During your time as a resident, you’ll rotate through a number of different ministry departments, gaining valuable hands-on experience and growing in your understanding of each area’s “best practices.”

— What are your gifts?
— How can you grow?
— What will be your biggest obstacles in ministry?
— What might your future in ministry look like?

Over the course of your time at Southwest, you’ll have space to explore what kind of leader God has made you to be. Through your relationships with the leadership at Southwest and in regular 1-1 check-in times with our Residency Director, you’ll receive the ministry coaching needed to help you answer the pressing questions we all carry into any ministry endeavor God calls us to.

We are concerned with more than what you can do. Our longing is to care about who you are becoming.

In ministry, no amount of talent or competency can make up for a deficit in character. Do you know what it looks like to walk with Jesus each day? Can you preach the gospel to yourself moment-by-moment? Is your life full of practices that are leading you to a daily experience of the Lord? During your time as a resident, we’ll walk with you as you develop the lifelong rhythms needed for spiritual transformation.

As a resident, not only will you be surrounded by the staff at Southwest Church but also other hungry young leaders who will encourage and challenge you. Each week, you’ll gather with the other residents and our Residency Director to unpack what you’re learning through the program. You’ll learn the “why” behind the ministry we do and have space to share and learn from the highs and lows of ministry.

To go along with the hands-on training you’ll receive in our program, Southwest also has funds set aside to provide tuition assistance so that every resident leaves our program DEBT-FREE. Through our partnership with Hope International University, residents who have a Bachelor’s degree can receive an M.A. in Christian Ministry in just one year in our program. For those without a Bachelor’s degree, the tuition assistance can be used towards their undergraduate studies.

Core Competencies are the essential virtues and skills that a pastor must have to be successful in ministry. However, there is a good chance that they will not be practiced — or even mentioned — in the formal seminary context. HERE are the 9 you will learn about and put to practice during your time as a resident.

Through the generosity of numerous members of Southwest Church, our residents have the opportunity to live in host homes during their time as a resident.

*subject to availability