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Internship
Newsletter: September 2007
Welcome to Ministry in Context !
For those of you who are new at internship or supervision under
the auspices of the Contextual Leadership Initiative, welcome to the
CLI newsletter, Ministry in Context. We use this space to give you some things to think
about, to keep you informed about internship and supervision,
cross-cultural education, CPE, etc., and to humanize the whole
operation. Your contributions are welcomed. Please send them to the
editor, Steve McKinley, at
smckinley001@luthersem.edu.
Greeting from Gary Wilkerson 
 My
first two months as the Interim Director have been a whirlwind of
meeting people, learning of the important programs that are a part
of Western Mission Cluster's Contextual Leadership Initiative, and
thanking God for the many, many people who participate in and care
so much about contextual learning. Wow! You are a diverse and
wonderful people!
A simple reminder: all of our lives are lived contextually! One
of the simple realities of contextual living is that it has
beginnings and endings. The beginning of this school year marks the
start or end of many of your formal contextual experiences. We are
blessed by a God who is the God of beginnings and endings! We are
born -- a miraculously dramatic beginning! We are baptized ... a wet
and wonderful beginning as a child of God! We begin school. We end
each school year. And at significant points we graduate...
beginnings and endings!
Think of the Creation -- a magnificent beginning! Then God begins
relationships ... with individuals and nations: Israel, Abraham,
Moses, the prophets, the disciples, the Apostle Paul, saints in all
ages… and with you and me: beginning after beginning after
beginning!
Our God is also the God of endings! The slavery for the
Israelites ENDED! The wandering in the wilderness ENDED! Each day
ends. Winter ends (usually). Our lives will end. The story of God’s
people is the story of endings… as well as beginnings.
The most life changing ENDING of all was the surprise God gave us
with the death, the ending of Jesus. As we gazed at the empty tomb,
we discovered that all endings are also moments of resurrection,
moments of new beginnings! Colossians 1:15, 18: “Christ is the
first-born of all creation... in him all things hold together... he
is the beginning, the first-born from the dead!”
Endings for God are times for new life, new understandings, new
relationships! Endings for God are times for great, awe inspiring
new beginnings. Which ever you are experiencing, a beginning or an
ending, our God will be present with you!
May you have blessed beginnings and endings,
Dr. Gary Wilkerson
Getting to Know Gary Wilkerson
Gary Wilkerson is serving as the interim executive director of
the Contextual Leadership Initiative this year. We posed a few
questions to Gary to help us all get acquainted with him:
1. Tell us about your own education.
I did my undergraduate work at The University of Texas at
Arlington and earned a BA in Psychology with a minor in Sociology,
1969. My M.Div. is from Wartburg Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa, 1973.
I received my Ph.D. in Pastoral Care and Counseling from Luther
Seminary, 2004.
2. Would you rather go to a football game, the opera or the
theater?
My wife, Karen, sings with the Minnesota Opera Chorus, so I
would choose an opera in which she is singing.
3. Tell us about your professional background.
 I
have been ordained since 1973. My first seventeen years of
ministry were spent in Southern California where I served a
congregation in Simi Valley for seven years. I worked on the
clinical side of chemical dependency treatment for nearly ten
years, including being on of the original staff at
The
Betty Ford Center, Rancho Mirage. I was a Case Manager,
Clinical Supervisor, and Director of the Inpatient Program. We
moved to Philadelphia in 1989 so that my wife could get a Masters
in Church Music from Westminster Choir College, Princeton, New
Jersey. I served a city congregation in urban Philadelphia. In
1993 we moved to the Twin Cities so I could start my Ph.D. While
completing my degree I served as an Intentional Interim Pastor,
mostly in conflicted congregations. Last year I taught pastoral
care and counseling full-time as a Visiting Professor at Luther.
This year I agreed to serve as the Interim Director for CLI.
4. Would your favorite pet be a dog, a cat or a fish?
We have always owned dogs and currently have a black cocker
spaniel named Jewel.
5. Who's in your family?
Karen and I have been married for nearly 25 years and have two
sons, Reed, 21, and Aaron, 19. I have two older children from a
previous marriage, Brook, 36, and Wendy, 32, and 7 grandchildren.
6. What is your favorite vacation spot?
We love going to Palm Desert, California, every other
Christmas. We lived there when I worked at The Betty Ford Center
and Karen’s mother currently lives there. The desert in the winter
is stunning!
7. What is the purpose of internship?
My own internship changed my life by exposing me to the depth
and wonder of God’s church at a level I had not known. Since
internship is one fourth of a person’s seminary education it is a
critical time of experience, reflection, integration, practice,
learning, and self-discovery. It is also a kairotic moment of
faith development, in which, the Holy Spirit works to nudge our
faith toward a deep, trustworthy grounding in the body of Christ,
the Church.
8. We're going out to dinner. Would you prefer Italian, Asian,
German, a steakhouse or seafood?
It totally depends upon my mood at the moment. At this moment,
I salivate for a great Asian dinner that would include
paper-wrapped chicken (Yes, that is a real dish!)
Intern Financial Stewardship Sermon Contest
 The
Center for Stewardship Leadership at Luther Seminary is sponsoring
an Intern Financial Stewardship Sermon Contest for those on
internship in 2007-2008. It is designed to enrich and strengthen the
practice of stewardship in the church by advocating preaching and
teaching that promotes the stewardship of financial resources. The
prize is made possible by a grant from the Arthur Larson Stewardship
Education Fund.
All interns who submit a sermon on financial stewardship as
prepared and presented during the year of internship will be given a
$50 bookstore voucher, either for the Luther Seminary Bookstore or
the GTU Bookstore. In addition, all sermons will be presented to a
committee which will select the prize winners. First place will earn
$500, second place $250, and 3rd, 4th, and 5th place will each earn $150.
In addition the first prize winner will be asked to preach the
sermon in chapel during his or her senior year.
The sermons will be judged on the following criteria:
- Relevance to today’s North American Christians.
- Biblical, theological and homiletical standards.
- Focus on financial stewardship that is reflected in gratitude,
responsibility, generosity and willingness to give back with
increase.
- Call for people to change the way they live in the world of
everyday life.
Insofar as almost every text provides an opportunity to be a
“stewardship sermon,” you are encouraged to give your financial
stewardship sermon during a time of year that has no connection with
the annual effort to gather money for the congregation.
Sermons should be sent to:
Jerry Hoffman, Director
Center for Stewardship Leadership
2481 Como Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55108
e-mail:
jhoffman@luthersem.edu
Please include a paragraph describing the congregational context
for the sermon. You may submit your sermons on a CD or as a written
text. If you used PowerPoint and/or video, you may include those as
well. Please footnote and properly document all your sources.
All submitted sermons become property of the Center and may be
reprinted in seminary publications and at the Stewardship for the
20th Century website without compensation to the author but with
recognition.
The deadline for submitting a sermon will be June 1, 2008.
Lay Internship Committee - Getting a Good Start
By Sherwood Glover
 Since
this will appear in the September newsletter, I am going to assume
that some things have already happened. Your intern has arrived.
Upon arrival, he/she has been greeted by the internship committee.
Unless the intern is commuting from home to the site, the committee
has arranged for people to assist with the process of moving into
housing. Maybe the intern has found that the pantry has already been
filled with food and household cleaning products. There probably has
been some sort of formal introduction of the intern at worship
services of the congregation, perhaps followed by a welcoming
reception or potluck.
But there may be things yet undone or overlooked that are key to
getting the year off to a good start. If the committee has not
already met to select a chair for the coming year and talked about
the way it will function, that needs to be done very soon! It is the
chair’s responsibility to gather the committee, set the agenda, and
run the meetings. The chair also needs to remind members to bring to
each meeting at least one piece of feedback for the intern and one
question or contribution that relates to the topic for the month.
Members also need to see the
six-month and
final evaluation questions that the committee will fill out so
that they become more aware of the scope and purpose of internship.
(Remember, even if this is not your congregation’s first internship,
there may be newcomers to the committee who don’t yet know just how
things are supposed to work.)
Has the internship committee been given some time at the
congregation’s worship services to identify the members of the
committee and explain its role? (Or does your congregation prefer
that committee members remain anonymous?) Has the role of the intern
been defined for the congregation? (Remember that the folks can’t
expect the intern to be the pastor; he/she is a student in
training.) Has the congregation been made aware of the time that the
pastor will be giving weekly to supervising the intern (limiting the
time available for other parish programs)?
Moreover, just because the first phase of welcoming the intern
has taken place, does not mean there is not more to do. Committee
members might arrange for the intern to be invited to in their homes
or in the homes of key members of the congregation. This not only
helps orient the intern to the life of the congregation and
community, but begins to establish important social relationships.
(Besides, students are almost always happy to get a free meal every
now and then!)
And then there is the orientation to the larger committee. One
congregation has a “road rally” for the intern, arranging for the
intern to meet members of the committee or congregation at a
hospital, school, or other agency that is important in the community
and in the ministry of the congregation. The intern may need a list
with information about where to go when the car needs repair, who to
call when there is illness, and other information helpful to anyone
who is new to a community.
Finally, two more reminders:
- The role of the committee is not simply to be a supportive
squad of cheerleaders; it has the responsibility of helping to
shape the intern’s educational and vocational formation. That
means giving honest feedback, making constructive suggestions, and
helping the intern figure out things on his/her own. In this, you
are not only serving the intern and your congregation, but the
whole Church.
- Have fun! This great venture that you are part of may have its
serious and even tough moments, but it also needs to have a
lighter side. Find ways to celebrate your work together and the
interaction you have with this interesting, excited, and maybe
even anxious person who is the intern!
Thank you for your service!
Getting to Know Mark Yackel-Juleen
 Mark
Yackel-Juleen joined the CLI staff this summer as a Deployed
Associate working with interns in North Dakota, Northern Minnesota,
and certain other places around the country. To get to know Mark we
asked him the same set of questions posed to Gary Wilkerson.
1. Tell us about your own education.
I’m a proud graduate of Centennial High School in suburban
Minneapolis/St. Paul, class of 1977. We just had our 30th reunion.
I did undergraduate work at the University of Minnesota, Morris. I
started in pre-electrical engineering, but God had other plans. I
ended with a degree in English Literature in 1981. I was married a
couple weeks later and then my spouse Margaret and I began a
three-year journey as lay missionary teachers in Hong Kong. That
experience was a very important part of my “education” and it
changed my life. I returned to start seminary at then Luther
Northwestern in 1985, doing internship in Marinette, Wis. and
completing my M.Div. in 1989. In 2004 I completed a D.Min. degree
with research focused on the factors that affect perceived
effectiveness and satisfaction for clergy serving in small town
and rural settings. Every day is an education.
2. Would you rather go to a football game, the opera or the
theater?
This is a false choice. I’d rather go to a concert; I love
music—classic rock, Eagles and Chicago (I saw Chicago at the
Stardust Lounge in Vegas last year, Awesome)--contemporary
Christian, Newsboys and Jars of Clay (saw them August 31st)—even
orchestral stuff (a live symphony is also awesome). Pushed to
choose from the list it would be theater (either dramatic or
musical) and then a football game. A good football game can be
pretty theatrical. But to be absolutely honest, you would probably
see me at a Minnesota Twins game before any given football game.
3. Tell us about your professional background.
 Once
upon a time, I was a sign painter/installer. I come from solid
blue collar stock. I worked as a residence director in college and
thought that would become my career. But God had other ideas. My
spouse and I wanted to serve and travel before settling into
traditional family life. We were called as lay missionary teachers
to Hong Kong and taught English, world history, and religion at a
Lutheran middle school for Chinese students. We also served with a
Chinese congregation. It was there I felt a call to ordained
ministry. I was called to a two-point parish in southwestern
Minnesota in 1989. I fell in love with the people and the beauty
of the land. I was also captivated by the deeply significant
struggle of people, congregations, and communities to survive
amidst the farm crisis of the 1980s. I also realized how I and
most of my seminary graduate colleagues were not well prepared for
a small town and rural context. Seventy-five percent of us came from metro
settings. Thus, in 1992, I helped start Shalom Hill Farm, which
provides experiential learning in the small town and rural
context. In 1997, I was called by our synod council to serve
Shalom Hill full time. In 1999, they expanded that call to include
a synod staff position of rural ministry coordinator. In
2006, I resigned the rural ministry coordinator position and began
to serve as lead pastor for a newly formed six-point parish called
Prairie Star Ministries. I still direct Shalom Hill Farm and teach
some rural ministry courses as adjunct faculty.
4. Would your favorite pet be a dog, a cat or a fish?
Used to be dogs, but they have left us now; most recently King,
a wonderful black lab that went on to the kennel triumphant last
year. Now it would be Ginger, a big old neutered tabby cat, who
loves everyone and rules the animal world (including our new dog)
at Shalom Hill Farm.
5. Who's in your family?
My spouse, Margaret—who is now herself on internship—and I have
been married for 26 years and every year is deeper and richer than
the last. I have been truly blessed with a soul mate. We have
three children: Andrew, a sophomore at Gustavus Adolphus, Elizabeth, a
senior at Windom High, and Eli a seventh grader at the same school. My
elderly mother lives in assisted living facilities near us and we
are her primary care givers. Our extended family is sprinkled
around the US.
6. What is your favorite vacation spot?
Usually the last place I have been, but consistently it is
Mexico (especially Isla Mujeres)—I love the people, the language,
the food, and the climate. Almost once a year I get away to
Mexico.
7. What is the purpose of internship?
For me internship is the opportunity to experience the identity
and office of pastor in depth and intentionally with a mentor who
can help you reflect on that experience before you take your vows.
8. We're going out to dinner. Would you prefer Italian, Asian,
German, a steakhouse or seafood?
I have traveled and lived in many places in the world. I am
drawn to cuisine with body and kick—Central and Northern Chinese,
Pakistani and Indian (especially anything with curry), Indonesian
(those delicious peanut sauces), Italian, and Mexican. But to be
honest, anything with a good wine or beer list is fine for me.
Good conversation and a good wine make any meal worth eating.
Make it a Good Year
By Steve McKinley
 Early
each morning my illustrious canine companion Abby Gail (Cairn
terrier) and I take a three mile walk. While we walk I listen to
“Morning Edition” on public radio. (I am not aware that Abby listens
to anything; she does not seem to listen to me.) As we are heading
down the home stretch each day, “Marketplace Morning Edition” comes
on and Doug Krizner illumines me regarding news from the business
world.
Krizner does not have a stock closing line, but he shows a little
variety. His most common closing line is this: “Make it a good day.”
I like this. There are tons of people who will exhort you to
“have a good day.” A common salutation. My problem with this is that
it makes the having of a good day a matter of luck, chance, fate,
karma, whatever. A good day is something that happens to you.
By saying “make it a good day,” Krizner is giving me some
responsibility for the goodness of the day. I have some choice in
the matter. A good day is not something that simply happens or does
not happen to me. By my own decisions, my own attitudes, my own
efforts, I can make the day a good one. Or a bad one.
This is a commendable thought for the beginning of internship for
students and the beginning of a new program year for supervisors. In
particular I am sure that interns headed off to their assignments
for the year wishing each other “Have a good internship.” That’s
nice, but I would prefer the Krizner approach: “Make it a good
internship.” Recognize that a large share of the responsibility for
having the internship be a good one will be with the intern.
Supervisors will do their best, but finally the responsibility for
your learning is with you.
Know this: most pastors describe internship as the most exciting
and most helpful year of their education. There is great potential
in front of you.
Make it a good year!
Some of the Fall Cluster Meetings have been scheduled, with more
to come.
Northern California: October 16-17 at San Damiano
Retreat Center in Danville (Sherwood Glover)
Southern Minnesota: October 16-17 at Shalom Hill Farm,
Windom (Steve McKinley)
East Metro: October 18 at Carandolet Center, College of
St. Catherine, St. Paul (Laure Schwartz)
Arizona/New Mexico/Nevada: October 18-19 at the
Franciscan Retreat Center, Phoenix (Sherwood Glover)
Washington: October 23-24, 2007 at the Dumas Bay Retreat
Centre, Federal Way, Wash. (Julie Josund)
North Metro: October 25-26 at Episcopal House of Prayer,
Collegeville (Laure Schwartz)
Southern California: November 5-6 at the Mary and Joseph
Center, Palos Verdes (Sherwood Glover)
Face Lift for CLI Web Site
The CLI Web site will be getting a bit of a face lift next month.
Site visitors will find a more colorful site with improved
navigation. The main program areas administered by the CLI will be
listed as navigation categories in a horizontal banner bar, and the
more detailed menu column will display a list of individual pages
along the right-hand side of the screen.
Next month's Ministry in Context will appear in
this new page format. Watch for this exciting change to our Web site
in the next few weeks!
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