As I write this article, I am sitting at my office desk having just completed my first class session of teaching Spiritual Formation with a new incoming class of students. We require this class for all new students to take at the beginning of their educational journey with us here at Clear Creek. Our goal is to get them focused in on the importance of consistent, growing, personal spiritual formation in their lives as they serve the Lord in their ministry setting.

I am excited about the 28 bi-vocational ministers who are part of my class who are participating through our new online format of live streaming our classes. Now our online students have the option of watching and participating in the “live” class right there in the classroom, or they also have the option of watching the lecture “later” in the week at their convenience. The advantage of this format is that the student still gets a current lecture from the class without having to watch and listen to dated content.

Clear Creek Baptist Bible College has a heart for bi-vocational ministers. We want every bi-vocational minister in our Kentucky Baptist Convention to know that there is a place at Clear Creek for them to receive ministry training if they feel called of God to do so. Through the generous Cooperative Program support of our Kentucky Baptist Convention churches, along with some very generous donations toward an endowment from donors who have a desire to invest in bi-vocational ministers, we now have the resources to offer to every bi-vocational minister in our Kentucky Baptist Convention an opportunity to participate in our bi-vocational minister’s certificate program tuition free. They are only responsible for their books and some program fees.

With the development of our Bi-Vocational Ministers Certificate, along with our online delivery mode of “live or later” we now have a way for every bi-vocational minister in our Kentucky Baptist Convention to receive ministry training that they can adjust to their busy schedules. Some of these ministers have opportunities at times to watch “live” and they also have the option of watching “later.” I recently received a message from one of our bi-vocational ministers after his schedule allowed him to watch “live” and he said, “I’ve enjoyed getting to listen in live today!!”

Thank you, Kentucky Baptists, for your Cooperative Program support that enables us to equip bi-vocational ministers for the calling God has placed on their lives.