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Internship
Newsletter: February 2009
Up Close to the Inauguration
by Kimberly Hassan
Today (January 27, 2009), as large snowflakes cover
Washington, DC in almost a surreal calm, it is amazing to think that
just a week ago this city was overwhelmed with another kind of flurry.
As an intern in Washington, DC, I have been asked to share with you
some of the adventures of being at Lutheran Church of the
Reformation this past month.
My internship church is located two blocks from the US Capitol.
Most of our members work on Capitol Hill although many of them
choose to live outside the district. DC is a busy and full city on a
normal day and to accommodate and transport two million extra people
was a daunting task. In the two weeks prior to the inauguration, we
had many parishioners who attempted to get to church but with bridge
and road closures, numerous detours and no parking signs, they were
unable to worship among us.
 Finally,
the momentous day arrived. I was fortunate to have a blue ticket to
the Inauguration Swearing-In Ceremony from the US Representative
from my home region in Iowa (it didn't hurt that his chief of staff
is a member of our church council!) That frigid Tuesday morning, I
gathered with thousands of others in the early light in the staging
area to go through security. People were in great spirits and
spontaneous chants echoed around. Fortunately, after 2 ½ hours, I
passed through the gates and was on the US Capitol lawn. Many,
including my supervisor and several members, were not as lucky as I
was and missed the entire Inauguration even with a ticket.
Being six months pregnant, I worried whether I could tolerate the
cold and standing for so many hours, but I didn't want to miss this
historic moment even if I couldn't feel my toes. Looking through a
gap between my scarf and stocking cap I stood in awe at what I was
witnessing. Even now I have trouble articulating what this moment
means for me. What I do know is that it is a testament to the hope
that lives in the American people that the world as it is, is not
what the world could be. As President Obama stated so clearly:
"The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our
better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble
idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise
that all are equal, all are free and all deserve a chance to pursue
their full measure of happiness."
 As
I think about the future of my child, born of a Christian and a
Muslim, of an American and a German/Sudanese, of a white woman and a
black man, the world will be a safe place for him. A new spirit is
alive not only here in the US but across the world as we choose to
no longer act in fear and intolerance but in hope and unity.
While I was out witnessing the Inauguration live, my internship
site opened its doors as a warming station. Numerous congregational
volunteers served coffee, hot chocolate, and snacks to passersby
from all over the US. We projected CNN and had other TVs setup as
well as free bathrooms and heat for anyone in need. Hundreds flowed
through our doors and we even raised some money for our food pantry
from people who insisted on giving us a donation.
Now, the people have all gone home, the trash has been picked up,
the barricades are gone and DC and my internship are now back to
"normal." Yet, it is forever changed and I feel fortunate to have
been a witness.
Thinking Boldly and Creatively about Campus
Ministry 
by Sara Masters
Sara Masters is communications director for the Minneapolis
Area Synod. This article originally appeared in the December issue
of the MAS leadership newsletter, "Interacts."
Two congregations in the Minneapolis Area synod are thinking
outside the box when it comes to Campus Ministry, and a CLI intern
is in the midst of what is happening. These congregations have a
natural tendency for outreach to university students. They call
themselves University Lutheran Congregations, the only churches in
this synod that identify themselves in this way. Because of their
location within the University of Minnesota campus, they believe God
has strategically placed them there to provide ministry to and with
students.
Grace University Lutheran Church and
University Lutheran
Church of Hope are located on opposite ends of the Minneapolis
campus. Grace pastor Mary Halvorson likes to say, "Hope and Grace
hold the campus together."
Lutheran
Campus Ministry (LCM) has been in a covenant relationship with
these congregations for more than fifteen years, partnering together in
worship, programming and planning.
  This
year a new venture is strengthening the
relationship between Lutheran Campus Ministry and congregational
life. Under the leadership of Interim Campus Pastor Fritz Wehrenberg
and Pastors Mary Halvorson and Dan Garnaas at Grace, the idea of a
two-year Grace Campus Ministry Intern position was spawned, and is
now in place. Kate Reuer, a graduate of Harvard Divinity School and
a student at Luther Seminary, is very ably helping both ministries
collaborate, plan, integrate and share resources. The pastors, along
with the leadership at Grace University Lutheran Church, really
wanted to think creatively about how they could strengthen their
welcome to students and engage them more deeply in the mission and
ministry of the church. "We wanted to make sure that we were
continuing to imagine all the places where the Spirit is at
work...that is how the internship came about," says Kate.
Historically, LCM has operated independently from local
congregations. They often have their own ministry centers, since
churches are usually not on or near the campus. But at Grace
University Lutheran Church, the church is right there, across from
the "super block" which consists of four large dorms. The students
who find their way to Grace are an important part of the community
that worships at 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. There is also a 6:30 p.m.
Sunday evening service. "In the past, LCM was averaging less than 15
students a week for the last 5 if not 10 years. Suddenly we are up
to 25 to 45 a week. That's a huge shift. Very significant. Something
is taking place that is very faithful about this," remarks Pastor
Fritz. Between Hope and Grace another 50-100 students worship on
Sunday mornings.
Another important aspect of this partnership is to encourage the
leadership and interaction of congregational members and students in
both morning and evening worship. Lautum, a monthly evening service,
based on the
St. Thomas Mass, involves both Grace members and students in
leadership and as participants. This has increased attendance and a
shared sense of mission.
Grace is housing Kate's ministry and providing the support staff
for her work in that congregation. They have been wonderfully
responsive to her presence. It is an exciting experiment in
partnering between LCM and Grace University Lutheran.
 "We
are looking at doing something similar at Hope, but it is taking a
little different shape there because there isn't a Kate in the
congregation and we don't want to force anything. Hope just hired a
new young adult minister and we are beginning conversations with
her," says Pastor Fritz.
Since Kate has started in her position as Grace Campus Minister,
students are meeting on Wednesday nights to talk about what it means
to put their faith in action and to build community. "Students have
an opportunity to worship wherever on Sunday mornings, be it Grace,
Hope, at their home church or wherever and then on Wednesday, they
can come together as a whole body to do service projects or make
tough decisions on ethical issues, bible study, etc. - it is like
old school confirmation nights," says Kate.
Kate usually doesn't meet students during the day at her office
at church. She keeps office hours at a coffee shop, Espresso Expose', ½ block from Grace. This is a chance for her to be out where
students are and a way for her to be around non-Lutheran students
and hear what's going on around campus. Meeting at a coffee shop is
a less intimidating, neutral place to meet than at the church.
In the future, they hope Grace University Lutheran Church and
University Lutheran Church of Hope would have embedded staff, a
dedicated campus minister (lay or ordained) in each congregation
that would look out for students and care for the life of the
parish, and the people of the community, finding ways that student
members and non-student members can give each other life.
Kate wonders, "How can we lift students up in the midst of us in a
way that is life giving for everybody and makes us an increasingly
vibrant community. How do we involve students in all worship
services? Lutheran Campus Ministry can do amazing things with
intergenerational ministry for students and older members."
They truly are on to something.
Report from Tanzania
by Gary Langness
One of the Cross Cultural experiences offered through CLI in
January was a trip to visit the ELCA mission in Tanzania. Pastor
Gary Langness, a long-time friend of the Tanzanian church and the
Iringa Diocese, was the leader for this group. Below, some of Pastor
Langness' reports on the progress of the group.
 At
Tumaini University in Iringa we attended our first class in
theology. The class was Christian Education. The professor had a
student make a presentation as to how to teach a class. It was the
story of Paul and Silas in Acts. He was really good, even had some
pictures to show the class and used a variety of methods to explain
how the power of God was illustrated in this story. When he was
done, another student who was assigned to be the critic spoke of the
strengths and weaknesses of the presentation. Students from Luther
and PLTS were impressed with how practical the presentation was and
how well spoken the student was.
Then it was on to African Theology. The subject matter was
African eschatology. Fascinating, to say the least, and every one of
our students indicated they had learned something they never even
considered before. The professors were outstanding and the dialogue
excellent. Our students made me proud by their interest, attention
and questions. Students attend a class in the Old Testament
department taught by a man I have known for years, Alec Muhanga, and
later a class on Worship taught by Ben Ngede.
I am more excited than ever about having the students attend
Classes at Tumaini. In addition, we met with the Dean of Students
who was an evangelist and is now a pastor and teaches in the
Wandering Shepherd program. This program is for Masaai and Baribig
students who take a two year course and then go back to their areas
and share the word of God with their tribes. The professor is
outstanding and the students were impressed with him just visiting
on campus.
.......
The students attended a well presented OT lecture on the prophet
Amos. At the end of the lecture there was great discussion that
centered around being willing to speak like Amos in the parish you
serve when you are very poor, and wealthy members offer you food,
clothing and other gifts, and what you do when your salary is so low
and you do not have enough to support your family. If the wealthy
members do not want to hear the prophetic word, what do you do?Our
students could relate to this conversation as well. After a long
discussion on this point from both the Tanzanian side and the
American students, I made a comment. I told them to be careful about
"bashing" the wealthy, since in my ministry I have had the privilege
of knowing many wealthy people who were also incredibly generous and
wonderful stewards. Many of these people generously support Luther
Seminary! I have known people who have been financially successful
in life who get tired of being used as negative examples when they
are, in fact, faithful stewards. So we must be careful not to always
be using wealth as a negative. After all, I recently read a
statement from someone who said, "If we are not poor, then we are
wealthy."
So, this indeed is a cross cultural journey for the students and
this old preacher is just trying to stay one half step ahead of
them. I think we are all having fun while being filled with new
learnings!
The Lay Committee and Evaluations
 For
most interns the time is drawing near for the completion of the
mid-year evaluations. The intern and supervisor should have
completed an evaluation at the three month mark. At mid-year the lay
committee gets in on the evaluative process.
The six-month evaluation sometimes means, especially for new
committees, a shift from being supportive/encouraging cheerleaders
to a role that includes more emphasis on evaluation and suggestions
for future growth. It definitely helps a committee see that the
range of internship evaluation is broad rather being limited to a
few things like sermons or worship leadership. It provides the
committee a chance to work with a process of writing and approving
the final form of the evaluation that can then be tweaked, if
necessary, when the group takes on the very important final
evaluation.
It is important to remember that you are evaluating performance,
not person. If the committee reports that the intern's performance
in the area of teaching children and youth, for example, has been
less than adequate, the committee is not saying that the intern is a
bad person, or that they do not like the intern, or that the intern
should not be a pastor. They are simply saying that the intern still
has some things to work on. If a pastor were being evaluated, there
would no doubt be areas where that pastor could stand improvement.
If you want to be truly supportive of the intern, if you want to
encourage the intern's development as a strong and capable mission
leader, the best way to do that is to give honest feedback.
Lay committee members can review the evaluation questions on our
Web site, here: (http://www.luthersem.edu/contextual_learning/internship/evaluation_questions.asp).
The Chair of the committee will coordinate and collect the committee
members' responses and submit a single on-line evaluation form,
here: (http://www.luthersem.edu/contextual_learning/internship/eval_forms.asp).
What's Working for You?
Got a great idea? You probably do! Willing to share it? We hope
so!
We know that supervisors, interns and lay committees come up with
their own resources for carrying out their responsibilities. Maybe
it is a form for evaluating sermons, or a way of keeping track of
time use, or a plan for the orientation of the new intern or a
structure for introducing the intern to all of the components of
congregational ministry. We would like to be able to post some of
those resources for common use. They will be posted at a common site
on the internet, and links will appear in Mission In Context.
So if you have some wonderful resource to that, send it either to
Steve McKinley at
smckinley001@luthersem.edu or Kate Sterner at
ksterner@luthersem.edu.
We'll do the rest!
Spring Cluster Meetings
- Arizona-Nevada: April 13-14, Spirit in the Desert
Retreat Center, Carefree, Ariz. (Sherwood Glover).
- Northern California: April 20-21 San Damiano Retreat
Center, Danville, Calif. (Sherwood Glover)
- Twin Cities North & East: April 28, Our Saviour's,
Stillwater, Minn., 9:00-3:00. (Steve McKinley)
- Southern California: May 4-5, Mary and Joseph Retreat
Center, Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. (Sherwood Glover)
- Southern Minnesota-South Dakota: May 5, Gustavus
Adolphus College, St. Peter. Minn., 10:00-4:00. (Steve McKinley)
- Oregon/Vancouver, WA: May 7, Holy Cross Lutheran,
Salem, Ore., 9:30 - 3:00 (Julie Josund)
- Twin Cities Central: May 7, Trinity Congregation,
Minneapolis, Minn. 9:00-3:00. (Steve McKinley)
- Colorado: May 12, Rocky Mountain Synod Office., Denver.
Colo., 9:30-3:00. (Julie Josund)
- Twin Cities South & West: May 12, Woodlake, Richfield,
Minn., 9:00-3:00 (Steve McKinley)
- Northern Minnesota/North Dakota: May 14, Concordia
Lutheran, Fertile, Minn., 9:00-3:00 (Rick Foss)
- Washington: June 2, Trinity Lutheran, Lynnwood, Wash.,
9:00 - 3:00. (Julie Josund)
A Day at the Movies
by Steve McKinley
Saw a wonderful movie about internship the other day. Of course,
I was probably the only person in the whole theater who knew it was
about internship.
Most people think that Gran Torino, Clint Eastwood's latest, is
about Walt Kowalski, an angry, aging widower tough guy, Dirty Harry
as a senior citizen, more or less alienated from his family, who
learns to live with, appreciate and defend the Hmong neighbors he
despises at the beginning of the movie. There's plenty of
objectionable language (some of which, frankly, is hilarious, such
as when Walt and his young Hmong neighbor visit the barber shop), a
measure of violence, and lots more threatened violence. If you read
reviews of the movie, this is what you will read about. You can
watch a trailer for Gran Torino on YouTube, here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9dy5yCUxOg
 But
there is this other character, Father Janovich. We meet Father
Janovich in the very first scene of the movie, when he is conducting
the funeral for Walt's wife. At that point I thought he was going to
be just another media stereotype of a clergyperson. He looks very
young, and his sermon is nothing but vapid theological sweetness.
When the funeral scene was over I was relieved; I didn't need to see
any more of the stereotype.
But he came back. Father Janovich promised Walt's wife he would
encourage Walt to come to confession, so Father Janovich visits Walt
and receives no hospitality. Walt doesn't want him around. He
characterizes the priest as filled with book learning and that's
all. Father Janovich is undeterred. He keeps coming back. He keeps
talking to Walt. And, even more important, he keeps listening to
Walt. He still has his stumbles.
 One
day he tracks Walt down in the VFW hall and when Walt grudgingly
agrees to sit down and have a drink and talk to him, Father first
orders a mineral water, and then Walt points out that is
inappropriate in the VFW hall, he changes to a gin and tonic, while
Walt himself goes for a bump and a beer. He's a pest, but after a
while he starts to grow on Walt and it becomes clear that Father
Janovich knows something about the street gangs in the neighborhood
and is doing his best to reach out to all the neighborhood.
Eventually, toward the end of the movie, Father Janovich is visiting
Walt in his home, and when Walt tells the priest to get him a beer,
Father comes back with two beers for Walt and two for himself. He
has become a far different man than the one we met at the beginning
of the film.
Like I said, a good movie about internship. Father Janovich is
well-educated. While Walt harasses him about that, there is nothing
wrong with his priestly education. It gives him a strong theological
base to work from, and he does. He wants to be a good priest. He is
dedicated to the gospel and dedicated to his people and dedicated to
his community. With this theological base, he can learn from
people like Walt who will help him become the best priest he can
possibly be. Which, of course, is what we hope is happening in
internship.
One Intern's Story
by Alan Van Ormer
Alan Van Ormer is editor of the Dell Rapids Tribune, which
recently published this article about intern Jeremy Winter. Our
thanks to Mr. Van Ormer for giving us permission to reprint the
article.
 An
intern working at the Lutheran Church of Dell Rapids is getting a
year's worth of pastoral experience before heading off to his first
congregation in 2010.
Since August, Jeremy Winter, 25, a student attending Luther
Seminary in St. Paul, Minn., has been working under the guidance of
Pastor Mark Docken at the Lutheran Church here. Winter said he could
learn as much as he can by studying books and reading and talking
about God's Word, but getting out in the real world provides a
learning experience that you can not receive in a classroom setting.
"This is a great community," he said. "It is a strong church and
very welcoming church. I have had the opportunity to learn how to be
a pastor."
Winter is preaching, leading worship services, teaching
confirmation students, leading Bible studies, and is about to start
a high school Sunday School.
When Winter, who lived in George, Iowa, graduated from Western
Christian High School in Hull, Iowa in 2001, the ministry was not at
the forefront. He attended Dordt College and received his history
degree in 2005.
It was the summer of his junior year at Dordt College that Winter
considered the ministry. After graduation, he took online classes at
Gordon Cornwell Seminary near Boston, before heading to Luther
Seminary.
Winter said there was not a major event that made him decide to
join the ministry. He had been reading through the Gospels in the
Bible. "It really clicked on me that I wanted to go and tell people
about the Gospel message," he said.
The yearlong internship is part of the seminary education at
Luther Seminary.
Rick Foss is the director of the contextual leadership initiative
at Luther Seminary. He oversees the contextual educational process
and internship program.
The internship program is geared toward equipping students to be
pastoral leaders and has a huge impact, said Foss. "Most professions
are tasks with relationships embedded in them. Ministry is almost
reversed," he said. "Fundamentally, it is a deep complex
relationship with people. Content is terribly important, but
developing a relationship with people is also important. The
internship helps with that. It also helps the student learn who they
are and how to engage with other people."
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