You may already exercise pastoral oversight within a church but not have the theological diploma or degree necessary to become an accredited Baptist minister. Alternatively, you may be exercising leadership in another area - children's and youth work perhaps, or as a chaplain within your community, or as missional pioneer running a project that seeks to engage the neighbourhood with Jesus. 

In addition, you may feel that you provide this leadership not simply because someone had to do it, but because God is calling you to serve your locality in this way. If this describes you, you might want to explore becoming a Recognised Local Minister, or RLM. An RLM is trained and formed to a lower level than an accredited Baptist ministry. And the focus of the training is to equip RLMs for their particular setting rather than prepare them for Baptist ministry anywhere in the country. Nevertheless, the role played by committed and passionate local leaders who are not accredited ministers is vital to our life as Baptists Together. 

If you want to explore this type of formal recognition, please contact your regional minister to talk to them about it. The role of the colleges in this is to provide the academic, theological component of RLM training. This happens over a sequence of weekends or evenings. The colleges provide learning in a range of core topics but can also suggest how more specialist training may be accessed. You can find out more about what this involves on our local church leadership page. 

Please note that to become an RLM, in addition to the theological learning, you will need the commendation of your church, be interviewed by your regional association at both the beginning and end of your training, and receive some mentoring during the training period. Your regional minister will be able to explain more.