Apprenticeship Stories

Great joys, great challenges, great growth: and all for a great God!
Read these insights from MTS apprentices about their experiences:

St Thomas’ Anglican Church, North Sydney

“MTS has allowed me to learn many good things about ministry, God, people and myself. God has taught me that, although I am weak, he is very strong. I am learning how to trust him more with his work. I am involved in a range of ministry activities, including leading a young adults’ Bible study group, helping with preaching and planning for the church service, hospital visitations and spending time with a seniors’ group. In addition, we usually have week-by-week training, and regular meetings with various groups and individuals. My wife Liv and I are planning to continue our training with full-time theological study.”

St Mark’s Chapel, University of New England, Armidale, NSW

“Working closely with someone experienced in ministry was a real privilege and it also made MTS a realistic way to begin learning the
skills and knowledge essential in paid ministry. The diversity of experiences I went through, along with the clear teaching and honest
feedback I gained, gave me clarity of thought in my approach to ministry for the future. It made me better equipped to multiply myself by training others.”

University of Western Australia, Perth

“I loved doing ministry at church. But I wasn’t sure if I could handle leaving a secure career to become an entrepreneurial gospel worker.
Doing MTS and working with such great people helped me to grow in confidence and to make the decision to study theology to prepare for further ministry! The bonus is that I’m now more useful in my church because of what I’ve learnt about the priority of God’s powerful Word and about how to do effective ministry.”

Irish Church Missions, City Centre Church, Dublin, Ireland

“I’ve often wondered how I can explain the good news of Jesus Christ in a way which people from any age and background can understand and respond to. Through resources like Two Ways to Live and evangelism training sessions, MTS gave me the know-how and the ability to tell all types of people about who Jesus is, and what he has done for them through his death and resurrection.”

St Paul’s Anglican Church, Carlingford, NSW

“Having left quite an enjoyable job in marketing, I was rather indignant to find that, alongside my work with the young workers’ congregation at Carlingford and the Christian group at the University of Western Sydney, crèche had been added to my responsibilities! Yet activities like crèche really gave me an understanding of the breadth and depth of ministry. MTS was a time of growth in my relationship with our sovereign God as I observed the way he worked in people’s lives. MTS taught me that ministry is more about persuasion than presumption, it’s more about people than structures, and it’s ‘caught’ rather than taught.”

You can read more stories from apprentices in Passing the Baton.