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The purpose of the Joshua Generation School is to equip those who feel a genuine calling to the ministry in the local church. The school is only for those who feel the divine call to serve in the home church that Joshua Generation School is overseen by. We do not seek to find and make leaders, but take those who are called to be leaders of specific areas of the church. Although all are called to be leaders in some way for Christ and his kingdom, the Joshua Generation School is created for those with the specific calling to the area of ministry in the church.
Joshua Generation School sets the focus of our teaching on three main areas. They are the pillars that support the whole structure of the school. These three main pillars are listed below in no particular order.
As one of the leaders of the practical ministry side of the internship program I will now take the time to develop the idea behind the Practical ministry aspect of the Joshua Generation School program.
The whole idea behind practical ministry is to allow students (interns) to gain knowledge in the area of the church ministry they feel they are called to. If an intern feels called to be a prophet or prophetess, they will then spend large amounts of time with a person who has that same calling and is active in the church. One may think that the only areas of ministry would be in the five-fold arena, but we believe that certain people have even the calling to be secretaries, janitors, philanthropist, etc.
The time that the intern will spend with the Joshua Generation School will be broken down into two phases.
The introductory period of the ministry is, in essence, to teach the intern how to allow God to cultivate, water, and grow a servant’s heart. This time will be spent doing basic yet needed chores in the church. They will: fill and pass out communion, help with tithe and offering collection, be receptionists at conferences, make phone calls to new church attendees, assist with set up and tear down, be a "go-fer" for any staff member, and other relevant areas. The purpose of this time is to allow the intern to get to the point of servanthood where they will no longer need to be asked to serve the church in some way, but that they are always looking for some way to serve. Reason: So when they are in a position of leadership they will have the heart to serve the congregation by doing what the pastor asks them. The idea behind this is, a person who is signed up for the intern program is going to be excited to "start ministering," but, we want them to see the importance of serving in areas they are not called to. So, when they want to preach, we have them preach and minister to the toilet with a scrub brush and disinfectant, when they want to lead worship, they sing to the rhythm of the stapler for the conference packets. Why? To help them see that there can be joy and satisfaction in a job well done for the Lord…whatever the job is!
The second part of the ministry training experience is the intensified portion. In this intensified portion we have sub-divided it into two stages.
The main idea behind this is like a father teaching his son how to hit a baseball with a bat. First, the father shows the son how he holds the bat, and how he hits the ball. Then the father helps the son hold and hit, with much help from the father. Lastly, the father lets the son do it alone with much encouragement and support. We aim to do the same with the interns that God has given us.
I have learned much from the project our group put together. I would inform many people of the ideas that have been shared by all in the group, and hope that people can benefit from all that has been said in these papers. As you read, you may think to yourself, "My church only has 150 people, and one young adult that feels the need to be trained to lead." My friends, even if you have 2, 20, or even 200, there will be a lot of fruit in those lives if ministry, instruction, and mentoring take place. Never has it been said that those three things need to take place in a formal session to accomplish goals. Many leaders of today have never had formal teaching. They just had someone caring enough to come alongside them and help them realize their role in Christ. It all comes down to the heart. If you are willing to allow someone to speak into your life, or allow yourself to speak into someone’s life, change will occur and further the kingdom.
A new "fad" has become phenomenally popular in the Church recently. Internships for the youth of all different shapes and sizes have been started by churches around the world. The Church has been forced to rethink things as a whole generation of young people who are passionate for Jesus have come out of high school and entered adulthood with a vision for serving God to their fullest potential,. Internships, many of which were built out of a necessity to keep kids from wandering away from the church, now are being geared up and rebuilt as the tool to raise up the next generation of leaders for the church. PBC's motto of "Raising up leaders for the church, by the church and in the church," describes what is the common thread in every internship's vision. As more and more churches catch a vision for the power that can be unleashed in an internship, this fad, I believe, will become a movement that will be the key for many churches reaching their cities across the America and around the world.
This movement began primarily out of necessity. Churches are becoming tired of losing all their on-fire-for-God young people just because they did not have any future for them at the church. In order to get the training these young people needed to fulfill the vision God had given them, they had to go to some Bible College somewhere, or to a place like YWAM. Also churches began to recognize a clear trend that many of the young people who went through youth group fell away from the church after high school. In fact, in this post-high school transition time an average of 80 percent did not stay in the church! Much of this due to the simple fact that there was nothing there for them. Finally, one other reason is that in today's more post-modern culture, the overall learning style has changed. Just cold hard facts in a text book do not mean nearly as much as the real life experience of those same facts and principles. An internship's most valuable resource is that it is able to give the students real ministry opportunity to learn from. Then they are able to apply the facts and principles much more readily in a classroom setting.
This real life practical ministry is the heart of an internship. Because of this, all the instruction that they receive, as well as the prayer and the impartation, is so much more real because they know that that afternoon they are going to have to use it. This is the advantage over the classic training places like the seminary where everything is knowledge based. Though they may not say it, many times the message being sent is that what you know is much more important than what you do. This apparently is not how Jesus thought when picking out the twelve disciples. In fact if you look at how Jesus trained the twelve it looks very different than most seminaries. Internships offer the church a chance to reinstate the methods of teaching that Jesus used to raise up twelve men who became history makers.
The other great advantage of an internship is that it gets the kids that have come through high school and have a clear heart for God, plugged in immediately to the local church. Because you take these on-fire kids and begin pushing them into the ministry of the local church they suddenly catch the church's vision and are ready to commit their lives to it. This in turn feeds the vision of the church as a whole as they see new leaders being raised up. This is so powerful because the young people's vision for their church gives them the motivation for pouring their lives out in serving and preparation.
In the past the pattern has gone something like this. There is a kid in the youth group that loves God and has a huge passion to be used by God. So we tell him, "Well, if you are going to be used by God, you are going to have to be trained. Here are some Bible Colleges or maybe School of Ministries that you can check out and see if you like." This may work OK for the kids that feel God is calling them into the full time ministry, but it leaves a huge gap for those who want to pursue a regular profession, even for those who are planning to go into ministry. Doug Lasit, the youth pastor of City Bible Church says that, "Training for the ministry should take place in the place you're planted." The main reason for this is that every church has, in a way, its own DNA. Doug asks, "What DNA do you want in your kids?" God has brought these kids to you to shepherd and mature. They have been placed under your care for a reason. You are responsible to see what kind of preparation they get.
An Internship's greatest advantage over a Bible School setting is the opportunities for practical ministry of all sorts in the church. This hands-on approach to learning is not only probably the best way of teaching, but it can and will result in great fruit. In my own life as a Bible College student getting involved in ministering to others while I'm being daily poured into is the greatest decision I've made at college.
My first semester was really good because I was still riding the excitement of being in an atmosphere just totally saturated with God. However by my second semester the hum drum of classes day in and day out was beginning to cause my excitement to wane. Pretty soon, whenever I would feel challenged about touching other people's lives, I would get excited, but then quickly remember that I had been excited before and nothing ever happened. It just seemed too hard to break into a realm of ministry that I really desired to have. When there was an offer to help out with a group of Asians kids, I brushed it off because I did not feel any great burden for them.
Finally, when some of my friends who were working with the Asian church were talking about all the great things God was doing, I decided I just had to start helping out. The funny thing was that as soon as I started being with them the burden for them grew. It has become the most fulfilling part of my life right now and suddenly all of my Bible College classes have so much more importance. In many of them God takes an experience of working with the Asian kids and ties it in with what is being taught in class to teach me a life lesson that changes the way I see things. All of the principles that are being taught have so much more importance to me because I know that this Sunday I will be using it. In ministry training, practical ministry is such a huge key in real learning.
When it comes to Internships there have been several models for ministry that have surfaced and are prevalent among the existing programs. The three general categories are Master's Commission, internships, and apprenticeship, or a Paul-Timothy relationships. Really, each type of training will work best for different people. The ministry involvement is what defines each one.
The Master's Commission is basically a Christian boot camp. In its truest sense, the young person is totally cut off from all of society for the duration of the program. There is no TV, radio, stereo, magazines, newspapers, etc. Only him and the Bible. They are total servants during the whole time. They wash toilets, vacuum carpets, take water to the preacher, wait at pastor's breakfasts, and whatever other way they can serve the church. It focuses on teaching them how to be a servant in the church, something that every person needs to learn. What it does not do is give very much opportunity for developing their individual giftings.
In a true internship, the interns get a better chance to actually be involved in helping lead in the youth group and they often become an integral part of the departments at the church. They are given more opportunity to develop the giftings that have been placed in each of them individually and to reach out in those specific areas they are feeling God is calling them to.
Finally in the Timothy-Paul apprenticeship the intern basically becomes an assistant. It essentially is a mentoring relationship. This level of interning cannot be expected for everybody. It should only be for those who seem to be ready to come into ministry. The ideal situation would be to bring them onto staff and have them working with you constantly. This way they see what is really involved and are trained how to work and function in the ministry.
At each of these levels you must design the practical ministry to fit the maturity level of the group or individual. Most kids straight out of High School, while they may have a huge passion for God, are no where near being ready for the responsibility of full on ministry. They need ministry opportunities that will build a servant's heart in them while not overwhelming them so that they fail. One way that has worked really good is to have them work together as a group on different projects that the church is undertaking.
It is so important when you are working with this kind of group that they see a vision for what they are doing. You must give them both a vision of the fruit of their ministry and the fruit in their own character. Once they catch the vision they will be more than willing to serve in any capacity to see it come to reality. This is really what God does with each one of our lives on a bigger scale. When we have a vision we are willing to literally die for it and it keeps a hope alive even when we have to put up with the daily drudgery of life.
At this level though, you want to mainly focus on each one of their characters. Character is the most important thing that the intern will come out of a program with. Larry Asplund, one of my teacher at Portland Bible College, has warned me that, "A passion for vision and destiny can actually become very self-centered." They must learn most of all how to serve. I believe the most dangerous people are those who have been trained to lead but have not had their character tried and proved.
The reality of leadership is so far from the glorious image that we often have of it. Many of the worse leaders have become that way because they thought their leadership was their ticket to total self-satisfaction. They think, "Well, now that I'm a leader, I can make people do whatever I want them to do. They have to do and fulfill all the visions and dreams I've had for myself." This is so far from the truth. Jesus, the King of Kings, came to earth to serve, not to be served! Practical ministry helps reinforce the fact that ministry, above all else, is pure and simple serving.
Thus, above all else the goal of any kind of internship must be to bring people to a greater Christ-likeness. It is so easy for young people to get caught up in the glory of ministry and to come to the conclusion that life's most glorious calling and goal is to touch a lot of people. The only way this will be able to be accomplished to the glory of God is if we make it our life's purpose to be more like Christ. This must be the seed that is imparted to the next generation of leaders.
On this foundation of character it is then possible to move on into the more intensive levels of interning. Ultimately the best way to do this is to be able to connect an intern with someone who can take him or her on and personally mentor them while they both minister together. A note of caution about this however. Howard Hendricks, one of mentoring's greatest proponents writes in his book Iron Sharpens Iron, "Programs for mentoring succeed or fail depending on the extent to which they honor the fundamental law that mentoring involves a relationship, not a program" (Hendricks 231). Rarely do two people who are just thrown together succeed in a mentoring relationship. There always needs to be a prior relationship they can build on.
This area of relationship is so vital to the success of an internship. For this reason I think internships will succeed the best in a young person's own local church. Many local churches are beginning to see the vision of what an internship program would do for the youth who really want to serve God and for the whole church as well. God is raising up a generation that will be formed in His image to effect the whole world. I believe that this internship movement is a major key in his plan.
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