E4N Bible College -- Life Experience Credit (Maximum 30 credits)

A student is eligible for consideration for advanced standing on the basis of life experience if the student meets the following criteria:

	1.	The student applicant is at least 28 years of age.
	2.	The applicant has at least eight (8) years of leadership experience in a Christian church (acknowledged by the church through election or appointment), or five years leadership if three years were full-time ministry.
	3.	The applicant has provided a Life Experience portfolio including a curriculum vitae and letters of recommendation.
	4.	The applicant has never received equivalent credit for life experience in any other degree program.
	5.	Once life experience credit has been awarded there follows 9 credit hours of probation. This means that a student must complete course requirements for a minimum of 9 credit hours before life experience credits will appear on transcript.

Procedures:

	1.	The applicant should request life experience credit through the E4N Bible College office.
	2.	The completed portfolios, with letters of reference and documentation, are to be reviewed by E4N Bible College.
	3.	An interview may be scheduled before determination is made. (This interview may either be in person or by phone).
	4.	Once a determination has been made, the student will be contacted and a schedule of classes will be discussed in order to fulfill the remaining obligations for degree.

The Portfolio

The portfolio that is submitted by each student in support of the application for Life Experience Credit should contain at least these four elements.

	1.	Curriculum vitae
		This is a report of "the current of one's life," or "the course of one's experience." It should be as simple as possible, simply the listing of the year(s) of service or achievement with a brief identification of the areas of experience and responsibility involved. The list may be singular, or plural, one or many, but the items listed should be included:

	a.	Personal: Date of birth, baptism, graduation(s), marriage, ordination, etc.
	b.	Educational: Institutions and schools attended as well as awards and degrees granted.
	c.	Vocational: Employment and job responsibilities.
	d.	Ecclesiastical: Formal and informal responsibilities in the church.
	e.	Community and Social: Participation in voluntary organizations.

	2.	Description of Ministry
		This section of the report will focus on ministerial experience, whether within or outside the Church, as much as possible in chronological order. The applicant for Life Experience Credit should provide description of ministry in the following areas:

	a.	Conduct of worship
	b.	Sermon preparation
	c.	Educational instruction
	d.	Pastoral care and counseling
	e.	Church administration
	f.	Evangelism and Church development
	g.	Community organization and development
	h.	If comparable experience may have been gained in alternate settings, it should be included in portfolio.

	3.	Analysis of Skills
		Individual skills should be identified here, with reference to settings where skills developed, but with major focus on the skills themselves. The ministerial skills here identified are not exhaustive, but they suggest the variety and nature of skills, that should be developed. As much as possible, the applicant should be able to demonstrate development in these skills and others he/she has developed.

	4.	Letters of Reference and Documentation
		Letters from all individuals in supervisory capacities for the applicant's ministerial experience should be received and submitted. Experience for which no external documentation is provided is not to be considered for Life Experience Credit. Supporting letters that document the variety of experienced gain are required. Those letters from supervisors are most helpful that not only endorse the applicant's candidacy for credit and document the variety of experience, but that also identify the specific skills in ministry that were developed and exercised in the ministerial experience.

Costs:

An examination fee is charged. To encourage students to try the examination process no fee is charged if the examination is not successful. However, if the examination process is successful, a fee of $15.00 per Cr. Hr. is charged. Thus, a student receiving no credit is charged nothing, but a student receiving 6 hours of credit is charged $90.00 and a student receiving 12 hours of credit is billed $180.00. No credit appears on the transcript until the fee is paid and an additional 9 credits of class work is completed. Students should note that the fee for the examination process is considerable less than tuition costs for the same amount of credit.

In Summary:

Note that it is not sufficient to describe and document one's experience in ministry. The unexamined ministry does not warrant Life Experience Credit. Experience is a prerequisite for consideration for Life Experience Credit, but 50 years of experience are not adequate in and of themselves to guarantee credit. Life Experience Credit depends on the ability to analyze one's experiences and to identify learning derived from them. Experience does not warrant credit. Credit is granted for the learning derived from the experience. Moreover, an experience that was judged, and actually was a failure may be a more helpful learning experience. This illustrates the fact that Life Experience Credit is more closely related to the learning from the experience than it is to experience itself.