Training for Ministry
River Oaks Church is committed to investing in the people of God to be the primary “doers” of the work of gospel ministry. We believe that using one’s spiritual gifts in the life of the church is essential to Christian formation as a disciple of Jesus.
But as part of this vision, we also take seriously the calling placed on the local church to prepare the next generation of vocational ministers. That is: those who labor day-to-day in the preaching and teaching of God’s Word to God’s people.
And that’s where our pastoral internship comes in.
What It’s About
ROC is privileged to be in close proximity to Reformed Theological Seminary (Orlando). Our pastors (and some of our elders) have seminary education. Our associate pastor is a full-time professor at the seminary. But even with all these ties, we do not believe seminary alone makes someone fit to be a pastor. (* Nor does RTS believe it!)
While seminary education provides numerous benefits, the local church is where a pastoral trainee gains the real-world experience that complements the classroom experience and gives it flesh and bones.
Both of our pastors (David and Greg) look back on their ministry training in local churches in Chicago and Charlotte as the most immensely formative experiences for their personal growth.
With that in mind, River Oaks aims to provide the most well-rounded internship experience in our area. That doesn’t mean our church is perfect or even the best. Rather, it means the internship provides the best exposure to the full life of a local church, with all its goods and bads, that will prepare you for the next step.
Our Approach
The internship model that many churches use is simply a part-time staff job as, say, the music director or middle school youth coordinator. Such jobs can work well for some students. But there are two major tradeoffs:
- The intern is basically developing one skill and is not growing in the multiple areas needed to be a pastor
- The intern is constantly in a tug-of-war between school and the job, often resulting in a shift to part-time status as a student because of the difficulty of juggling everything
We take a very different approach. Our internship aims to help the student develop in all areas of pastoral ministry (not just whatever is needed for a given staff job). And it aims to allow students to continue studying full-time while still easing some of the financial burden.
How Does It Work?
Generalist Component
Essential to developing the character and attributes needed to serve in full-time pastoral ministry is gaining hands-on experience doing a lot of different things across the life of the local church (not just, say, children’s ministry). Our internship focuses on this aspect of development: learning the ropes from our pastors and elders across essentially all aspects of church life. In detail, the internship includes the following:
- Teaching opportunities: preaching (at least 1x per year), Adult Sunday School, small groups, etc.
- Pastoral mentoring: monthly meetings with the pastors covering character, leadership, teaching, and other pastoral topics (overview)
- Spouse care (if applicable): specific activities with the pastors and their wives focusing on life as a ministry family
- Leadership development: opportunities to attend weekly staff meetings, elder and deacon meetings (periodically), and presbytery meetings
- Skill development: opportunities to observe/shadow the pastors for counseling sessions, hospital visits, etc.
The key theme is that our internship is about what our church can do to help you (in developing pastorally and spiritually), rather than what you can do to help our our church (as cheap labor)!
We will also sponsor our interns for candidacy in the Central Florida Presbytery of the PCA and work to ensure the internship meets all the requirements for (a) field education (for the MDiv at RTS0 and (b) ordination/licensure.
Specialist Component
We also want to provide interns with an opportunity to go deeper with various ministries. Importantly, we do not put our interns on the “critical path” of any ministry, because we believe it is precisely this dynamic that causes tension between one’s “church job” and seminary assignments (and ultimately burnout).
Rather, our interns are matched up for 6-month rotations to learn from and provide assistance to our other ministry leaders (including lay-led ministries). Options include:
| Worship | Children’s Ministry |
| Adult Education | Youth Ministry |
| Diaconal Ministry | Missions/Mercy/Outreach |
| Small Groups | Administration |
Semesterly Stipend
If you’ve made it this far, one of your main questions may be this: is it paid? For full-time MDiv students who are approved by our Session, the internship is paid via per-semester stipend (which, if the intern desires, could be part of RTS’s Church Partnership Program). Details can be discussed with our pastors.
Interested?
Download the flyer below for more details (click on the image). And then contact our pastors to initiate the conversation!
