55. Theological Field Education (TFE) and Rosalyn
I got my Master of Divinity (aka M.Div) at Knox College in U of T, which is the requirement to become an ordained pastor. At Knox, when you enter 2nd year (it is 3 years program), you are required to go through Theological Field Education (TFE) curriculum for a year. During this time, the student gets to shadow a minister of choice to gain a field experience and practical knowledge about ministry. This is to integrate what the student is learning at school with what is actually happening or expected in the ministry field, or church.
Rosalyn H. Nah will be doing TFE at our church and I will be her supervisor for a year. She used to serve at another church in various ministries while she was doing her M.Div study. Then once she got married and had a baby, she moved to our church and had to put a pause on her study. Now, she has decided to resume her study with the intention of becoming an ordained minister.
To give you some information about her, she moved to Canada from Korea at the age of 9. She has previous experience of leading English-speaking youth group and college/adult group, bringing them to short-term mission trip and local outreach.
Her goal is to broaden her experience in overall church ministry during TFE. So she will be spending the majority of her first 3 months in The Seed, and the rest 4 months in KSC and children’s ministry. She will be attending our service from next Sunday to build a connection with people in The Seed. To deeply engage in ministry, she will be preaching 1-2 times at The Seed (2 times in KSC) and actively participating in the majority of the church meetings. She will also lead a social justice program that will happen in November. She has gained good knowledge in mental health while doing her CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) at CAMH so she will provide counseling session for youth and adults soon as well.
When I was doing TFE at my current church, Pastor Kwack has helped me to watch his ministry up-close and gave many ministry opportunities. It was such a formidable and encouraging experience for me as a young pastor. I hope to provide Rosalyn the same experience I received. She will also meet with me for an hour every Sunday for supervision session and also receive evaluations from LAC (Lay Advisory Council), made up of lay members.
To build and train one pastor, it takes a lot of effort and resources from all people in the ministry. I hope we are able to give her the best experience while she is with us and welcome her into our family, as we always have done to all our newcomers.
