HDS - OMS - Field Education Handbook

Project: First Church in Cambridge is a liberal Christian community strongly rooted in the Congregational tradition of the United Church of Christ. We are an Open and Affirming, Just-Peace, well-educated and highly-motivated congregation that is serious about worship and deeply engaged with the world. Our recent Vision - "God's Vision For Us: A Way of Hospitality" calls us to be a church with Open Spirits, a church of an Open Door and an Open Table that is also out on Open Road of mission and justice. This vision continues to renew and deepen almost every aspect of our life together.

We are located within walking distance of HDS and the Harvard Square T Station. This placement is an opportunity for a seminarian to explore many facets of leadership in the local church. It is especially suited to a person with interest or experience in adult faith formation and the practices of the Christian faith, intergenerational ministry, the connection between worship and the arts, and social action ministries, such as the Greater Boston Interfaith Association and the First Church Shelter.

Student Involvement: First Church will welcome any seminarian eager for a challenging placement, and who is creative, flexible and mature. Depending on the student's interests and abilities, he or she may wish to devise with us a learning plan that includes participation in a particular area of focus, as well as the more typical explorations of traditional dimensions of local church ministry -- visitation, worship design, planning and leadership, preaching, administration, children's and adult education, youth and young adult ministry, and the like. A student with the right combination of gifts might also like to explore the possibility of working with the leadership team on an alternative service, deepening our interfaith connections, or offering a weekly prayer and meditation group. We value clear guidelines, supportive structures and regular, mutually-accountable supervision.

Arts of Ministry Competencies: Preaching and Worship. Pastoral Care and Counseling. Religious Education and Spiritual Development. Administration and Program Development. Public Leadership, Community Organizing and Planning. Denominational Polity.

Supervision: Student and supervisor will meet weekly to assess how the experience is moving toward the agreed upon goals, to reflect theologically upon ministry, and to clarify aspects of church life.

Harvard Divinity School

Ministry Studies

Field Education Handbook