Philosophy of Ministry

The School of Ministry (henceforth referred to as SOM) at Joshua Springs Calvary Chapel is designed to serve two primary functions: to equip the people that God is calling into full-time ministry, and to provide a strong foundation of personal discipleship in the lives of the students. Although we desire to see discipleship happening throughout the church, the SOM will provide a unique opportunity for a deeper kind of intense personal discipleship. It is important to note this focus, because not all graduates of SOM can be guaranteed a position in the full-time ministry upon completion of the school. However, those who are unsure of the Lord’s calling on their lives should still feel comfortable attending the SOM, because the benefits of this training will reach beyond personal vocation (intense discipleship is important for everyone). With these things in mind, the students of the SOM will participate in seven specific areas of training: The serious study of the Scriptures, practical ministry, local outreach, personal evangelism, small group fellowship, prayer, and personal discipleship. 

Areas of Training

 The Scriptures:

 Classroom Work:

The primary purpose of time spent in the classroom is to train the student in the Scriptures, teaching him not only what they say, but also how to study and understand them for himself. The focus of this time will be upon developing in the student a strong foundational understanding of the key doctrines of the Christian faith, and an understanding of the fullness of the Gospel message, through an intense verse by verse study of several doctrinally essential Books of the Bible. However, there is not enough time over the course of nine months to teach a student everything he needs to know about the Scriptures; therefore much of the time in the classroom will also be spent teaching students how to go about researching and learning these things on their own. The student should also expect to be drawn into personal participation in the class, as discussions, projects, research papers and the like will be the primary means of classroom training.

Homework:

Pastors and ministry leaders need to learn how to effectively “redeem the time” by living a focused and disciplined life, the primary goal of which is to know Jesus and make Him known. It is also important that they learn to cultivate a lifestyle of immersion in the Scriptures, including the use of key study tools such as concordances, commentaries, Greek and Hebrew dictionaries, Bible encyclopedias, and Christian literature. In order to develop this lifestyle, students will be given assignments which will force them to make use of these materials and to apply the study principles taught in the classroom. This way the SOM not only prepares them intellectually, but also fosters the discipline required for full time ministry. Students should therefore plan to set aside two to three hours for homework each night, on average. It is important to note that this does not mean that there will be a guaranteed minimum of two or a maximum of three hours per night; it means that on average there will be that many.

Practical Ministry

Each student will be required to serve thirty hours of practical ministry within the local church body per term. These thirty hours will be distributed among any of the various ministries one may find happening in a local church, such as the nursery, children’s ministry, the café, janitorial and maintenance services, and praying with people over the telephone. The goal of this aspect of SOM is to offer the student exposure to all of the different aspects of work that is done in ministry, and to ensure that each student walks away from the SOM with a good understanding of what is going on “behind the scenes” in the running of a healthy church.

Local Outreach

We also wish to equip students with the ability to serve outside the comforts of the church body by requiring that they take part in local outreaches.  In fulfilling this requirement, students may be called upon to visit jails, juvenile detention centers, prisons, rest homes and hospitals, and to take part in any of various community service events. The purpose of this element is to get the students to think outside of the confines of the church walls, and to remember that the great commission of the Lord was to “go” (Matt 28:19). 

Personal Evangelism

Personal evangelism is one of the most difficult tasks for many Christians to perform. In spite of our right to freedom of speech, even those who serve in ministry are often too scared, lazy, or apathetic to obey the Lord in proclaiming the gospel to the lost. However, the Church needs to re-learn the privilege and responsibility of personal evangelism; and as potential ministry leaders, SOM students need to not only know how to evangelize, but also how to teach and inspire others to do the same. For this reason, SOM students will spend time engaging in street witnessing, door to door evangelism, literature evangelism, and the like.

Small Group Fellowship

SOM students need to learn the dynamics of being a part of a church family. They need to understand specifically how to fellowship and “break bread” as the apostles did. To fulfill this purpose, a monthly home fellowship will be established in which the students will come together to share, worship, and fellowship with one another. There will also be periodic prayer retreats through which the students will get away to fast and pray corporately and individually.

Prayer

It is our conviction that prayer is the single most important discipline that a minister of the gospel has at his disposal; and yet, unfortunately, it is also the one most neglected. Therefore learning the disciplines of both private and corporate prayer will be a priority in SOM. As a class, we will pray daily for each other, as well as for the needs of the church body as a whole. Each student will also be expected to pray for at least one half-hour on his own and keep a journal of his prayer time, recording the things that the Lord has shown him during their time together. In addition, on the last Friday of each month, students will spend a night away together in a focused time of fasting and prayer. There may also be other prayer retreats scheduled over the course of the year, as schedules allow.

Personal Discipleship

Each student will be paired with a mentor that will meet regularly with him to discuss spiritual issues and provide guidance in key areas of concern. The mentor will discuss the student’s prayer journal with him and try to provide spiritual insights for the student.

 By nurturing each of these areas, each student will not only be given the tools necessary to serve in the ministry, but also the tools necessary for personal spiritual growth.

Employment

We understand that some SOM students may need to maintain an outside job in order to support themselves and their families while attending the School. However, please note that students must anticipate twelve hours of class time per week, along with as many as fifteen hours of homework, six hours of service and outreach, and the potential for several more hours in miscellaneous events such as home fellowships or prayer retreats. This must be taken into consideration before determining how many hours a week a student might also be able to work. With this in mind, we do not recommend that students attempt to work full-time while attending the SOM, but part-time employment will be feasible.

Time

The full-time ministry is very demanding, and it requires far more than the typical forty hours a week that most Americans are familiar with. It is entirely possible that a young man, starting a church on his own, will need to work full-time to accommodate the needs of his family, while also working full-time in order to accommodate the needs of his church. This is why we at the SOM try to simulate, as much as possible, the demands of the ministry on one’s time and finances.

Female Applicants

Although we believe that much of the training we provide is crucial in preparing a man to pastor a church, it is not the sole purpose of our School to prepare people to be senior pastors. Rather, we are attempting to share principles that will be equally as helpful to those called to be missionaries, worship leaders, children’s ministry leaders etc. For this reason, we do welcome women applicants, believing that the Lord has called women, as well as men, to give their lives in service to Him.

SOM Wives Fellowship

The wives of SOM students will have the opportunity to take part in our “SOM Wives Fellowship”, which will meet at appointed times throughout the school year. This is a time of worship, prayer, encouragement from the Word, and overall spiritual refreshment for the wives of our students. This is an extremely important facet of our SOM, because the amount of work required and time spent will wear not only on our students but on their families as well.

Guest Speakers

In order to expose students to the widest array possible of voices and perspectives, we may periodically invite guest speakers from outside the Joshua Springs CC fellowship to come and speak at some of our SOM classes.

Morning Classes

The SOM will consist of morning rather than evening classes, primarily due to the great degree of commitment which is required to attend the School. As stated above, the goal of SOM is to simulate life in the full-time ministry, where a person may be required to quit his job, sell his house, or make any number of other life changing sacrifices in order to fulfill the calling of the Lord upon his life. That being the case, we do realize that there are many who would like the opportunity to juggle a full-time career alongside the demands of SOM, and in so doing to take the classes at night. However, we desire for our students to have seriously prayed and considered whether the Lord is calling them into full-time ministry and having received that confirmation, to have made the necessary life-changing sacrifices that it will take to do so. Therefore, holding morning classes helps to facilitate this process in the life of the student because he is forced to “quit his day job” and orient the best part of his day toward the ministry.

Housing

Joshua Springs Calvary Chapel is unable to provide housing for SOM students at this time. We will, however, do everything we can to help our prospective students find affordable housing upon request. We ask that any prospective student make his or her needs known to us as soon as possible so that we can have time to provide useful assistance.

Certificate of Completion

Upon successful fulfillment of the School’s requirements, each student will receive a certificate of completion recognizing that he has completed the course objectives and requirements of Joshua Springs Calvary Chapel’s School of Ministry. Since we are not an accredited program, however, a diploma from our SOM will not be recognized by most certified institutions of higher learning. Nor is any church compelled to recognize our certificate of completion as proof that the graduate is equipped to minister according to its standards. A certificate of completion from our SOM, however, will be respected by many churches as evidence of a person’s qualification for ministry; but we do ask our prospective students to remember that a person is not qualified to ministry simply because he has a degree or certificate. He is only qualified by the calling and the empowering of the Holy Spirit.

Class Descriptions

1. Biblical Studies:
   1. Each student will be expected to read through the entire Bible and outline each book individually within the three terms of the School.
   2. Book Studies: Students will receive in-depth instruction chapter by chapter, verse by verse through various theologically significant books of the Bible. The books studied in these classes will include:
      1. Genesis
      2. A Harmony of the Gospels
      3. Acts
      4. Romans
      5. Galatians/Ephesians
      6. Pastoral Epistles
      7. The Revelation of Jesus Christ
   3. Systematic Theology: In this on-going course, students will study the basic components of Theology, focusing on the attributes of God and his dealings with man.  Although the Bible will be the principle text for this class, there will also be a few outline texts required in order to help provide guidance for the student’s independent study. Some of the topics outlined in this class will include:
      1. The Attributes of God: the students will focus on the nature and the character of the Triune God including his essential attributes and characteristics such as omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, omni beneficence, eternality and tri-unity. 
      2. Bibliology: In this section, students will study the nature of the Bible as God’s revealed word to man.  Here we will examine the nature of the Bible’s authority, inerrancy, and infallibility, as well as its origin.
      3. Anthropology: This section will be devoted to a study of man’s role in the divine order.  We will look at the architecture of man, as well as his existence as it was in paradise compared and contrasted to his nature as it is now.  Furthermore, we will talk about man’s role in the world that God created and how he is being redeemed from the curse.
      4. Soteriology: Here we will look at the nature of God’s work in salvation, focusing on the tension that exists between God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility. We will also look at the nature and the extent of man’s depravity. This will include discussions on such issues as “Calvinism and Arminianism”, as well as the more moderate competing views.
      5. Ecclesiology: This section will be devoted to a study of God’s covenant people.  Here students will be instructed regarding the distinction between national Israel and the Church, and will be taught how to recognize which promises, blessings and prophecies apply to which group.  We will also compare and contrast the physical Church on earth with the spiritual assembly of all the faithful which make up the one true Church. This will include discussion on the sacraments, church government, and church discipline.
      6. Eschatology: This section of the class will be devoted to a study of apocalyptic literature and what the Scriptures reveal about the end times.
      7. Old Testament Theology: We will provide in-depth discussion about the role of the Old Testament and the Law in its place in history, as well as in the life of the believer today, and will address many of the difficult issues that present themselves in the Old Testament writings. In doing so, we will also pay special attention to Paul’s New Testament teachings concerning the true purpose and intent of the Law. 
      8. Apologetics: This aspect of the course will be geared toward helping the student defend the Christian faith against the main philosophical attacks of the past and present. By the end of the term, students will begin to apply the skills they have learned to the practice of apologetics, refuting worldviews which oppose Christianity and searching out arguments that support the truth of the faith as revealed in the Scriptures.
      9. Hard Sayings and Apparent Discrepancies in the Bible: We want to ensure that the student is equipped to deal with the difficult sayings that appear to contradict our theological worldview, as well as the apparent internal inconsistencies in the Scriptures. The reconciliation of these “problem passages” is essential to establishing a truly “systematic” theology.
      10. Cults and False Religions: An overview of competing religious world-views both within the United States and without.
      11. Church History – a brief overview of the defining moments of the past 2,000 years of church history, offering a perspective on important figures and their impact on the church as we know it today.
2. Communications and Hermeneutics:
   1. Skills: this class has two primary goals: first, to teach the student how to correctly interpret and apply the Scriptures; second, to teach the student how to communicate the Scriptures to an audience. This class will involve each of the following components:
      1. Grammatical and literary analysis: In this section, students will be introduced to the fundamentals of Biblical languages, as well as training in the use of important Bible study resources (ie Strong’s Concordance, Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, Vines Expository Dictionary as well as other Bible dictionaries and encyclopedias, and Bible study software). 
      2. Sermon preparation and delivery: In this section of this class, students will be expected to put the skills they have learned from the previous section into practice, organizing and delivering their own speeches and sermons. They will also be given topics that they will have to research, and then defend their positions in an organized, mock debate.

Principles of Leadership – Pastor Jerel Hagerman

Pastor Jerel will regularly meet with the students in order to provide a study of important principles and qualities present in the life of the man or woman that God uses. This is a time of exhortation, in which it is our hope that the students will cultivate a pastoral heart for sheep, as well as an evangelist’s heart for the lost. Pastor Jerel will also be taking the time to pass on his passion for the intensely practical elements of ministry such as ministering to the Body through weddings, funerals, dedications and other celebrations.

Tuition and Fees

Application Fee and Deadline:

Course Tuition:

  The cost of the entire one year program is $900 dollars (not including costs for books and other supplies) and is split up into three terms. The cost for each term is $300, and half of the tuition will be due no later than the first day of each term; the remaining tuition costs may be paid in two monthly installments of $75.

Additional Costs:

The cost of textbooks and software is yet to be determined.

Class Times:

Classes will run for ten weeks per term, the first term starting September 14th, the second on January 4th, and the third on March 29th.

Classes will run from 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Although there are no scheduled classes on Fridays, students will be encouraged to use that time either for their required service, or to study either on an individual basis or corporately in a study hall format. Also, on the last Friday of each month SOM students will meet for an extended time of prayer.