As a part of our MDiv program review, we are exploring ways to improve our pastoral apprenticeship. This is a core element of our main seminary program and it’s crucial that we regularly assess and modify the apprenticeship so that it continues to form and shape men for ministry. We are also recognizing that with 50-60 seminarians at a given time, our ability to execute a high-caliber apprenticeship will be dependent on engaging with both Bethlehem pastors and other like-minded pastors (and churches) in the Twin Cities for mentored ministry and investment. As graduates and/or friends of the seminary, you men are ideally situated to help us both to improve the apprenticeship overall and to help us to explore how widening the apprenticeship to include other churches might work.

We’d like to invite you in, early in our process, to solicit input on the program, gauge your interest in assisting us in mentoring seminarians, and learn how we might partner together as we re-design this element of our program.

To that end, I’d like to invite you to an Apprenticeship Consultation and Strategy meeting on April 21 from 12pm–3pm in Room 114 at Bethlehem Downtown. We’ll provide lunch, talk about the current structure of our apprenticeship, and then brainstorm and explore ways to improve and extend it in the next season of our school.