Afterword To Thetenth Anniversary Edition

But there was something I did not know or plan—and it is the key to why the books have been helpful to people. It has to do with attachment theory. Attachment theory is built on the idea that all people need to know two things in order to be secure: they need to be seen (as significant for who they are, not what they do), and they need to be safe. At the core of the Apprentice Series are two power narratives: “I am one in whom Christ dwells and delights, and I live in the strong and unshakeable kingdom of God.” Both of those statements came, as it were, out of thin air while I was teaching this material. And both of those statements are filled with power, the power to transform, because they meet both of the attachment needs: to be seen as significant for who I am, not what I do (I am one in whom Christ dwells and delights), and to be safe (I live in the strong and unshakeable kingdom of God).

At the Apprentice Institute we have a program called The Apprentice Experience. It is a two-year adult discipleship certificate program that is built on the teaching and practice of the Apprentice Series. Over one hundred people have been through the program, and it is clear that those two power narratives are central to the transformation of people. Those narratives, coupled with the practice of memorizing Colossians 3:1-17, deepen one’s sense that I am significant and I am safe. Once those are in place, a person is free to quit earning and start living life with a good and beautiful God.

There is a saying we often use to explain when something extraordinary happens. We call it “the perfect storm.” Many years ago in Wichita, we had a devastating ice storm. It happened because we had slow and steady rainfall over a long period of time, and the temperature dropped just slowly enough to allow ice to form and build on the trees. Around midnight we began hearing what sounded like either thunder or a shot gun being fired. All around the city, tree branches were crashing to the ground under the weight of the ice on their branches. Soon power lines were coming down, and many on our block were left without power for days. None of this would have happened if all of the conditions had not come together in the right way at the right time.

I like to think of this book not as a perfect storm but as a perfect story. God began telling that story long ago in the lives of great men like Richard Foster and Dallas Willard. Then God brought an eager but unknown young man (me) into the story, and over many decades, with lots of trial and error, he combined the elements of narrative, exercises and community—all under the leading of the Holy Spirit—to create a method that, if practiced, could lead to transformation. No one of these elements alone could have accomplished this task. It required a unique coming together, at the right time, in the right way, to create something good and beautiful and true. In short, it had to be something not of human origin but of God.

James Bryan Smith

Friends University

March 2019