A new ministry program at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary is providing ministry leaders with education they never thought they could access, until now.

The venue is called E_quipping, and it is a program designed to help provide further education to lay and ministry leaders who do not desire to tackle a college degree at the moment.

The program was started in January 2008 through the initial providing of a few pastor forums.

“We found that a lot of pastors had a need for courses in biblical literacy, but didn’t necessarily want to attend or send their other leaders to seminary,” said Cindy Wessel, executive director of the Lifelong Learning Center at GRTS.

GRTS President Doug Fagerstrom addressed this problem by contacting RBC (Radio Bible Class Ministries). The organization was willing to partner with them, providing them with a means for online course work.

“We wanted to step pastors toward seminary but still fulfill their need for further education,” Wessel said.

Wessel managed to use Fagerstrom’s ideas to further develop and design the E_quipping program. Aside from Fagerstrom and Wessel, the ministry has recruited a few volunteers to help out with the program. Jeff and Susan Loomis, of Greenville, have both been involved in the meetings and training sessions. The Loomis’ have invested many hours in the program and are an important asset to the ministry.

Signing up for the program is simple. Pastors can register online by completing an online ministry assessment. While registering, they must designate an on-site coordinator to administer the program. The coordinator must then attend a two-hour training session on-site at GRTS, followed by another two-hour training session taken online through RBC.

Once training is finished, the program can begin. It can be implemented through a link from the ministry’s Web site, making it much more accessible for users. It is a very user-friendly program that allows participants to self-administer courses to fit their personal schedules.

The coursework covers a broad range of topics and is constantly being updated and added to, so that

the program can offer a comprehensive curriculum. The categories include, “Bible Basics,” “Leadership Development,” “Theology,” Know Why You Believe: Introduction to Christian Apologetics,” “First Steps in Christian Counseling” and “First Steps in Effective Ministry.”

Courses are presented in multimedia-rich formats that involve interactive teaching from experts in their fields.

E_quipping is reaching out to more areas than just west Michigan. The program is also being used in Ohio, Illinois, Indiana and other parts of Michigan.

“We want to get the word out strategically,” Wessel said. “We have already reached a small amount of churches, but regionally, we’ve branched outside of western Michigan.”

Fagerstrom recognizes the fact that the program is in its developing stages and needs improvement.

“The program is so new that we are at the infant stages. We have about six churches that are in the pilot stage, helping GRTS learn what works and what needs to be improved.”

The program is also designed to provide church leaders with a taste of what seminary would be like, in hopes that they may desire to become a future student.

“We know that this program could be the first step to making future steps toward seminary,” Wessel said.

Of the small concentration of users E_quipping has already reached, many are satisfied.

“The E_quipping program will be an invaluable tool for our church in the development of current and future church leaders,” Dave Hills, an adult discipleship pastor at First Baptist Church in Bristol, Ind., said.

Fagerstrom seems satisfied with the initial emergence of the new ministry as well.

“The program has great potential to impact thousands of churches,” he said. “Right now, we need a few more months to be sure that church leaders and attendees are using the online courses.”