Park Road Anglican MTS Apprentice Emma Moxham started her apprenticeship in 2022. Emma was aware of MTS but got to know the organisations vision in a deeper way after working part time at the Hurstville office. That had a big impact and part way through 2021 Emma decided to do an apprenticeship in the following year. She shares, “I was constantly surrounded by the MTS movement and what that means – winning the world for Christ by multiplying gospel workers through ministry apprenticeships. I was really challenged to think about if I want to give an apprenticeship a go.”
As a dedicated and long-time member of Park Road Anglican already, Emma was the perfect candidate for an MTS Apprenticeship in her local church. Unlike many other apprentices, Emma was set up with 5 trainers within her apprenticeship. She says, “I didn’t even really question it at the start when we were setting it up and it was pointing towards me having lots of trainers.” However, once she attended MTS G8 Conference in January and spoke to other apprentices, Emma realised what a unique and exciting position she was in with her 5 trainers.
From left to right: Ben, Emma P, Emma M, Deb, Gary.
Focused and fit-for-purpose trainers
In her apprenticeship, Emma is responsible for leading the Park Road Anglican Youth Group leaders, leads a small group with her husband, disciples women 1-1, is involved with training programs for church members and is starting pastoral and evangelistic work with a group of non-Christian women.
Her training is set up to be very focused and fit for the ministry Emma is undertaking, as well as her life circumstances and desired growth as a ministry worker and Christians.
Emma’s Trainers
Gary Bennetts | Park Road Anglican Rector
Gary is primarily responsible for growing Emma in Christ-like Conviction.
Deb Bennetts | Park Road Anglican Rector’s Wife
Deb is primarily responsible for growing Emma in Christ-like Character.
Ben Pfahlert | MTS National Director & Member of Park Road Anglican
Ben is primarily responsible for growing Emma in Ministry Competency.
Emma Pfahlert | Senior School Chaplain Danebank & Member of Park Road Anglican
Emma provides opportunities and training for Emma in extracurricular ministry, outside of the church.
Peter Ryan | Course Director Cornhill Sydney
Peter is responsible for growing Emma in all three C’s through weekly Cornhill training at MBM Rooty Hill. (Cornhill trains people to be preachers of God’s Word).
Christ-like Conviction
Christ-like Conviction is the learning area that builds apprentice’s reliance on the Bible and improves their theological thinking. By the end of their training, they will have grown in their ability to think critically and theologically about Ministry.
Gary’s desire is to see Emma equipped for many years of effective gospel ministry.
At Park Road Anglican , Emma is provided with a broad range of ministry experiences. Gary says, “Church ministry involves so many experiences. In the first three months Emma has been to a funeral and the office of the local MP. She has also been involved in the bread and butter ministry activities of praying and reading the Bible with people, running meetings and training leaders.”
Emma does a lot of her training with both Gary and Ben weekly on a Wednesday. She says, “We have a two hour training session where we read the bible, go through different agenda items of ministry and things that have been happening in the past week. We also usually go through an MTS discussion paper.”
Christ-like Character
Christ-like Character addresses an apprentice’s maturity, their heart, and how they relate to other people.
Emma’s trainer Deb aims to support and challenge Emma as she grows in Christ’s Likeness. Deb says, “I would like to see Emma leave the MTS program as a Christian woman who loves Jesus, loves serving Him and is growing in likeness to Him. Our character and faith as Christian leaders is so important, if we aren’t growing in godliness, it doesn’t really matter what else we might be doing each week.”
When they meet together, Deb tries to model things that are important when meeting with other women to teach Emma. Together they read the bible, discuss and share their lives and struggles, before praying and handing it all over to God. These sessions serve to both support and grow Emma, as well as teach her how to disciple others.
Emma says of her time with Deb, “it’s really awesome to have a woman’s perspective on it all. And also, as Deb hasn’t ever been in full-time ministry in a paid capacity, but she’s been a minister’s wife forever, that’s really helpful as well because my husband is thinking about ministry too.”
Ministry Competency
The last C is Competency, which addresses four key areas of learning for apprentices. These are world evangelism, teaching the bible, ministering to others and leadership.
Trainer Ben is focused on Ministry Competency alongside Gary. Ben says, “I try and give Emma “feed forward”, that is, review what she is going to teach ahead of time. I also seek to observe Emma doing ministry e.g. I attended the training meeting she ran for the Youth Leaders she oversees. (Emma did an awesome job).”
To help develop her competency, Gary and Ben help prepare Emma for her ministries, then provide a chance for her to reflect on how things went and how she can improve. Gary says, “[For example recently] we looked at how to provide effective feedback. We hope Emma will use this skill with the ministry leaders she oversees, as she gives them feedback on how they go in tasks.”
Another paper they looked at together was The Seven Principles of Prayer by Broughton Knox. This paper really made an impact on Emma. She says, “It really broke down prayer in this concise way into seven R’s. The most helpful one to me was repetition. In the Bible, a lot of prayer is repeated. Jesus, himself, even repeats prayer before he’s taken to the cross. But when I pray, I feel like I need to come up with something new to pray about. But that’s not it. Prayer is meant to be repeated until it’s given over to God fully.”
At the moment Emma, Ben and Gary are reading through the book of Romans. For Emma, she finds this time spent in God’s word together significant. She says, “It’s quite strange to me that there are two very qualified, very experienced men in various ministry fields that sit down and read the Bible with me. And I get to just ask all the questions I want.”
Training at Cornhill
As a part of her apprenticeship, Emma also trains one day a week at Cornhill Sydney. Her trainer Peter from Cornhill says, “we want to see Emma grow in her love for God and His Word, and in her ability to rightly handle God’s Word as she passes it on to others.”
At Cornhill, Emma and the other students learn how to read the Bible well, and teach it in a way that is powerful and effective. Peter says, “We want to train people to rightly handle God’s Word. We are convinced that God’s Word is perfect, powerful, and effective, and that through the faithful teaching of the Bible the gospel goes out and the church of Christ is fed and built up. Cornhill equips people for a wide range of ministries which have God’s Word at their heart.”
Not every MTS apprentice and trainer experience is like Emma’s, but all involve the components of training that Emma experiences in her team. At MTS we are so grateful for all our trainers – whether they have one apprentice or many, share the load or do it on their own. It really does take a village to train an apprentice and we’re proud to be a little part of the village of MTS.