Apprenticeship discipleship

[Jamie]

I think of how Jesus did it. He trained his apprentices “on the road.� (I am indebted to Dallas Willard and others for their renewed emphasis on “apprentice� imagery.) There were no classes, handouts, or sermon notes. It was just doing life together for three years. The goal was that at the end of that process the students would somehow become like their rabbi. Wouldn’t it be great if we could re-create that model somehow? It seems to me that the bane of the modern church is that we equate knowledge about the spiritual life with skill in living the spiritual life. (Those of us who are highly educated especially struggle with this, I think.) As if just having the right information, theology, doctrine, etc. is enough. I think this is where much of the “conversation� in the emerging church is right-on: let’s quit quibbling over non-essential matters of doctrine and get out in the world and truly love and serve our neighbors. Not only is it love in action, it is also an incredible training ground (moreso than a class or book, IMHO) for novice apprentices. As you say, “knowledge can be useless.� How do we, like Jesus, invite potential apprentices into a more hands-on, experience-centered model?
One of the things I tried at my last church was using the time when we’d normally have our weekly young adult meeting (with its rather predictable flow of worship, teaching, announcements, etc.) and instead plan (or ask my lay leaders to plan) a service event. For example, we’d go out to work on a Habitat house instead. Personally, I believe much more was accomplished thru that than by having our normal meeting and me giving a talk on serving others.