Internships: Churches Make Room for People to Serve and Learn in Ministry

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Joan Huyser-Honig

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The idea often comes up in congregations, especially before summer or a new semester. The church needs something done but has no budget for extra staff. Then someone suggests getting an intern to do the work…

Whether internship makes sense in your setting depends on several issues, according to people who've effectively placed or mentored young adults in church internships. It starts with a culture that makes room for people to test God's call and their gifts, so that the whole church grows up in love "as each part does its work" (Ephesians 4:16).

"While the church will benefit from having extra help, it is important for the church to realize that they are responsible for serving the intern as well," explains Kary Bosma, who coordinates Jubilee Fellows, a Calvin College summer ministry internship program.

Before your church offers an internship, you'll want to consider ministry match, the kind of help you need, what you expect to give and receive, and who will mentor interns.

Ministry match

Begin by listing your church ministry programs and opportunities. What characteristics and skills would an intern need to help with these?

"Interns should work at least 10 hours per week for at least 10 weeks. The main complaint we get from interns is that there wasn't enough work," says Laurie Lemmen, the internship and job fair coordinator in Calvin College's career development office.

She knows most jobs have clerical tasks but advises that meaningful internships offer "a significant amount of higher level work." Lemmen suggests putting every intern in charge of a background project, such as developing a policy manual, organizing and running a fundraiser, starting a monthly newsletter, planning a senior retreat, or interviewing people in a target group. Having a main project means interns always have something to work on and can accomplish something concrete.

"If you can, pay your intern. You'll receive stronger candidates, and they may work harder for you. Plus, they have bills to pay and really need the income, even if it's only minimal. Require resumes and cover letters, and interview your candidates to be sure you have a good fit," Lemmen says.

Christy Carlin Knetsch always asks potential interns about their spiritual health and passions for service. "If someone wants an internship mainly to grow closer to God, that's a red flag. I'm not sure they're at a place in life where they can give back," Knetsch says. She directs youth ministry at Madison Square Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

"Know what your congregation needs. Someone approached me about doing a youth ministry internship here after her summer plans fell through. I ask youth ministry interns to commit for a school year, because kids in our church have so much experience of people walking in and out of their lives," she says.

The young woman couldn't intern that long, so she and Knetsch agreed on a part-time administrative internship. She served the youth ministry by maintaining the database of attendance, birthdays, and permissions; inviting kids and parents to events; being a "right hand person"; and offering feedback on possible improvements.

Employee or intern?

Lemmen and Bosma say that evaluating the balance between what interns want and your church needs will help you decide whether to seek an intern or employee. If you simply need more help, then you should hire someone, not offer an internship.

Bosma explains that jobseekers expect to get and focus on a "to do" list and be evaluated by how well and efficiently they perform. "Students accepting an internship opportunity expect that, while they will be accomplishing tasks, the emphasis will be on learning how these tasks fit into the church's larger mission and vision," she says.

Interns expect to test and reflect on their gifts for ministry, to shadow those in professional ministry, and to grow personally, spiritually, and professionally. Rather than being evaluated only on skill and efficiency, they want others' views on their strengths and weaknesses.

Clear expectations

Clearly explaining your internship opportunity helps you attract good candidates. Clear expectations help your chosen interns to learn and serve in your church.

Lemmen recommends that interns and supervisors set goals at the beginning of the internship and revisit those goals midway and at the end.

"Set up a learning contract. Make everything clear and in writing so the intern knows what he or she is signing up for, whether that's to lead worship, speak, preach, or lead cross culturally," Knetsch says. The learning contract states what Madison Square expects the intern to do. It spells out characteristics the internship demands, such as motivation, desire, or personal responsibility, and it details starting and ending dates, weekly schedule, compensation, scheduled breaks, and dress code.

Knetsch's learning contracts include a measure for each goal as well as a rank (essential, important, desirable), so interns know how to prioritize.

One intern's essential goal was: "I will encourage middle and high school students to use their gifts to serve in their community through the Serve to Earn program. I will do so by modeling my own commitment to service by helping out with Serve to Earn. I will also provide positive feedback to students that participate in Serve to Earn for their hard work."

Here's how Knetsch and the intern measured the goal: "I will volunteer as a leader in the Serve to Earn program 5 Saturdays throughout the semester. When asked, other leaders and students who participate in Serve to Earn will acknowledge that I have encouraged them through positive words."

Mentoring and modeling

Before your church offers an internship opportunity, make sure there's a person on staff or in ministry leadership who will mentor the intern. The mentor should be someone who:

• values what a younger person can contribute to God's kingdom
• has time to supervise day-to-day tasks, give feedback on performance, and answer questions
• has time to meet weekly for one-on-one or small group mentoring
• wants to help interns think through how God has gifted them and can use their gifts in ministry
• provides opportunities for interns to pursue interests and prods them to accept challenges

"Don't expect the intern to be an expert. Interns are there to learn from you," Lemmen tells mentors.

Knetsch takes college interns through one-on-one training so they learn the process of leadership. "I tell them what I want. I model it. They model it and get feedback. Then they lead it on their own," she says.

Her interns fill out weekly self-evaluation forms. One summer she had a team of college and high school interns who worked together to do lawn care with kids in the juvenile justice system. To assess themselves as role models, interns considered whether they'd kept their own social media profiles "appropriate and at a higher standard" and listed specific ways they'd encouraged their mentees.

"Set them up to succeed. If you expect interns to do a service project, then you need to inspect it to see it's going well and that they have what they need. Introduce interns to the right people, partner them with someone who has experience, and let parents and the congregation know what the intern's in charge of," she adds.

"At the end of the internship, you'll know it's been a success if the intern has a clearer sense of what vocational ministry could look like, knows more about his or her own areas of strength and weakness, has a deeper love for the church, and, perhaps, can better discern a sense God's calling toward ministry in the church," Bosma says.

Part Two

When you're looking for a church internship, some opportunities may sound like they were made for you.

Help establish a modern style of worship. You will be part of a small team of interns learning together, growing together, writing songs, playing in the bands, and assisting in worship….Teach weekly church school classes and lead worship in the Korean language….Lead worship, edit videos, and nurture discipleship for high schoolers….Work with a host pastor to prepare sermons that you'll preach in several churches….Along with our congregation, work at addressing roots of violence by staying close to the people others see as victims.

But church internships also involve tasks that may feel tedious or push you out of your comfort zone. And many internships pay nothing or less than a regular job.

Whether an internship makes sense for your vocational path depends on several issues, according to two participants in Jubilee Fellows, a Calvin College summer ministry internship program for college juniors.

Look and listen for God

Rachel Bergman interned in Sacramento, California, at Bridge of Life Church, a multicultural church plant in a lower income neighborhood.

In her internship blog Bergman described her main task as conducting listening conversations with 20 people about where they see hope, brokenness, and God at work in their lives and neighborhood. "The interviews were a springboard for Bridge of Life to dream up new ways to interact with and serve the community,” she says.

She also tutored kids, ran Bible skits, and played with kids at The GreenHouse, a Christian community enrichment center. It's in an apartment complex that has 600 kids living within one square block—Latino, African American, and Slavic immigrants, most in poverty.

"My mentoring at Bridge of Life consisted largely of informal talks with David Lindner, my supervising pastor. He would take me on tours into the heart of Sacramento, pointing out homeless areas and challenging me to respond to what I saw in ways that reflected Christ. Once, on our way to a meeting, Dave offered to buy a homeless man a burrito and extended his friendship instead of simply extending some loose change in his hand,” she says.

"Live for people not tasks"

Interns often go into internships thinking about what they'll be able to add to their resumes. Lindner helped Bergman see that doing good work is part of but not the whole of ministry.

He let her preview what he'd written about her for a church newsletter. "He didn't say a thing about how many tasks I've accomplished," she blogged. "Instead, he said ‘The best thing she has given us is herself.' My being here has given them a chance to re-examine their vision and demonstrate it to somebody new with fresh enthusiasm."

Lindner wrote that the internship's best gift to Bergman was the neighborhood itself, because she experienced stories in ways that could only happen in person.

As she reflected on the "beautiful, unpredictable, broken, joy-filled people" she'd met and on a calendar with "a mind of its own," Bergman prayed, "Lord, keep re-teaching me how to live for people instead of tasks. To-do lists only last as long as it takes to finish them; people last forever. Give me your priorities. And give me the strength to not measure myself by any standards but yours."

She says that if she ever becomes a mentor for a church intern, she hopes to provide as eager a welcome as she received in Bridge of Life homes and free community dinners. "Living with and sharing everyday life with different church members gave me the opportunity to engage my unfamiliar surroundings with more courage than I would've otherwise had. More importantly, it showed me that a life of radical service is not only possible, but also vibrant and full of meaning," she says.

Be open to growth

Jubilee Fellow Brandon Haan served on a team of six summer interns at New Life Community Church in Artesia, California. It's an established church, so Haan had an amazing variety of opportunities to serve and lead. His main task was to be an assistant youth pastor, helping to lead Sunday Bible studies, informal Tuesday meetings, and a mission trip to San Francisco. He also preached a sermon, led a food distribution, made pastoral calls, sat in on a funeral planning session, and more.

Each week Haan got mentored in group and one-on-one sessions. He lived with various families and got to know church administrators, the youth pastor, and the children's pastor. "I had a posse of mentors who poured into me," he says.

Jubilee Fellows attend classes and discussions to prepare them for their summer internships. Haan says the preparation and internship taught him that "ministry isn't about an individual minister, it's about community. Due to my own personal pride and ego, that was a valuable lesson."

New Life was in transition while Haan interned there and was part of a classis (church regional group) that was dealing with a property dispute, both situations he calls "sobering."

"My mentor, Dr. Keith Tanis, was a very graceful man. He tried his best to incorporate many visions. He modeled how to empathize with people you disagree with. I saw from his example how important it is to remain rooted in relationship with God.

"If I'm ever a mentor, I'd want to cultivate the gift of question asking. My mentor asked tough questions and made sure I got into them. ‘How is your relationship with your friends and your parents now that you're on the other side of the country?' ‘Are you reading Scripture and getting it into your life?' I had fallen away from consistent devotions. Now I wake up and dedicate the first half hour or hour to God," Haan says.

Take the next step

Bergman majored in psychology. She went into Jubilee Fellows thinking she wanted to work with families and earn a master's degree in social work and a seminary degree. She has since become Rachel Bergman Engels and now works for Coalition for Christian Outreach as a resident director at Westminster College in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania. "My internship prepared me to challenge students to love God and others boldly. It increased my desire to learn their stories and demonstrate God's relentless love," she says.

"The main thing that has stuck with me from my experience at Bridge of Life is that serving the poor and broken is a task from which no Christian is exempt. I also realized that no Christian is exempt from being personally poor and broken in one sense or another. Living and serving in community isn't just about giving of yourself or feeling great about the gifts you offer. It's also about allowing others the chance to serve you, humbly cultivating a two-sided relationship that looks more like love than charity, so that the ‘me' disappears into ‘us,'" she adds.

Haan majored in English and religion. He went into Jubilee Fellows excited about the many opportunities to be like Christ to others and hoping his internship would help him discern God's calling. "Actually, my internship opened up more doors, including youth ministry, pastoral care, and missions," he says. The experience also helped him decide to enroll in Calvin Theological Seminary.

Learn More

• Do you wonder how to describe your church’s internship opening? Many Christian colleges, seminaries, denominations, and churches list internship opportunities online, as do Church Staffing, Explore Ministry, and Youth Ministry Architects. Some internships listed on Youth Pastor require only a high school education.
• Read a Journal of Pastoral Care article about failed relationships between church interns and supervisors. Thornapple Covenant Church near Grand Rapids, Michigan, offers summer internships so high schoolers can serve in urban social services organizations.
• Muncie Alliance Church (Muncie, Indiana) and Sanctuary Christian Reformed Church (Seattle, Washington) are among several churches that combine church internship with working in a coffee business.
• Reformed Worship includes several stories on intern-designed worship services or worship elements. You can apply these ideas on mentoring for faith formation as you mentor interns.
• Dave Lindner, pastor of Bridge of Life Church in Sacramento, recommends reading Praying like Jesus: the Lord’s Prayer in a Culture of Prosperity by James Mulholland and Compassion, Justice, and the Christian Life: Rethinking Ministry to the Poor by Robert Lupton.
• Brandon Haan says the book most relevant to his internship was Working the Angles: the Shape of Pastoral Integrity by Eugene Peterson.
• Many Christian colleges, seminaries, denominations, and churches list internship opportunities online, as do Church Staffing, Explore Ministry, and Youth Ministry Architects. Some internships listed on Youth Pastor require only a high school education.
• Kary Bosma, who coordinates Jubilee Fellows, offers this advice to people seeking a church internship: “Communicate which areas of ministry in which you would like to gain experience. Be open to new challenges, which may lead to growth and further discernment of your calling. Work diligently and cheerfully, even when doing menial tasks. Colossians 3:23 says, ‘Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men...’ Be humble as you contribute new suggestions and ideas (1 Peter 5:5 and Philippians 2:3). Take time to listen and reflect upon what God is teaching you throughout your internship. Each experience, good or bad, is a learning opportunity. And don't forget to have fun!”
• Read stories on Calvin College’s Jubilee Fellows program, an intern-run lawn mowing ministry, and a multimedia ministry intern.
• Serving as a worship arts intern for two summers during college led Vinh Luu to supplement his music training with a seminary degree. He is now associate pastor/worship ministries at Hacienda Heights Baptist Church in Los Angeles County, California. Interning with a middle school youth ministry while attending seminary confirmed Daniel Levi’s calling. He is now the youth pastor at Old Cutler Presbyterian Church in Miami, Florida.
• Reformed Worship has several stories on intern-designed worship services or worship elements.
• Browse related stories on mentoring church musicians, pastoral and worship excellence, peer learning groups, connecting community service and corporate worship, and pastoral and worship excellence.

Start a Discussion

For churches
• Share an experience of how a leader invested in you or how you tried to mentor someone.
• What ministries does your church do especially well? In which congregational ministries do you have someone who would make a wise mentor?
• How does your church identify, train, and mentor leaders? Which kinds of people or ministry areas aren’t included? What do these inclusions or exclusions communicate?
• How do internships and mentoring fit with your congregation’s biblical and theological views on what it means to be the body of Christ?
• Can you recommend a training resource, book, website, conference, classification tool, or program that helped your congregation reach out in the ministry of teaching and receiving?
• Will you share templates, internship descriptions, self evaluations, mentor checklists, or other materials that congregations can use in setting up successful internships?

For interns:
• Why do you want to find a church internship? What do you hope to learn and do?
• If you have had a church internship or talked in depth with other church interns, what advice can you share with each other?
• What kind and amount of face time would you expect to receive from your mentor in a church internship? How will you handle a mismatch between what you hope and what actually happens with your mentor?
• Can you recommend an online forum, list serve, book, or other resource that helped you connect with or learn from other church interns?
• Will you share tips and sources on how to find a church internship?

Published:

November 22, 2010

Resource Type:

Feature Story

Category:

Worship- Leading, Interdisciplinary

Task:

Organize a team or ministry, Teach about a topic

Tags:

Internships, Leadership, Church, Church Administration, Youth Leadership, Intergenerational Worship

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