‘Not the normal’ Apprenticeship
We asked Clare Hillier to describe her experience of working as an apprentice in the Urban Priority Area of Tranmere.
1. Where are you an apprentice and when did you start?
I started last September at two churches in Merseyside. I’m based mainly with St. Catherine’s, Tranmere (www.st-caths.webspace.fish.co.uk), an 11 minute tube from Liverpool, and help out with nearby St. Peter’s, Rock Ferry.
2. Can you describe the church and the area for us?
Both churches are in Urban Priority Areas. That means there’s a high concentration of social deprivation – unemployment, low incomes, relationship breakdown, teenage pregnancies, drug addiction, etc. Both parishes are predominantly white working class. St. Catherine’s began meeting about 200 years ago. Today the building has a capacity for 600 people, though currently about 35 come on a Sunday. The majority are female and retired. There are a handful of young adults who have grown up in the church. All of our school-age children come without parents. A new vicar and his wife (Darren and Glad) came to the church in spring last year.
3. What drove you to think about some sort of full or part time gospel work, and more specifically doing an apprenticeship in the inner city?
I have been a Christian from a young age but, as a student, God graciously provided me with faithful Bible teaching and I became more aware of the need for God’s word to be preached. I thought an apprenticeship would be helpful in equipping me to go on and be a more effective servant in whatever lay ahead. I was attracted to St. Catherine’s because of the obvious need for workers, the exciting potential opportunities for sharing the great news of the Lord Jesus with unreached people, and the experience of urban life. Darren and Glad had been there for a few months and were keen to start things up.
4. What do you spend your week doing?
There are a few things we’ve begun, just to make initial contact with outsiders, including a toddler club, social club, and literacy support at the local school. There is a high demand in the area for baptisms, so I have taken a couple and a single girl through ‘Christianity Explained’. I read one to one with our only teenage girl and more recently with an enquiring eighty-year-old lady. I help out with youth groups at St. Peter’s and help lead the women’s Bible study. Sunday mornings are spent with Sunday Club, which started less than a year ago when children started turning up at church. I also attend the North West Ministry Training Course (www.northwestpartnership.com/training).
5. What has been the greatest challenge so far in your apprenticeship?
A big challenge is that we are very restricted by lack of workers and resources. For example, some ‘lively’ teenage boys who come to Sunday Club would desperately benefit from male leaders but we have none.
There is also a challenge to pray and persevere when progress seems slow. Starting things up from scratch can be disheartening: we had to stop the social club due to threatening drug users, and what we anticipated would be a thriving toddler club has been poorly attended. Making the gospel accessible to outsiders is a challenge as church-going is alien to most locals.
6. What has been the greatest encouragement?
There have been so many. As in any apprenticeship, seeing people being changed by God’s word is such a privilege. It’s been great to see older women getting enthusiastic about the word, growing in knowledge of the Lord Jesus. It’s been wonderful to share the gospel with non-churched kids, and to have been able to go into individuals’ homes and share about what Jesus has done on the cross. The church family’s support has been a tremendous blessing.
7. What would you say to someone thinking about doing an apprenticeship in the inner city?
I am very biased, and would say ‘go for it!’. Of course, all people of every social class need to hear the gospel, but there is definitely an obvious need for gospel workers in places like Tranmere. It would be wonderful to have flourishing Christ-centred churches in urban areas whose people can be trained to pass on the gospel to others.