For professional and lay minister’s and J.W. Ware Chaplains’ Library

Valley Baptist chaplains may be available to provide an educational program for your church or civic group on a topic related to healthcare ministry or chaplaincy. Please contact the Department of Pastoral Care for more information at:
(956) 389-1194 or karen.smith@valleybaptist.net.

Ministers’ Day

Ministers’ Day is an educational conference provided for area clergy each spring. This is an excellent time of continuing education as well as an opportunity to network and fellowship with area ministers. As an annual training event, Ministers’ Day focuses on topics related to pastoral/spiritual care, counseling, and ethics. Some of our past ministers’ day events have been ministry to people with AIDS and their families, caring for the caregiver of Alzheimer’s disease, depression, child abuse, meeting needs in the aftermath of human violence, pastoral challenges in bereavement care, ministry to sick children, and the use of humor in pastoral care.

Our Ministers’ Day offering is NOVA Training. NOVA (National Organization for Victim Assistance) Training is a crisis response training. The basic NOVA course prepares ministers and church leaders to help people cope with their immediate reactions when a crisis occurs. The training, also, equips leaders to plan for longer term of emotional support and assist participants in developing their own community-based crisis response program and teams.

NOVA training will be held on five consecutive Thursdays beginning April 12th and concluding on May 10th, 2007. These five sessions will begin at 8:30 a.m. and conclude by 5:30 p.m. Early registration is $300. After March 22nd, the registration fee will be $350. This fee covers materials and lunch for those days.

For more information about Ministers’ Day 2007, please contact the Department of Pastoral Services at 389-6750 or lorettasalinas@valleybaptist.net. To download the registration form, visit the Baptist General Convention of Texas website (www.bgct.org) and then click on leadership, then chaplaincy, and go directly to the information on “Crisis Response Training/NOVA.”

Hands on Ministry

Hands on Ministry training, www.bgct.org /chaplaincy, is a 42-hour course open to both professional ministers and lay church members in basic Christian care-giving and visitation skills. This excellent course provides a special emphasis on providing ecumenical ministry in healthcare settings. Course topics include (but are not limited to): DISC personality inventory, building relationships, listening skills, recognizing red flags, issues of aging, ministering to the terminally ill, and understanding grief. This course is sponsored by the Baptist General Convention of Texas and led by Valley Baptist chaplains trained to facilitate the course.

Class size is limited. Pre-registration is required. The BGCT offers this training for $100. The Department of Pastoral Services has underwritten most of this cost. Just a non-refundable fee of $25 covers the cost of the participant’s Hands on Ministry handbook. For dates of the next class, registration information, or further questions, please contact Chaplain David Mann at 389-1194 or david.mann@valleybaptist.net.