Impact of Apprenticeship: Alyssa Sloss
“My greatest fear was wondering if I had the heart to lay my life down for this disciple God had graciously put in my life”
From June 2021 until May 2022, I had the privilege of apprenticing under Carli Weber to disciple Sabrina Gorman. As an apprentice, my role was still to be a student, except now instead of exclusively learning the foundations of my faith, I was also experiencing a transfer of life in the form of learning how to practically disciple another.
When I first found out I was being paired, my initial reaction was immediate panic. I didn’t know Carli super well outside of our shared experience of attending UMKC, and I had never met Sabrina. I was filled with doubt about how I could learn from someone who I didn’t know and who didn’t know me, as well as how I could ever possibly impact someone who I had never met. However, my greatest fear was wondering if I had the heart to lay my life down for this disciple God had graciously put in my life — a selfish fear, but a fear I held all the same as I knew that this was a love I was called to. The greatest issue within all my anxiety surrounding apprenticeship was how these fears center around me and what I thought I would do in the lives of my discipler and disciple.
During this time of fear, I took a look at the word “worketh” and its uses in the Bible. The first mention is in Job 33:29, “Lo, all these things worketh God oftentimes with man.” Many of the mentions in the New Testament (Gal. 5:6, Eph. 3:20, Phl. 2:13, 1 Th. 2:13), follow the pattern of showing God doing the work through those who walk by faith. I knew apprenticeship would be a work, but what I was coming to learn was that it wasn’t a work I would be doing, but rather a work the Lord wanted to do both in and through me.
“There is a labor that goes into raising up a child of God to be a disciple, and apprenticeship is just another portion of that growth”
A key verse that Carli introduced us to early on in discipleship was 1 Thessalonians 2:7-8, “But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children: 8 So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us.”
Carli brought this verse from 1 Thessalonians to me when we first began praying about discipling to remind me what heart I should strive for in my care of our disciple. While I don’t seek to compare apprenticeship and motherhood, there is a labor that goes into raising up a child of God to be a disciple, and apprenticeship is just another portion of that growth. Watching Sabrina take her first steps of faith or begin to digest tough meat within the Word of God was incredibly rewarding, and it taught me to truly cherish her as a child in the faith, not just a friend or sister.
As someone who had already completed my childhood of discipleship, I would consider apprenticeship a sort of adolescence in my spiritual walk. I had now been nurtured in the basics of the Word, and it was time to put that into practice and grow into my own. The transformation I experienced throughout discipleship was largely a transformation of the heart, focused on growing it for the local church and the people within it. Truly, to this day, my heart is broken before the Lord when I consider how much He grew Sabrina and what He brought her through during the discipleship process. Watching her learn, grow, and serve was the joy of my life. She is my friend, my sister, and yet I cherish her as a daughter in the faith — this love continues now. Apprenticeship brought back a wonder towards the Lord that I had lost in my growth, as I was reminded how mighty God is to change our entire lives, but also how humble Christ is to abide with us through both trials and triumphs.
“I no longer have to fear because I can trust the Lord to do the work and not depend on myself”
Being an apprentice is an incredibly humbling place to be, as you are still a student in the relationship, but you are no longer the sole focus of the lessons. Although I still learned plenty going back through those 18 lessons, the attention was no longer directed at me. As an apprentice, it was expected to grow and learn while laying my life down and imparting my own soul to the disciple in an effort to see them grow and learn.
When it came time for me to teach some of the lessons, I found that I was saying “I don’t know” pretty often to answer Sabrina’s questions, and this was something I pridefully struggled with. One of the most valuable lessons Carli taught me as her apprentice was that “I don’t know” is an acceptable answer, so long as it is followed by “let’s study it out to find the answer.” 2 Timothy 2:15 tells us to “study to shew thyself approved unto God” and this study is one that continues all throughout life. Although I study to have an answer to all men, I now also understand the importance of showing humility by admitting when I don’t know something while now having the knowledge and tools to find an answer.
Looking back through my apprenticeship, I am eternally grateful to Carli for how gracious she was and all that she taught me both directly and indirectly by her example. Similarly, Sabrina will always have my heart, as I learned a great deal from her and was often reminded by her of the importance of having a childlike faith. As I now prepare to disciple someone with an apprentice of my own, I can pray that these girls won’t be my disciples, but disciples of Christ who love Him with their whole hearts and desire to follow after Him. Similarly, I no longer have to fear because I can trust the Lord to do the work and not depend on myself.
Alyssa Sloss is a member at Midtown Baptist Temple and is a part of C&YA. She is also a part of the Student Ministry & Postscript Team. She is also involved in the South Kansas City Women’s Bible Study.
