This week and next week, our blast from the past focuses on training up people to serve others. Whether you're the minister of the church, a musician or the parish accountant, have you ever thought about finding, encouraging and training others with similar gifts to yours to see how they could use them in the life of your church? In this two-part article, Col Marshall thinks about how you might encourage others to do a form of apprenticeship with you in order to learn how to serve.

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.

Read the full article online.

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