While children around the world are learning online, adults can also take advantage of the many online courses available for Christian education, leadership training, and spiritual growth. There are several United Methodist institutions that offer classes online.
BeADisciple.com
BeADisciple.com is a program of the Richard and Julia Wilke Institute for Discipleship at Southwestern College, a United Methodist institution in Winfield, Kansas. Students begin together, progress through materials together, and end together. Courses are conducted in small groups of about 5 – 20 with a trained facilitator or a certified instructor, so students and instructors have an opportunity to get to know one another. Individual students participate at the time of day that works best for them. Courses generally cost around $40-$70 each, but it might be more or less depending on the length of the course and whether or not the course is part of a certification program. All of the courses offer CEU credits. Course topics include:
- Bible studies
- Church leadership
- Grief
- Small groups
- Spiritual growth
- Stewardship
- United Methodism
- And more
BeADisciple.com is currently enrolling for these interesting courses and many others that begin in April:
- Creating a ZOOM Worship Service
- United We Stand? Healing Our Political Divide in the Church
- Jesus Unbound: Looking at the Bible Through the Lens of Christ
- Why God Can’t Stop Evil and Why It Matters When Helping Hurting People
Upper Room eLearning
The Upper Room is a ministry of Discipleship Ministries of The United Methodist Church. They offer online courses in their Upper Room eLearning platform. Each course offers different features including video, audio, and textual content. These courses are self-paced with no official end date. Some of the courses earn CEU credits. Course prices range from $9 to $30. Many of these courses are based on books published by The Upper Room. Topics include:
- Lent
- Spiritual leadership
- Prayer
- And more
All of The Upper Room courses are currently enrolling because they are self-paced. Some interesting titles include:
- Freedom From Worry
- Prayer, Stress, and Our Inner Wounds
- Facing Financial Struggle
- Preparing the Way: Looking Beyond America’s Current Crisis of Faith
The Upper Room also offers an option to set up a private online classroom for your small group or congregation using their courses. There are simple instructions to do so.
United Methodist Communications Online Training Center
The United Methodist Communications Online Training Center offers affordable online courses and free online micro-training courses with professional instruction available on your own time. These self-paced courses take 2-3 hours to complete. The micro-trainings only take 20-30 minutes. There are free and paid courses, ranging from $20 to $30, and some of the courses offer CEUs. The topics are mostly about church communications. Some interesting courses include:
- Digital Media for Ministry
- Social Media for Churches
- Sharing Your Church Through Video
- Connectional Giving
- What It Means to Be United Methodist
Lewis Online Learning
The Lewis Center for Church Leadership at Wesley Theological Seminary offers three online courses for $49 each. Each self-paced course earns 0.5 CEUs. The courses are presented on a custom-designed web platform that integrates written content, video instruction, individual reflection, and student input submitted for review. The current offerings are:
- Maintaining Boundaries in a Digital Age
- Understanding Clergy Sexual Ethics
- The Methodist Class Leader
ClergyEducation.com
ClergyEducation.com is a division of Market Square Publishing LLC. Market Square publishes books by United Methodist leaders, and their webinars and online courses are taught by these same authors. At ClergyEducation.com, you pay $25 for a one-hour course at a specific date and time. Recorded courses are also available at $20 each. Upon completion, you earn 1 hour of CEU. Some upcoming courses include:
- Getting Your Congregation Back Into the Game of Effective Ministry
- Help Your Congregation Dream Like Jesus
- Developing Effective Communication to Grow Your Congregation
UMC Cyber Campus
UMC Cyber Campus is a service of the Clergy Lifelong Learning office at the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry of The United Methodist Church. It is a multilingual Christian learning space where you can get access to higher educational materials from UMC institutions anywhere and anytime. UMC Cyber Campus serves as a catalog or portal to classes offered at a variety of institutions. Therefore, several of the other platforms listed in this post will also be listed on UMC Cyber Campus.
UMC Cyber Campus includes free learning videos and paid online courses with a wide range of costs since some of these courses are university-level classes. Many of the classes listed qualify for CEUs.
You can search the extensive catalog by cost, institution, topic, self-paced, webinar, and more. Be sure to also view the Video Learning and E-Library pages for more resources.
Faith Lead
FaithLead is a program of the Convergence Leadership Project born out of the United Church of Christ. It is included here for its many online courses that are relevant to all Christian churches. Some of these courses are free, some are self-paced with a monthly cost, and some are on the higher end for a complete course. The following courses may be of current interest:
- How to Do Church Online
- What Will Happen to Our Churches? National Faith Leaders Reflect on a Global Pandemic
- Curating Change in Your Church
- Social Media for Ministry 101