I had a most enjoyable day in London yesterday at Church House where I attended a meeting of Connexional Assessors for the Faith and Worship training course used by the Methodist Church to train Local Preachers.
I found it interesting to see the results of the last two years assessments and was quite surprised at some of the reasons students fail. There were a number who had failed because they had not sent items that are required in – one of them being their own service report form in the worship portfolio (11 people in the last assessments). Almost half of the people failed on at least one exegesis passage and it would seem there is a real need for students and tutors to get to grips with this area. There are four examples in the tutors handbook of exegeses which really should be shared with students and there is a Focus on Exegesis written by a connexional assessor (not me incidentally) that can be accessed on the Methodist Church website.
One of the other areas where some students were not doing well was on personal reflections on services they had been in but not had any responsibility for. In the case of the ones I have marked during my time as an assessor I can understand this as often the piece is more of a critique than a reflection and cab
n easily slip into becoming a criticism. Perhaps the dictionary definition might help people to focus on this – reflection =serious and careful thought.
1 comment:
I am interested in your reference to the failures around exegesis. I keep hearing older Methodists complain that many of today's preachers just don't focus on scripture as the basis of their message. Is this because there is a failure to comprehend and respect the Bible as a key source for the understanding of our faith?
Post a Comment