Clinical Pastoral Education - What do you think of it?

[sgemmen9]

I hope this is the right place to post this thread. I was curious if anyone did Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) before? I have not done it yet, nor am I required to. But I see many candidates in the Christian Reformed Church (and other denominations as progressive and more progressive) requring CPE. Many conservatives have called CPE "conservative washout." However true this may or may not be, I was curious what others thought of CPE. My take is that it can be a good learning experience, yet it is not based a on particularly Christian Theistic worldview, so you have to make the best out of a difficult situation where your authorities are not always theologically like-minded. I think it also gives insight into the human experience that many pastors lack. It helps people relate to other people feel and it can help people think about how they present the Christian worldview. On a negative side, I think it can also make one more progressive if they're not theologically grounded in biblical presuppositions.

Any thoughts on CPE? For it? Against it? It's beneficial or not? Your experiences? Etc...?

 

[SolaScriptura]

I have 5 units of CPE. Your CPE experience depends almost entirely upon your supervisor. If your supervisor is an evangelical, he/she will likely jettison the overtly pagan and new-age nonsense. If, however, your supervisor is a liberal, it will be an excruciating experience.

In general, I highly recommend one unit of CPE for almost every minister. However, a full year (4 units) or more is - in my opinion - over kill.