“Marin Century” Part 3B – Component #2: Student Internships at “Training Churches”

KEY THOUGHTS FROM PART 3B

I have worked with leadership systems nearly 50 years, starting with student council in elementary school, and including political, social service, educational, and ministry settings. I learned by osmosis along the way, through experiencing and reflecting on systems that were great, or toxic, or in between. Student ministry internships are a particularly important opportunity for building constructive skills that will serve us well as we serve others. However, if the internship system is flawed, it always affects the quality of experience in a negative direction – that’s just the way that systems work.

Here are some key assumptions behind the idea of creating a healthy student internship system. Some of these are expressed directly in the article below, and others were part of my thinking even at the time I wrote this, but don’t necessarily show up so explicitly.

• A 100-year plan requires us to think intentionally about what legacy we are endowing to our next generations of learner-leaders. “Passing the baton” of leadership doesn’t happen all at once, when a previous generation of leaders retires. In ministry as in relay races, baton passing requires preparation and ongoing practice. In a 100-year plan, mentoring in ministry is a critical part of preparation for that eventual transition, and a student ministry mentorship system is crucial in preparing both sides for it.
• The point of identifying any problems with unhealthy leaders and systems is to bring restoration, not condemnation. Diagnosis of toxic situations and prescription of remedies are not pleasant tasks, but they are necessary if we truly want to create positive impact for the Kingdom, and to maintain it by sustaining the disciples who make that impact.
• Past success is no more a guarantee of future success than past failure precludes future improvement. Certification is a formal way of conducting an overall “spiritual/systems health check-up” every few years. It is an important process of reflection and correction for individuals, such as field supervisors and church/program liaisons, and it is an important process for the church or ministry as a system.
• Whether we naturally process information by action-reflection mode or by theory-into-practice mode, we were not meant to grow or minister alone. Both discipleship and leadership benefit from wise counsel, compliments for what is right so we can continue it, and correction for what is deficient so we can fix it. So, supervision is a critical factor in our development as learner-leaders who press forward in our development of Christlike character, spiritual gifts, and healthy ministry. This kind of input and accountability should be in the very fabric of our life-long ministry, and it is an especially important factor during times of training.
• No leader and no church has the inherent right to supervise interns. Any internship system that does not train hands-on leaders in supervision and other relational skills, or that does not assess ministry settings periodically for their level of health, in effect “lays hands on” unqualified or disqualified leaders. They endorse who and what is harmful. In doing so, they share a part in the harm inflicted by those leaders and churches/ministries, and some kinds of negative consequences are always passed on to the interns.
• Any individual leaders or organizational leaders who refuse to submit to reasonable evaluation of their character and practices should automatically be refused the opportunity to participate in a student ministry internship program. The same applies to any who refuse to engage in required trainings to prevent problems from happening, or to correct existing personal or systems problems that have been identified by the internship program evaluation process.

Introductory Notes (2010)

This is the second of seven components in a 100-year plan for disciple/leader development in a missional setting. I am presenting these components to suggest structures, practices, and principles – and show how they can work together as a system.

I wrote the summary below in 2003, and the document that follows it in 2004. These give my understanding of how seminary student ministry internships could best function, with a combination of healthy church leaders and church systems, supervisors/mentors, and program liaisons. Much of this is based on my own unfortunately negative internship experience, and from processing with seminary friends the varying degrees of good/bad in their internship.

As it turned out, I worked from 2004-2006 in the Theological Field Education (TFE) program at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary (GGBTS) as administrative assistant. My role included revising all TFE office systems, student manuals, and supervisor materials – so I learned even more about internship systems. My experiences in that role confirmed what I’d written earlier. Early on in my system administration work, I shared the material in this post with the TFE program Director at GGBTS. Some changes were made to strengthen the systems because of it.

Also, I’d note that I have not edited or reorganized the material in this post – other than expand the list of roles in the TFE system, and move that section toward the beginning of the post, where it serves as an introduction to how the system works.

Finally, I’d like to re-emphasize that a ministry system without supervision is a Titanic on the way to its fatal iceberg, regardless of how good it looks. It can’t respond as it should, and it will take the lives of many people down with it when it sinks. Having a formal internship system is not about blocking churches or ministries from participating – in fact, many Ministry Settings are vastly helped by the invigoration of ideas and energy that seminary student apprentices provide. The internship system is designed to help Ministry Settings and their leaders become more healthy, and in that, to improve the potential overall quality of experience available to student ministers. The principles and practices of a supervised internship system can (and should) be transferred to any kind of ministry apprenticeships and volunteer work.

Component #2-Student Internships at “Training Churches”

[In case you would like a summary/introduction to what I mean by "student internship systems," the following section repeats the material on Component #2 found in "Marin Century" Part 2A - Introducing Seven Core Components of Marin Century Equipping Systems, written in 2003.]

Golden Gate Seminary already has one of the most highly developed Theological Field Education (TFE) systems of any seminary in the U.S. In the past, most TFE student internships at Golden Gate focused on the traditional skills of leading an existing church. However, in the year 2000, a pilot program was run for students of church planting, since the skill set, experiences, and reflection groups they needed were significantly different from those the traditional course offered. In my observation, there has been a substantial increase in the number of students pursuing non-traditional ministry opportunities – work with people who are homeless, ministries with “postmodern” people groups [i.e., holistic paradigm or subcultural identity groups], church planting, etc.

And the TFE program has shown flexibility in accommodating these emerging internship genres as best they can. One severe difficulty is that there are not enough Southern Baptist Churches in Marin and the surrounding counties to accommodate Golden Gate Students from Southern Baptist backgrounds. Another endemic problem is that the state of the churches in the Bay Area generally is very weak; there is an insufficient number of healthy churches and parachurch ministries in which to conduct productive internships. Sadly, there simply are many churches and ministries here that should be considered in “time out” while they stabilize and/or work through severe internal problems. Others are so overtly or covertly toxic that they should be treated as being “in quarantine,” because any new person coming in will become infected by their legalism, control, and contempt.

Since more diversity and greater numbers in potential field locales for TFE internships are needed, perhaps a consortium like Marin Century could help fill that gap in three ways:

1. First, it could offer, find, or create “ministry landing sites” that fit interns with passions for non-traditional, non-standard ministries.
2. Second, it could help strengthen churches which are not currently in a position to provide healthy ministry experiences to interns, by offering them consulting, equipping, and perhaps cooperative ministry endeavors.
3. Third, it could connect with other Christians and churches in the larger Bay Area to create rich ministry experiences that would benefit interns (e.g., offer immersion ministry experiences in a combination of rural, suburban, and urban settings).

All of these approaches incorporate a Kingdom connection approach that demonstrates the concept that the Kingdom is always meant to be larger than any one minister, ministry, church, or region.

As far as specific learning lab possibilities, one idea with Marin Century student internships is to help area churches develop to where they are healthy and faithful enough to support one or more productive student internships per academic year. This could actually be an internship program for a team of learners and mentors who are gifted in consulting and trouble-shooting skills, and who demonstrate the church experience and spiritual maturity level necessary to help churches do a turnaround.

Another idea is to develop a fully-functioning “laboratory church” in which multiple interns from the Seminary can partner with multiple volunteer ministry interns from the Leadership Learning Lab to create teams that will actually “run” the church – under intergenerational and, likely, interdenominational mentoring. For instance, what if this laboratory church rotated teams of vocational-and-volunteer ministry leaders-in-training through a series of modules that taught a holistic approach to the basic content and skills for being leaders for the church. Perhaps there would be four key modules: worship, evangelism and discipleship, pastoral care, and missions and ministry mobilization. Student teams would spend a month in introductory matters, and then rotate through two months in each module. As teams, they would take on actual, practical case studies and ministry opportunities in their modules, under close supervision and mentoring.

Hopefully, this will connect young leaders who may get a vision for what it could look like to plant themselves for a lifetime in Marin, in order to plow, sow, water, and reap a harvest here in the long run.

Component #2 Case Study:

Student Internships at “Training Churches”

Concepts for Certifying Ministry Settings and Field Mentors

For Theological Field Education Training Programs (2004)

Background

In 1997, the BayMarin Church Planting Strategy Team was formed. One of its primary goals was to strengthen the healthiness of churches in the San Francisco Bay Area. This was a means to an end, in order to catalyze networks of churches that worked together to support and plant churches to whatever degree they were healthy enough to engage in. Since then, I have developed plans for Marin Century, an extensive “Kingdom culture” system for mentored training of teens and adults in Marin (and the greater Bay Area) to become leaders in churches and parachurch ministries, as well as in Kingdom-related business enterprises and social outreaches.

Certification of seasoned, biblically-based trainers and ministry sites has always been a key concern in envisioning this system. The following notes summarize ideas I have developed that apply both to Marin Century and to the Theological Field Education (TFE) programs at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary (GGBTS), a local seminary that requires that students do a practical ministry internship. Wherever possible, I’ve expressed concepts in TFE terms (e.g., Ministry Settings, Field Mentors) rather than in Marin Century terms.

Roles in a Theological Field Education System

Seminary Student Intern. Students, in consultation with the TFE department personnel, develop a ministry internship plan, based on their intended ministry vocation. An approved plan requires (1) a specific set of goals for personal spiritual development and ministry skill development, with (2) a specific ministry plan for working on these goals in (3) a certified Ministry Setting, with supervision and feedback by (4) a certified Field Mentor, (5) a Spiritual Director, and (5) a Ministry Reflection Group drawn from those the student ministers to.

Field Mentor. The Field Mentor is someone who has a similar skill set to that needed by the student in his/her chosen vocational goal. The Field Mentor meets with the intern on a weekly basis to help the student with discovery, reflection, and correction. Usually the Field Mentor is a leader on-site at the student’s Ministry Setting. However, there are situations where an off-site person serves in this capacity. (For instance, such as when the student’s vocational goal is church planting strategy; few churches have a strategist on staff.)

Spiritual Director. The Spiritual Director meets with the student on at least a monthly basis, to help the student process their spiritual journey and work on personal reflection and formation skills.

Ministry Reflection Group. The Ministry Reflection Group consists of people who are being ministered to by the Student Intern. They meet on a monthly basis with the student to share their observations on how the student is doing in specific ministry skill areas.

TFE Contact Professor. The TFE Contact Professor is the hub-person for Theological Field Education at the Seminary. It is his/her responsibility to review student’s internship proposals, give feedback, and set additional requirements needed for approving the proposal before the ministry project/position can begin.

TFE Regional Overseer. Regional Overseers work for the TFE Office/Contact Professor. They are responsible for on-site visits to Ministry Settings, and they conduct interviews with potential Field Mentors and Site Liaisons.

Site Liaison. Some Ministry Settings may already have multiple people qualified to serve as Field Mentors, or they may have only one. One certified Field Mentor on site should serve as Site Liaison between that Ministry Setting and the TFE Contact Professor. The Site Liaison is responsible for all communication and other matters related to Ministry Setting certification.

Peer Reflection Group Leaders. Experienced Field Mentors with Regular Certification may apply with Golden Gate Seminary’s TFE programs to become a professor – a Peer Reflection Group Leader. Each professor leads a group of five to eight student interns, meeting with his/her group for two hours each week throughout the semester. Experienced Site Liaisons are especially encouraged to apply.

Kinds of Ministry Sites and Purposes of a Certification Process

Potential Ministry Settings for training programs and student internships could be clustered into three major categories. Each cluster offers some unique opportunities to create best-match internships for students in the TFE program at GGBTS.

• Sites in formation (church plant, pioneer ministry within a church or agency, a new non-profit agency).
• Stable, pre-existing sites (church, ministry within a church, parachurch ministry, community agency or non-profit organization).
• Pre-existing sites in crisis or in major transition (e.g., church mergers, churches following a split, agency with a new director or substantially revised vision/mission).

The ideal Ministry Setting presents an authentically Christlike profile of faithfulness, health, and redemptive transformation – regardless of which stage of formation it is in. However, some sites are not appropriate as Ministry Settings for student interns, regardless of whether the site is in the formative stages, in transition, or in plateau. For instance, some locales may simply want to use the Seminary as a pipeline for free labor – not work in partnership to train leaders for quality Kingdom impact.

The certification process offers an opportunity to make a reasonable discernment between sites that offer constructive internships, and those that would likely be more destructive. Likewise, certification offers a relational training process for ensuring that only biblically-qualified men and women serve as Field Mentors for GGBTS student interns.

Certification of Ministry Settings

Provisional Certification of Ministry Settings. An organization that applies for Ministry Setting certification needs to have at least one Field Mentor who has either Provisional or Regular Certification. Also, one Field Mentor at the site needs to serve as the Site Liaison, to maintain links with the TFE Regional Overseer. “Provisional Certification” of a site as an approved TFE Ministry Setting means that the minimum qualifications have been met in order to ensure the TFE system is understood by the Site Liaison and any other Field Mentor(s) in residence, and that it will be implemented in creating ministry opportunities for GGBTS students. This includes following TFE guidelines for:

1. Writing internship job descriptions.
2. Supervising interns.
3. Assisting in appropriate selection of ministry reflection group members.

Regular Certification of Ministry Settings. Conversion from provisional to regular status as a Certified Ministry Setting involves:

1. Acceptable completion of training by a Site Liaison, who may or may not serve as a Field Mentor. Site Liaison training includes P2131 Ministry of Supervision course, as well as an initial interview and acceptable completion of assignments from this course.
2. The successful completion of supervising one GGBTS student, with periodic mentoring and monitoring during that time by a designated TFE Regional Overseer.

Maximum Number of Student Interns. Provisionally Certified Ministry Settings may host the equivalent of one GGBTS student for the academic year – one student in a two-semester program, such as P1121-P1122 Leadership in Ministry Practicum, or two students in one-semester programs, such as P1123 Leadership in Ministry Practicum. Regular Certified Ministry Settings may host more than one GGBTS student intern at any given time. The maximum allowed depends on the assessment of the TFE Regional Overseer. In general, the maximum will be the sum of one student for any Provisionally Certified Field Mentors, plus two for any regular status Certified Field Mentors. However, additional limitations may be made, based on the overall size of the church congregation, organizational staff, community outreach, etc. The key concern of the TFE program is for quality internships that do not tax Ministry Settings by hosting too many GGBTS students (interns and non-interns) for their systems to handle.

Minimum Number of Student Interns. Regular Certified Ministry Settings need to host at least one GGBTS student intern every three academic years in order to maintain their certification status. Otherwise, their status reverts to Provisional Certification, and they are allowed the equivalent of only one intern for the academic year.

Limits of Site Certification. Certification of a site as a Ministry Setting does not mean that anyone or everyone who has a leadership role there is automatically qualified to supervise. Generally, a site without a qualified Field Mentor is likely not ready to have a student intern.

Certification of Field Mentors

Provisional Certification of Field Mentors. “Provisional Certification” of a potential student internship supervisor as a TFE Field Mentor requires an acceptable preliminary interview with the TFE Director or Regional Campus Contact Professor, taking the GGBTS course P2131 Ministry of Supervision, and acceptable completion of assignments from this course. Provisionally Certified Field Mentors may supervise only one student intern during his/her probationary year.

Regular Certification of Field Mentors. Issuance of Provisional Certification is followed by one year of periodic mentoring and monitoring by a designated TFE Mentor Overseer. After one year of Provisional Certification, a Field Mentor is Certified. To maintain Regular Certification, he/she is required to take at least one TFE continuing education course every two years and be interviewed by the TFE Director or Regional Campus Contact Professor. Regular Certified Field Mentors may supervise a maximum of two student interns simultaneously.

Maintaining Healthy Internship Settings and Supervision

Probation and Suspension. Probation may be instituted in situations where a Ministry Setting or Field Mentor has failed significantly to uphold their responsibilities an intern’s Covenant of Learning. This might involve such issues as misuse of a student intern’s time or gifts, overlording or other forms of spiritual abuse, or consistent failure to spend the required time with the student. Immediate suspension of a Ministry Setting or Field Mentor may be instituted in extreme cases of such misuses, or for any displays of sexual harassment or violence. Evidence of questionable healthiness of a Setting and/or Mentor may surface any time during a student’s internship, during on-site interviews, or during the end-of-internship evaluations done by students. The TFE Contact Professor will work on a case-by-case basis with any student interns serving at a Ministry Setting on probation, or being supervised by a Field Mentor on probation. Matthew 18 will be used as guiding principles in situations of confrontation about potential difficulties or wrongdoing.

Corrective Recommendations and Revalidation. If a Ministry Setting or Field Mentor has been placed on probation, the TFE Contact Professor will work with the Site Liaison or Field Mentor on implementing correctives to the specific situations. These recommendations must be fulfilled acceptably before Provisional Certification is re-validated.

Suspension of a Ministry Setting or Field Mentor on Probation. Failure to correct situations may result in suspension. If a Ministry Setting or Field Mentor experiences sufficient correction of the problems later, they may begin the process of seeking Provisional Certification. However, the TFE Contact Professor may institute additional requirements and/or monitoring to ensure appropriate levels of transformation have taken place.

Advertisement