Pastoral supervision training 

Through 2024, Baptists Together are partnering with the Institute of Pastoral Counselling and Supervision (IPCS) to train a cohort of Baptist ministers to provide pastoral supervision to others. The course is now full, but we hope to repeat the course again next year.  To give you a flavour of what the course provides:

As a course participant you will grow in your skills of line management, supervision and reflective practice, drawing on theological and psychological insights in order to better enable others to survive and thrive in the ministries to which God has called them. Pastoral supervision focusses on our practice, well-being, working relationships and boundaries as ministers. It is suitable for all forms of ministry – for those acting as church pastors, pioneers, evangelists, chaplains, and for those in children’s, youth and families’ ministry. We would love to see more ministers trained to provide this form of accountability to other ministers, as receiving pastoral supervision is so helpful in fostering Continuing Ministerial Development.

Format, venue, timing and cost
The Professional Certificate in Pastoral Supervision course is delivered over six two-day workshops, each one spanning a Wednesday and Thursday, and in a hybrid format. For workshops 1 and 6, you gather in person (in 2024 this is in Birmingham) with other participants and tutors. Some of the tutors are Baptist ministers themselves. For workshops 2, 3, 4, and 5, the course is delivered online.

The course cost in 2024 is £1000. This cost is subsidised by Baptists Together. You are expected to attend all six workshops. 

Learning method
The course operates as a multidisciplinary learning community, where your ministry experience is valued as the raw material for learning. Through a variety of activities such as teaching, seminars, small group tasks and demonstrations, you learn first of all how to receive supervision and then how to offer it. Your development as a supervisor is monitored through written assignments, your creation of a seminar presentation, your practice of peer supervision with appropriate feedback, and summative assessment by group facilitators. Assignments are all designed to contribute to your practice and combine to create a portfolio of evidence of professional competence in pastoral supervision.

Benefit
On successful completion of the course: 

• You will be able to give and receive supervision, working as a reflective practitioner within groups and offering supervision to individuals.
• You will be awarded the Professional Certificate in Pastoral Supervision by the Institute of Pastoral Counselling and Supervision.
• You will have met the training criteria for accreditation by the Association for Pastoral Supervision and Education (APSE) www.pastoralsupervision.org.uk
• You will be strongly encouraged by the Ministries Team to offer supervision to other Baptist ministers! The Ministries Team now have a list of Baptist pastoral supervisors (and spiritual directors) that is now available to our ministers.

To apply
If you want to be considered for the 2025 course, please contact the Ministries Team. We will note your interest and let you know when you can apply for the course. 

Alternatively, if you can't wait, please note that a sister course is delivered 100% online by Spurgeon’s College from November to May each year. More details can be found at  www.spurgeons.ac.uk.

You can find more general information about accessing and practising pastoral supervision and spiritual direction in our guidance leaflet. 

^{Photo by Christian Bisbo Johnsen on Unsplash}