St. Paul Lutheran is well on the way to being an Internship Site for Luther Seminary and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.   Seminary students who are eligible for internship have completed their college education with a bachelor’s degree and are required to have completed two years of academic work at an ELCA seminary before entering the internship experience. The third year of this master’s level program (Master of Divinity) is then spent in parish ministry under an approved supervisor. 

 

A thorough application describing the parish and the supervisor’s experience and approach to ministry is then submitted to the seminary. This application is posted for students to read, and students then self-select themselves to be interviewed by the supervisor. The purpose for the interview is to help provide a good fit between the student and supervisor for the year of ministry and learning.

 

Seven students signed up to interview after reading the application I submitted. As encouraged by the members of the congregation at the Annual Meeting, I invited Herb Roettger (vice-president of the congregation) and Tom Okerstrom (a council member who also does interviewing and recruiting for Target Corporation) to participate in these interview sessions. (Jan Stevens, president of the congregation, could not participate as she was in Africa on the mission trip.) A team approach was taken in the interview and evaluation process, and after much discussion and analysis (followed by several days of prayer and then some more discussion) three students were suggested and ranked. All the students who interviewed were fine people with many good gifts for ministry. The selections and ranking was done with the criteria of finding someone who would fit the needs of St. Paul Lutheran and work well with me.

 

As we interviewed and ranked the students, each of them also ranked the churches and supervisors with which they interviewed. These rankings are all turned in to the Contextual Education Department at Luther Seminary. Then, faculty members from that department make the assignments based on the rankings from both students and supervisors, seeking a good fit that benefits both the student and the church.

 

We should know who our assigned student is by the end of March. I will then attend a Team Building Workshop with the assigned intern in May on the campus of Luther Seminary, and the internship will begin around the first of September. 

 

The work of an intern is intended to be a well-rounded experience of parish ministry. The intern (he or she) will preach at least once a month, participate in regular worship leadership, teach confirmation and some classes for adults, relate to some committees and the council, call on members and prospective members, and generally gain experience as a part of the pastoral ministry staff. It is an exciting time for us and for the intern as we begin this venture of serving and learning together. We will grow from the experience, but first we begin with the viewpoint that this is a ministry to the ELCA and to the seminary as we seek to help with the development of future clergy for the church.

 

In Christ,    Pastor Becker