Internships: An Old Practice Getting A New Look

I’m excited to see a growing interest in the practice of churches employing interns: recent college or seminary graduates – or even their own budding “home grown” church members – to short-term opportunities to serve and grow.

In my childhood in a Lutheran church, we typically had an intern on staff: a young man, right out of seminary, working hand in hand with our veteran pastor, stumbling (or even soaring) through sermons, gaining the praise or lack thereof from my discerning parents.

But in the fifty-two years that I’ve been following Jesus, I’ve seen very few interns in the evangelical world. Happily, this is slowly beginning to change.  We’re rediscovering the value of an old practice.

Just so we’re clear on what I’m talking about – and please don’t confuse internships with interim pastorates, as they are as different as night and day – an intern, my dictionary says, is “an advanced student or graduate usually in a professional field (such as medicine or teaching) gaining supervised practical experience (as in a hospital or classroom).”

I realize that the use of interns presents its problems and challenges: (1) someone has to give a great deal of attention to these eager-beavers, (2) their maturity often leaves much to be desired, (3) churches would rather hire someone whom they can envision remaining on their staff for an extended, rather than a limited period of time, (4) small churches – and most churches today are small churches – have a difficult time funding internships.

In short: internships are a time-consuming project.  Many churches see them as a prospective drain upon their resources rather than a boon to their ministry.

But I’m going to give you three reasons to consider the use of internships at your church:

(1) Internships are a great way for churches to fulfill their responsibility to train Christians for ministry.

I believe that author Dann Spader got it right when he said that the great commission is about making disciples and that making disciples involves: winning the lost, building up the believers we have won and equipping these growing believers for ministry.

Most churches haven’t taken the mandate to “equip the worker” very seriously.

But the Apostle Paul said that gifted leaders such as pastor-teachers (Ephesians 4:7-16) are given to the church to equip the rest of us so we can do the work of the ministry.  He practiced what he preached – and followed the example of his Lord – by always having at least one, and sometimes several younger men with him as he did his work as a missionary. Writing to his young protégé Timothy, whom he had trained extensively, like a beloved father with a beloved son, Paul said that Timothy should entrust all that Paul had taught him to “reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others” (II Timothy 1:13-2:2).

I understand that churches are tempted to focus on the health and growth of their own congregations to the exclusion of all else. “We want to hire a young man who can produce for us, right away.  We don’t want to train some guy who’s going to benefit from our church and then go elsewhere.”

I get it, but frankly, that’s a small-minded perspective.  Somebody needs to give young graduates – or again, home-grown, growing church members – the hands-on training that they can’t get in school. We have left too much to seminaries. It is the church’s solemn responsibility and exalted privilege to train workers for the harvest.

I suppose it’s easy for me to say it, but I believe that God will bless the churches that are willing to love and hold loosely their young, gifted servants of Christ who may not stay in the area.

And I don’t believe that this great practice has to be confined to large churches.  Even an under-100 church can designate a young person as an intern, give him or her a variety of serving and learning experiences and some serious mentoring and nurturing from the pastor, and richly bless that person’s life, without providing more than a “stipend” to supplement a part-time or full-time job outside the church.

(2) Internships allow young servants of Christ to learn and grow in a safe environment.

Here’s an unfortunate scenario I’ve seen repeatedly: The seminary graduate hits the ground running at his brand new youth pastor, associate pastor, church planting pastor, worship pastor or solo pastor position.

He expects that he will do well and remain at his post for a long time.  The church also expects that he will do well and remain at his post for a long time.  As it happens, he displays a lot of immaturity and not much wisdom.  In spite of his good heart, things deteriorate and his first ministry opportunity is pretty much “toast” within two years.

Everybody’s expectations were simply too high.

How much better would it have been if he had been hired as an intern, affording him the privilege of sitting at the feet of a seasoned leader who would have loved him, taught him, counseled him and lovingly scolded him into professional, pastoral adulthood?

Since the “two year breakdown” is so common, why not plan for it, or better yet, plan to avoid it by way of careful nurturing?

(3) Internships allow churches to assess the fittedness of young graduates for long-term ministry in their congregation or in some other context.

Second only to the problem of hiring ill-prepared graduates is that of hiring ill-fitting graduates.  This isn’t necessarily anyone’s fault; it’s just a part of growing up as a God-called servant. On the church’s side, making the right hire is excruciatingly difficult (don’t ask me how I know). On the young Christian worker’s side, finding the right place to serve and the right role to serve in is equally challenging.  Many of us have to try doing the wrong thing before we can figure out the best thing for our gifts and temperaments. I had to slam my head against the wall, twice, trying to be a church planter, before figuring out that I was profoundly ill-suited for that role.

One of the best internships I’ve heard of allowed the enrollees, at a large church, to serve for a few weeks at a time under the tutelage of veteran leaders, in a number of different ministry areas.

Another part of the solution is to get better at letting young hires go their way to the next thing with a little more grace and a little less drama: “I think I was doing the wrong thing” is a much better perspective than, “I’m a terrible failure.”

Still another part of the solution is the kind of relaxed, low-expectation, high-grace, low-drama internships that I’m writing about here.

It’s an old practice, getting a fresh look, and I’m so glad to see it.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:

1. What personal experience do we have with internships? Has anyone in the room been an intern or worked with an intern?  Tell us about this experience.

2. In addition to this article’s three points, can you think of additional reasons for considering the use of internships at your church?

3. What would you consider to be of greater importance: getting the right person employed (or simply “deployed” as a volunteer with a title) at your church or coming up with the best possible intern position for your congregation?

4. Have you seen the “two-year breakdown” that Brian described in the article? Have you seen (or have you been) a pastor who has recovered well and fully from a rough, early ministry experience?

5. Many young grads who should do internships do not see their need to be trained and nurtured. How can we persuade them to submit themselves to internships?