Adult Formation

A Program to immerse yourself in your Christian Faith

 EfM, or Education for Ministry, is a four-year course for lay people, exploring a wide concept of how to live our call to ministry in today’s world. Participants register for a year at a time and can take a break after any of the 4 years of the programme.

Each year had a different focus with years 1 and 2 reading the Bible and associated texts: year 1 on the Old Testament and year 2 on the New Testament. Year 3 moves to the History of Christianity and year 4 concerns modern theology, ethics and interfaith encounters. Twice a year there is a break from this schedule and shorter books, dealing with a specific theme, are read in the group. Readings are done in the participants own time and insights and questions arising from the readings are discussed in the group meetings.

An EfM group consists of 6-12 participants and 1-2 mentors to guide the group. They normally meet weekly over 36 weeks and there will usually be participants from any or all of the 4 years in a single group. The European group meets online to allow participants from around Europe, and sometimes further afield, to take part together.

As well as discussing weekly readings, we take it in turns to lead short opening and closing worship and we do theological reflections together where we examine things in our daily lives, in our culture(s) and in our beliefs and values through a theological lens. Together these activities help us build empathy and community in the group and to learn to acknowledge and accept differences. This leads us to listen to God’s call and discern the needs of the group and the communities in which we live and to consider the gifts we can offer them.

For further information/to join our 2025/26 Group beginning September, 2025:
Contact:     EfM Online Mentors:                                                              
Kaye O’Connell,   Tel: +49 176 8448 7420    kaye.oconnell@gmx.de
Yvonne Cockcroft, Tel:  +49 171 4517 654     yvonne@cockcroft.de