Media Outreach

The church planting organization that we are with (www.arcchurches.com) holds assessments in which you are either approved or not approved based on their proven criteria.  They are not trying to say whether or not you are called into the ministry, they are deciding if they think you would fit into and work well in their model of church planting.  We went to an assessment last year and after all was said and done, we were approved with condition.  This was because they wanted me to have “full time” ministry experience and I didn’t.  All of my experience has been on a volunteer basis; I have been on staff as a pastor and worked in just about every capacity you can work in a church but never full time.  The condition was that I had to complete an internship at an ARC church for a period of time, before final approval was given.

I talked about this with my wife and some of the future team members, because we were already planning to leave a few of months after the assessment.  I took the stance that this suggestion was coming from guys that plant several churches every month.  Beyond it being a requirement. it was more of a direction given by proven individuals that could only increase our chances of having a successful launch and successful ministry future.  We knew in our hearts that this additional time spent in the volunteer internship would be time that God could grow us in areas and that it wouldn’t be wasted time at all.

Here are some of the things that I have gotten over the last 9 months of this internship.

1. Make sure that the church you do your internship at is one that you want to Model Your Church after.  Don’t be afraid to leave where you are, because it won’t do you any good at all to intern at a place that doesn’t match the DNA of your future ministry.  Even if this means going to a church in a different state and one in which you don’t know anyone.  You will eventually leave your current church to move to another city anyway when you plant your church.  In our case, we didn’t have to move; we were already part of a church that did church just like how we wanted to plant.  Actually, we had already moved to our church to find out more about how they did church anyway.
   
2. Never Say No.  There may be things that they will want you to do that make absolutely no sense to you and seemingly have no relation to your future church plant.  Attack your task with everything that you have, and treat it as though it is the most important thing you will get from the entire internship.  Remember that the way you will learn more about the leadership, skills, spiritual maturity, internal relationships and communication you will need, will most likely come in and through ways that you would not have thought.  We have definitely been presented with assignment that felt at first like: “What … you gotta be kidding!  What are they assigning me to this for?”  Then toward the end of the assignment (after a month or more), you praise God that you threw yourself into it and got everything you could out of it that you could.  You realize that God is actually ordaining your steps.  Amazing concept right?
3. In whatever you do, Grow Your Teams.  Sharpen those gathering skills.  One of the most important parts of your internship should be to gather and grow people.    Gathering people is the primary thing that you will be doing in your launch city. so practice now.  It may seem strange to gather people to someone else’s vision in a city you haven’t been called to, but this is similar to what you will be expecting others to do for the vision God has called you to.  If your assignment doesn’t involve a ministry that needs people numbers growth (but rather growing and empowering an existing and static volunteer base) then find a way to gather people.  Start a small group with your neighbors, people you meet at Starbucks or both!  Get them involved in your church and plug them into your membership (or growth track) process.

I have more to share on this but I going to cut it off for now and continue this next week with some final words.  Let me just finish with saying that if you have the opportunity to do a pastoral internship at a model church that sees church the way that you see it, DO IT.  It will be worth it.

Blessings,

Sean Alexander
www.venuechurchonline.com
www.venuechurch.blogspot.com