Factotum #9: Ministry apprentices

Apprenticeships are a familiar part of our community life. It is a well-established model of education and training where the master craftsman passes on his knowledge and skills to the trainee. Before our more formal educational institutions arose, apprenticing was the way craft and knowledge were handed down.

There is a vast and growing literature on apprenticing, which is one of the many terms being applied to Christian training and training for the ministry. Each term has its own background and nuances. Coaching is most commonly used in the sporting world, but there are also coaches in education and the arts. Coaching implies a personal commitment from the coach to develop the player.

Mentoring is another popular training model coming to us from the business and educational world. The mentor has a protégé who is being groomed for a particular role in the organization. The relationship is a mix of teaching, being a role model, developing competencies, friendship, protecting and sponsoring within the organization.

Discipling is the Christian term that has been used for some time to describe the personal training of Christians in life and ministry. Jesus with the Twelve and Paul with his delegates are viewed as the pioneers and models of the discipling of leaders.

Each of these models of training capture the same elements which we will summarize as ‘apprenticing’.

We will use the terms ‘trainer’ and ‘trainee’ to describe apprenticing since ‘master’ and ‘apprentice’ have unhelpful connotations for those who serve one Lord and Master.

Elements of apprenticeship

_
• Development—the trainer is committed to the development and progress of the trainee
_
• Instruction—there is a program of formal instruction to build a knowledge base sufficient for the required skills.
_
• Modelling—the trainee observes the skills and attitudes of the trainer and can ask questions.
_
• Practice—knowledge and practice are integrated by learning on the job. The trainer can critique the work of his protégé.
_

Educationally, the apprenticeship model has a great advantage. Hugh Mackay in Why Don't People Listen proposes that one of the laws of human communication is: “... people pay most attention to messages which are relevant to their own circumstances and point of view” (p.114). As the apprentice tries to cut the mortice joint accurately, he is motivated to listen and learn from the cabinet maker. After a young evangelist has been savaged by his listeners for his view on the authority of the Bible, he realizes that attending lectures on inspiration and authority is not simply in order to pass the exam!

Applying apprenticing in the church

Every leader in church life should have an apprentice. This is the central proposition of this article. The logic is simple and compelling: to grow the Christian workforce, the current leaders should recruit and train apprentices. This is not just a maintenance strategy to replace leaders, but a growth strategy to initiate new ministries.

Who should have apprentices? The possibilities are endless: the minister with those preparing for full-time gospel ministry; the songleader with a young gifted leader; the Bible study leader training a potential leader in the group; the church secretary preparing her replacement.

Becoming talent scouts

Why don't we actively and deliberately go out and find the best people to lead the Christian enterprise? This is left to the corporate and sports world with their headhunters and talent scouts. Do we feel a theological ambivalence at this point? It sounds a little ungodly and unspiritual, less than a full-orbed confidence in the kingship of the risen Christ to equip his church (Eph 4).

Pragmatically speaking, there is some great talent in our churches. In their working, community and leisure lives, some of our members are communicators, leaders, sellers, managers, visionaries and entrepreneurs. Why aren't they using their talents in the Christian enterprise? Maybe because no-one spotted, recruited and apprenticed them for a specific ministry role.

Too often we are reactive in recruiting for ministry. We wait or ask for volunteers and create those embarrassing moments when no-one puts their hand up to direct the church camp. It would have been better to think through our membership and personally recruit someone with the right gifts and personality. A member who works as an office manager might be the right camp leader who could be apprenticed to the experienced camp leader for a year.

Part of apprenticing is developing an eye for grooming people for the ministry that suits them.

Who should be apprentices?

The well-known FAT person is a good guide.

_
• Faithful—those who are proven faithful to Christ and in serving his people. Those who persevere and fulfil their responsibilities.
_
• Available—apprenticing requires a relationship and ministry responsibilities which take time. There are seasons of life when being an apprentice is more compatible with the demands of life.
_
• Teachable—an openness and respect for the trainer is fundamental.
_

To clarify the matter, who should not be apprentices?

_
• The young convert—especially if they are being trained as a teacher (1 Tim 3:6).
_
• The enthusiast—those who volunteer for every ministry may not be reliable or suitable.
_
• The insecure—those who are overly dependent on acceptance and recognition may make poor ministry apprentices. They will jump through all the hoops but for the wrong reasons.
_

Understanding apprenticing

What are the qualities, attitudes and skills required in the trainer for effective apprenticing?

From the business world, Anne Rolffe-Flett offers nine qualities that make a good mentor (as reported in The Sydney Morning Herald, February 24, 1996):

_
• The ability to nurture
_
• Strong interpersonal skills
_
• Intimate knowledge of the organization
_
• Leadership skills
_
• Competence
_
• Status and held in esteem
_
• Team spirit
_
• Tolerance for risk
_
• Compatibility
_

Dr. Philip Douglass, Professor of Church Planting, Growth and Renewal at Covenant Theological Seminary in St Louis, Missouri, has surveyed the literature on mentoring in the business, educational and Christian fields and distilled 12 key ‘descriptors’ of the mentor's role (unpublished PhD thesis, 1995):

_
• Confidant
_
• Friend
_
• Teacher
_
• Coach
_
• Sponsor
_
• Role model
_
• Developer
_
• Strategist
_
• Protector
_
• Leader
_
• Supervisor
_
• Nurturer
_

But how does God's word inform effective apprenticing? And what warnings and correctives would the Bible bring to the apprentice model of training? This will require more space than this article allows, but many strands can be suggested for careful study.

At one level, the patterns of apprenticing in the Bible are instructive: Moses with Joshua, Eli and Samuel, Elijah with Elisha, Jesus with his disciples, Paul and his missionary band. However, we must not interpret too much from these for our ministries. They are not recorded to teach us apprenticing, and each has a unique role in God's plan for the world, which means we are not to view their relationships as an exact model for all times and ministries.

We should consider how God relates to us as Father and Shepherd, and our roles as parents and shepherds in the family and church. We should look at the roles of older men and women in the church, especially from the Pastoral Epistles.

The connections between teaching, pastoring and equipping in the New Testament need to be explored. These are not distinct ministries but to a large degree overlap. The pastor shepherds the flock through teaching the Word, and so equips each one to serve.

Further, we should not draw much distinction between teaching and discipling. In our modern world, teaching has often become a more impersonal and dispassionate process of handing on information. In much of the ancient world, teaching always implied discipling. The learner became a follower of the teacher's philosophy and way of life.

All of these biblical and theological themes need to shape our understanding and practice of apprenticing.

The weaknesses of apprenticing

Charles Van Engen (“Shifting Paradigms in Ministry Formation”, Perspectives, Oct 1994, pp.15-17) suggests at least three weaknesses in the apprenticing paradigm:

_

_
• It can be ideological, manipulative, and oppressive if the mentor imposes certain agendas, styles, and thought patterns on the disciple without allowing them the freedom of self-expression and self-discovery.
_
• This paradigm is limited to the vision, wisdom, skills, and creativity of the mentor. The student cannot learn more than the mentor knows.
_
• Learning may not be transferable to other contexts.
_

_

The practice of apprenticing

Here are some practical tips for effective apprenticing. They are all expressions of sincere and selfless love which is to be the mark of all relationships as Christ's disciples.

_
• Make Bible study and prayer the heart of apprenticing. They are Christ's disciples, not yours.
_
• Communicate your confidence in them.
_
• Be explicit in giving permission to fail. They will fail, and this will often provide great training moments!
_
• Be available to them, not secluded in your office. Brief, courteous conversations will not train them.
_
• Be authentic. They learn from your success and failure.
_
• Expect high performance standards, otherwise your approval means nothing.
_
• Train them, don't just use them. Apprenticing in the short-term creates more work rather than reducing it. It is not about getting help to achieve your goals.
_
• Extend their responsibilities beyond what they know they can do. Responsibility is one of the great developers of people.
_
• Identify the progress they make and report to them for encouragement. This prevents a censorious atmosphere.
_