Pioneering at Trinity

Are you an Ordained Pioneer Minister (OPM) or someone looking to explore pioneering?

The church needs pioneers who will forge new and creative approaches to sharing the gospel as well as those who can do pioneering work within the church. We want to create a healthy environment for pioneers and those with a pioneering mindset to flourish, as you discern how God may be leading you.

1. We recognise the unique needs of pioneers. As you’ll often be working outside normal support systems and structures, it is critical that you are well prepared.

• We offer a strong foundation of Bible and theology on which to build your current and future projects. 
• You have the option to train within our residential community (train within an intentional community whilst living in the Bristol area or on-site if you are a single or commuter student) or through our non-residential dispersed learning (DL) track (come into college for six block weeks a year while remaining in your current context).
• Connect regularly with pioneer practitioners through ‘input classes,’ which are half-termly meetings, timed to coordinate with our dispersed learners’ block weeks. Hear a seminar from an external speaker and engage together for a question-and-answer time.
• Connect regularly with fellow pioneers through fortnightly small group lunchtime meetings to discuss, debate, and reflect on a curriculum intended to lead you from thinking about what pioneering can be to a more refined idea of your own calling as a pioneer.
• Our pioneer programme is led by our Tutor in Missiology, our Associate Pioneer Missioner, and by a current Trinity student who serves as Pioneer Student Rep. Our Associate Pioneer Missioner, alumnus Revd John White (Trinity 2018), has been spending time coaching those interested in becoming pioneers, offering practical help as well as help in discernment. John is currently involved in a pioneer initiative in Bristol, Hazelnut Community Farm, which seeks to combine the community of a city farm, learning together to care for the planet, and the spiritual life of the local church. 
• You can decide to complete your context placement in a pioneer context. 

2. Pioneer modules within the undergraduate programme include:

• Mission Entrepreneurship: Principles—encourages you to relate social entrepreneurship to mission and introduces you to the principles, history, and practice of entrepreneurship through its study in the social sector.
• Elements of Ministry and Mission in Context—introduces you to key terms and themes relating to Christian ministry and mission in the church tradition / vocational context for and within which you are being prepared.
• ILCP B for Creative Communication—encourages you to integrate your current learning with your preferred style of communication.
• Mission and Apologetics in Contemporary Culture—enables you to analyse cultures and subcultures, to think missionally about the relationship between the gospel and contemporary Western cultures. Equips you with the apologetic skills needed to engage with people in contemporary cultures and enables you to develop appropriate strategies for missionary engagement with contemporary cultures.
• You will also be offered assessment options within some of your classes with a pioneering focus.

3. Modules within the MA course include:

• Reflective Practice: Mission and Evangelism—supports students in their ministerial development by engaging with the forms of theological reflection that underpin reflective practice in a ministerial / professional / vocational context.
• A dissertation module (either undergraduate or postgraduate) which could be focused around a theological exploration of particular aspects of pioneer ministry.

For more information about training as a pioneer at Trinity College Bristol, call or email our admissions office: admissions@trinitycollegebristol.ac.uk or 0117 968 0254. Read more about some of our recent pioneers here.