For Leigh Zadro, the inspiration for a life of ministry came from the faithful ministering of others to him. He became a Christian after being sent to youth group as what seemed like a ‘punishment’ to him.
Leigh shares, “I grew up in a Catholic family. Halfway through high school and around the time my parents got divorced, I was getting into a lot of trouble at school and not doing well. And my mum, as what I thought at the time was punishment, told me I had to go to youth group for a month. I thought it was the worst idea ever. But I went and from the first week, I loved it. Then a year later I went on youth camp, heard the gospel and actually listened.”
After becoming a Christian, Leigh started to attend church at St Matts West Pennant Hills (as well as continuing at youth group). He noticed more and more the actions of his leaders and was encouraged to get into serving himself. One particular influence for him was his youth leader, Matt Sparks (currently lead pastor at Anchor Church Sydney), who was doing MTS at St Matts.
Leigh wanted to pursue a path of ministry himself, but on the advice of others studied and worked teaching children with special needs for a few years, before going on to Sydney Missionary & Bible College to study.
Apprentice initiated training
While studying Leigh had a vision to end up in ministry outside of Sydney, but God had other plans. Leigh shares, “I ended up here at All Saints North Epping Anglican, straight out of college, somewhat apprehensively. But I liked the senior minister at the time and I thought I could learn from him. Now I’ve been there for the last 12 years as the youth and young adults minister.”
In recent years Leigh has become an MTS Trainer, but for the first several years in ministry, he didn’t even consider MTS – despite having a passion for training people for ministry.
He says, “I’ve always been really big on training. I’ve always loved taking a big team to NextGen Conference and taking the youth to LIT (Leaders in Training Conference). I love raising up leaders, training them well and giving them opportunities to do talks, service leading and to get involved in ministry in lots of ways. And a bunch of people from our church have gone on to Bible college. But I think I just forgot about MTS as an option for training someone.”
At the time Leigh didn’t know much about MTS and had preconceived ideas about what it involved or how it worked. Now that he’s training MTS apprentices – he looks back on others he’s trained differently.
Leigh reflects, “Part of me regrets not having thought of MTS in the past. I wish I had given more of those young people that option because, for the two apprentices I’ve had, it’s been really positive and helpful for them.”
This year Leigh is training his second apprentice, Grace Dandie, who is in her second year. His first apprentice, Vivian Yu, actually approached Leigh about an apprenticeship!
Leigh shares, “Vivian sort of convinced me to do it. I wasn’t pushing him at all. He said – ‘I want to do MTS. I want to get more involved with the church. I want you to be my trainer.’ Which led to me having conversations with MTS and working out what it was.”
In this process, Leigh found talking with the MTS team a helpful step in understanding the system and deciding how to set up MTS at All Saints North Epping. Vivian then did his apprenticeship from 2020 – 2022. After doing most of his first two years during COVID-19 restrictions, Vivian decided to do an additional year to get more experience.
Creating space and safety for new ideas
A growing uniqueness to doing an apprenticeship at All Saints is the space and encouragement to show initiative and start new ministries. When Vivian did his apprenticeship he approached Leigh to start something new, and Leigh’s current apprentice Grace was similarly passionate!
Leigh shares, “Part of Grace doing MTS was she wanted to start a disabilities ministry. In conversation, we ended up coming up with something. It was mostly her actually, but involved me giving her the license to do it. The freedom to think and imagine. She came up with this Side by Side ministry, which involves youth, young adults and people of all ages from our church coming together to build friendships with people with disabilities in our community.”
God clearly showed the need for this ministry even in the early days. One night after church Leigh and Grace were talking about the idea when a man with a disability came into church from across the road. The encounter affirmed their planning and Leigh has loved supporting Grace in building up the ministry.
Leigh says, “It started with this guy across the road and a couple of other people. And now there’s more than 20 coming along. So, it’s been one of the most exciting things that’s happened at our church in a while.”
It’s been encouraging for Leigh as Grace’s trainer to see her start up the ministry and run with it. It’s also involved a lot of mentoring and support from him as she navigates issues of leadership, vulnerability, pastoral care and all the aspects of ministry.
Leigh reflects that training an apprentice isn’t just giving, but it truly is a two-way experience. He shares, “God uses people and relationships. I feel like I’ve learned so much and been encouraged by my apprentices. It’s good to go into training with an attitude of ‘I’m not just the one imparting all my wisdom, experience and knowledge to this person, but this person’s probably got a lot to teach me about doing ministry too.’ It’s a growth opportunity for a trainer as much as it is for an apprentice.”