Steps to Enrollment

To enroll in the Illinois District Studies Program the following items must be sent to the District Board of Ministerial Studies (DBMS) Secretary.

A. Enrolling

Application for Admission.
Registration of Your Call to Ministry.
A letter of your testimony and call to ministry.
A letter from your pastor recommending you to the program.
A letter to District Ministerial Studies Board requesting admission to the Ministerial Studies Program.
Apply with your church for a local minister's license and send a copy of the license to the Secretary.
A copy of College/University transcripts of classes that you have taken.

B. Open Book Exam

In addition to the above requirements, every applicant must complete the "Handbook for Christian Ministries and Sourcebook on Ordination" Exam. Download and send the exam to the DBMS Secretary.

This is an open book exam that acquaints the individual with the program as well as student responsibilities.

Download the following material to complete the exam:

The Handbook for Christian Ministries (Handbook USA)
Sourcebook on Ordination (Sourcebook USA).

This exam must be completed and sent to the Board of Ministerial Studies Secretary before you can be fully enrolled in the studies program.

C. Supervised Ministry

Every student must take a "Supervised Ministry" class. If you are fulfilling your educational requirements through an online or district module classes check to see if they offer this class. If they do not you will need to take this class by doing the following:

Download "Student Guide: Supervised Ministry Experience". This course must be completed before the student is graduated from the course of study. I would begin this course (after you are fully enrolled and have been assigned an advisor) as soon as possible since there are several areas to cover.

The requirements for this area of study are as follows:

Read through the Student Guide: Supervised Ministry Experience to become familiar with each ministry function.
Complete the 35 prescribed ministry functions on page 135.
Complete 10 of the 18 optional ministry functions on page 136.
Write a short report (see page 140) on each ministry function as it is completed; use the questions on page 141 to help guide your thoughts. Send a copy of these reports to the DBMS Secretary.
Document the completion of each ministry function on a form similar to the one on pages 135-6: list the function completed, date completed and signature of Facilitator. This document needs to be sent to the DBMS Secretary and will be kept in your file. Your Facilitator can be your Advisor or your Pastor.