Last week I took my youngest son into the doctor to find out why he had strange spots on his body. As I entered his room at the surgery, the doctor asked if I was happy to have a student doctor present, to which I consented.

As the trained and experienced doctor examined my son, he chatted to the intern about the symptoms. The doctor got the intern to feel the surface of the skin, and he quizzed the intern about different possible diagnoses and the most appropriate form of medication.

Apart from healing my son from his spottiness and sore throat, my trip to the doctor reminded me of some helpful things about ministry training.

Firstly, a minister-in-training can keep the experienced minister honest and sharp. When the veteran opens his or her door to the scrutiny of a trainee with his or her head full of theories, the senior minister exposes his or her own practices. Ironically, having a student minister provides a form of in-service training for the master as much as the apprentice.

Secondly, in order for the trainee to benefit from his or her training, they often just have to look and listen. Too often we think that the best training is throwing someone into the deep end of ministry, and being there to throw them a lifeline. However, it can often be preferable to have the trainee simply shadow the ministry, asking questions of the experienced minister when appropriate.

There is a real benefit to having a student minister as part of the team at a local church. The minister should not expect to be able to delegate much of his work to this intern. This is particularly the case with students who are studying five days per week and only joining the team on Sundays.

However, the real benefit to employing an understudy is to help keep the minister sharp and to provide coalface training in the real and often challenging world of ministry.

Has your church signed up for a student minister for 2010?