APPRENTICESHIP
What does it mean?
In the context of ministry training, an apprenticeship is a model for training that combines classroom education as well as hands-on experience. Unfortunately, most missionaries and church planters that come to Europe have been trained in a context that has not allowed them to gain practical experience.
Another much-needed advantage of this approach is that the local church is involved the entire time.
At the end of the training, the local church can affirm competency and send a fully-equipped church planting team that has demonstrated their calling.
COMPETENCY BASED EDUCATION
How does it work?
Like other competency-based programs, the ATI curriculum is designed with the end result in mind.
With the aid of fellow pastors and practitioners the development of the ATI curriculum began with the end goal in mind. Next, the Aquila team worked backwards to identify the full range of competencies necessary to achieve these goals. In this way the result of the curriculum can be more assured than through traditional approaches. The competencies themselves represent a unified body of knowledge, skills, and character traits that, when achieved, ensure the graduate is fully competent for church planting and marketplace missions.
Apprentices and their needs are at the heart of curriculum development, and the program supports and encourages personalisation in response to experience, personality, context, and pacing. The curricular design ensures that the level and complexity of the competencies are congruent with the achievements required.
The chart below explains the stages of development of the Aquila curriculum and how the various components fit together.
PROGRAM PURPOSE
The purpose of the ATI curriculum is to help churches train leaders and church planters who are competent to fulfil their calling through marketplace ministry.
PROGRAM OBJECTIVES
Church planters in Europe must be Kingdom-minded, must have Godly character, and must contextualise their ministry. These make up the Aquila Program Objectives.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
Often known as classes or modules, these are the areas of study that embody the Program Objectives. They summarise the knowledge, character traits, and skills that the apprentices will master.
Competency in each Learning Outcome is developed through the following process:
INPUTS
The sources used to build knowledge in the apprentice.
OUTPUTS
The activities that give evidentiary support for the assessment of competency.
INDICATORS
The measurable criteria for evaluating competency.
COMPETENCY
The standards used to evaluate mastery of key areas within a Learning Outcome.
Fellow workers
WHO PARTNERS & HOW?
Examples of partnership
It’s an arrangement where we agree to cooperate with each other in order to advance our mutual interests.
Our mutual interest is building the kingdom of God through church planting.
To engage with like-minded churches who want to build and be a part of a network of churches that work together to plant churches.
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There is no end to the way that God can bring His saints together to partner for the Gospel. Just take a look at Romans 16, the passage of Scripture where ATI gets its theme verse: Fellow workers in Christ Jesus. But here are some examples of the way that God has worked.
Churches make up our most important partners. They are the instrument God has promised to use for the spread of the gospel, the building up of the saints, and the planting of churches. ATI comes alongside our partner churches to support this work, providing resources that local churches may not be able to provide on their own.
Individuals partner with ATI to mentor apprentices, teach in our seminars, pray for the work of ministry, and provide wisdom, guidance, and accountability. The individuals include donors, volunteers, friends, our mentors, and our Academic Board of Advisors. Other Christian organisations have also proven to be valuable partners for ATI. For example, they have assisted in the development and running of our apprenticeship program, and they have given assistance in the planting of churches.
OUR PARTNER CHURCHES
Past, present and planned church plants
Since its founding in 2017, Aquila Initiative has assisted in the planting of two local churches. And we believe this is only the beginning of what God will do.
We want to help change the direction of church planting. We want to see churches - not organisations - training up leaders and sending them out to sustainably plant churches that engage with the culture and plant more healthy churches.
Click "see more" to to learn about some of our partner churches.