Assessing Vocational and Personal Development Among Senior Ministry Majors: An Interdisciplinary Process Group Experience
Leaders: David Brokaw, Ph.D. and Dick Pritchard, D.Min.
This grant benefits senior ministry majors enrolled in the internship class. Lead faculty members provide psychological assessments and weekly small group feedback in order to support the development of religiously committed church leaders. The goal is to discover what happens early in ministry to prevent later failures.
The current academic year (2005-06) is the third year for this mini-grant. Student reactions to the classroom experience have been very positive, as has been feedback from the previous years. One student said the class "reconfigured my understanding," and provided a "huge change of what I thought about myself." Other students said:
- "I have a developed a greater self-awareness of who I am."
- "I have a better understanding of the focus of my future ministry."
- "I have greater clarity and focus of who I am and what I am being called to."
This grant taps the resources of psychologists and ministers, men and women, to create a constructive educational experience for students. When asked what his greatest joy was in being a part of this mini-grant, Pritchard said that it is "really rich to witness the process students go through."
Interested? Contact the faculty leaders at dbrokaw@apu.edu or dpritchard@apu.edu.
