Behind the Scenes of Student Ministry
Church congregations utilize student ministries as a gathering point for those who are no longer children and are becoming young adults. These ministries aim to provide a safe haven for teen believers to find both fellowship and spiritual refinement alongside their peers. Venerable for their often chaotic and lively summer camps, student groups are too often driven only by the ambition of adult leaders, who strive to inspire action among stagnant students. Rather than incorporate teens more directly to create unity in said ministries-with both students and leaders initiating worship, outreach, and communion-many of them make the mistake of excluding students from leadership roles. Not only does this create a rift between leaders and students, fostering a dreaded school-like environment, but it also prevents students from taking charge in the ministry which then leads to passive action outside of the church as well. Thus and so, one of the most effective tactics to combat the plague of idleness in student ministry is internships. Student internships, typically conceived during the summer, involve the employment of students to assist the goals of the student ministry and to become active members that take part in the inner workings of the church mission. These interns serve as trainees for church work, as young partners in ministry who youth pastors can employ to help with daily tasks, planning events and projects, and the ring bearers of the youth group's mission.
To commence, the process of student internships should begin with seeking out eager and responsible believers from the student group. These should be students who, despite not being in a dedicated leadership role, rise to the occasion regardless, striving to include others and looking for ways to help. These students should then voice their weaknesses and strengths in the working environment. Not only does this ensure that the youth pastor gains insight about who he is working with and what the dynamic of the workplace will be like with these interns, but it will make task distribution easier. Awareness as to those more capable of design or communication or event planning guarantees that certain projects and duties are assigned accordingly and will be completed most effectively. Furthermore, the more diverse the interns in aptitude and personality, the better. This is a valid point because a wider range of skills warrants new approaches to problems and innovative thinking in areas where a single perspective does no justice. The personality aspect, however, is more correlated to outreach with other students. This ensures that there will be interns of differing temperaments and personalities, genders and ages, as well as tendencies in social environments available to other students as role models and points of relation.
Secondly, the student interns would greatly benefit from setting and sharing their personal spiritual goals with the youth pastor. Not only does setting spiritual goals enable the interns to solidify their ambitions and seek Christ's counsel in specific areas, but it clarifies that the internship is not strictly about monetary gain and for a college resume. Instead, it is deeply spiritual and should be seen as an opportunity to gain experience but also to grow in one's faith. Thirdly, one of the most significant steps in the student intern process is outlining the goals that the ministry has during the period of the internship. It is beneficial to allow the interns to partake in setting these goals, not only to initiate their activity in the church's mission but also to gain student perspective. Detailing the objectives of the internship should involve smaller more specific tasks first, like a new logo design, and graduate to larger goals such as summer camp attendance and baptism numbers. The process of integrating students and their voices into the ministry involves both personal reflection and self-awareness as well as the greater good of the church's aspirations. Beginning first with seeking out viable candidates for the job and asking them to detail their areas of ability and areas of weakness, and leading into spiritual goals and overall ministry aims, this procedure serves as a guide for effectively assimilating these interns into leadership roles.
Aside from the general system of introducing interns into the realm of ministry work, the value of internships is in how they serve to oppose complacent, church-going teens who merely attend youth groups rather than being the youth group. More precisely, student internships are an asset to any student ministry because they serve as a bridge between youth and leaders and they nurture student ownership in the church. To begin with, internships function as threads of both communication and insight between the adult leaders and the youth of ministries. Oftentimes, student ministries take on a schoolish front, serving as a place of preaching and scolding in which students can't relate to their leaders or the sermon material. It is vital that leaders seek to better comprehend the struggles that modern teens endure as well as cater to the things they are interested in so as to attract them to the youth group in the first place. This is readily accomplishable through interns who empathize more actively with their peers than do church leaders- they face the common struggles of the other teens and they share similar cultural experiences and views and questions and interests. This makes their voices and paradigms of the world and opinions essential to the ministry, especially in leadership roles.
In addition, student internships display to the interns as well as other teens the value of the initiative. Just as in plays or musicals, those who work behind the scenes have a greater appreciation for the production, interns who dapple in the foundational work that goes into making ministry run will more greatly appreciate and understand church work. Those who work "behind the scenes" of student ministry realize the dedication and hard work that is involved in planning events, counseling and preaching to hurting teens and heeding God's authority in the workplace. That said, interns are able to shift from audience members in the ministry, to backstage directors and those who make the show go on. This is is perhaps the most important result of student internships-the buy-in. This is where the interns realize that the ministry is not that of the adults who supervise or teach or chaperone-the ministry is them. They, as students, are the ministry, and with this ownership comes the responsibilities of active participation in the youth group. This doesn't only include faithful attendance, but faithfully searching for opportunities to welcome guests, evangelize, take charge in the church, and also become leaders and lights in their circles of influence. It is here that student interns recognize that they are the living, breathing ministry, and the ministry is not only confined to church walls but must be journeyed into the real world. This puts to shame the idle, and sidelined teen church-goers who yawn as the pastor preaches and never mentions church with school buddies-internships breed the next generation of Christians who will advance the kingdom by way of ministry. Yet, this ministry will not be barred in the church, it will scour the real world, with young leaders taking on the frontlines of the faith.
