Pastors

Recruiting an intern to support and grow the vision of your church

Tips for identifying prospective interns in your congregation:

  1. Prayerfully decide which areas of your church you want to invest in for growth.
  2. Write down the vision you have for these areas, using as much detail as possible.
  3. Dedicate a Sunday morning to vision casting by preaching this subject. Share with your church your vision, what God is saying and your hopes for your community.
  4. Get congregation buy-in. Ask them to pray, to get involved, and ask for their ideas.
  5. Talk to your church about internship. Use the promotional material provided on the USB from Conference (contact us if you don’t have one).
  6. “Make the big ask” – Invite applications for internship. Define a clear process for people to share with you their interest.
  7. “Shoulder Tap” anyone you believe has the potential to be an intern.
  8. “Don’t say somebody’s no for them” – Don’t discount anyone! Don’t assume that because they have a job, a family or other plans, that they will say no. Some people are just waiting for an opportunity.
  9. Remember a new intern may not look like you expect – they won’t be a finished product, they will be a work in progress!
  10. Put the prospective intern through the selection process interview.

Selecting an intern

Once you have recruited a prospective intern, it is important to interview them carefully to ensure that their passion and vision are in line with yours. Supervising an intern is a large responsibility and you want to ensure that you are investing your time into the right person. Interviewing the prospective intern will help you to decide if they will be a successful ‘fit’ for the internship role you have in mind. Below are suggestions of areas for discussion:

  1. Work through the Application form questions, adding clarifying questions of your own where necessary.
  2. Ask the intern to explain what they think an intern’s role would be. Why do they think this role is for them? What strengths would they bring to the position?
  3. Review the position description together and describe what your expectations of the intern would be. Be very clear about the number of hours you are expecting an intern to work each week.
  4. Invite the intern to describe their ministry passion – where is their heart?
  5. Question the intern about their dreams and plans – where do they see themselves in 5 years’ time?
  6. Discuss with the intern what the greatest challenges will be for them in internship.
  7. Ask the intern what they love most about your church. What would they like to see changed?
  8. Discuss the degree of support the person would have for their internship – from spouse and other family members, potential mentor, friends etc.
  9. Ask the intern how they intend to support themselves financially. Are they intending to work? Note that ELC strongly recommends no more than 10 hours a week paid employment. The internship involves 15 hours a week practical ministry and approximately 13 hours a week self-directed learning (study, assessments etc).

When you have completed the interview, seek God for clarity on whether this is the right intern for your church.

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