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Internship
Newsletter: June 2009
Lay Committee Training DVD
Preparing a Pastor:
The Lay Internship
Committee's Role
in a Holy Journey
Lay Internship Committees will have a new training vehicle
available this fall. Thanks to generous grants from several sources,
our office has cooperated with Seraphim Productions to produce a new
DVD titled, "Preparing a Pastor: The Lay Internship Committee's Role
in a Holy Journey," designed to orient congregations to
the importance of internship and to train lay committees for their
task.
The DVD made its debut at the St. Paul, Minn. training session
for new internship supervisors, and at the Danville, Calif. team
building event, and received positive reviews in both places. By the
time 2009-10 interns arrive in their congregations, each of our
internship
congregations should have a copy of the DVD for their use!
What's Ahead for the Lay Committee? 
While the internship year calendar varies in some places, in most
of our internship settings the year is coming to an end and the
committee is starting to think about the final evaluation. What will
come after that? Perhaps another intern and another internship
committee. As the current committee completes the final evaluation,
it might also be a good time to consider the next lay committee.
We believe it is important that the supervisor appoint the lay
committee. The supervisor will have insights into the internship
process and the intern that others do not have, and we hope the
supervisor will also have a sense of who might serve well on the
committee. In many congregations the committee is structured in such
a way that there is both stability and turnover. For example, a committee
may have six members serving three years terms, with two new members
rotating onto the committee each year.
Now is the time to get next year's committee in place. If the
congregation provides housing for the intern, the new committee
should check out that housing with the current intern (and the
intern's spouse, if applicable). Are repairs needed? Is it time for
some painting? Are all of the appliances in working order? And the
smoke alarms?
The new committee can be planning for the arrival of the new
intern (and spouse). How will they be welcomed into the community?
What will the committee do to support that welcome?
Beyond planning for the arrival of next year's intern, the new
committee can be thinking about how it will carry out its work. What
has worked well in the last year? What hasn't? Were there some
topics the committee never got around to? Was there a good structure
for giving feedback? Did the committee find a regular meeting time
that was good for everyone? What advice would the departing members
of the committee have for the new and continuing members?
When summer comes and the schedule slows down in most
congregations, it is tempting to sit back and relax, but a little
planning and preparation will make the next year easier and more
joyful for all concerned.
A Taboo Topic. Unfortunately.
By Steve McKinley
 At the recent new internship supervisor training session held in
St. Paul, Minn., one of the new supervisors—a wise, tough-minded,
experienced pastor—asked me a hard question: When do we talk to
them about money?
I couldn't answer that one. I am embarrassed to admit that in my
time with the internship program we have never given specific
guidance to the supervisors about money talk. We've done some good
things on stewardship occasionally, but never have we directed the
supervisors to have a good talk about money with the intern.
I'm not talking about the paltry stipend paid to interns. I'm not
talking about the cost of insurance. I'm not talking about the
church budget. I'm talking about your money and how you handle it as
a Christian person. This is, of course, an essential stewardship
question, but when we talk stewardship it is usually about the
congregation's campaign, not our own money management. In general it
seems like people hate to talk about their relationship to money,
though the current recession is able to loosen tongues a little bit.
There seem to be more people willing to talk about erectile
dysfunction and overactive bladders than about money!
For example, I have noticed that if I say that I want to talk
about stewardship, there will always be people who immediately jump
up and declare "stewardship isn't just about money." They are right,
of course. I freely agree that stewardship isn't just about money.
But it is at least in part about money, and I know that the person
who wants to tell me that "it isn't just about money" really does
not want to talk about money, which persuades me that they need to
have the conversation!
This is not a problem exclusive to interns and congregational
members. I know that there are supervisors whose own relationship to
money is uneasy. A supervisor might not want to talk to an intern
about money because of the supervisor's own struggles with money.
Put on your "High School Musical" sweatshirt and we'll all sing a
chorus of "We're All In This Together."
We are in this together. We all struggle with the management of
our money. We need to talk to each other about the relationship we
have with our money and how we manage—or fail to manage—that
money. It's all God's, so what we are talking about is the
management of God's resources, a fairly important topic, though not
as scintillating as erectile dysfunction.
So here's a challenge to supervisors and interns: most of you
have been together for some months now. You know each other pretty
well. The next time you sit down for your weekly conference, talk
about money! Not the church's money, but your own. How are you doing
with it? Can we help?
Oregon/Vancouver Wash. Cluster Meeting
Back row: Pastor Chris Nolte, Pastor Jim Stender,
Pastor David Larsen, intern John Larson, intern Hanne Tommelstad,
Pastor Al Jensen, Pastor Douglas Dobson.
Front row:
Pastor Tom Dodd, intern Brian Wise, intern Eric Woolridge, intern
Roberta Smythe, Pastor Julie Josund, intern J.J. Tygert.
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