What is Personal Formation?
One of the tragedies of ministry is the alarming rate of drop-out of Christian leaders. Whether from burnout, moral failure or lack of interpersonal skills, the tragedy is compounded by the fact that these issues are often avoidable. Consequently, ACOM is committed to ensuring that your training with us helps you to delve into the character, heart and personal issues that often drive people out of ministry.
Rather than have these issues be relegated to a side issue apart from your formal training, we actually include issues of Personal Formation as part of your academic study program. Bachelor of Theology students must do three years of Personal Formation training, Diploma students must do two years, and Postgraduate students have two optional years. Each of these years is worth one unit in your study program, so for a B.Th. student, 3 of the 24 units you must complete are related to PF.
Each of these units comprises the following components, spread over three trimesters:
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Student Retreat at the start of the year - meet those students who you will journey with over the course of the year
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Formation groups - regularly meet with other students throughout the course of the year to share stories, life and growth together (see below for more)
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Formation Director - who meets with your PF group throughout the year, who guides the group and assists you with your PF journey
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Personal Mentor - meets with you individually throughout the year to help you grow as a leader and person
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Subject content - where you learn relevant information that helps you with your relationship with God, others and yourself
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Assignments - that help you to interact with the subject content and reflect on issues relating to your own personal formation
Many students say PF is the highlight of their ACOM experience- for the content, people and life-change. We expect that all new students will enrol in PF in their first full year of study.
Formation groups
Students meet for 32 hours each year in a small group of 4 to 10 people. Students negotiate within their group as to how these hours are divided into various Formation Group meetings. Led by a skilled ACOM facilitator known as the "Formation Director", trust relationships are built in a confidential environment where students support and encourage each other on their individual faith and life journeys. Formation groups focus on 3 outcomes - spiritual formation, character formation and ministry formation. Formation Groups begin at the 3-day Regional Student Retreat held at the beginning of each year in each ACOM Region and are then closed for the rest of the year.
