Caleb Keller is a SIMA® professional who specializes in service to Antioch School students. In this video, he addresses issues like “What is SIMA and a SIMA MAP?” “Why is it so important?” “How do I start?” “What are other Antioch School students saying about it?” “How have you personally benefitted from it?” and “What other advice do you have for Antioch School students?”
“Experience development that is focused sharply on you” is one of the lines that used in advertising the Antioch School. This may be manifested best in the central role of the SIMA Motivated Abilities Pattern (MAP) in Antioch School degree programs. However, because this is not the sort of thing that is common in theological education, some church partners and students struggle to use it.
The SIMA MAP is an analytical tool that helps you (and those in your God-given learning community) to understand how God has made you. We list it first on the portfolio transcripts of all Antioch School degree programs because it is such a fantastic starting point and foundational dimension of church-based theological education. Antioch School degrees are not just academic programs using BILD’s Leadership Series courses, but life and ministry development programs using a variety of resources. Even the experience with BILD’s Leadership Series courses is made richer by students having a deep understanding of how God has made them and how they fit into the life and ministry contexts God has given to them.
Some partners don’t offer Leadership Series courses during the summer. However, summer is a great time to address some of the Life and Ministry Development parts of an Antioch School program. If your students haven’t yet completed the Autobiographical Form (or a SIMA MAP Response), strongly encourage them to use the summer to do so. You may even want to call a special meeting or have a few special classes that help them move forward as a cohort. Please note that we take this so seriously that students may be placed on academic probation if they have been enrolled for more than a year without making initial progress on their SIMA MAP Responses.