L.T.T.T.B.B.A.N.R.M.T.C.
(Learning To Teach The Bible Better At New Regional Ministry Training Courses)
One-day a week ministry training courses have popped up all over the country over recent years (each with their own exciting acronym). These courses have at their heart the aim of helping people to teach the Bible better and are for church workers, like apprentices and youth workers, but also congregation members who are involved in teaching the Bible.
They generally have the following common elements:
Chronological Bible Overview - going over the whole Bible in a year from Genesis to Revelation
Expositions - shorter blocks of teaching on a book from the Bible
Doctrine - shorter blocks on different doctrines
Practical ministry - one-off teaching on practical areas
Workshop groups - small groups where one member of the group gives a short talk or Bible study and receives feedback from a leader and the rest of the group.
These courses are based at one church in a region but are for anyone, normally within about an hours commute, in any Bible believing and teaching church (they are non-denominational). There are now 15 such courses around the country teaching between 10 and 100 students each.
They are a fantastic opportunity for those who can’t commit to a full-time Bible training course (for example Cornhill in London is four days a week) or to going to a theology college for three years. And they are great for those who are able to spare just one-day per week, perhaps alongside a job, looking after children or part of some wider training (like an apprenticeship).
They are certainly not a replacement to the more substantial courses but rather give some good foundations which can be built on further and used for improving any current Bible teaching ministry.
To find out if there is a course near you, go to the website to find a full list of courses currently running in the UK.
We asked a course leader to give a feel of a day at a course based in Eastbourne and an apprentice to share her experiences of a similar course based in Leyland.
Sussex Coast Ministry Training Course (SCMTC)
Neil Green, Vicar of All Souls, Eastbourne and leader of the Sussex Coast Ministry Training Course, shows us a typical day.
It’s Tuesday, it’s 8am, I’ve still got to walk the dogs, take the boys to school, get showered and be at the church halls by 9am – and I need a coffee (espresso + 1 sugar - should I ever come to visit!) Mind you others have already left home long ago, running for the train or driving, collecting others en route.
Now its 9.15am, the hot water is on, DGW (David) has set everything up – chairs, tables, and lectern, there’s coffee and plenty of chocolate biscuits, people start arriving but oh no where are the loo rolls?
9.30am OK we’re ready. My turn – bible exposition (10mins, but I’m 15 as usual!) We pray together.
10am Tony Baker – brilliant – biblical theology – methodical, clear, full of pearls, just as well it’s recorded because I can’t get it all down!
11am coffee (black 1 sugar – preferably brown)
11.30am Biblical exposition – today it’s Genesis (good, everyone can find that) it’s thrilling and we’re all learning so much.
12.30pm Lunch – M&S is just across the road so that’s always popular (mind you I hate the healthy fishy option!)
1.30pm We’re all back – just! Afternoons are more interactive, it stops us sleeping! So it’s practical ministry, and it’s different each week.
2.30pm Afternoon tea – well coffee and yet more chocolate biscuits.
3.00pm now it’s into small groups. Always the most daunting part of the day – give a talk and get feed back! It’s never as bad as it seems.
4.00pm after a bit of last minute clearing up it’s home time for most of us – apart from the very clever people who stay on for after school Greek!
Go to www.segp.org.uk/partnerships and click on Sussex Coast Gospel Partnership for more information about the Sussex Coast Ministry Training Course
North West Ministry Training Course (NWMTC)
From South to North now as we get an insight from an apprentice who has just completed the course up in the North West. Helen Neville has been an apprentice at St Andrew’s, Leyland.
I attended the North West Ministry Training Course (MTC) during the two years that I was a Ministry Trainee at St Andrew’s Church in Leyland. Whilst there I’ve been involved in three Bible based children’s groups in the church and attending the MTC was absolutely invaluable for my work. It taught me how to approach a Bible passage in order to understand it clearly for myself, and then taught useful tools to be able to work out how to teach the Bible and apply it to others.
All of the MTC was useful, but there were definite highlights. In the first year, Justin Mote did a Bible Overview with us which took the whole year. I’ve done Bible overviews in a few sessions before, but this was great because we could cover so much more, such as the different kinds of writing for pre/post exile Israelites, or why the Psalms are structured as they are. In the second year, we studied the book of Romans over thirty weeks in small groups which was amazing, it helped us to understand the flow of Paul’s argument and really get to grips with a book.
I found some areas of the course quite hard. I didn’t much like preaching workshops at the end of the day, where group members take it in turn to give a talk on a particular Bible passage – but I know that’s what taught me to work hard at a passage in order to teach it. There were some things I just found it hard to get my head around – like the 5 week study of Eschatology in the 2nd year, but thankfully not many of the children I teach are ready for that either!
The MTC here in the North is made up of very different people – about half are Ministry Trainees, placed in churches across the North West, and the rest are members of North West congregations – lay people who want to be better trained to teach the Bible within their churches. Some of these people are not working, or are retired, and there are some who work and have cut their hours or taken all the year’s holiday on Thursdays in order to attend!
Our own church congregation is beginning to see the fruit of sending people on the MTC. I think I make it eleven people (three of those Ministry Trainees) from St Andrew’s who’ve been on the course since it began in 2003. This year the MTC’s new initiative is setting up an evening version of itself, so even more lay people have the opportunity to go along. As more people get to grips with how to teach the Bible, you tend to find that more good Bible teaching will be going on – both in the strengthening of existing ministries, and the setting-up of brand new ones, as people are fired up to teach the gospel – fantastic.
The MTC is perfect for Ministry Trainees because it helps in so much that they’re doing. It aims to equip people for any kind of Bible teaching going on in churches – but it’s not only Ministry Trainees doing all that work! Therefore I would recommend to anyone who can possibly manage it to get along to a good MTC. It sounds scary, but it’s brilliant – so much better than I’d imagined it could be.
Go to www.northwestpartnership.com and click on Training Course for more information