Today is the first official day on the job for my summer intern. Therefore, it is my first official day on the job as a summer internship supervisor.

No pressure. No pressure.

I keep telling myself this. I wonder if that mantra will work at some point.

The internship is supported through Project Connect which is an organization that tries to, in a whole bunch of ways, facilitate High School and college students who think they might be interested in public ministry (that means pastors, Christian ed directors, youth directors, camp directors, church counselors, church social workers and lots of other things) in finding out more about this kind of thing. More info on all that is here. So, I had a campus ministry student who was thinking about work in the church and, at the last minute, we got the internship approved.

One of the things I really like about them is that they say they want to provide a theologically sound environment for discernment. Sometimes, groups throw around that phrase ‘theologically sound’ and it doesn’t really mean a whole lot other than ‘we love Jesus’ and while it is great to love Jesus, there are well-intended ways to hurt and mislead people while still loving Jesus. I was pleased to see and hear a really good theological underpinning and clearly stated definitions of the church, call, discernment, etc.

I’ll readily admit it: I’m nervous. In the Lutheran church, we have a year long internship during our seminary years and that was an extremely important year for me in nearly all aspects of my life. That year, my supervisor and that congregation helped make me who I am and the pastor I am now. See what I mean? No pressure. No pressure.

Actually, this internship is for 10 weeks and is not designed to be the same kind of thing. This is more of a ‘taster’ intended to give interns a behind the scenes look, a sample, a taste of what working for the church can look like from a certain point of view. I think it will be fun!

I have one student from campus ministry that will be starting seminary in the fall. Now this one. Will God keep sending me people who want to work for the church? I hope so. I love this part of my job.