Phase Three: Elements of the Shepherd Apprenticeship
The goal of any apprenticeship program is to bring a man to the point that he is ordained by that church and prepared for a lifetime of service on a pastoral team or as the senior pastor. Although the goal of an apprenticeship program is the same, the starting point for each person is different. A good apprenticeship program has several key elements.
Educational Element
Seminary, classes, or on-site training with the pastor
The educational element should be a structured time with interaction between mentor and mentee about what he is learning. The decision of what class to take, what book to read, or what podcast to listen to is the sole responsibility of the mentoring pastor who puts together an apprenticeship program.
MINIMUMS:
Time and Structure of Learning—the pastor and apprentice must have a specified regular (best to be weekly) time for discipleship, building relationship, and doing ministry together. This is specifically a time of transferring the values and philosophy from the pastor to the apprentice.
Individualized Scope and Sequence of the Discipleship—each person is different in their capacity and need for formal and informal education. A plan should be created that establishes an end goal of the educational component whether it is advanced degrees or assigned learning by the pastor.
Experience Element
One of the goals of the financial help of the P2P is to allow a mentee to work at church gaining experience in a wide variety of church ministry, both structured and spontaneous.
An internship program needs a healthy dose of real-life pastoral experience.
MINIMUMS:
3. A list of areas of responsibility that the mentee can look forward to during his tenure at the church.
4. An individualized plan for growth in areas of greatest need.
5. A list of core competencies in which they will gain experience and be able to accomplish.
Temporal Element
The program should have scope and sequence, which means that a person goes through it and has a finish line. Minimum time for an internship program is 12 months, and maximum is 48 months. The church should have an expectation that this person is not there on a permanent basis.
MINIMUMS:
6. Defined Time—There should be a clear starting point of the apprenticeship with a defined finish line that deals with time, educational goals, and effective ministry preparation. The goal is to be able to disciple a person to the point of ordination, so often, ordination becomes the finish point. Most apprenticeships should last between two to four years. One year is rarely long enough to deal with character, and beyond four years, either it begins to feel permanent or not enough progress is being made to remain in the apprenticeship.
Character Element
The qualifications for being a pastor go far beyond one’s academic training or completion of an internship or apprenticeship. In fact, when you look in Scripture, there are no qualifications that are tied to one’s amount of education. Path2Pastor recognizes that in the process of preparing pastors that we must be doing much more than teaching facts and how to do ministry; we must be developing the spiritual growth of future pastors. 1 Timothy 3:1–7 and Titus 1:5–9 clearly identify that the primary qualifications of a pastor are character based. Pastor mentors must be willing to have in-depth discussions about personal life issues to help individuals grow.
MINIMUMS:
7. Mentor/Mentee Relationship Expectation—what kind of interaction should the mentee expect to have with his mentor? This may include a weekly meeting talking about items such as the next month’s activities, planned personal evaluation time, or learning philosophy of ministry. The deliberate time together should be weekly (whether through meetings, doing ministry together, or times of evaluation) and not just a monthly event.
8. Purposeful Evaluation—establish a defined mechanism that facilitates evaluation and discussion about personal and spiritual growth. Identify areas of needed growth, skills to be developed, attained successes, and personal life issues that need to be addressed.
9. Disciple to Ordination Qualification—the apprenticeship should help the individual move to the point of being qualified for pastoral ministry, or come to the understanding that pastoral ministry is not a fit for him due to gifting or character. The end goal of the apprenticeship is that a man may be considered qualified for the gospel ministry by a local church. This evaluation of one’s character, gifting, calling, doctrine, and philosophy is accomplished through the ordination process of individual local churches.
Housing & Benefits Element
One of the ways to make it easy to have an intern on a regular basis is to invest in the housing assets necessary to be able to provide housing at no additional cost to the intern.
If the goal of the church is to disciple future pastors on a regular basis, a home, apartment, or parsonage would be a great investment for the church.
MINIMUMS:
10. Benefits Worksheet—a list of what is provided and to what extent (e.g., salary, housing, utilities, phone, vacation, sick days)
11. Basic Policy—spouse, kids, character, pets, days off, office, etc.