Growing leaders II
The previous post looks at 7 Lessons on Growing Leaders. This one fills out some the detail and came out of phone conversation with Colin Marshall who heads up MTS.
MTS offers apprenticeship training in Word-centred ministry in churches across Australia. The scheme takes both hands-on ministry and theological training seriously.
Interns spend most of their time doing evangelism, teaching and pasturing small discipleship groups, leading conferences and camps, doing youth ministry. Every intern is encouraged to start something new — ideally amongst non-Christians.
The aim is to give them a taste of what church planting could be like. They do lots of evangelism: walk up evangelism, evangelism through small groups, even street preaching. They learn how to present the Gospel, one-on-one, in small and large groups.
The two-year internship is spent at the coalface doing basic ministry.
Each week an intern meets with a qualified pastor-trainer. They review the ministry and receive theological input. Pastor-trainers are chosen for their Word-centred ministry and godly character. They are expected to make the development of the intern a high priority and not see them as cheap labour.
Colin emphasized that Biblically, it’s the local minister who is first of all responsible to pass on the ministry to others—not the denomination or the theological college.
The model of mentoring was inspired by the example of Charles Simeon of Oxford. So far over 1,000 interns have been through the system. About 40% of them were women. There are currently 240 interns placed in 88 churches or university ministries.
The local church is the fishing pool for new interns. Most have come to the program through their local church and are then placed there. Churches are equipped by MTS to build a training culture. Interns often have years of guided ministry experience in their local church before they respond to a challenge to join the program.
Interns are paid a basic allowance by their church that enables them to commit full-time.
The MTS strategy provides a broad range of people with the opportunity to do ministry. At the end of two years they have a much clearer understanding of their calling. Many go on to formal theological training with the mindset of experienced practitioners who relate their learning to the frontline.
Graduates return to full time ministry looking for someone else to train as an intern and the process continues.
If you’re interested in becoming and intern or pastor-trainer here’s the website.
Growing leaders is not rocket science. It requires a life and ministry context and some intentional input from those who have gone before. If we’re not passing on the cause of Christ to a new generation what on earth are we doing in ministry?
