{"id":3479,"date":"2013-05-08T13:12:56","date_gmt":"2013-05-08T19:12:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/?p=3479"},"modified":"2014-10-05T12:54:04","modified_gmt":"2014-10-05T19:54:04","slug":"missions-catalyst-5-8-13-practical-mobilization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/?p=3479","title":{"rendered":"Missions Catalyst 5.8.13 &#8211; Practical Mobilization"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\" align=\"right\"><strong>In This Issue: Seminary\/monastery\/mission mash-up<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Seminary\/Monastery\/Mission Mash-up: How to Get\u00a0the Next 13,000 Ready for the World<\/li>\n<li>Finding Internships<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.missionscatalyst.org\/\"><!--more-->Missions Catalyst<\/a> is a free, weekly electronic digest of mission news and resources designed to inspire and equip Christians worldwide for global ministry. Use it to fuel your prayers, find tips and opportunities, and stay in touch with how God is building his kingdom all over the world. Please forward it freely!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/teamwork-tug-of-war.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-3480\" src=\"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/teamwork-tug-of-war-1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"teamwork tug of war\" width=\"450\" height=\"299\" srcset=\"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/teamwork-tug-of-war-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/teamwork-tug-of-war-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h1>Seminary\/Monastery\/Mission Mash-up: How to Get\u00a0the Next 13,000 Ready for the World<\/h1>\n<p>By Shane Bennett<\/p>\n<p>Around 13,000 young adults committed themselves to short and long-term missionary service at the close of the <a href=\"https:\/\/urbana.org\" target=\"_blank\">Urbana conference<\/a> on New Year&#8217;s Eve 2012. You know what that means, don&#8217;t you? A ton of guilt-ridden young adults in the years to come. Because if history is any indicator, most of those goers will not actually go.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re one of the pledged, but still at home (or you know someone who is), let me say this: There&#8217;s still time. It used to be you got too old to serve in other cultures, but no more. God seems pleased to use goers of all ages.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A Brilliant Trend<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If you, like me, wonder how we can bump up the &#8220;keep the commitment&#8221; rate, I have an idea. Well, as usual, I didn&#8217;t &#8220;have&#8221; this idea. Other, smarter people did. I just want to notice it with you and see if we can&#8217;t encourage what seems to be a brilliant trend.<\/p>\n<p>Years ago I read a suggestion from a well-known Christian leader (okay, okay, it was Brian McLaren!) He said:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The seminary of the future should be one part seminary (focused on Scripture, theology, church history, leadership, etc.), one part monastery (focusing on spiritual formation, including emotional maturity and character development), and one part mission agency (deploying the student into experiences and internships among the poor, the sick, the mentally ill, the imprisoned, refugees, migrant workers, the elderly, children, and so on).&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I love that! And I love the way churches and organizations are building internships today that combine seminary, monastery, and mission agency in a way that will help committed believers honor their commitment to dive into different cultures for the sake of God&#8217;s kingdom.<\/p>\n<p>Community-based internships provide an ancient but timely approach to preparing people for kingdom work. Among the many benefits, five stand out to me:<\/p>\n<p><strong>1. Modeling:<\/strong> Participants learn from experts who are also practitioners.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2. A short &#8220;learn-act&#8221; cycle:<\/strong> Content is presented and then promptly put into action.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3. Team building, team learning:<\/strong> This works against American &#8220;Lone Ranger&#8221; individuality.<\/p>\n<p><strong>4. Bi-vocational experience:<\/strong> Many internships involve full-time or part-time work in addition to internship commitments.<\/p>\n<p><strong>5. Very Jesus-y:<\/strong> Small cadres, bands of disciples, work out intense, focused teaching.<\/p>\n<h1>Interview on Internships<\/h1>\n<p>For the past ten years my friend Vince has headed up an internship program like that. Since a tough turn of events caused his church to kill the program, Vince actually had some time to chat with me about his internship and the idea in general.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q: Your denomination has a strong record in higher education. Why a different form of education and training?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Actually it&#8217;s related to the fact that we so emphasize higher education. We wanted alternatives to requiring cross-cultural workers to be fitted with master&#8217;s degrees that often saddle them with $60-80,000 dollars in school debt! We had many students at our church attending local private Christian schools and facing the same situation. We wondered if we could honestly prepare people for Kingdom work without the excessive debt.<\/p>\n<p>We also wanted to help pastors and cross-cultural workers see what it actually looks like to be engaged in ministry these days. Many pastors need to be bi-vocational and some see this as a best practice option. Cross-cultural workers too. We wondered if we could we could couple good biblical instruction with vocational and business training.<\/p>\n<p>All that led to an apprenticeship model in which interns spend 12-16 hours a week in class and about 30 hours a week volunteering and working at the church and the related business.<\/p>\n<p><strong><strong>Q: <\/strong>Your internship was based in the context of a local church. What are the pros and cons of that setting?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Interns who learn in the context of the local church deal right away with real-world ministry problems and opportunities. They&#8217;re bumping into situations that seminarians might not see until after they graduate. The flip side is that it can create greater strain on leaders as they engage with interns&#8217; personal issues and problems. We couldn&#8217;t just flunk people out of the internship! They were part of our church, not just our class.<\/p>\n<p>I also loved seeing how our church members connected with interns. For some, lifelong bonds have been formed. Of course, this came at the price of ongoing financial commitment from the church.<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, I found that the ongoing presence of the interns sort of enabled a laziness in the members of the church. Rather than a growing volunteer culture, I sensed an underlying desire to &#8220;let the interns do it.&#8221; If I could go back, I&#8217;d try to set those expectations better from the start.<\/p>\n<p><strong><strong>Q: <\/strong>You mentioned an ongoing financial commitment from the church. How did the finances for the internship work?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Our driving value was that interns should finish the two-year program with no debt. We were given a house in which they could live together rent-free. They all worked in the church-associated business or did things like janitorial or maintenance work for which the church was accustomed to paying. This worked well: Interns left free from debt and ready to serve.<\/p>\n<p>The church budgeted annual funds for the internship. That money went for food, utilities, and books. About half of the budget went to my salary. (Note: And that covered about half of Vince&#8217;s frugal family budget.)<\/p>\n<p><strong><strong>Q: <\/strong>So if you could start over, what would you do differently?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Give more thought to how interns could be incorporated into the life of the church. For instance, recruiting church members to serve as mentors.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;d also give more thought to the intern selection process and criteria. We sometimes struggled as a result of having younger, less mature people trying to keep pace (and live!) with older, more mature participants.<\/p>\n<p><strong><strong>Q: <\/strong>So you&#8217;re a free man now. (That&#8217;s putting it nicely!) If someone gave you a US$100K a year for five years to launch another internship, what would you do?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m praying about that right now. I think the money is probably not the limiting factor. I&#8217;d think long and hard about location. I wouldn&#8217;t want to underestimate the proximity we enjoyed to several universities nearby from which to draw interns. I&#8217;d also work hard to establish a business or partnerships with nearby businesses that could provide both training and employment for interns.<\/p>\n<p><strong>(Thanks, Vince. May God lead you some Kingdom-rocking work.)<\/strong><\/p>\n<h1>Finding Internships<\/h1>\n<p>In addition to church-based efforts like Vince&#8217;s and <a href=\"http:\/\/thecity.org\/interns\" target=\"_blank\" shape=\"rect\">this one<\/a> at City Church in Seattle, some internships are run by independent non-profits or combined efforts of various agencies. Four outstanding examples are <a href=\"http:\/\/www.toag.net\" target=\"_blank\" shape=\"rect\">TOAG<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uscwm.org\/theguild\/teams\" target=\"_blank\" shape=\"rect\">The Guild<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.beautifulfeet.us\/beautiful-feet-boot-camp\" target=\"_blank\" shape=\"rect\">Beautiful Feet Bootcamp<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.blog.theembercast.org\/about\/\">The Ember Cast<\/a>. You&#8217;ll have to move to L.A. to participate and learn from the master mentors with The Guild, Oklahoma City for BFB, and D.C. for Ember, but TOAG programs happen <a href=\"http:\/\/toag.net\/?page_id=87\" target=\"_blank\" shape=\"rect\">all over the U.S.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Several mission agencies have programs from nine months to two years that are designed especially for training as well. Check out Africa Inland Mission&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aimint.org\/usa\/serve\/timo\" target=\"_blank\" shape=\"rect\">Training in Ministry Outreach<\/a> (two years, in Africa) and Pioneers&#8217; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pioneers.org\/go\/go-full-view\/nyc-immerse\">NYC Immerse<\/a> year, in &#8211; you guessed it &#8211; New York City).<\/p>\n<p>Know of other good examples of cross-cultural internships?\u00a0Help us build an annotated list of such programs! <a href=\"http:\/\/www.missionscatalyst.org\" target=\"_blank\" shape=\"rect\">Share your comments on our website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Want to start something like this in your church or city? I&#8217;d be happy to help or send you along to people who can. <a href=\"mailto:shanedar@gmail.com\" target=\"_blank\" shape=\"rect\">Shoot me an email<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/ShaneBennett1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" title=\"ShaneBennett\" src=\"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/ShaneBennett1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"133\" height=\"197\" \/><\/a>Shane Bennett writes and speaks for a great organization called <a href=\"http:\/\/www.frontiersusa.org\" target=\"_blank\">Frontiers<\/a>. Lately he\u2019s wondering about how Muslim immigrants in Europe might fully experience God\u2019s blessing.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s also working with some buds to leverage a $49 a month smart phone plan to raise a ton of money for cross-cultural workers. <a href=\"mailto:shanedar@gmail.com\" target=\"_blank\">Email him<\/a> for info on the plan or the vision.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In This Issue: Seminary\/monastery\/mission mash-up Seminary\/Monastery\/Mission Mash-up: How to Get\u00a0the Next 13,000 Ready for the World Finding Internships<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-practical-mobilization"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3479"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5051,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3479\/revisions\/5051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}