It’s amazing how much creativity, determination and courage can be unlocked when people try to ‘make it’ in life.

You can see it on The Apprentice - the TV docudrama in which 12 promising young people work with, and compete against, each other for the ultimate prize of becoming an apprentice to Sir Alan Sugar.

Each week, the teams (it’s boys v girls) are set a fresh challenge. One member of the losing team is ‘fired’ from the show by Sir Alan himself; eventually, he’ll be left with just the One.

The promise of the final reward – to be mentored by one of the UK’s top businessmen – is enough to bring both the best out of the bright young blades, and the worst, as they show themselves willing to stab their own team-mates in the back to get in front.

It’s all preparation for life in the real world, of course - unless your mission is to help redefine the meaning of ‘life’ and to transform the nature of ‘the real world’.

Imagine, for a moment, that the prize is not to work with a top businessman, but a higher power altogether. Imagine that the task is less about accumulating money for yourself and more about generating ‘riches’ for as many as you dare to dream of.

And imagine that your passion is aroused not by loving yourself at the expense of others, but by trying to love God first, then others as yourself.

The Apprentice certainly offers a (flawed) glimpse of what we are capable of if we put our minds to it.

But it also reminds us that many of us crave good mentors. Whether or not Sir Alan is ‘good’, the idea of apprenticeship itself is refreshingly counter-cultural in our short-term, three-years-looks-bad-on-your-CV world.

The longer-term relationships we nurture with those who are more or less experienced than us can, if we give them time, help to pass on wisdom for the journey. This is especially so in the community of the Church, in which we’re all working together, in a sense, for life.

Apprenticeship, then, is not simply a nice idea that will help to fulfil us along the Way. Instead, it’s what we must do to fulfil the Great Commission itself. Jesus commanded us not just to make converts but disciples. After all, we still have much to learn.

Brian Draper

additional resources

A new DVD from LICC, titled Imagine how we can reach the UK, confronts the issue of 'discipleship' in today's world. Visit www.licc.org.uk/bookshop to get a copy, price £10.

The Apprentice is shown on Wednesday evenings on BBC2 at 9pm.

Visit the official website at www.bbc.co.uk/apprentice.

How can we make disciples who are learning to live well for Christ in today’s new culture and engage compellingly with the people they meet? Visit www.licc.org.uk/imagine to find out how LICC is tackling the question.