BeADisciple

What BeADisciple is

BeADisciple.com is a Christian online education site offering ministry, spiritual formation and leadership courses to church leaders and laity. It is a learner product: you enroll in one course at a time, join a small group that starts and finishes on set dates, and work through the material online with a trained facilitator or a certified instructor. The home page says the site has provided online courses "with roots in Wesleyan theology since 2006", and the About page marks 2026 as its 20th year of online courses.

BeADisciple is a ministry of the Richard and Julia Wilke Institute for Discipleship at Southwestern College, which the About page describes as a United Methodist institution in Winfield, Kansas. The college chartered the Institute on April 20, 2001, and 2026 is the Institute's 25th anniversary. The partners page adds that Southwestern, a United Methodist undergraduate and graduate institution founded in 1885, hosts BeADisciple.com. The site's background and primary perspective is United Methodist, but it describes an ecumenical mission, instructors from a variety of denominations, and courses that are open to anyone.

How the courses work

The format is the thing to understand before enrolling, because these are not self-paced video libraries. The home page FAQ says "Learners begin together, progress through materials together, and end together," in small groups of "about 5 – 20 with a trained facilitator or a certified instructor, so learners and instructors have an opportunity to get to know one another." A group moves through the course as a class, and the home page lists getting to know Christians from around the world among its reasons to take a course.

Participation is daily but not live. The site expects learners to take part every day, yet each person logs in at whatever time suits them, day or night, and nobody has to be online at the same moment as the rest of the group. The exception is a set of courses with a required Zoom session, which the site says are clearly noted in the course description; everything else is asynchronous. The catalog shows what that looks like in practice: preaching and worship courses such as Called To Preach, From Your Heart to Theirs: Delivering an Effective Sermon and Leading Worship are listed in Friday Zoom or Saturday Zoom versions.

The site sends learners to Blackboard through a Go to Blackboard link on every page, and its Help menu holds a Blackboard Info page next to Start Here! and Learner Info. The home page is direct about the skills involved: success in an online course "depends on basic skills in technology and computer use." If you browse the web, send email and create and save files and passwords, you will likely have no trouble; if those tasks are a struggle, the site itself says in-person learning is likely a better option.

Enrollment works from two lists. The Course Catalog shows every course offered, sortable by title or category, and a separate Course Schedule shows only the courses currently enrolling. The catalog states that the enrollment deadline for all courses is 6:00 AM central time on the course start date, and a monthly newsletter announces upcoming courses. The About page also points to a plagiarism and AI use policy and describes a faith-centered learning environment built on trust, fairness, respect, honesty and responsibility.

The four kinds of course

Lay Servant Ministries (LSM). These advanced courses are, in the site's words, "vital in seeking or renewing lay leadership credentials in the United Methodist Church," though it adds that their subjects are valuable regardless of denomination and anyone may enroll. The partners page says BeADisciple hosts online courses "which have been approved by Discipleship Ministries (formerly the General Board of Discipleship) as advanced courses in Lay Servant Ministries," marked with the GBOD logo "Learning and Leading." Catalog examples include The LSM Basic Course: Connecting and Serving, Lay Pastoral Caregiving, Ministry with People Living with Dementia, Leading Public Prayer, Biblical Storytelling I and II, Transforming Evangelism, Aging and Ministry in the 21st Century, and the Polity and Heritage courses on the United Methodist connection and beliefs.

Certified Lay Ministry (CLM). An online format of the modules needed by people seeking approval as Certified Lay Ministers in the United Methodist Church. The catalog lists four of them: Call and Covenant for Ministry, The Practice of Ministry, Organization for Ministry, and Connection for Ministry. The site sends readers to its CLM page for the requirements for participation.

Wesley Academy. Courses developed in partnership with Wesley Theological Seminary, which the home page invites you to take to "Learn from world-class scholars." They can be taken a la carte or as part of one of two certification tracks. The partners page says the Wesley Lay Academy offers eleven online classes and that you can "combine several and earn a certification in Wesleyan Studies from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C." Catalog titles include Methodist Identity: Our Story, Methodist Identity: Our Beliefs, Devotion to Jesus: The Divinity of Christ in Earliest Christianity, Women Speak of God, Simply Christian, Religion and Science: Pathways to Truth, and Serious Answers to Hard Questions.

Ministry Enrichment. Stand-alone courses that are not part of a certification or a roster of required courses, meant for a layperson or someone in professional ministry who wants solid content "without the commitment of a larger program." Examples are the three Old Testament Through A Different Lens courses (Torah and Beyond, The Prophets, and Ketuvim/Writings), Enneagram for Church Leaders, Safer Sanctuaries, Preaching Biblical Women, Dangerous Religious Ideas, and Closing Conversations: An End-of-Life Care Guide.

Across all four, the catalog groups courses by subject: Biblical Studies, Care for Self & Others, Christian Education, Church Administration & Leadership, Evangelism, Music & Worship Ministry, Older Adult Ministry, Prayer & Meditation, Seasonal (Advent/Lent), Spiritual Formation, Theology, and Youth Ministry.

CEUs, prices and instructors

Every course carries continuing education credit. The programs page says "Every BeADisciple course offers Continuing Education Units (CEUs) upon successful course completion," and explains that some professions, such as pastors, chaplains and people who work in churches or other religious fields, require or encourage them. If you do not need them, the page notes, you still get the instruction.

Pricing is per course. The home page says "There is no membership fee to be part of our community," and that courses "range from $80 to $165 depending on length, rigor, and programmatic requirements." The pages do not say how many weeks a typical course runs.

The instructors page describes BeADisciple's teachers as experts in their fields, whether pastoral, theological or practical, and says each one "has been certified to lead courses online through the Institute for Discipleship." Every instructor on that page has a biography and a list of the courses they teach. The About page names Beth Galbreath as a long-time instructor and the site's registrar.

The Institute behind the site has a long record in small-group Bible study. Bishop Richard (Dick) Wilke, elected to the episcopacy of the United Methodist Church in 1984 and bishop in the Arkansas area for 12 years, wrote the DISCIPLE Bible study with his wife Julia. The About page says that study has "nearly three million graduates in more than 10,000 congregations in 30 denominations," and that it is available in languages including Korean, Spanish, French, German, two dialects of Chinese and several Southeast Asian languages, as well as on the BeADisciple Study App, a separate online ministry of the Institute.

Learner comments on the home page give a sense of the experience. One reads: "I started taking courses for my Certified Lay Speaker certification but after taking 3 courses with your amazing instructors, I love the classes." Another says: "On-line classes are so convenient and cost effective. One can complete the program so much faster than waiting for the classes to become available through the district."

Who it suits

BeADisciple fits United Methodist lay servants working toward or renewing their credentials, and people preparing for approval as Certified Lay Ministers, because the LSM and CLM tracks are built for exactly those credentials. It also suits laypeople from other churches who want a structured course with a real group: the About page says learners from Mainline Protestant traditions such as Lutheran (ELCA), Presbyterian (PCUSA), Episcopal, United Church of Christ and American Baptist, or Wesleyan ones such as Nazarene, Free Methodist and AME, "ought to feel at home in most of our courses." Pastors and chaplains who need CEUs get them with every course, and anyone who wants serious study with a seminary connection can work toward the Wesleyan Studies certification.

It is a weaker fit for someone looking for secular personal development, for a learner who wants to start on demand and finish at their own pace, since groups run on fixed dates with daily participation, and for anyone expecting a degree, as what the site offers is CEUs, preparation for church lay credentials, and the seminary's Wesleyan Studies certification. Within its scope, it is a modestly priced, well-organized way to study with a group of fellow Christians rather than alone.