Religious Associate Professional (Christian Religious Practitioner)

The purpose of this qualification is to prepare a learner to operate as a Christian Religious Practitioner. A Christian Religious Practitioner facilitates the effective practice of ministry work within a specific congregation/faith community to encourage spiritual formation, to nurture fellowship and mutual care within the congregation/faith community, to help members developing a Christian lifestyle, to provide Christian leadership, to ensure organisational well-being, and to facilitate appropriate responses of the congregation/faith community to needs in the wider society. A qualified learner will be able to: • Share the gospel in a specific context and to a specific audience. • Build caring relationships in the faith community and respond to the spiritual and physical needs of members. • Provide spiritual leadership and develop leaders in a faith community. • Arrange and oversee the day to day running of ministries and of the administrative and accountability processes of the faith community. • Share the gospel in a specific context and to a specific audience.

Recent estimates indicate that there are about 186,000 Pastors (Ministers of Religion) in informal churches who do not have access to formal ministry training. The South African Council of Churches, through their Secretary General indicated a significant number of these Pastors, who are already in ministry have little or no training, and have difficulty in reading and writing. For this group, a qualification at Level 2 is required that addresses the basic elements of Christian Ministry. There is also a large group of these Pastors that have well developed reading and writing skills, for which a Level 5 is required. The Level 5 qualification is also required for people that want to join the Ministry fraternity. Such a qualification at Level 5 would not only address their training needs, but also provide access to Higher Qualifications. A distinction between a Level 2 and 5 is necessary at different levels of complexity, whilst still addressing the essential elements of Christian Ministry. Needs that the qualification will meet: There are many religious ministers in rural areas, and often even in urban settings, with low literacy ability, yet they function as ministers and as leaders of their faith communities. A need to assist these leaders by means of a qualification that will provide them with the competencies to minister has been expressed for many years. The Christian Religious Practitioner (Level 2) qualification aims at fulfilling this need. It will provide appropriate training to leaders who do not have the literacy ability to access any other qualification, without trivialising the competencies required to effectively function as Christian Religious Ministers. The qualification focuses on all the aspects of Christian Ministry, but at a level that will make access possible for people with no or little schooling or literacy. Church representatives involved in the development of the qualification foresee that the qualification will ultimately be used as a baseline for preparing ministry leaders to be formally recognised as ministers or spiritual leaders in their churches. Benefits for society: With the introduction of the new qualification at Level 2, society will benefit from the assurance that large numbers of spiritual leaders who did not have a proper training opportunity in the past, will now have a common set of competencies, despite their numeracy and literacy level of competence. Two aspects are important in this regard: Firstly, there is a growing concern in South Africa about moral degeneration and the loss of positive values in our communities, with the concomitant loss of hope, increase in crime levels, degeneration of our social fibre, etc. As South Africans have been shown to be a religiously inclined population, and as the people adhering to the Christian faith form the vast majority in the country (about 80% of the population according to the latest census information), Christian ministers of religion can play a significant role in turning these negative tendencies around. Well-formed and trained religious leaders in the community are needed for this to transpire. The new qualification that aims at providing quality training with the appropriate content and focus, and that will be accessible to large numbers of presently untrained ministers of religion will make a huge contribution to the turning around of negative tendencies. Secondly, there is a growing concern in our country about religious leaders, including leaders in the Christian tradition, whose conduct is unprofessional and detrimental to the community. This can, inter alia, be ascribed to a lack of proper training and inadequate training standards and professional oversight. Although this problem does occur in all spheres of the religious community, it is certainly also a serious issue in the informal church environment. Quality training, linked to the development of professional standards and a system of professional oversight will go a long way to protect communities against irresponsible persons who misuse their position as spiritual leaders in the community.

Recognition of Prior Learning: RPL for access to the external integrated summative assessment: Accredited providers and approved workplaces must apply the internal assessment criteria specified in the related curriculum document to establish and confirm prior learning. Accredited providers and workplaces must confirm prior learning by issuing a statement of result or certifying a work experience record. RPL for access to the qualification: Accredited providers and approved workplaces may recognise prior learning against the relevant access requirements. Entry Requirements: • No educational entry requirements.

• Share the gospel in a specific context and to a specific audience.
• Build caring relationships in the faith community and respond to the spiritual and physical needs of members.
• Provide spiritual leadership and develop leaders in a faith community.
• Arrange and oversee the day to day running of ministries and the administrative and accountability processes of the faith community.
• Help people in the faith community to share the gospel, support people in need and speak out for what is right and fair.