It was sad to watch.
He was earnest enough and wanted to get his point across. He employed the techniques he’d seen from others and was successful at getting a reaction from the audience. People even approached him afterwards and said they enjoyed what they heard.
The truth was, in as much as there was a lot of noise and huffing and puffing, there was little content there to take from it. What was hollered and bellowed for 15 minutes, could have been concisely conveyed effectively in two minutes.
It was sad to watch.
It made me think about who was looking out for him at the time. It reminded me of some of my early efforts and how much like an ungainly foal I appeared bumbling and stumbling. Like the guy, I saw others do it and learnt the styles. I learnt them so well that it became a performance for me, where it wasn’t about substance, but about style.
Thankfully a brother arrived and took me to one side. He made some constructive comments, but more importantly he invited me to his home. There he shared his life with me, and guided me and counselled me. Over months and years he continued to mentor me, and gave me opportunities to practice, whilst learning from how he did what he did, not just in execution, but it preparation and how it was firmly life based as well as scripturally sourced.
In time I left him and hooked up with another guy and fell into a similar situation where he went about his life and I accompanied him almost like his apprentice. He would do his thing, and he’d give me a spot to do whatever I could, and over time he allowed me to do a bit more and encouraged me to develop my niche in the area of my strength.
What I noticed was the importance of sharing life in the whole process. It wasn’t an academic exercise, it wasn’t a performance, it was how to live, it was how to serve, it was how to be effective in life.
Even when it looked like I was at the stage to be a partner and be considered equals with those who had taught me, I soon realised that they had reached their stage by maintaining a healthy apprenticeship approach to situations. They were always the apprentice because the person they came alongside had the expertise in the area. So even if they had a leadership title, they were never afraid to behave like the apprentice. That empowered the people they worked with and also enabled them to likewise humble themselves toward others and adapt a partnership model of discipleship based on being an apprenticeship whenever the time required.
It was not flawless. It was based on quality relationships with intentional investment of time and resources, chief of which was the life of the person themselves. This was not always possible. Indeed there were times when things got ugly because they refused to be transparent and adopted a more manipulative stance that dehumanised rather than empowered.
What was clear, was that the guy at the start of this post would not have been allowed to continue oblivious to his evident need for becoming an apprentice. What was clear was the love of Jesus would have embraced this fella through good people only too happy to take him under their wing, show him their lives and let him grow through that experience.
I have been incredibly blessed by this discipleship model and find myself pining for those relationships both as an apprentice and the partner. Thankfully God still provides the models to follow who in their way point me back to the Teacher and the Ultimate Disciple-Maker.
My prayer is that the guy and others like him find fathers in the faith to do their apprenticeship.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
Life With CD 