At 20schemes, one of our greatest desires is to see men and women from the schemes being trained up for ministry to serve their communities. One way we do this is through enrolling all of our indigenous interns at the Ragged School of Theology (RST), a ministry of 20schemes.
The teaching style at RST suits the gifts and abilities of people who love to learn practically and actively compared to most ministry training that is academic and suits those who’ve been to university.
Training focuses on what you can do rather than what you have read and how many words you have written.
So why the name Ragged?
The first or ‘original’ Ragged School in Edinburgh was established in 1847 in a small room on the Castle Hill and led by Thomas Guthrie, a Scottish preacher and philanthropist. It was a place where those from lower- and working-class families could learn, since they weren’t welcome in other institutions.
Like the original Ragged School, RST seeks to make ministry training more accessible to ordinary, everyday Christians.
Courses are delivered at Niddrie Community Church, Edinburgh, through a blend of small discussion groups, and include a ministry placement in a local church. Assessments mimic ministry activities with presentations, simulations, reports and portfolios.
Q&A with a Ragged Student
We asked Brian, an indigenous intern serving Maryhill Evangelical Church in Glasgow, some questions about the Ragged School:
How has being a student of RST helped you grow in your faith?
I have the privilege of sitting under the teaching of men gifted with the ability to teach God’s word in an understandable manner that never compromises the truth. Through this, God has given me the desire to know Him better. He has also given me the knowledge and confidence I need to point others to Him. This is answered prayer. Seeing God bless men and women from backgrounds like my own, where school was definitely not cool, with a new hunger and desire to sit in a classroom and learn about Him never ceases to amaze me.
What has been your favourite subject?
That’s a hard one. I loved early church history. I’ve always been fascinated by history, but in most cases it was ‘other people’s’ history. What we learn about regarding early church history is different though. This isn’t ‘other people’s’ history. This is the history of the early church which we are privileged to be a continuation of. This is our history.
How has RST helped you in ministering to others?
A couple of months ago I read an Albert Einstein quote: ‘If you can’t explain something simply, you don’t understand it well enough.’ I feel that sometimes as Christians we over-complicate things when we’re attempting to explain them to an unbeliever. Ragged School is not only presenting God’s word to me in an understandable manner, but it’s also equipping me to explain it to others in a similar way. Now I am able to sit down with people and explain God’s word to them in a confident and competent manner.
