Graduates from Vocational Bible College, focused on everyday, working-class Christians, are serving in a variety of fields. John Delezio is one of them.
John Delezio never expected to end up in full-time ministry, let alone church planting.
Initially, the reason he started studying at Vocational Bible College was because he wanted to get to know the Bible better. At the time he owned a commercial window cleaning business and was teaching SRE one day a week in a local primary school.
“I loved teaching little kids about Jesus,” John says. “I then wanted to know more about the Bible, because I hadn’t been able to as a young boy. I had no intention of selling my business or moving into ministry.”
After trying out a few different options for theological study, John was told about VBC.
“I went along and did one subject and I was hooked straight away, because Andrew (Beddoe) was teaching in a way that was similar to the way I had learnt my trades,” John explains. “I had learnt like that at TAFE. It was side-by-side learning; it was round table learning.”
John also recalls how he had a mentor in his church who helped him put into practice what he was learning and grow in godliness. It wasn’t long before he realised that his training at VBC would turn into a lot more than growing his knowledge of God’s Word.
“Andrew tapped me on the shoulder after the first semester and said, ‘Look, you should think about doing this more seriously,’” John says.
John can’t speak highly enough of his VBC trainer. Andrew spent time investing in John outside of classes each week.
“Andrew and I would meet weekly before College and he would mentor me,” John shares. “My childhood was pretty messed up, so there was lots of baggage to work through with that. VBC ended up being a place where not only was I learning about the Bible, but also growing in my character as well.”
Eventually, John ended up selling his window cleaning business and undertaking a Blue Collar MTS ministry apprenticeship through his local church.
John did his apprenticeship over three years and was able to do so through supporters funding his work. After finishing his apprenticeship he still had faithful supporters wanting to enable him to continue in ministry, into a more formal assistant ministers role at Church At The Peak in Peakhurst, Sydney.
After being ordained as a Deacon in the Sydney Anglican diocese, John and his family are about to take a new step of faith and plant a church.
“I’ve been trained under Stuart Maze, and he’s done a really great job of helping me to be a bit more proficient with preaching and pastoral care and running a church,” John explains. “And now I’ll be planting myself in Warilla North starting next month.”
This church will be planted through Evangelism and New Churches (ENC). The hope of ENC, John and all involved will be to reach the 10,000 people who live in the area, and share the hope of Jesus with them.
“I want to train everyday people to be leaders in my church,” John says. “I want to find church planters from the everyday people. It’s not going to be easy, but we’re going to trust God and just welcome people in.”
Originally published by Vocational Bible College, and used with permission. Another account of Deledio’s story tells about his time as an apprentice in ministry