Internship

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Follow this link for the information: https://jmp.sh/VJFUfzI

I never took gap year. I didn't have anything I particularly wanted to do and I was worried that with no specific plans I would end up wasting both the year and a lot of money. Perhaps I missed out by not being brave enough? I'm excited that yet again as a church we are looking for an intern to start in September 2019. It seems a long time ago that our first intern Jack started...

Monday 3rd September 2012

We have an intern! An amazing guy called Jack has come to work with us for the year. From a chance conversation I had over a cup of coffee in March we have got to this point. We can’t pay him anything. We are offering him theological training of sorts, and his bus fare. That’s all. Anything extra he is earning with his job in a café. It will only give him pocket money. He is full of enthusiasm and new ideas. Fresh energy and vision. There will be times when he can’t get the bus home, when we finish too late and the journey is too far. Then he is coming to stay with us. I’m not sure about sharing my space. It blurs my boundaries between work and family. I’m not sure I will be very hospitable, at all hours of the day and night, but I want to be. I want him to feel welcome. I want him to feel at home with us.

Our internship has developed and I think improved over time. Every year looks different and is tailored to the person. One size (or one job) simply does not fit all. As a church we passionately believe that we are all created uniquely by God, we all have different strengths and weaknesses, and as such have our own specific races to run (Hebrews 12:1-2), and so the job evolves each year. The year is based on both missional experience and practical service. An intern will find themselves involved in schools work, PSHE lessons, mentoring, cafés. They will constantly finding themselves at the edge of their faith, not sure of what to say, and having to trust fully in God, knowing that He has promised to always be with them. But perhaps more excitingly to me is the emphasis on practical service. I have found it to be true that the real test of my discipleship has been in the mundane tasks. Clearing up chairs at 10.30pm when the building has emptied, hoovering an empty church, washing up mugs. Not the jobs you may imagine when you think of church leadership. Not perhaps jobs you want to do. And yet  if you learn to perform the small things with a cheerful and grateful heart, this attitude will impact every other area of your life.

For whoever comes to join us in September I am confident that it will be an amazing experience. It will be harder than they ever expected. I'm sure it won't be wasted.

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