Collegiate Collective

Recruiting, developing, and maintaining a capable team of staff and interns is a critical part of doing ministry on the college campus. In this discussion from the Oakland Collaborative, Jason Slack (h2o), Paul Fiske (Aletheia), and Chad McMillan (Resonate), share their churches’ strategies for addressing this topic and talk about the opportunity using interns presents to create wins for both students and staff.

Participants:
Jason Slack (Pastor – h2o Kent – Kent, OH)
Paul Fiske (Lead Pastor – Aletheia – Harrisonburg, VA)
Chad McMillan (Executive Pastor – Resonate Church – Pullman, WA)

Key Points:

• Developing interns and staff members from within your ministry results in a shorter learning curve for the individual, allowing them to make larger contributions quickly.
• When looking for interns and staff members, hire great people and then work to develop a job description that matches their skills with the ministry’s needs.
• Full-time staff should invest heavily in interns to develop them not only for their current position, but for whatever they may do in the future as well.

Questions to consider:

• How would you go about identifying potential intern or staff candidates from within your own ministry? What criteria would you use?
• In what ways does your full-time staff interact with interns? What feedback do both groups give about the effectiveness of your model?
• What can you do structure-wise to help student interns who are in their first “job” to experience success and be prepared for future professional lives? (whether or not in ministry)

Links and additional resources:
http://www.h2okent.com/
http://www.aletheiachurch.com/
http://experienceresonate.com/