I’m at Princeton Seminary again for a couple of days. This time I’m participating in a couple days of a think tank discussing training/education for Youth Workers. There are about 15 of us here both from the Academic world as well as from the Practitioner side of Youth Ministry.
As part of our discussion today we spent some time analyzing the idea of an Apprenticeship vs. an Internship. It used to be that in many fields of study or hands on job that you were always apprenticed to someone who had skill, history and a business that you could learn from. In many of these situations the “master” would teach the “apprentice” by modeling how to do something and would work alongside them until they got it right.
What we tend to do in most churches though is not the same thing. In many cases (especially in smaller churches with less $) interns are hired to act as de facto youth pastors with out much coaching, training or modeling.
So today we talked about how to start moving back towards an apprentice model. Obviously I had a lot to say as I have a pretty large staff and also 11 interns this summer. It’s a bit nuts to think about what type of work this entails for me but I also know that this type of transition is the reason that I have been put in this position.
A bit scary to say learn by watching me though as I’ve not always done things very well. Ok I’ll just say I’ve screwed up many times. I guess learning from how I respond to my mistakes is helpful too.
Looking forward to another day here tomorrow. The weather is about as nice as it could be. Doesn’t make me want to head back to the weather we’re about to have in Texas for the next three months.
Lars – I’ll always remember one thing (more than one, but this one thing pertains here) that you told me – work yourself out of a job. Or something like that. Essentially, train the people you work with to do what you do so that you’re continually having to branch out and break new ground. That’s apprenticing. That’s the whole reason for an apprentice – because one day, that blacksmith is going to die and that town is going to need horse shoes. What an amazing way to think about working with people under you – you’re raising up the next – YOU!