By Jennifer Johnson
Although internships are invaluable for helping college students determine their vocational path””and although many Christian colleges and universities now require them for students across a variety of disciplines””ministry internships can be difficult for both students and churches.
“The shorter internships, especially, are challenging,” says Tim Dunn, minister at LifeSpring Christian Church in Cincinnati, OH. “With just a few hours a week, you don”t have time to really influence or invest in the students, especially when they are also participating in mission trips or camps. It”s hard to really include them in the life of the church.”
Cincinnati Christian University“s new Teaching Church Partnership, which launched in August, eliminates these problems with a four-year program for ministry students. Small groups of freshmen visit more than a dozen area churches during first semester to experience different-size churches and different approaches to ministry. Second semester, each student is assigned to a specific church where they are expected to attend and volunteer in some way on the weekend.
During sophomore year, the students continue worshipping at the church, as well as serving some other time during the week in an area related to their ministry focus. For example, a student ministry major might return on Sunday nights to help with youth group, or a student interested in worship ministry might attend a midweek rehearsal.
“After their sophomore year, students decide if the major they”re working on is a good fit,” Dunn says. If so, during their junior year they will increase both the amount of time and the depth of work they”re doing with the church and potentially apply to be an intern with the congregation in their senior year.
“At that point the student becomes basically a part-time employee of the church,” Dunn says. “It”s a paid internship for which they also receive credit. It involves leadership development and active participation in a ministry.”
LifeSpring is one of 17 Cincinnati-area churches participating in the program, which kicked off this past August. Dunn believes it can be a win for both students and churches.
“The church gets an opportunity to build a connection with a few specific students and help them grow in a way you can”t do with a short-term internship,” he says. “By the fourth year of the program, we could have 10 or more students here every week, making a contribution to our ministry. At the same time, the students get a bigger picture of ministry.
“Also, many students want to graduate and go immediately to the huge, well-known churches in our movement, but that won”t always happen. This experience exposes them to a variety of churches with different budgets in different communities. Our church isn”t as glamorous as some of the megachurches in the suburbs, but we are doing real ministry and we”re excited to find kids who want to be part of it.”
The program is also designed so that the younger students assigned to a church will see the example of the juniors and seniors working there, an experience that can further assist the freshmen and sophomores as they explore their call to ministry.
“It”s going to be a lot of work for us, but we are looking at it as an investment,” Dunn says. “Even more importantly, we think there will be a “˜big-C Church” payoff when more students leave CCU better equipped to do real ministry. I”m excited about the kingdom potential.”
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