The Ministry Training Course (MTC) at St Ebbes, Oxford, is “simply the best day of the week!”, chorused Marcela and Sze Ting when I asked them for a pithy quote for this blog. They then hurriedly added “after the Lord’s Day, of course,” and erupted into the ever-present laughter one hears around the church grounds every Tuesday.
I looked around the church as we studied Vaughan Roberts’s famous ‘Bible in a Year’, which all first-year students do as the last lecture on Tuesday afternoon. Smiling faces were flicking rapidly through James, jotting notes in their NIVs, “Is James contradicting Paul here?” and “James 2:17 was called “a right story” and rejected by Martin Luther”.
In the garden earlier, I had been part of an al fresco workshop group listening to a talk on Luke 12:13-21 by a fellow group member. Thinking about how many people pay £100 a month (or is it a week?) to put their excess stuff in Big Yellow Storage and how one chap dared to ask the Son of God to mediate in a money grab, we heard how Jesus answered with a brilliantly chilling parable. I’m not going to tell you the story. As we say at MTC, go and read it for yourself, and if you have questions, discuss it with your fellow students and then bring it to Andy Robinson or Vaughan Roberts.
MTC is rigorous, thrilling (have you read much Old Testament?), surprising, eclectic, revealing and all about our great and almighty Father and his Son, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. You will discover things about your relationship with all three. Truths that will make you “beat your (sic) breast” and say “God have mercy on me, a sinner” (Luke 18:13), and “I lift my eyes to you, you who sit enthroned in heaven.” (Psalm 123:1)
Don’t just take my word for it! There is an online version and a Saturday version. I am all set for year two in September.
Emma Spear
Attending the Ministry Training Course (MTC) on Saturdays this past year has been an unbelievably enlightening and informative experience. As we’ve worked through the books of the Bible, I’ve been encouraged to see the gospel in each one and to understand Scripture more deeply – not just as a book about God, but as God’s instruction manual for how we are meant to live. A recent module on interpreting Scripture for leading Bible studies or giving talks has been incredibly helpful in equipping me to teach the Bible faithfully and accurately. We’re currently studying the doctrine of God, which has deepened my understanding of who our God is and how amazing he is! It has truly been the highlight of each month.
Ester Schoeman
To find out more, do chat to Emma Spear, Marcela Taylor, Sze Ting Lau, Liz Gilbert, Ester Schoeman, Sharon Bedford or many more who have done the course in the past.