Long-term apprenticeship
Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2017 4:53 pm
Just yesterday our elders were discussing developing a church planting residency. We've already sent out one church planter. But we want to make our residency program more robust and make it a place where 2-3 future church planters at a time can come and gain pastoral experience over a couple of years. We were talking yesterday about how so much of pastoral ministry can not be taught in a classroom, nor can pastoral proficiency be gained through reading books. It must be practiced.
Then I read this entry for Day 2, "Provision." Real shepherds in Jordan, Israel, and the Sinai were asked, "What does it take to be a shepherd?" Many answers were given, but there was one thing in common: "No one had a curriculum. Just long-term apprenticeship." I love that! Learning to live out the long-haul calling of caring for sheep requires a long-term apprenticeship.
Future church planters (who are shepherds-in-training) must be around a real flock. They must have the opportunity to watch other shepherds in action. They must be put into live situations, where they have to feed sheep, or protect sheep, or counsel and correct sheep. There is no substitute to actually being in the fields with a flock. When we think about a church-planting residency, it must have the feel of an apprenticeship (where the person learns by observing and by doing). That motivates me!
Then I read this entry for Day 2, "Provision." Real shepherds in Jordan, Israel, and the Sinai were asked, "What does it take to be a shepherd?" Many answers were given, but there was one thing in common: "No one had a curriculum. Just long-term apprenticeship." I love that! Learning to live out the long-haul calling of caring for sheep requires a long-term apprenticeship.
Future church planters (who are shepherds-in-training) must be around a real flock. They must have the opportunity to watch other shepherds in action. They must be put into live situations, where they have to feed sheep, or protect sheep, or counsel and correct sheep. There is no substitute to actually being in the fields with a flock. When we think about a church-planting residency, it must have the feel of an apprenticeship (where the person learns by observing and by doing). That motivates me!