Internships
Churches
provide an essential service to seminary students when
they host interns. During 9-month internships in which
they serve in a church setting for between 12 and 15 hours
a week, United Theological Seminary students:
- Learn
how congregations function on a day-to-day basis
- Are
given opportunities to preach, teach, do pastoral visits,
attend
church meetings, work with youth, lead
retreats, organize
mission trips, and explore the work of congregational
ministry
- Develop
and assess their skills for church leadership
- Work
with clergy and lay supervisors to reflect on strengths
and
weaknesses, successes and struggles,
and the meaning
of it all
Is
your congregation interested in hosting an intern? If
so, please remember that this involves a genuine commitment
of congregational resources. Churches hosting interns agree
to:
- Pay
a small stipend to their intern totaling $2,000 for the
academic year
- Free
up time for a clergy person to serve as the internship
supervisor, who will meet weekly with the intern, help
the student engage in learning opportunities, and provide
periodic
evaluations to the seminary
- Designate
a committee, called a Lay Advisory Group, to provide monthly
or bi-monthly
opportunities for the
student
to receive support and engage in reflection about the
internship
There
is no automatic guarantee of an intern for a given school
year. Interested congregations fill
out a church profile,
while students fill out a student profile. Churches are given
an opportunity to review student profiles and interview potential
interns. When both the church representative and the student
agree that there is a good match between the student’s
goals and the church’s resources, they enter into an
agreement with one another and the seminary to fulfill the
requirements of the internship.
Is
your congregation willing and able to make such a commitment? If
so, you may click
here to for more information or contact:
Joseph
Bush 651.255.6140
Director of Masters Studies
Associate Professor of Life and Leadership of the Congregation
jbush@unitedseminary.edu
Trish
Greeves 651.255.6123
Contextual Studies Coordinator
tgreeves@unitedseminary.edu
Thank
you to Chapel
Hills United Church of Christ, Edina, Minn., for the financial
support to develop this Web page and its links. |
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