Mark's office where he sits as an accountant for both the church and school.
Apprenticeship
by Eric Bosire • 21 March 2024
For the Kenyan church to stand and remain steadfast in its goals and objectives, it needs servants who are dedicated and up to the task. The development of the body of Christ is not a mean feat, it requires people with zeal to be able to undertake ministry work and to deal with the challenges that may arise. We have servants who have over the years led the church diligently, though some have gone ahead to be with the Lord and others have long retired from the ministry while there are some that are on the verge of retiring. It is for this reason then that a new generation of servants is needed to fill the gaps left.
The beauty about all this is that there are so many people willing to join ministry work especially the youth in the universities and other tertiary institutions. Recently while working on an article highlighting the struggles of a Kenyan university student, I visited Kisii University’s Christian Union (CU). Let me just say that their commitment to the work of God is really pleasing to say the least which puts the future of the Kenyan church intact.
In the university, the Christian students are in different faculties but are brought together by the CU during their time in campus. Upon completion of their courses they leave university, enter the job market and go ahead to join churches of their choice while others go back to their mother churches back at home.
Not everyone can join Bible school. In a recent interview1, Bishop Otieno, the presiding and the founding bishop of Trumpet Tabernacle Church, Kisii, pointed out an alternative: He said that the church should be striving to go back to the foundational practice of apprenticeship where those that are founders, those that have matured in the faith, take it upon themselves to raise, to mentor, to ordain and to commission.
A father-son mentorship apprenticeship model where for someone to qualify to be a minister, they must spring from authentic upraising or upbringing having grown. Bishop Otieno gave an example of Paul in the Jewish model who grew under Gamaliel and later on Timothy grew under Paul.
Through various apprenticeship programmes, great ministers have been produced. A colleague of mine2 met Mark Wyclif Omollo, currently an intern in the accounts department at Buruburu Baptist Church in Nairobi. He is a bachelor of commerce graduate from the university of Nairobi.
Mark is an apprenticeship graduate from iServe Africa which as he explained is a parachurch: a Christian organization that does some of what churches do but itself is not a church per se. iServe Africa recruits, trains and helps in placing their trainees in different organizations like churches and Christian non-governmental organizations, where they get opportunities to serve and develop themselves spiritually and even career-wise. Mark was referred to iServe Africa by a friend.
According to Mark, in order to Join iServe Africa, for the Graduate Apprenticeship Program one has to be a graduate from a university or a college, be a willing born again Christian zealous about God. Mark was placed in Buruburu Baptist Church that also hosts a school whereby other than serving Mark balances the books of account for the church and school. “It is a chance for me to grow both spiritually and career wise,” he said.
Mark gladly accepted to share his experience with the Graduate Apprenticeship Programme. The confidence and the promptness to accept our interview indicated that he really had something to say. He said that the programme has made a huge impact in his life because things started coming out clearly, he started seeing things from a different perspective.
Mark explained this and said that from both the apprenticeship training and the internship at Buruburu Baptist Church there are things that are coming out so clearly to him such as the gospel clarity and centrality. Mark used to misunderstand the word of God as delivered by preachers because he did not understand the council of God according to the Bible. “It has come out to me clearly that the gospel is simple and focusing on Jesus Christ our saviour, our main problem is sin and the solution to it is Christ, and from all aspects of the Bible, whatever we read is pointing us to Jesus Christ,” said Mark.
Mark continued and said that he has learnt how to study the Bible. This has been brought about more especially at Buruburu Baptist Church through a program called Men’s Bible study. During the sessions, the men study the clarity of the scripture, the immutability that it cannot be changed and many aspects. They get to know the best Bible study guides like how to pick a text, and how to look at the context. How to interpret a context because some of them are historical, some are prophetic while others are narratives.
For example, Mark has learnt how to interpret the book of Songs of Solomon differently from the way he would interpret the book of Esther. “Nowadays, when I study the Bible I feel like I understand more and I see clearly what Christ has done through all this pages of the Bible. When you begin to do that and see the power of God in that simple text you read, it opens up your mind into seeing this is the power of God into salvation,” said Mark.
Through the apprenticeship programme, Mark has learnt expository preaching. This is a form of preaching that emphasizes the various aspects of a text or passage of scripture. “What the preacher is saying is reformed by what the scripture is saying. If you root everything from that angle, then you’ll rarely go wrong because you are trying to state out faithfully what the Bible says. Faithfull reclamation of the word is what will change the hearts of men through the power of the Holy Spirit,” said Mark.
Mark’s prayer style has also changed a great deal because as far as he is concerned the style in which he used to do it while in the university was not right. “You would find me and my friends praying in the hall and the sort of things we did there makes me think, were we really praying?” said Mark.
When it comes to socialization, Mark has really improved. He confessed that in the past he was not good at interacting with people, but through apprenticeship this aspect in his life has changed for the better through many lessons and continuous engagement with people. “I have learnt to make friends as we learnt how to partner with people in raising resources for the work of God. Though sometimes it felt hard for me because I am not a people’s person.” He said. He also noted that he has had a great time interacting with the pastors, elders and the other graduates he was placed with at Buruburu Baptist Church.
The life that we live is a learning journey and Mark is happy with the programme as a whole, because it has really transformed his life and he feels that he has been equipped to spread forth the love of Christ to the people. “At least a whole person can be released to the market with this training and knowledge and they can go out there and they can impact others in the long run bringing transformation in many sectors,” said Mark.
According to Mark, the apprenticeship programme ran smoothly however, there are a few challenges he encountered like partnering with people through what they call partnership development: It is his duty, within the terms of apprenticeship, to reach out to willing friends and family, and to convince them to support him with their finances, as he is called to singly focus on the ministry and no other activity during the year of apprenticeship. “It was a big challenge at first to reach out to family and friends, trying to make them understand what I am doing, and to get them to support me but the training I got helped me in raising support,” said Mark.
Another challenge that Mark highlighted was tied to the place of service, where one may encounter divisions due to different doctrinal understandings. These differences affected their thinking towards ministry work, it brought about a debate on how ministry should be done. “It can be confusing at some point if one does not have the right understanding however, the teachings we received and mentorship programmes worked well to help us know what things to believe in and how we ought to walk,” said Mark. He concluded by saying that the apprenticeship programme is good and he recommends it to all university graduates with the passion to serve God.
Next:
The gospel
by Eric Bosire.
Notes:
1 See https://missionfield.news/2024/4_Academic_qualification back
2 The interview with Mark was conducted by Sam Nderitu in Nairobi. back
About the author:
Eric Bosire is a Kenyan Journalist. He is based in Kisii.
About the image:
Photo by Sam Nderitu.
Suggested citation:
Eric Bosire: Apprenticeship. MissionField News (ISSN 2813-2270)
https://missionfield.news/2024/7_Apprenticeship
2024-03-21.