How does CPE prepare a person?
CPE serves as a part of one’s preparation for parish ministry, chaplaincy, lay ministry, teaching, and counseling. CPE develops the capacity for the pastoral and spiritual care of individuals, families and systems. Many theological schools require one unit of CPE as a part of a theological degree program. Some schools accept a year of CPE as the required intern year of ministry for a theological degree program.

What is CPE learning?
CPE is an experience in process education that has been shaped by history and yet remains responsive to the present-day cultural developments which will affect one’s pastoral formation. The heart of CPE is ministry with people and learning from that ministry through reflection, discussion and evaluation with other students and the supervisor.

In the CPE experience, verbatims, case studies, and other ministry descriptions are used to present one’s ministry to supervision. The focus in some seminars will be on what is happening to you, the caregiver, as much as on what is happening to the people receiving your ministry. There will be discussions which assist you in understanding theological issues arising from experience. Opportunities will be available to learn from behavioral sciences while also reflecting theologically, so you can draw from both in understanding the human condition. You will be challenged to think about groups and social structures as well as individuals in defining your ministry. Students also will be part of a dynamic learning group with other students and their supervisor, which will provide opportunities for mutual supervision, care giving, challenge and appreciation.

Objectives of CPE
All CPE Centers accredited by the ACPE are required to implement the following objectives. These also may help students envision the kind of learning they will engage in our prepared environment by developing students’:

• awareness of themselves as ministers and of the ways their ministry affects persons.
• awareness of how their attitudes, values, assumptions, strengths and weaknesses affect their pastoral care.
• ability to engage and apply the support, confrontation and clarification of the peer group for the integration of personal attributes and pastoral functioning.
• understanding and awareness of how persons, social conditions, systems, and structures affect their lives and the lives of others and how to address effectively these issues through their ministry.
• skills in providing intensive and extensive pastoral care and counseling to persons.
• ability to make effective use of their religious/spiritual heritage, theological understanding, and knowledge of the behavioral sciences in their pastoral care of persons and groups.
• knowledge of the pastoral role in professional relationships and how to work effectively as a pastoral member of a multidisciplinary team.
• capacity to use one’s pastoral and prophetic perspectives in preaching, teaching, leadership, management, pastoral care and pastoral counseling.
• understanding and ability to apply the clinical method of learning.
• abilities to use both individual and group supervision for personal and professional growth, including the capacity to evaluate one’s ministry.