Internship in the Christian ministry is that period of time when a beginning minister is placed under the tutelage of an older, more experienced ordained minister of the gospel. Like his counterpart in the medical profession, he serves in preparation for "independent practice." After the young man has proved himself loyal and efficient in service for the Master Preacher, he receives ordination. The church thus places her seal of approval upon the life and work of the God-called individual. God and His church on earth unite in approbation at the time of ordination.
To no one else is the period of internship more important than to the intern himself, who usually enters into it fresh from the college or seminary classroom, and to whom it is a vastly new experience that challenges him to put theory into practice. Internship should also be important to the older minister into whose hands is committed a young man going through the most delicate part of his career. What the intern learns of the ministry, good or bad, in part depends on the older man, for it is his responsibility to a certain extent to mold the mind of his younger colleague and to infuse a high concept of the ministry.
A normal, intelligent intern will be a keen observer of the man with whom he is associated, and he will scrutinize his every move and action. Thus the importance of the older man's being at his best at all times, behind the pulpit and away from it. He perhaps will not be expected to have reached the acme of perfection in his line of work, but certainly he will be observed and analyzed closely by his younger colleague.
If his association with the older minister is not on the order of that with Jesus Himself and His twelve interns, or with that of the apostle Paul with Titus and Timothy, the younger man will be disappointed. Christ's instructions to His twelve young interns recorded in Matthew 10 reveal His love and solicitous care for them. Paul's reference to Titus as "mine own son after the common faith" (Titus 1:4) and to Timothy as "my own son in the faith" (1 Tim. 1:2) and "my dearly beloved son" (2 Tim. 1:2), as well as the tone and tenor of the Epistles he addressed personally to them, reveal his fatherly affection and interest in the progress and spiritual welfare of these two young interns, who no doubt must have loved Paul greatly in return, for love evokes love.
In the great apostle's concept they were not merely servants or errand boys who attended to the menial tasks that he had no time for, that he did not care to pay attention to, or that were rightfully the duty of some other church official. His confidence in their ability is evident in that he left Timothy in charge of the church at Ephesus and Titus in the island of Crete (1 Tim. 1:3; Titus 1:5). These young men had a high calling, and Paul saw to it that in every way they were fit for it, physically, spiritually, and intellectually. Having read concerning Paul and his behavior toward these young ministers of the gospel, today's intern has fashioned in his mind what one might call a master image of what his superior ought to be, and he will be constantly watching to see whether he measures up to his expectations. To be like Christ! To be like Paul! What a stupendous challenge for the older minister!
One of the most important instances in the relationship between a minister and his intern is the counsel period. It is not to degenerate into a censure period, but rather should be a mingling of loving correction and genuine praise of the intern's virtues and accomplishments. He should never leave the pastor's study or home, wherever the interview may have taken place, feeling defeated and that everything he does is wrong. Such a complex is highly injurious to the character of the younger man and may stifle in weaker ones, even if momentarily, the desire to strive on. Earnest prayer for the young intern should be part and parcel of every interview or counsel period. There should be no browbeating, but unfailing, patient counsel and frequent prayers, in harmony with the following admonition:
We are too indifferent in regard to one another. Too often we forget that our fellow-laborers are in need of strength and cheer. Take care to assure them of your intereit and sympathy. Help them by your prayers, and let them know that you do it.— Gospel Workers, p. 480.
In his relationship with an older man the ministerial intern should in no wise lose his individuality or identity, neither is he to be restricted from expressing his opinions and views freely to his superior. In the above-cited book, pages 102 and 103, we read:
The younger worker must not become so wrapped up in the ideas and opinions of the one in whose charge he is placed, that he will forfeit his individuality. He must not lose his identity in the one who is instructing him, so that he dare not exercise his own judgment, but does what he is told, irrespective of his own understanding of what is right and wrong. It is his privilege to learn for himself of the great Teacher. If the one with whom he is working pursues a course which is not in harmony with a 'Thus saith the Lord,' . . . let him go to his superior in office, and lay the matter before him, freely expressing his mind.
Further counsel in the same wonderful volume, given to those "bearing administrative burdens in connection with God's cause" could well apply in this present discussion:
Men have no right to treat the workers as if they were inanimate objects, with no voice or expression of their own.—Page 452.
See also the following from the same work:
No human being is to seek to bind other human beings to himself, as if he were to control them, telling them to do this, and forbidding them to do that, commanding, dictating, acting like an officer over a company of soldiers.—Page 484.
These statements are self-explanatory and all point to the necessity of having respect for the personality of others. And nowhere does this concept apply better than in the relationship between an older minister of the gospel and the young man placed under him for instruction.
Of prime importance in the minister-intern situation is an outline of responsibilities for the latter. The minister in charge should take it upon himself to work out a daily program of work together with and for the younger man. This program should be flexible enough to allow for unusual situations and emergencies that may arise from day to day. It should not be so rigid that it will not give the young pastor elbowroom in his daily activities, and provision ought to be made for an adequate study period every morning. Regimentation of the intern is never successful in the ministry. Sooner or later human nature will rebel against it in one manner or another. Having reached an agreement with his instructor as to what his daily program will be, the intern should carry it out with dispatch, occasionally reporting back to his superior as to his activities. When confronted with difficult problems or situations, he should feel free to consult with him as to their solution. He should be careful not to infringe upon the sphere of action of the pastor of the church by attempting to handle situations that are rightfully his duty or within his personal jurisdiction.
Never should the intern ask to occupy the pulpit for the purpose of preaching. He will not impose upon the church pastor for that privilege, but will wait until he is invited to do so. Some ministers complain that their instructor seldom asked them to preach in church, in spite of the fact that they would have been delighted to do so. It is better for the intern never to have been invited to preach, although such a thing would certainly be unusual, than to have his motives misconstrued for having importuned the older minister for the opportunity to preach a sermon.
The truth is that most pastors are ready and willing to grant their interns opportunities to practice the art of preaching. One thing that an intern ought to feel free to ask of his superior is his opinion on the organization and delivery of his sermon. He should courageously accept his pastor's comments and constructive criticism and proceed to apply the counsel the next time he is granted the opportunity to preach. At all times "the young men in training should respect the counsel of their instructors, honoring their devotion, and remembering that their years of labor have given them wisdom."--/bid., p. 101. This wisdom the intern should covet and take advantage of for his own personal betterment.
One thing of which the intern should never be guilty is hero worship. There is danger that he will consider the senior minister as an idol, worthy of all praise and honor, and that he will mold his character after the image of man rather than Christ. How many young men there are who strive to look like the older minister, act like him, and even preach like him! This is a harmful infatuation that should be eliminated. What better counsel can be given a young preacher than to be himself! There are qualities that one can admire in a more experienced person, but this does not necessitate imitation. Naturalness in demeanor should be the goal of the young preacher; artificiality in his thinking and in his behavior will never become him.
All in all, the internship period is a most profitable experience for the younger worker. He should emerge from his apprenticeship a better man, "a man approved, a worker that cannot be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth." * If the intern realizes his high calling he will endeavor to make his early years in the ministry a rich, wholesome, and rewarding experience, to which he will look back with joy and satisfaction. And if he had the pleasure of sitting at the feet of a consecrated, devoted man of God, his joy will be more complete.
