E-learning educates at a distance

When 48-year-old Carol McCracken was balancing a part-time children's worker role with voluntary church ministry in 2001, she felt she needed Bible training to be more effective in her ministry.

Looking for a part-time evening course that would suit her family commitments, Carol googled "Bible colleges' and discovered Youthworks College's Online Distance Learning program.

"When I found this online course I thought it was ideal," said Carol. "I can be at home for my family, and can study where I am and at the time I can " which is usually at 11pm at night!"

Carol began her online study in 2002 and after completing one subject per semester over six years, she is now halfway through her Diploma of Theology and working full-time as the children's and family worker for St Paul's, Cambridge Park.

On a weekly basis, this involves teaching Scripture at five local schools, running two kids' clubs, doing children's talks, leading Sunday school and mentoring potential leaders in kids' ministry.

Carol says the ministry skills she has learnt through her online study have really benefited her ministry with children, helped her with exegesis of Bible passages and motivated her to desire God's word more: "The subjects we have studied so far have made me stop and work through issues that I had just accepted or had the wrong idea about" It has helped me in my ministry to be more confident that I am teaching the right things to the kids".

Carol admits that the traditional distance programs involving a taped lecture and a set of notes do not provide the same opportunity for engagement as modern online learning programs.

"It is better than a correspondence course because you have continual feedback from the discussions online" [and] you can think about what you want to say and not have to think on your feet."

According to Youthworks College lecturer Ruth Lukabyo, the opportunity to learn from God's word and integrate life, ministry and theology within a community is an important benefit of studying at a Bible college.

"Community is very important to our spiritual formation and is something Youthworks College places a real focus on. Our online distance program has tried to create a community through an electronic classroom, face-to-face sessions, two-week intensives and regular student-tutor interaction," she says.

So how do you work out whether you are ready for an online Bible course?

Andy Stirrup, academic dean at Youthworks College says seek the advice of your church leadership: "Are you finding yourself in ministry situations and ill-equipped to respond? If so, it might be worth asking the ministry team at church whether it would be helpful for you to pursue further training options".

Immense need for distance education

Gary Nelson had his vision altered at GAFCON in Jerusalem in June. Partly, that was a detached retina he suffered while travelling, which led to an urgent eye operation. But it was also the fact that his vision for the Moore College External Studies department is now bigger than ever.

"I spoke to many, many people during the conference, especially from the developing world, Africa and elsewhere, and their greatest need is to train pastors and leaders."

Mr Nelson already knew that Sydney Diocese had something to share with the rest of the world. After all, the Moore College program is now running in many countries, including the latest expansion in Spanish into Cuba. But the eye-opener at GAFCON was the scale of the need.

"In some ways many people who sit in our churches… would be better equipped for pastoring congregations than some of those who are seeking to do it," he says. Mr Nelson says in one case a bishop told him, "I have 24 parishes, 30 clergy and virtually none of them is trained " what can you do for me?".

That is not to say there is no progress. The programs Moore College is already running in Africa have proven to be effective.

"In one situation, the bishop said to us that his evangelists now realise that the gospel isn't about prosperity, it really is about forgiveness in Christ and eternal life. He was seeing the effect of running the courses for the evangelists in his diocese and that was just with intensives twice a year."

Theological education was a strong theme of the conference, with workshops headed by Englishman Mike Ovey, Tim Wambunya from Kenya and CÃ©sar GuzmÃ¡n from Chile. The inclusion of Mr Guzman showed that Africa is not the only Global South region which needs help in this area, and he put the South American perspective at a GAFCON news conference, which received coverage in the British press for a friendly exchange, in Spanish, with one of the British reporters.

Later, speaking to sydneyanglicans.net, he was forthright in putting the case for a good biblical foundation and for Sydney's role in it. "Sydney is uniquely equipped, as it was obvious at GAFCON I think, to lead the Communion in this regard. There is a synergy between the diocese and Moore College that is not replicated anywhere else."

Asked about the differences between the two continents, CÃ©sar GuzmÃ¡n says, "In Africa the growth of the church is phenomenal. Churches are being planted faster than they can train pastors, apparently. In South America, in the Anglican church, there is growth but not at the same level as Africa. However, we still experience a shortage of pastors.

"In the province of the Southern Cone, gospel penetration is very low among the educated classes. There is a strong Christian presence among the poor and among blue-collar workers. The mission field in terms of unreached groups is among middle-class professionals, and in order to reach them we need people who are theologically trained and can articulate the gospel so they can hear it and understand it."