When I did my MTS Apprenticeship back in the mid-1990's, the only choices available were just two: university-based or parish-based.

Most people who trained in this way planned to head off to study a degree in theology, and many aspired to be the senior minister at a church.

However, in the past year, the range of apprenticeships options has dramatically widened. Today's apprentices can choose an overseas-ministry apprenticeship, a blue-collar ministry apprenticeship, an outdoor-ministry apprenticeship, or even a church-planting ministry apprenticeship.

The great strength of this new direction is that it signals that ministry apprentices are valuable for almost any form of Word ministry. It is not exclusively for those who plan to follow their apprenticeship with a degree-level qualification with the career path of becoming a rector.

Too much specialisation?

Yet, it is worthwhile considering whether or not this specialisation at the start of an apprenticeship is beneficial. In particular, the advent of the church-planting apprenticeship raises the question as to whether or not we have narrowed the focus of ministry apprenticeships too much.

Since when has it necessary for a man to nominate whether or not he chooses to be the kind of pastor who will start a new church from scratch, rather than grow a pre-existing congregation? Is it not preferable, first, to find a suitable man who will be able to teach and lead his family well, who has the qualities appropriate for an elder, and then give him the chance to test his suitability?

There will be some who will have what it takes to be gospel entrepreneurs, and there will be others who will be more suitable to maintain and consolidate the work already done by others. Neither of these is preferable to the other, but both represent important ministries that build the body of Christ.

This is already true of those who undertake non-ministry apprenticeships. For example, when a person decides to become an apprentice plumber, they don't nominate whether or not they want to be the kind of plumber who wants to run a plumbing business. They don't select a plumbing-business-planting apprenticeship. They simply choose to be an apprentice plumber.

Some plumbers will be able to 'plant' plumbing businesses and employ many other plumbers to grow the operation. Others will be great plumbers, but will not have the necessary entrepreneurial skills to start new enterprises. Many will aspire to run their own business, but not all will prove to be suitable.

A similar issue exists with outdoor ministry apprenticeships.

Some of my apprentices have a passion for expedition-based ministry to youth at risk. Some prefer site-based outdoor ministry to primary school students. However, rather than create multiple forms of outdoor ministry apprenticeships, we have decided that all apprentices to complete the vanilla-flavoured generic apprenticeship before they choose options to specialise at a later date.

Do you think there are too many types of ministry apprenticeships… or are there too few?