While growing up in Canada, and undertaking theological studies in the United States, Jordan Born had never heard of MTS. Now that he’s experienced it firsthand as a trainer, he can’t imagine gospel ministry without it—and he’s deeply grateful.
Jordan had the privilege of growing up in a Christian home, and it didn’t take him long as a young adult to realise he wanted to spend his life serving God in full-time pastoral ministry. After completing his undergraduate degree, Jordan and his wife packed up and moved from Canada to Florida where he attended the Reformed Theological Seminary. After completing his Masters, Jordan ended up accepting a role at a church in Mebourne’s eastern suburbs.
“It wasn’t like Australia had really crossed my mind,” Jordan admits, “but I came across a position here and they were looking for an assistant pastor. And the long story short is that I applied, and it was a good fit, and so we moved here in August 2018.”
Jordan is now the Senior Pastor at Donvale Presbyterian Church. When he was first introduced to MTS, he was delighted.
The Importance of Training Gospel Workers
“I love the concept of people who are potentially thinking of gospel ministry, getting ministry exposure in a full-time and an intense way before they go off to Bible college or before they go onto the mission field,” he explains.
To begin with, one of the things that attracted Jordan to MTS was the current reality facing the Presbyterian Church of Victoria. He says that there will be many ministers retiring over the next 20 years, which has caused him concern for the future.
“I just was wondering, ‘Where will that new generation of gospel workers come from?’” Jordan shares. “I feel like we have a responsibility as a church to train up gospel workers.”
As Jordan looked into the concept of training a ministry apprentice through MTS, he knew it fit the bill—so this year, 2025, he started training Danny.
Ministry with Eyes Wide Open
“ I want Danny to get exposure to ministry. I want him to see what ministry is really like,” Jordan says. “I want to give him opportunities to preach, to teach, to lead, to observe what we do with pastoral care, with discipleship, with evangelism. I want him to see what our board and session meetings are like. I want him to go into ministry with eyes wide open and even having a sense of preparedness before he undertakes a theological degree.”
And so far, Jordan has been blown away by the amount of support he’s received from MTS in this process. An aspect of that support for him took place at the G8 National Conference in January this year.
“G8 was very, very helpful,” Jordan reflects. “They did a really good job of training the trainers, helping us understand what the apprenticeship is all about.”
Gratitude for the MTS Framework
The other aspect of support Jordan benefits from is the MTS structure. He has been grateful for the pipeline for identifying people who might be interested in a apprenticeship and training them up to be sent out.
When Jordan reflects on his own ministry experience, he admits that he missed out because MTS wasn’t available to him in either Canada or the United States. Becoming an apprentice wasn’t an option for him, but he wishes it had been. Jordan says he would have benefited from undertaking training before heading to theological college.
“My passion is to see a strong and healthy church here in Australia, raising up gospel workers and sending them out to fulfil Christ’s great commission,” Jordan shares. “That’s what I’m excited about, and because of that, I’m really glad that MTS exists.”