Phase Three: Practical Considerations

Mentor As-You-Go

Establish as-you-go mentoring. Take your apprentice with you in ministry endeavors whenever you can. If you get a call in the middle of the night that you have to go out, they get a call from you to go with you. This as-you-go mentoring will provide real ministry experience in the safety of not bearing the load.  

Be Transparent

Develop in-depth relationships that gets into real life issues—this means you have to be transparent about your own life. It is okay for them to see you in your failure as you biblically respond to those failures and for them to see the joy of ministry success.  

Develop the Person

Build the apprenticeship around their needs of development and not around the needs of the church. This is hard—very hard! Because the goal is to send them out, be careful about starting ministries that take them to sustain the ministry endeavor.  

Disciple Your Church

Disciple your church to be an encouragement to those in the apprenticeship—your church family will get a front row seat in their development that at times is hard and at times is amazing.  

Entrances & Exits

Have on-ramps and off-ramps in the relationship that are clear both for the church and for the apprentice. Not every relationship works for various reasons—it is to be expected that not every apprentice will continue on to the role of pastor. This is not failure—it is successfully helping someone pursue God’s design for their life!  

Real Responsibility

Give real responsibility. They may even be better than you at certain ministry endeavors—do not be intimidated or threatened by their giftedness. 

Teaching Others

Gauge their growth by whether they can teach others learned skills and knowledge effectively.

Ordination

If you get to do their ordination, celebrate it with them and with the church family!