CDM Training Videos Build a Community of Learners
By Zoe S. Erler
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The PCA’s Committee on Discipleship Ministries (CDM) recently produced a series of short videos to serve as training tools for people in the local church.

It all began when Karen Hodge, CDM women’s ministry coordinator, was having a conversation with her 24-year-old daughter, Anna Botka, about ways to connect biblical teaching with younger audiences and provide more accessible tools for the denomination as a whole. Botka and her husband, Kevin, run their own video-animation company — Botka Collective — and Botka suggested they help produce a series of videos.

Topics such as sexuality, how to disciple teens, how to ask good questions in a small group, and gender-specific discipleship are some of the issues featured in the 35-video series. Each video features a different CDM staff member or members of CDM’s partner ministries.

Since the videos were released, “it has been amazing to see how people have used them personally and corporately as they lead others in the local church,” Hodge says.

Equipping Women for Ministry

So far, the videos have been used in settings such as training sessions for women’s leadership teams and large-group conversations about sexuality.

“I love the fact that this rich content is accessible to anyone,” Hodge adds. “And I love that it is accessible in any place … even our missionary and chaplains’ wives can connect to this content.”

“Twenty years ago, when I was first starting to work in women’s ministry, resources like this were scarce, and it was easy to feel alone, isolated, and [without resources],” says Courtney Doctor, director of women’s ministry and assimilation at The Kirk of the Hills Presbyterian Church (St. Louis). “These videos are one of the ways that void has been filled. They not only help equip women in practical ways for ministry, they also provide a place to build a community of learners … because we all benefit as we learn from each other, from those with more experience in ministry, or from those who have expertise on a certain topic or area of ministry.”

Doctor said that she was recently contacted by a women’s ministry team leader who said that her group watched her video, “Hunger and Thirst for God’s Word,” and it challenged them to think through ways they could better reach all the women in their church — young, old, married, and single.

To access the entire series, visit vimeo.com/pcacdm.

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