The Artizo Institute
THE ARTIZO INSTITUTE
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Mentoring for ministry: a view from a trainer
Every intern gets one hour of 1:1 time with the trainer. ‘We asked Eric Thurston, one of the Artizo trainers, what happens during the weekly 1:1 meetings:
Every 1:1 is different. This is because the interns and their lives and ministries are different. We will talk together about what has been happening during the last week, in particular what has been happening in the ministries the interns are involved with. We will sometimes talk through a sermon the intern has given in the previous week. We also talk about our families and girlfriends (Judy my wife meets with the girls). We will work through the weekly discussion paper which can range widely in topic from pastoral care challenges to theological issues to current church issues. Many times, this will include time looking at the Bible.
Often we will go for a walk, because guys often don’t talk very well over a table – they need to be doing something like walking or fixing a car (okay that’s a cliché – but true!). We will talk about how we are going spiritually. This includes how our prayer lives are going as well as our time in God’s word. We will always spend time praying for each other, for our families, for our ministries, for specific people we have on our hearts (such as people in our ministries).
One of the major challenges facing the interns are time conflicts – they struggle to do everything from being a student to being an intern to being a friend/husband/father. Some are also struggling with the difficulty of college work, relational conflicts, questions about future ministries and life-paths and financial pressures.
Artizo ministry: a view from the pew
St. Alban’s, Ottawa
To give an insight into what ministries our interns are involved in and how they are doing, we asked a couple of our trainers if we could publish their evaluations of Ben Vander Heide and Anson Ann.
Karen Bergenstein, Parish Administrator (2006-present) and previous Assistant Pastor at St. Alban’s Anglican Church, Ottawa, provided the following evaluation for Artizo intern Ben Van der Heide (2006/2007)
1. What ministry was Ben involved in?
Ben was the administrator and leader of the Alpha Course that was offered at St. Alban’s in the fall of 2006. As such he was responsible for organizing all aspects of the course:
- putting together the team (group leaders and helpers, kitchen coordinator, greeters, intercessors)
- training them
- advertising the course (at the church, at the University of Ottawa during ‘frosh’ week and elsewhere)
- registering guests
- finding a spiritual director for the weekend
- locating and booking a retreat facility for the weekend away, and organizing the weekend events
and basically looking after the many details that any Alpha Course entails such as setting up tables each week, setting out the chairs and making sure the DVD’s were working.
The course ran over 12 weeks, including a weekend away at a retreat centre and Ben was the one in charge each week. He made sure everything was in place for the guests, gathered the team together early to inform them of anything they needed to know, and led them in prayer. As well, Ben acted as the ‘up front’ person and was a group leader.
2. How did Ben help/change/form this ministry?
Ben’s enthusiasm for Alpha was evident from the beginning. His confidence and relaxed personality lent a sense of calm and assurance to the team and the guests. He was unflappable when unexpected problems arose, and trusted in the Holy Spirit to show up each week. Ben welcomed every guest and met them where they were, never judging and finding someone wanting. He embodied the very essence of Alpha.
3. How have you seen the Ben grow (ie: in what areas) as a leader while he/she was involved with this ministry?
Ben learned and grew in his ability to lead from his experience of administering and leading the Alpha Course. He said at the beginning that administration was not among his gifts and something he didn’t enjoy very much. But he cheerfully accepted the responsibility thrust on him as the Artizo intern. Along the way, Ben realized that he had, in fact, taken on too much in both administering the course and leading a group. He made some mistakes in choosing people for jobs for which they were not well suited, but he accepted responsibility for the mistakes he made and learned from them. Ben’s gifts (and his joy) may not lie in administration but he realized that every pastor’s life involves a diversity of jobs and that he needed to improve his skills in this area. Ben proved to be teachable and desired to grow into the role given him. His true desire was to glorify God and it is my opinion that Ben did his utmost to do so, “whether in eating or drinking or whatever he did” (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:31).
Church of Good Shepherd, Vancouver
Interview with Eric Yang – people’s warden, Good Shepherd Church (GSC) Anson Ann is in his second year of his internship at GSC.
1. What are some of the ministries Anson Ann has been involved with at GSC?
He has preached, led the Cantonese service, led small groups, led a young marrieds group, taught an apologetics and evangelism course, helped out with pastoral care and has been part of our ministry council and ministry matters team.
2. How has Anson benefited the ministry of CGS?
In particular, Anson has helped us with our English ministry as we are lacking a full time English evangelist. He has also been active in our early thirties group. He is also able to help with our Cantonese ministry. It is very hard to find someone who can do multi-lingual ministry. Anson is a good person who is not afraid to do things and get involved. Everyone in the church has benefited from his ministry in some way.
3. How have you seen Anson improve in his ministries?
In particular, he has improved a lot as a preacher. He has worked hard and this has been the biggest area of improvement I have seen for him. He is now able to bring out very good insights from the passages he is preaching from. He hits the nail on the head with good depth and is not ‘all show’ as he peaches. I go away from his sermons thinking I have got something from them, something which might not have been originally that obvious, but something that is insightful and refreshing to people who are listening to him.
4. Training can be hard work – is it worthwhile for GSC to train Artizo interns?
Yes! It is not hard at all, it is just part of what we do. It is very worthwhile; Anson puts a lot of time into our ministries. We don’t consider his training to be a burden. We enjoy having him and need other interns to serve and train in multi-lingual ministry. If you know of any, please send them to us!
St. John’s Shaughnessy, Vancouver
Pauline Hale attends St. John’s Shaughnessy and has been part of the PTC (Preliminary Theological Certificate) courses on New Testament, Old Testament and Reformation history taught by Artizo interns.
1. How did you end up in a course taught by Artizo interns?
One day I asked our Rector Rev. David Short to conduct more in depth Bible teaching days, and he recommended the Preliminary Theology Course “New Testament 1” on the book of Mark organized by Artizo. I had just finished teaching the gospel of Mark one-on-one using the Exploring Christianity teacher’s guide. Why would I take this course to study Mark again? Also, I wanted to be taught by David, not by an intern. But out of obedience, I attended the course.
You wanted David Short. What was it like to have the interns teach you?
I was pleasantly surprised. I quickly learned that these people are not just any interns, they spend a large part of their daily lives reading and learning about theology. Plus they spend one hour a week with David Short, and one hour one-to-one every week with their trainer Eric Thurston. We are extremely fortunate at St. John’s Shaughnessy to have this course. As the interns learn how to teach the Bible through Regent and through experienced church mentors, they in turn teach the students of the PTC course.
The course work book provided a lot of insight. But it is through the teaching of the interns that I gained the most insights. That’s because the interns, through their Regent program, had already studied a vast amount of theology and background information that they can share with us. Another PTC student said: “the interns help us connect the Old Testament with the New, and provide valuable context that we would not have time to read as parishioners”. In addition, I learnt that each intern spent more than a week preparing for this one-hour lecture. They brought insights that really helped us see the big picture, put God’s word in context, and challenged us as to how it applies to us today.
For the Old Testament 1 course, I was able to take what I learned from the PTC course and our revelations during the course, and share it with my Bible study group who was studying Genesis at the time.
The PTC from Moore Theology College in Australia is meant to be a distance learning self-study program. But I have found that even though I did my home work and studied at home, the weekly lectures and discussions have added to my understanding and made the Bible an exciting book to learn and share.
The teaching of the Artizo interns has helped me become a better student of the Bible, think theologically, and teach the Bible myself. Thank you Artizo!
Artizo mentoring: a view from a trainer 
Artizo ministry: a view from the pew
‘In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now’ Philippians 1:4-5