All Chesapeake Ministerial Students and Licensed Ministers should take note that two pre-ordination classes are required each district year to retain their ministerial status. The deadline for completion and submission of class grades is April 1. To fulfill this requirement several training options are available:

If a student is 28 years or older and has a BS or BA degree, he or she has the option to take online Flame courses https://www.wesleyan.org/flame, Distance Education Correspondence Courses https://www.wesleyan.org/correspondence, or online classes such as the Cross-Training program offered by Oklahoma Wesleyan University http://www.okwu.edu/adult/crosstraining/.

If a student is younger than 28, the preferred track of training in The Wesleyan Church is a four-year degree in ministerial training from one of five Wesleyan schools.

• Houghton College, One Willard Ave. Houghton, NY 14744, http://www.houghton.edu/
• Indiana Wesleyan University, 4201 S. Washington Street Marion, IN 46953, https://www.indwes.edu/
• Kingswood University, 26 Western Street Sussex, New Brunswick, Canada E4E 1E6, https://www.kingswood.edu/
• Oklahoma Wesleyan University, 2201 Silver Lake Road Bartlesville, OK 74006, http://www.okwu.edu/
• Southern Wesleyan University, 907 Wesleyan Drive Central, SC 29630, http://www.swu.edu/

If a student already has a four-year degree, he or she may want to pursue a Master's of Divinity degree from one of the approved seminaries https://www.wesleyan.org/ecd/approved-seminaries. Of course, the preferred seminary is Wesley Seminary at Indiana Wesleyan University http://seminary.indwes.edu. Wesley Seminary provides online studies and focuses on practical preparation alongside side the academic.

If a student already has a four-year degree, he or she may want to pursue a Master's of Divinity degree from one of the approved seminaries https://www.wesleyan.org/ecd/approved-seminaries. Of course, the preferred seminary is Wesley Seminary at Indiana Wesleyan University http://seminary.indwes.edu. Wesley Seminary provides online studies and focuses on practical preparation alongside side the academic.