We Are Apprentices
I am currently reading a novel called Gutenberg’s Apprentice, by Alix Christie. It is a historical novel set in the mid-1400s
that follows the process by which Gutenberg (inventor of the printing press) trains a
group of ragtag laborers and craftsmen to bring the vision of the accessible
printed page into being. Peter, the main
character (the apprentice) is already a trained scribe, skilled in the craft of
producing books by hand. As a favor to
his adopted father, Peter finds himself virtually trapped into taking up with the gruff
and demanding Gutenberg. Months pass,
and Peter finds himself discouraged in the task of trying to fit his talent as
a scribe into this new medium, which means that he is reduced to designing
letters for the printing press, and then having to learn a new trade of
producing medal rods and chiseling them into the letters that he has so
skillfully created by hand. He is
resentful, weary, and longs for the old days of relative wealth away from
Germany when he could sit for hours and use his art, the art that is
disappearing with each bit of progress toward the printing press. He is literally working himself out of a job!
Then Peter has a bit of a breakthrough. A gruff metalworker takes him under his wing. As he struggles to learn the new trade of
forging iron and replacing the pen with the chisel, he recalls the hard lessons
he learned as a young man learning the trade of a scribe. This portion of the book notes this
breakthrough:
The work of the apprentice is the
taming of all impulse: in place of pride, humility; impatience mastered, then
subdued. It took Peter back to his first
weeks at the scriptorium, where Anselm [his teacher] started by removing
feathers, vellum, leather pouches, ornaments of every kind. He stripped the pupils down to one thin reed,
a lump of lampback, one plain sheet. To
learn the silencing of will, of the murky self: to strip their bodies and their
minds to the essential. Apprenticeship,
he said, was patience, and a deep, abiding faith: again, again, and yet again,
until the hand was firm, the soul scoured clean. For only then would they be purely Adam’s
flesh, a conduit, a channel.
That's About Right
The longer I reflect on and participate in Christian
ministry, in fact the Christian life itself, I find the model of apprenticeship
to be the only true model of discipleship.
Jesus did not simply say, “Learn of me,” or “believe me,” but “follow me.” This is a call to walk in the steps of a
master as this master apprentices us in the new Kingdom, the new way of living.
Though I have had the benefit of other educational models,
my approach to ministry has been most impacted, even during my formal studies,
by those who walked with me through the sometimes troubled waters of personal
growth and ministry development.
Ministry is not simply the conveyance of God-centered information, but
rather an incarnational walking together through the peaks and valleys of the
life God has given.
The knowledge gained
and transmitted is important, but the side by side companionship in the Gospel
of those whom God has placed to teach us and guide us and even learn from us is
the heart of the matter. Along the way,
it is the presence of these fellow-travelers that teaches us the silencing of the
will, the stripping away of all but the essentials, the patience needed for
deep abiding faith, and the kind of scouring of the soul needed to become a
true vessel: conduit of God’s love and grace.
How to Apprentice
For students preparing for life and ministry (not just those
in seminary, by the way, since all preparation for the Christian is preparation
for living out the Gospel in a particular context), being an apprentice of
Christ means both seeking out those to assist us in proper application of what
we are learning, and in preparing in such a way that we too may someday be
faithful guides. In other words, we learn
to apply what we learn, while we learn with an eye toward sharing.
For those who have walked awhile with Christ and have
received some formal training, the challenge becomes finding ways to continue
to partner with those who can refine our gifts and experience, while also finding
ways to come along someone else: someone who needs apprenticing. The
apprenticeship of the Gospel never ends.
Jesus walks with us in a deeply personal way, of course, but He also
serves as facilitator in forging apprenticeships in this Kingdom of service and
grace.
Training and skills matter, but they will not have full
impact for the Kingdom of God until the loving fires of Christ through the
partnership and guidance of others.
Peter in the novel is much like the Peter of the Gospels. Called midstream to change specialties -- from
trained fisherman to trained proclaimer of the Gospel -- The Apostle Peter, like
the apprentice Peter, is required to re-apply the earliest lessons of Christ
over and over again as times change and contexts change.
Are we as apprentices of the Gospels always prepared to make
such changes? In this ever-changing
culture, we may be required of the Master to do just that.
