Amanda Jertson, the 2010-2011 Keyon area intern, took youth from the eight congregations and Trinity and Wanamingo Lutheran Churches in Wanamingo canoeing. This unique internship involves ministry to specific congregations as well as combining ministries as needed. (click on the image for a higher resolution image for use in print publications)

You expect your doctor to practice before performing a solo surgery and your teen to get behind-the-wheel experience before getting a driver’s license, so why not your pastor? The ELCA requires seminarians to participate in an internship experience during their studies.

Prior to an internship, a home congregation, synod candidacy committee, seminary, and other family, friends, and mentors have nurtured a candidate for rostered ministry. During internship, another congregation joins in.

Internship gives future leaders of the church an opportunity to test their education and explore their skills in a “real world” ministry environment. It allows for honest, love-filled feedback from pastors, other church staff, and congregation members. Internship also offers a structured environment for learning-by-doing and reflecting on the “doing” in order to further develop ministry skills.

Most candidates for pastoral ministry serve as an intern in a congregation for the duration of their third year of seminary. Other lengths, types, and timings of internships are available in some circumstances.

One unique internship site is located in the Southeastern Minnesota Synod. In the Kenyon area, one candidate for pastoral ministry serves eight congregations for a year. An intern in this setting has to have strong organizational skills to keep track of rotating through the congregations for worship (visiting each congregation about once every five weeks) and other activities with different congregations. Each year the intern works with specific ministries – confirmation, women’s Bible studies, visitation, etc. – at one or two congregations each.

Working with eight congregations and several pastors can be both challenging and rewarding. It gives the intern insight into the dynamics and practices. Because several of the congregations are yoked with another congregation among the eight, it also allows an intern to see how partnered congregations work together and how other neighboring congregations fit into that picture. While not unique to working with eight congregations, working in the Kenyon area also gives an intern a look into rural ministry in small congregations, a distinct type of ministry that applies to many congregational settings across the country.

Along with the strengths of this arrangement come some challenges. Previous interns say they have felt somewhat disengaged. While they had many people to mentor and support them and to minister to, they did not get to know them on a deeper level as they would at just one or two congregations. Amanda Jertson, the 2010-2011 intern, said this different kind of engagement could be difficult. For example, she shared, “I didn’t always know what was going on with the folks to whom I was preaching on any given Sunday, so the joys and sorrows they were dealing with didn’t inform my preaching like they would if I were more aware of them.”

Some interns specifically request the Kenyon site. Others, like Revs. Chris and Heather Culuris, 2001-2002 interns, were assigned to the site and there developed a love for rural ministry. Heather now serves Holden and Dale Lutheran Churches in Kenyon, both part of the internship. Chris also serves Trinity and Wanamingo Lutheran Churches in nearby Wanamingo.

Ann Zastrow is just starting her year as the Keyon area intern. She reflects on the differences of such a unique setting, “I am thrilled at the opportunities I will have that others may not have in single-site settings. Not better or worse, just different.”

Rev. Luther Mathsen, First Lutheran Church, Kenyon, one of the eight congregations, shared of his congregation, “One of the joys of it is that we participate in a ministry that serves the wider church by preparing pastors for ministry.”

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