Impact of Apprenticeship: Micah Kelley
“Apprenticeship is observing a discipleship relationship up close, while learning how to disciple someone else”
If you knew my history with apprenticing in discipleship, you'd know that I'm like a twice-baked potato. With twice-baked potatoes, you have to bake the potatoes once, alter the state of the potatoes on the inside by adding spices, veggies and/or cheese, and then put them back into the oven to bake. After that, you are ready to enjoy the goodness of the twice baked potato. Apprenticeship is observing a discipleship relationship up close, while learning how to disciple someone else. I did that twice in the last three years.
When I started apprenticeship the first time, I was transitioning back into C&YA from helping out with the student ministry full time for a season. When I first started discipleship back in 2012, I was working a job at a middle school and I was being discipled by Astrid Schaffer, who is now at Living Faith Tampa. I was fully discipled by her while in C&YA, and then she and her husband Mark Schaffer left MBT to start the church plant in Tampa, Florida. It was in discipleship that she encouraged me to do student mentorship instead of discipling someone my age, because I was already working in that field and building relationships with teenagers.
I didn’t grasp this until later on because all of my friends in C&YA were investing in people around our age. A few years later, it was through helping out with Club 121 at Raytown Central Middle School and doing even more substitute teaching that I saw the need to leave C&YA and join student ministry at MBT full-time as a counselor. That was a really insightful, fun, and hard time for me as a single woman. So in 2019, I transitioned back into C&YA.
“I knew this was something I had to do and could not run away”
As I was transitioning, I was paired up to apprentice under a really awesome woman of God, Julie Sidebottom, and I learned how to disciple an equally awesome young woman, Angel Peguese. I knew Julie from our time together in C&YA, even though we were in different Bible studies and serving in different ministries. Also, I had the privilege of previously mentoring Angel when she was in the student ministry as a high school student. Because of that dynamic, it was a humbling experience to no longer be in the driver’s seat of the relationship when discipleship started. There I learned how to pray for Angel more and submit to Julie. But there were areas of my life that still needed to be softened and surrendered to the Lord.
Haggai 1:4-5 says, “Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your veiled houses, and this house lie waste? Now therefore thus saith the LORD of host; Consider your ways.” I still had much growing to do even after being Julie’s apprentice.
That discipleship relationship ended right before the pandemic started, and from February 2020 until February 2022 God used that time to grow me and stretch me in A LOT of ways! I learned a lot about family, finances, roommates, faithfulness in hard times, and much more. It was great, and by the time I was paired up to apprentice again, I was a little scared but more ready to sit under someone to further learn how to teach someone to follow Christ.
In February 2022, Melissa Wharton was paired up to disciple Shaina Spears and I was to be the apprentice. I knew Melissa from C&YA as well, and we briefly spent time in the same Bible study before I went to the student ministry. I had known Shaina from Bible study, but her zeal for the Lord was invigorating and a little intimidating. When we got paired up, I almost wanted to say no, but I prayed and moved forward. Philippians 2:13 says, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” I knew this was something I had to do and could not run away.
“…and having the privilege to be a fly on the wall in discipleship made me more hungry too”
Shaina came to discipleship with a lot of biblical knowledge but discipleship was where the rubber met the road for her. It was good to learn from Melissa how to pray for discernment and counsel Shaina even when it seemed like on the surface, Shaina didn’t need to be taught much. It was a good practice in asking probing questions but also just praying with her through things. There wasn’t any major sin issue that had to be dealt with, but if there was, I see how doing life and truly getting to know someone gets to the heart of things.
Because I had grown a little more spiritually in Bible study and a little bit more in LFBI, I learned that when preparing for discipleship, I can dive deeper in preparation based on my disciple’s background and not just stick to what’s in the lesson. But that also takes more time, prayer and discernment as well. Shaina is a woman of the Word, and having the privilege to be a fly on the wall in discipleship made me more hungry too. And although Shaina is amazing, I think she and I both learned submission and obedience more in the context of this relationship. I made it more of a point this time around to defer to Melissa with counseling, but offered my own two cents as well. Melissa was the teacher and I was the student teacher, therefore, even with all of my years in Christ and being at MBT, I laid my life down. “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30)
Through this discipleship relationship I also learned confidence is key and that it must come from the Lord, along with having spent time in prayer and preparation. You are not supposed to be winging it with anyone, but it’s definitely not good to fly by the seat of your pants when you could be asked the most thought provoking questions. That’s where preparation and prayer come in.
It’s a humbling and rewarding experience to be an apprentice in a discipleship relationship twice. Some people probably wish they could do it twice, but under more ideal circumstances, it’s not something you do. But had I gone from apprenticing Angel to being an actual discipler, that would have been a disservice to the next young lady. Even though sanctification is a process, I’m so grateful God mixed up my life and put me back in the oven to produce a better product that is a little more ready for what He has next.
Micah Kelley is a member of Midtown Baptist Temple and is a part of C&YA. She serves on the hospitality team and is a part of a UMKC women’s Bible study.
