with excitement to discuss and share their previous week's assignments from the EFM program they have become a part of EFM. Education for Ministry, is a program of study of the entire sweep of the Christian tradition from the earliest period to the present which includes the disciplines of biblical interpretation, systematic theology, church history, ethics, liturgics and ascetical theology. EFM is not simply an intense study of the Bible, but a program of study which provides an opportunity to discover how to respond to the call to Christian service and ministry issued to persons at their baptism. Send them forth in the power of the Spirit to perform the service you set before them. Developed at the University of South in Sewanee, Tennessee, EFM is an extension program of the School of Theology of the University. Groups are found throughout the USA and also Great Britain, Germany, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Italy, Switzerland, Honduras, the Bahamas and Hong Kong, a truly internationally accepted and respected program.
There are thirty-six meetings during each of the four years of study. The First year lessons concentrate on the Old Testament Hebrew Scripture; the Second year, the Christian New Testament; the Third year, the church and its passages from its beginning through the Industrial Revolution; and the Fourth year, nineteenth century developments and modern religious thought.
Through study, prayer and reflection the participants in EFM move toward a new understanding of the fullness of God's kingdom, preparing them for the ministry for which we pray at the end of the Eucharist: "And now Father, send us out to do the work you have given us to do, to love and serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord."
EFM is not as "heavy" as it sounds. It is truly something that its students look forward to in joyful anticipation each week. The bond that forms within a group is so strong that at the end of four years no one wants for it to end. But because of the new empowerment, and confidence imparted to us through EFM we can move on to do that work He has given us to do, knowing that we have support of our fellow EFM'ers. There is a feeling that we are like new disciples setting out on a new path, filled with zeal, anxiety, hope, and fear, but filled with desire to share the good news of His love for us through the gift of His Son.
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