Moore Matters spoke to Ken Noakes, the rector of Lower Mountains Anglican Church, about how his church uses the Moore Preliminary Theological Certificate (PTC) to train disciple-making disciples.
MM: What is the value of the PTC?
KN: There are several reasons why PTC is so valuable— and has been for so long.
Christians are called to be both disciples and disciplemakers. PTC helps in each of these aspects.
Growing ministries usually feel the pressure to find more well-trained disciples as leaders. When asking a disciple to step up into leadership it is common to hear reservations about whether they know their Bible well enough to lead. PTC helps to address this—not only by teaching the Bible well but by teaching how to understand and interpret the Bible in a way that is contextually and biblically accurate.
MM: How do you structure your PTC groups?
KN: Lower Mountains Anglican runs what we call a TrainingWORKS—School of Ministry. Presently we are running two subjects each term and running three terms a year. So that means six subjects on offer each calendar year. And the two subjects that we run each term will be from both PTC Bands 1 and 2. That means those who want to start (on the Band 1 subjects), don’t have to wait, and those who have moved through several subjects, can keep pressing on (with the Band 2 subjects).
How does it work?
Each subject has a Subject leader/s who guides the group through the material. Each course has ten units and the group gathers for each of those ten units for about 1 ½ hours face to face (we avoid all holidays and key events like Mother’s Day, Anzac Day, and Father’s Day). The sessions are video recorded for those who cannot make it every time.
TrainingWORKS—School of Ministry is open to our members and others from other churches who would like to train with us so they can serve in their own churches more effectively. Go here for more information: https://tinyurl.com/5dyw8aja
MM: Why would you recommend PTC to be run at church in a group?
KN: One of the great things about PTC being an online correspondence course is that it can be done any time, and anywhere with computer access.
What that means is that any individual who can read can do this course. Yet we have found that people like to gather to spur one another on and learn together. As such, we run these courses in classes—or perhaps better, as workshops—where those who have enrolled can join with others for a set period (10 meetings) and investigate the word of God, challenge it, ask questions of the leader and one another, and support one another as they work through the course. Iron sharpens iron (Prov 27:17).
I love the discipleship culture that this helps to create in our church.
I thoroughly recommend the PTC and would be happy to talk with anyone who would like to set up PTC workshops in their churches or mission areas.
