Summer Internship

Spend the summer exploring ministry at a PCA church plant and experiencing life in one of the fastest-growing cities in the western United States. The internship will be hosted through Waypoint Church, a church plant in Colorado Springs. The Springs is a city of around 550,000 people and is located in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. While the city is home to 80+ Christian non-profits, only about 16% of the population identify as Evangelical Protestant and 66% have no religious affiliation. There is a deep need for gospel-centered ministry here!

This internship is designed to help you grow in your awareness of your strengths and weaknesses in church planting and grow in your ministry skill and experience. During the 10-week internship, you will work on developing a capstone project that will teach you how to assess the needs of the community and develop a philosophy ministry to meet those needs based on your context, personality, and calling.

We'll have weekly mentorship with the church planting pastors. Here we’ll discuss a range of topics in church planting, including: how to do a demographic study, evangelism out west, choosing a music style and liturgy for a church plant, leadership in ministry, women leadership in church plants, learning to rest and retreat in ministry, etc. You’ll also be part of a weekly preaching/teaching lab with other summer interns to workshop and give feedback to grow in this area.

Housing: We will work together with you and your family to find free housing for the summer. Depending on circumstances, housing may be in the form of a host-family home or a long-term Airbnb type situation near the host church.

Is this internship paid?: The intern will be provided a stipend of $5,000 for the 10-week internship.

Are there any costs to the intern? No, however, one of the core competencies of church planting is fundraising and the intern should expect to raise around $2,000 for the internship.

*We encourage you to participate in one of MNA’s Church Planting Readiness Seminars, which qualifies you to apply for a grant up to $5k for this internship.

What are the minimum requirements to apply? You must be currently enrolled in seminary and be interested in church planting in the PCA.

What are the internship dates? The total length of the internship is 10 weeks. Dates are flexible, but should ideally fall within the range of the last week of May through the first week in August.

What type of work will I be doing? Expect some opportunities to preach or teach at a church plant, help organize fellowship parties, spend time in the community reaching out to the unchurched, help organize a ministry team, and spend time being mentored by the church planter.

Both men and women interested in leading at church plants are encouraged to apply.

Week 1: Expect an orientation and welcome during the first week of the program.

Week 2-8: The next 7 weeks will focus on experiencing Colorado, learning about the community, and learning about ministry contextualization in the west, all in order to develop a Contextualized Philosophy of Ministry Capstone project. Part of your weekly rhythm will be to devote one day a week to just experience and explore the culture of the Rocky Mountain region.

Week 9: Conclusion of the internship, review and feedback on capstone project, and send-off by the host church

Week 10: Learn to develop rhythms of rest by taking your family for a week-long retreat into the Rocky Mountains with other intern families