Apprenticeships

I want to serve ...

If the statement above describes you, then you will be pleased to know that every year iServe Africa recruits a group of apprentices and places them in apprenticeship opportunities in 3 main categories: Local Churches, Mission Agencies /Other Christian Organisations and in the Marketplace (within Christian contexts). Please read on to understand iServe Africa better.

iServe Africa : The Concept

The vision of iServe Africa is that many gifted and godly men and women would be identified, recruited, trained and sent out to handle the gospel of Jesus Christ faithfully, confidently, clearly and relevantly in Africa and beyond.

iServe Africa provides a different emphasis besides the ‘lay assistants’ and ‘interns’ that churches engage to support various ministries. Internship programmes focus on the immediate needs of the individual for pre employment skills rather than the long term needs of the church for qualified workers. The prime interest in iServe Africa is more in helping individuals understand and train for gospel ministry and less on cheap labor for the placement. The ideal combination is an apprentice who is keen to serve and a placement that deliberately seeks to train and develop workers.

iServe Africa: The Emphasis

iServe Africa will generally seek to address three principal themes of iServe Africa will generally seek to address three principal themes ofcompetence for gospel ministry: Character, Knowledge and Skills

Each individual is different and this needs to be taken into account when designing roles for each apprentice. Some have considerable experience and can be given more responsibility than others. Some are seeking to explore the possibility of a particular kind of ministry and therefore need specific training, e.g. for children’s and youth work.

Character

The Bible is clear that along with the ability to teach sound doctrine and refute error, the foremost prerequisite for church leaders is godliness. This requires honesty in addressing the following areas of our lives:

Holiness - Including integrity, prayerfulness, personal devotions and family life.
Teamwork - Co-operating with and supporting others in their ministry, loyalty and submission to leaders and a common goal.
Faithfulness - Commitment to God, His word and His people plus an emotional and theological tenacity and resilience.
Humility - a willingness to be changed by God’s word, to accept and receive advice and criticism from leaders, and to perform menial and unglamorous tasks.

The rigors of the work and the experience of team life usually show up the real person and any areas of weakness which need to be addressed. Each apprentice should be assigned a member of staff with whom they have occasional one-to-one sessions at which personal matters can be discussed.

Knowledge

Character and skills are best forged in an apprenticeship but depend upon knowing God. This is done at the Nairobi Ministry Training Course held for one week every two months. One part of it covers key doctrines and church history while the other half deals with practical aspects of ministry such as understanding what the Bible means and teaching it to others. Although the programme is not designed to pre-empt formal theological education, it does provide some theological input:

Principles of Biblical interpretation
Basic Biblical and systematic theology
Practice in the application of theology to issues of ministry
An awareness of the need to distinguish error from truth.
Some awareness of theological issues in preparation for theological /further study.

Apprentices will take it in turn to prepare and give expository talks from Bible passages and facilitators will give them feedback. This development and assessment of knowledge will take place regularly during NMTC weeks.

Skills

The main skill areas the iServe Africa seeks to address are:

· Preaching & Teaching - Apprentices are to be given a range of teaching opportunities as appropriate. These include one-to-one discipleship, youth/children’s work, leading small group Bible studies etc. The Nairobi Ministry Training Course will emphasize Faithful Bible Teaching in the African context.

· Discipleship: apprentices will meet with individuals in the church for one-to-one to Bible study. They should also do compassionate visits to encourage other Christians.

· Leadership - Opportunities should be given to nurture other Christians, prepare, lead and pray in public meetings, organize conferences and regular events and lead or a youth camp. Much of leadership is learnt by observation and hence apprentices should attend staff meetings.

· Evangelism - This includes caring and praying non Christians, understanding the gospel and explaining it, basic apologetics, knowing how to lead someone to Christ, giving an evangelistic talk including the appeal to repent and believe, dealing with common questions and planning an evangelistic Bible study/course

· Weekly Fraternal - The ministry review discussions held between the apprentice and their mentor will help apprentices to grasp and assess the strategy of the church and be able to work for its progress, consider the ‘needs of the hour’, and develop an awareness of the importance of people rather than just structures and buildings.

· People - The important skills of understanding, listening, encouraging, rebuking, dealing with conflict and success, and personal and corporate decision making should be emphasized.

If you feel you need more information, please contact us. We are recruting now.

“Through my apprenticeship in iServe Africa, my personal growth in God has really deepened. God has been teaching me about personal integrity and I knowing that He cares for me. At first I very much like an amateur but as time passed I have found my place at work and felt that my contribution made a difference. My supervisors and everybody else have been very supportive and that has made working here pleasurable. We have an open working relationship and I am able to seek clarifications on what I do not understand and they are very willing to help me. I am able to learn from them as I observe them work and see their struggles and successes.

Over time I have drawn much support and encouragement from my area group. This people have been a support system which I can call and share no matter the time. We meet and talk about various issues that we are going through and we encourage and pray for each other. When we have activities to do, duties are divided according to area groups and working with our team is fun. I enjoy being with them. My area group adds up as an accountability group. Like iron sharpens iron this people act as my sharpener. God bless them.

In this year I have been stretched in many areas. At times support is low and finances were are down but yet in those moments I have learnt to live within my means and joyful so. But the best part of it all has been to grow in knowledge of God, His work and His people. I have learnt much in this year. God is a very loving God. Gospel workers are needed, Christ’s prayer for workers stand. And the company of his people is a family.

I challenge every finalist in college/university to step forward and take the challenge, It has worked for me and it is well worth it. I am in!”

Virginia Njoki Wango,

iSA Apprentice @ Mission Together Africa

iServe Africa

Apprenticeships in Churches and Communities Across Africa