Posted on 6/4/2012 by Wayne Smith in the Learnings Blog
The question of "How do we raise up the next generation of Church/Kingdom leadership?' is part of the ongoing Leadership Development issue that most, if not all, churches are at least thinking about. Just a few weeks ago, Leadership Network hosted an InnovationLab on Internships that helped the participating churches begin to address this question. Richwoods Christian, The Oaks Fellowship, The Village Church and WoodsEdge Community Church came eager to learn from one another and contribute to this key ministry topic.
These participating churches reflected 
an increasingly wide-spread awareness of the need to fill the Leadership Development pipeline and to do it with their own DNA in mind and intact. There were multiple models and levels of Internship programs presented, some which were well-formed and developed, and others which were in the embryonic stage. Models ranged from a full blown partnership between a church and a four year university to one year internships for people of all ages focused on one specific ministry area. Some of the churches paid their interns, others asked the interns to pay for the experience. Some of the models reflected a desire on the part of the church to invest specifically in interns who knew that they had a "call from God" to be in vocational ministry, others reflected a "come test the ministry waters" via a short but deep dive into church work. Multiple models, great conversations, and some remarkable plans from each church to accomplish over the next 6 months until we reconvene for the online check-in meeting.
Some of the six month goals set by these church teams are:
- Develop a Donor Funding System
- Finalize Leadership Development Strategy Material and Field Guide
- Cast a Clear & Compelling Vision for Staff, Interns and Funders
- Redesign Basic Plan for Intern Development
While the models were all different, there were many things that all of the churches agreed on. All agreed that relationships were more important than curriculum, knowing what Outcomes they are trying to accomplish, teach the 'why's', not just the hows of ministry, educate their current staff about training responsibilities and expectations and have a good final ########## process. One of the BIG Aha agreements reflects a shift that goes beyond these four individual churches to the broader church at large. And that is a shift from viewing Interns as "free, or low-cost workers" doing ministry grunt work to asking the question, "how can we expand the Kingdom both in and through our interns?" and therefore seeing interns as key future Kingdom leaders This idea was captured well in a quote from Reggie McNeal, one of our presenters, when he said,
"God did not make people to get work done, God made work to get people done."
What about you? Does your church have an internship program? What kind of model and what kind of outcomes are important for you? And what about the last statement? Does it resonate with you and your team?
Want to have further conversation about this? Contact me at wayne.smith@leadnet.org
Comments
At New Hope we are starting a Church Planting Internship Experience. This is a position for people who want to be in career ministry and be on a church planting team or possibly lead a start-up church in the future.
A wise counselor to many church staff leaders once asked a profound question, “In what ways is this job God’s discipleship plan for your life?” That goes along with Reggie McNeil’s quote you featured above. I can attest to the fact that my job and the jobs of the many volunteers who help make ministry happen at oneLifemaps around the “Listen to My Life” experience have been used by God in beautiful ways to grow us up in community, and in the expression of our gifts. I need to remind myself regularly that it is God’s project, that my job is his job for me, and that we are creating space for people to grow in Christlikeness—and when things don’t go smoothly, it is God who has a problem to solve and it is my job to join him his solution. How we do what we do is more important than the results—because God is in charge of those results. The work is a beautiful curriculum that continually invites me to trust in him in his adventure.
A ministry supervisor once told me “...Darrell, God might have you in [this place in ministry]...as much for what He wants to do IN you…as THROUGH you.”
A wise coach or mentor of interns will, I believe, help the intern discover what God is doing in him/her during this important period of their lives. When this is learned well, the intern will “graduate” into “full ministry” when he/she realizes God does not NEED him/her to accomplish ministry. My ministry life changed forever when I understood that He delights in inviting us to come along side and be amazed that we get to be tools through which He changes the history and future of lives around us. The work, the Kingdom are His…not mine.