Don Davis
12-07-2007, 04:10 PM
We designed our Capstone courses to be mentor-facilitated In other words, the mentor is charged with enriching the learning experience, and through his or her dialogue, questions, example, and prayer to produce the kind of environment that allows the students to engage the Scripture and the material openly and honestly. The goal of all the learning is not only the mastery of the material, but the development of conviction, the stimulation of the affections and commitments, and the application of the truth in the students's lives and ministries. While the classroom remains a key part of the Capstone equipping experience, the focus in on the life of the student. Out students ought to study in order to live well, not live in order to study well.
As developers, we must shape our training for relevance to life learning wherever we can, learning by experience, through practical assignments, projects, experiments, and applications. Learning through practical, hands-on training is arguably the most effective method of learning. Dozens of guilds and industries employ internships and apprenticeships as the chosen way of producing their new generation of workers and leaders. It goes without saying that we can't really teach swimming without wading into water, at one time or another. The role of our Mentors must ever be to offer ongoing feedback to real life decisions and applications of the truth.
Combining the rigors of hard intellectual study, practical experience, and supervised feedback, internships are a powerful and effective way to multiply leaders capable of producing tangible results in diverse study programs. In the same way as is used in such fields as medicine, law, and industry, urban ministry interns can learn how to effectively ministry in the city. By emphasizing long range planning, guaranteeing effective capable supervision, meaningful assignments, and critical reflection, these internships can help urban leaders gain invaluable training in a variety of positions, tasks, and roles necessary for effective urban church development.
Wherever possible we ought to try, then, to link our students's intellectual learning with practical experiences and projects that allow them to witness firsthand the power of the truth. This is the rationale for ministry projects, and exegetical projects. Both assume the need to learn by doing: we learn to study the Bible by exegeting Scripture, and we learn to serve the Lord by actually ministering to the needs of others. There is no substitute for the experience of the truth as ingredient to the understanding of it.
Let us not forget that Jesus taught his disciples as basically ministry interns, having selecting them to be with him and to send them out to preach, and to cast out evil spirits as sign of the Kingdom's coming (cf. Mark 3.14). Through daily dialogue, evaluation, experience, and association with the Master, the disciples were honed into leaders. This occurred in the midst of observing his work and engaging him regarding the meaning and significance of his ministry, as they lived life day by day. It is fair to say that the disciples became the leaders of the Church only after they were made the followers of Jesus. Through their interaction with Christ in the context of real life, they became effective ministers of the gospel, and were able to train others to train others.
As we recruit, train, and release mentors for our satellite instruction, let's not then value knowledge and book learning over experience and years in ministry. One who has ministered for long years in the city cannot be dismissed because they do not know how to parse a Greek verb or tell you how to solve a Kantian philosophical dilemma. The apostles were viewed by the Sanhedrin as uneducated bumpkins, with no academic credential whatsoever: Acts 4:13 (ESV) "Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus." Perceived as uneducated and common, yet in fact they were eyewitnesses of the glory of the risen Christ.
I would rather have mentors who are holy in truth, than those who could write a fine theological essay on the Greek terms for holiness, without being holy themselves. Hands on training by experienced mentors in ministry is always the best selection for urban Christian leadership development.
As developers, we must shape our training for relevance to life learning wherever we can, learning by experience, through practical assignments, projects, experiments, and applications. Learning through practical, hands-on training is arguably the most effective method of learning. Dozens of guilds and industries employ internships and apprenticeships as the chosen way of producing their new generation of workers and leaders. It goes without saying that we can't really teach swimming without wading into water, at one time or another. The role of our Mentors must ever be to offer ongoing feedback to real life decisions and applications of the truth.
Combining the rigors of hard intellectual study, practical experience, and supervised feedback, internships are a powerful and effective way to multiply leaders capable of producing tangible results in diverse study programs. In the same way as is used in such fields as medicine, law, and industry, urban ministry interns can learn how to effectively ministry in the city. By emphasizing long range planning, guaranteeing effective capable supervision, meaningful assignments, and critical reflection, these internships can help urban leaders gain invaluable training in a variety of positions, tasks, and roles necessary for effective urban church development.
Wherever possible we ought to try, then, to link our students's intellectual learning with practical experiences and projects that allow them to witness firsthand the power of the truth. This is the rationale for ministry projects, and exegetical projects. Both assume the need to learn by doing: we learn to study the Bible by exegeting Scripture, and we learn to serve the Lord by actually ministering to the needs of others. There is no substitute for the experience of the truth as ingredient to the understanding of it.
Let us not forget that Jesus taught his disciples as basically ministry interns, having selecting them to be with him and to send them out to preach, and to cast out evil spirits as sign of the Kingdom's coming (cf. Mark 3.14). Through daily dialogue, evaluation, experience, and association with the Master, the disciples were honed into leaders. This occurred in the midst of observing his work and engaging him regarding the meaning and significance of his ministry, as they lived life day by day. It is fair to say that the disciples became the leaders of the Church only after they were made the followers of Jesus. Through their interaction with Christ in the context of real life, they became effective ministers of the gospel, and were able to train others to train others.
As we recruit, train, and release mentors for our satellite instruction, let's not then value knowledge and book learning over experience and years in ministry. One who has ministered for long years in the city cannot be dismissed because they do not know how to parse a Greek verb or tell you how to solve a Kantian philosophical dilemma. The apostles were viewed by the Sanhedrin as uneducated bumpkins, with no academic credential whatsoever: Acts 4:13 (ESV) "Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus." Perceived as uneducated and common, yet in fact they were eyewitnesses of the glory of the risen Christ.
I would rather have mentors who are holy in truth, than those who could write a fine theological essay on the Greek terms for holiness, without being holy themselves. Hands on training by experienced mentors in ministry is always the best selection for urban Christian leadership development.