In November 2021, ICETE began promoting a dialogue between formal and nonformal theological education. The aim was to build understanding and partnership to serve churches more effectively. In the course of the dialogue, issues of quality assurance were raised. What could quality assurance look like for the great variety of nonformal theological education programs? ICETE scheduled a track to explore this question at an in-person working consultation in Ephesus, Turkey from November 15 – 18, 2022, Relevant Quality Assurance by and for Nonformal Theological Education.   

The participants in this track explored and described the characteristics of effective and fruitful NFTE and investigated how these characteristics can be used to generate possible processes of quality assurance for greater program effectiveness and accountability.

The document Characteristics of Effective and Fruitful Nonformal Theological Education is the fruit of this work.

Possible uses of this document include:

• a self-evaluation tool for an individual program to identify strengths and areas for growth and improvement
• the basis for a peer review process by a group of similar programs
• a tool that may be adapted and customized to serve specific programs in their contexts
• a selection tool for churches as they consider the services of a range of nonformal programs
• a set of guiding principles for new programs in development