The Bush Apprenticeship: Transformative Training in Wagga

Pastors Dale Skewes and David Strong have been running VBC training at their church in Wagga for the past five years.

David identified a need to train church members—in particular, young men who would never move away to attend Bible College.

“David wanted to be able to keep people like young farmers and tradesmen here while equipping them for things like preaching and leading,” Dale shares. “So he put me onto the VBC website and it all went from there.”

Every Tuesday evening during school terms, Dale and David are onsite at Wagga Wagga Baptist Church, running VBC training. They offer two subjects each term.

At their church, which currently runs three services on a Sunday, the VBC training is part of what they call The Bush Apprenticeship. Apprentices are assigned a mentor, plugged into a particular church ministry, and signed up for theological training. 

“VBC is the theology part,” Dale explains.

During the summer holidays each year, the church advertises for applicants for the Bush Apprenticeship. They have seen somewhere between 30 and 40 people undertake the training so far.

“We had one young lady who was a doctor,” Dale says. “She came and did it for a couple of years, but didn't get to finish all the subjects because she got transferred out to somewhere else. Part of the nature of our population is that we're a little bit transient.”

There have been about half a dozen people who have completed all nine subjects in VBC’s Introduction to Biblical Studies and Ministry Certificate.

Dale explains that the training has equipped each of those people in different ways.

“One fellow is a farmer—he's done all the subjects. He would say that it has equipped him as a better leader. He leads a Bible study and he mentors young men. So the training has helped equip him to do that,” Dale says.

A single mum in their church has also benefited from the training.

“She's quite a gifted speaker,” Dale explains. “So it's given her opportunities to develop that and have some theological foundations for doing that. We'd love to see her doing some speaking in women's ministry. She also leads church services and ministers in Bible studies.”

Others who have completed the training include a young man with a difficult past who has spent time in jail. 

“He’s back on his feet again and he really loved doing the Bush Apprenticeship,” Dale says. “I met with him during the week and basically did verbal assessments with him.”

From Dale’s perspective as a pastor, the VBC training has been a huge blessing.

“It gives us reassurance that there are people we can ask to take responsibility and they've got a theological foundation,” Dale says. 

He recognises that it’s been a gift for the participants, too. “One girl who went through the training shared that she had never grown so much in her faith or been so happy in her faith as when she was doing it, which was amazing.”