Advice from Paul.
Paul had a shaping influence in the life of Timothy. Near the end of his life, Paul reminds Timothy of Timothy’s own pastoral responsibilities in shepherding the church of Ephesus to a place of greater health. One of the essential matters Paul brings up to Timothy is leadership in the church. Elders must be qualified men who lead and feed the church (1 Tim 2:8–3:7). Paul also reminds Timothy that he will have to evaluate and equip such qualified men.
“What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (2Tim. 2:2).
Our (summer) pastoral intership is one way we pay attention to Paul’s words. We heed such words, so that we can strengthen our own church and send out men to strengthen and plant other churches as well. Pastors should know the church so they can love and serve the church.
Answers from a former pastoral resident.
Nik did a summer internship. Nik did the intership as a single man and stayed in a separate downstairs living space with church members. (We also have an “intern apartment” next to our church building.) Nik is now married, and God has blessed his family with a joyful little son.
Below are some questions Nik answered about the internship.
Briefly tell us about who you are. Share a little about your upbringing and your conversion.
I grew up going to church but not really knowing what the church was. I do not know exactly when I became a Christian. I know I prayed a prayer when I was five, but I think somewhere along the road of ages 5–18, I truly believed in the beautiful gospel of Jesus Christ. I have heard it said that I met the love of my life at an early age, but I did not know him until I was much older.
You were a member at EBC for about a year before the internship. How did you come to EBC?
I knew I needed to be a part of a body. I had just wrapped up a pastoral internship (for class at school) the summer before. During that time, I truly began to understand the primacy and need for the local church in the life of a Christian. I was attending somewhere that did not put an emphasis on membership and did not practice any sort of discipline. I had a few discussions with a pastor there, and we decided it would be best for me to leave and find somewhere where I could worship. A friend of mine who was going to Heritage Bible Church at the time introduced me to Emmanuel. (Heritage planted EBC in 2005). I listened to a few sermons online, and then I attended in November of 2021. I have stayed ever since.
How did applying for the internship happen? What excited you the most about serving as a pastoral intern?
I was nearing the end of my college studies and thinking about interning at a church in Pennsylvania when Pastor Brad approached me about doing the internship here. (He had actually pursued me the summer before, but I couldn’t do it then.) We talked through the internship and the things that I would be doing. I thought that there was no better place to learn about the church and pastoral ministry than at the church where I was already a member!
I think being able to serve the body that I have come to know as a family was one of the most exciting things. I was able to form many deep relationships all over the body and learn so much. Another exciting thing is that with all of my reading, at the end I knew the residency would deepen my relationship God and his church.
How long did it last?
Ten weeks.
The internship is designed to help brothers read, write, and reflect deeply on matters related to church history, ecclesiology, discipleship, worship, missions, and preaching. Share two impressions or insights from all the reading and writing you did. What’s been the most insightful book you read and why?
The first insight I would like to expound on is the importance, privilege, and duty of being a church member.
Being a member of a church is important because it is a supernatural membership. When God calls anyone from being dead in their sin to life in Christ they are joined to the invisible church. The invisible church is everyone who believes in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and is saved. The invisible church is made visible in the local church.
The local church is a geographically bound gathering of believers in which the invisible church is displayed to a given area by their mere existence. The privilege of being a church member is that when someone becomes a Christian, the Holy Spirit gathers them to a local church. The gathering is a beautiful picture of adoption. A person who had no family is now gathered and made a part of a local slice of God’s family. The duty of being a church member was a major emphasis of some of my reading. The reading that I did and the sermon that I preached clarified two things about membership. First, ministry is done by the local church. Second, as a Christian, it is my responsibility “to do the work of the ministry, [which is] the building up of the body” (Eph 4:12).
The second insight that I would like to share is the simple nature of the building up of the body.
The Trellis and the Vine, Discipleship, Compelling Community, and The Master Plan for Evangelism were three books that helped make my philosophy of the “building up of the body,” or discipleship, concrete. A major emphasis from these books is that discipleship should be organic. It is supposed to be as simple as going up to someone at church and asking to meet with them to study a book, a book of the Bible, or form an accountability relationship with them. Discipleship is not a bunch of “things” or “programs” but rather just a commitment and consistency to one another as members of a local church to build one another up.
The most insightful book I read was Corporate Worship by Matt Merker.
Merker provides a simple yet rich theology that covers the corporate worship service, as well as the individual duty of each member regarding that service. Some takeaways that come to mind are:
- The encouragements one may feel as they sing with one another in a time of singing.
- Individuals are praying for requests and interceding for someone while we are also confessing sin and pleading with God for help.
- The liturgy (or order of service) is an intentional tool that teaches and disciples the congregation to know what the emphasis of the church is, and what should be the emphasis of their own lives.
During your internship, you focused mainly on theological reading and writing brief reflections on assigned books and topics. You also observed elders’ meetings, met with members, and engaged in relational discipleship and evangelism. Share some encouraging observations and takeaways you saw happening in the life of EBC from those meetings.
The first thing I would like to note is the encouragement and comfort it is to know that the elders of EBC pray for the congregation together after their meetings, as well as every week.
I remember the first time I attended an elder prayer time, and I started crying because I realized the great weight these men carry and labor within their intercession for the congregation. What a great picture of pastoral love that was modeled for me!
The second thing that is encouraging is our church people.
Although, the summer is a crazy time of year and everyone’s schedules are all out of wack, members still took time to meet with me on a day-to-day basis. I applaud our church for being much like the early church in their devotion to fellowship and their drive for the building up of our body.
The third thing I want to note is that organic discipleship is more manageable than I thought.
I started meeting with a few people and once we had a schedule down, our consistency just took off. The studies that I did this summer (Mark’s Gospel and Colossians) were not epic events that took hours and hours of preparation. They took an hour or two, then we met and talked about the word.
What did you learn the most from the pastoral internship that could encourage our church family?
I am ready to be a low-maintenance, faithful, available, and teachable church member.
I greatly aspire to pastoral ministry, but if the congregation does not affirm that, then I am completely fine with being a member. I do not have to be the pastoral assistant; I do have to have a luxurious title, or be in the know about anything. I just want to serve the body of Emmanuel Bible Church and build it up as it has built me up. I love Christ and have grown to love him and his church so much more over the past ten weeks and just want to continue!
