"Him we proclaim…
that we may present everyone mature in Christ"

Colossians 1:28 ESV

Training for Ministry

Frequently Asked Questions about the Associate Scheme and who should do it

There are many different types of apprenticeship scheme, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. This page tries to answer the questions you might have as you think about whether the St Helen’s Associate Scheme is one you should apply for. The issues covered on this page are:

Who should be an Associate at St Helen’s?

If I am sure I want to go into full-time Christian ministry, should I still be an Associate?

I attend a good church which has trained me well, do I need the training provided by the Associate Scheme?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of being an apprentice at a large city centre Anglican church?

Why is training such an important part of the Associate Scheme?

What sort of people are we looking for?

How do we decide what Bible teaching ministry an Associate does on the Scheme?

Who is the second year of the Scheme for?

What do Associates do after they finish?

What about finances and accommodation?

Who should be an Associate at St Helen’s?

The St Helen’s Associate Scheme is designed primarily to train people who already have some experience of Bible teaching – e.g. through summer camps, C.U. leadership, or leading Bible study groups – for full-time Bible teaching. If you are not sure whether this is the best way for you to serve God, it is a great way to try it out and see what it's like without taking a big career break.If you don't think you want to do full time Bible teaching but want to be better equipped to serve the gospel, it provides excellent training and will help you grow hugely as a Christian. It also provides a great opportunity to serve God’s church. However, the focus is training people for full-time Bible teaching ministry in all its varied forms, eg running a church, student ministry, women’s ministry, youth ministry, cross-cultural ministry. For anyone seriously considering full-time Bible teaching ministry the Scheme provides training that is hard to acquire in other settings. For example, it provides experience of seriously working through books of the Bible learning how to study them for yourself and how to teach them to others. Most other settings tend to focus on one or the other, but not both at the same time.

If I am sure I want to go into full-time Christian ministry, should I still be an Associate?

Once you have made the decision to go into full-time Bible teaching, it can be very tempting to want to go straight to theological college or into the ministry area your heart is set on. However, for most people probably the best thing is first to do an apprenticeship scheme like the Associate Scheme. This will give you hands on experience of Bible teaching ministry that theological college can’t, and this will help you get much more out of your time at college. For example, a good theological college is a great place to learn the answers to many important theological questions, but experience of ministry is the best way to ensure that you understand why it is so vital to have these answers, and this will greatly increase your motivation to work hard at college.

Similarly, whatever form of ministry you want to do, it is essential to get some basic training in what the Bible says and how to study and teach it if you are going to do it in a way that is glorifying to God. There are a number of ways you can get this basic training, but a scheme like the Associate Scheme which has a very significant element of training and mentoring built into it is one of the best because you are getting both the training and the hands on experience at the same time. Most people who intend to spend the rest of their lives in full-time gospel ministry will benefit from more training, typically at theological college, but this is best done after gaining hands on experience of ministry and basic training.

I attend a good church which has trained me well, do I need the training provided by the Associate Scheme?

It is a great privilege to be involved with a church which trains its congregation well. However, for most people the pressures of their normal secular job or studies limits the time they can spend being trained in their church. At St Helen’s we think, therefore, that the best thing for most people who want to teach the Bible full-time is to gain further experience of ministry and get further training in what the Bible says and how to study and teach it by doing an apprenticeship scheme like the Associate Scheme. As a church, this is our normal recommendation to those from our own congregation who want to go into full-time Bible teaching, even if they have been involved in leadership and ministry for a number of years.

The Associate Scheme is designed to be of great benefit even to people who have been studying and teaching the Bible for years. For example, one of the key things most people need, even if they have been well taught and been very active in ministry, is to get better at studying the Bible for themselves. This is a core skill for a Bible teacher, but one which it is hard to learn when the bulk of your time is spent at work or in unrelated studies. However, a very significant part of an Associate’s life is spent studying the Bible, both individually and discussing it as part of a team. The discussions provide an excellent context in which to be mutually challenged, encouraged and sharpened by each others’ insights and skills.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of being an apprentice at a large city centre Anglican church?

Large church, small church, city centre church, urban priority church, suburban church, rural church, Anglican church, free church: different types of church provide different experiences for their apprentices and suit different types of people. The are enormous advantages of being an apprentice at a large city centre church like St Helen’s. For example, God has graciously given us a large ministry among people like students, recent graduates and internationals, and all these are ideal people for apprentices to minister to. In his goodness, he has given us the resources and unity in the gospel which means we can do all our ministry to a very high standard and with a 100% focus on the thing that matters, the gospel – this means the ministry they will be involved with is an excellent model for apprentices as they learn how to do ministry. He has also graciously given us the resources to be able to invest heavily in training and discipling our apprentices, and if you are thinking of being a full-time Bible teacher for the rest of your life then it is essential to be trained as well as possible so your ministry really does bring glory and praise to God.

On the other hand, there are also significant disadvantages to being an apprentice in a church like St Helen’s. For example, the size of the church means some people find it intimidating initially – friends are available in plenty, the problem is how to find them among the crowd. Also, the ministry is not always typical of most other churches, so apprentices won’t see as wide a range of ministry and won’t learn what is and is not possible in a more ‘normal’ church. Finally, London is an inconvenient and exhausting place to live, with Associates having to commute a mile or two to church and often having to travel across town to meet people.

However, there are two perceived disadvantages about being an apprentice at a church like St Helen’s that are not, in fact, true and need correcting. First, many people think that because we have lots of resources there is less need and they would be better used in a less privileged church. We do have great resources, but we also have huge opportunities for the gospel, with many people coming wanting to hear about Jesus and to grow in their knowledge and love of him, and we badly need labourers to work in this harvest field with us or the opportunities will go to waste. We need apprentices at least as much as any other church. Secondly, some people are concerned that because we are an Anglican church we only train people who want to go into ministry in the Church of England. In fact, St Helen’s is not at all typical of most Anglican churches and a large proportion of the congregation (and even the leadership) are more free church than Anglican. It is our great joy that denominational differences are never an issue and that many previous apprentices and staff now work in free churches. We see our task as training servant-leaders who will teach the Bible to God’s church, regardless of which denomination or lack of denomination they profess or where they wish to serve afterwards.

Why is training such an important part of the Associate Scheme?

The Associate Scheme puts a huge emphasis on training. In fact, the emphasis on training is one of the main features of the Associate Scheme. The reason for this is that we are seeking to equip people for a lifetime of ministry that glorifies God, and we are convinced that this will only happen as they learn to hear God speak through his Word and learn to teach what he has said in the Bible. The Bible tells us that God does his work through his Word. As it is taught and heard his Spirit convicts people of their sin, draws them to Christ and then transforms them into Christ’s likeness. It is therefore vital to God’s glory, to the teacher’s own spiritual life and to the life and growth of the church that God’s Word is taught. It is essential, therefore, that everyone going into full-time Christian ministry is motivated and equipped to study and teach the Bible well.

Unfortunately, there is all too little good Bible teaching. Many in Christian leadership don’t even try to teach the Bible, but even among those who try there is far too much boring and mediocre teaching. The reason is that the Bible isn’t easy to understand or teach. Understanding and teaching the Bible is the key task that every faithful servant-leader in God’s church faces on daily, but it is also one of his or her greatest challenges. It is all too easy to be in full-time Christian ministry but fail to teach the Bible well and even to give up trying because it seems so hard. Only God can provide the teachers his church needs, but it is our responsibility to ensure that those going into full-time Christian ministry are trained as well as possible for the task. Our strong advice, therefore, to everyone going into full-time Christian ministry is to get really good training in how to study and teach the Bible, and this is what we attempt to give Associates here at St Helen’s.

For more information on what this training looks like, click here.

What sort of people are we looking for?

All sorts of people make good Bible teachers. We are looking for people, male and female, who have a love for Jesus and a desire to know Him more and make Him known. We want people with a commitment to the supreme importance of the Bible’s message. We like people to have had some previous experience of gospel ministry and evidence of some ability to teach the Bible – eg leading Bible studies, being involved in workplace ministry, involvement in university Christian unions, etc. Being part of the Associate Scheme is hard work and requires people wholeheartedly to serve the other associates, wider staff team and church family.

Associates at St Helen's are usually a mix of new graduates and people who have been working. Many, but not all, have become Associates with the intention of staying in full-time Christian ministry or going directly to theological college after doing the Scheme. They have joined the Scheme to prepare for a variety of different Bible teaching ministries, including leading a church, women’s work, student work, youth and children’s work and cross-cultural ministry.  A number come to us already having done an apprenticeship at another church, Relay with UCCF or similar.

How do we decide what Bible teaching ministry an Associates does on the Scheme?

We aim to grow every Associate, and so we give each an area of ministry that will be stretching but not too stretching for their individual needs, depending on their previous experience of ministry and personal maturity.

There are a large variety of different ministry opportunities to suit the different backgrounds, temperaments and needs of Associates. For example, many Associates, particularly those straight out of university, focus on ministry with students and are attached to one or two London universities or colleges and getting involved with their C.U.s. Many others, particularly those who have worked for a few years, are more mature and have more experience of ministry, are involved with City workers, some having the considerable responsibility of running small satellite works. Another major area of ministry is working with people who have just arrived in London to start work, many of them fresh out of university, and who face the huge challenges of being Christian and serving the gospel as they move into a new phase of life. This suits some Associates straight out of university as well as those who might have done one or two years work. Ministry with internationals or youth and children is also a possibility, especially for those who see themselves going into this area after their time as an Associate.

Who is the second year of the Scheme for?

The second year of the Scheme builds on the first and further trains an Associate and grounds the lessons learnt in the first year. We think that, in general, everyone planning to go into full-time Bible teaching needs the extra training and ministry experience provided by the second year, and so it is our normal recommendation that people who appear in their first year to be suitable for full-time Bible teaching – and who want to go down this path – should stay on to do the second. For those who are probably not going into full-time Bible teaching, it may still be right to stay to serve and to benefit from the extra training, but there are also good reasons not to take too long a break from the secular workplace. Every individual differs and so we aim, just after Christmas in the first year, to discuss with every Associate whether both we and they think staying on would be the right thing. In the past the vast majority of Associates have stayed on for a second year.

What do Associates do after they finish?

Most Associates go straight onto full-time Christian ministry or theological college (about 70% so far). The sorts of ministry they have gone into include church work, UCCF staff work, youth and children’s work, and overseas missionary work. Other Associates go into secular work, putting the skills they have learnt in to practice as they continue to be involved in leading Bible studies and in work based ministries. Several of those who have gone into secular work have, after a year or two, then gone on to theological college or full-time Bible teaching ministry (a further 10% so far).

What about finances and accommodation?

The Associate Scheme is a training programme for volunteers, so we expect Associates to raise as much as they can towards their own support. However, we are conscious that living in London can prove expensive, especially due to the cost of accommodation. For those requiring it, therefore, we will seek to provide suitable accommodation for the duration of their Associate training. Typically single Associates will be in a single sex house share with 2 or 3 other Associates, within 20minutes travelling time of St Helen’s.

We estimate that an Associate also needs £4000 per year for basic living expenses (e.g. food and travel), and this is what Associates are asked to contribute to. Applications can be made to the St Helen’s church council for one-off grants to cover any shortfall in an Associate’s income for the year. We appreciate that an individual’s circumstances will affect how much he or she is able to raise.

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