Our History:
HOW SOM STARTED:
SOM was started in the 1990s by Peter Butt (UK) to help provide an in-depth training for church leaders and other ministries in the Cornerstone Network (UK) who could not access Bible schools and theological Colleges.
The modules were written by a several church leaders and teachers, and they were initially taught as a ‘Deeper’ Course in Southampton. This led to other UK churches starting to teach the materials. Many of the UK churches had a wider network of relationships overseas and slowly the SOM schools began in other countries. Today School of Ministries is taught mainly outside of the UK.
In 2021, Peter Butt retired from leading SOM. From 2021 to 2024, SOM was led by Billy Kenedy. He was also the leader of Pioneer International, and during this period SOM and Pioneer International developed a close working relationship. As a result, many churches in the international Pioneer network became interested in having a SOM school. Due to this, SOM now became a ministry of the Pioneer Network in 2024.
However, a church does not have to be part of the Pioneer International Network in order to run SOM. Nevertheless, we recommend that the SOM training school is run in accordance to the Pioneer values and vision. (The vision and values of the Pioneer network can be viewed in the appendix).
In 2024, Billy Kennedy handed on the leadership of SOM to Paul Turner who now leads the ministry with an international team of leaders in different parts of the world.
Peter Butt initiated the School of Ministries programme, seeking to draw together all the gifts and abilities, the ministries and skills within the network of churches he was involved with. His vision was to train leaders for the coming harvest. Today we express that vision as:
Developing leaders
Strengthening churches
Transforming communities
Impacting nations
