Summer 08 Internship

For the last three and a half months I have been in Pennsylvania doing my summer internship at Allison Park Church. I really wanted to write about all of the things that God did in my heart during my time there for a few weeks now but I felt that I should wait just a while until I could really reflect on everything and hear God about it. And now, although I'm sure that I am not even fully aware of all of the things that I learned at Allison Park, I think I can finally share some of the things that God did in me and taught me while I was there. [In no particular order of course :) ]

1) I learned that ministry is totally not about me. Being in the ministry is not the glamorous job that it may appear to be, and there are so many days that I was so tempted to complain or criticize, and I learned very quickly that if I am not going into ministry for any other reason other than that I know that I have been called to serve God by serving people, then I will not make it. There is no room in the kingdom of God for egos or selfishness and that is most certainly true in the case of ministry.

2) I learned that I don't hate youth ministry! That may sound funny, but before coming to APC, I had told numerous people, possibly including God, that I would never ever ever ever ever do youth ministry. However, I had the time of my life this summer being a youth intern. I wouldn't necessarily say that God has now called me to do youth ministry for the rest of my life, but it's definitely something that He has given me a passion for in these short three and half months. I can't even begin to explain the desire that I felt for these teenagers to know Christ. During City Reach (a week long domestic missions trip that some of our youth took part in), I had the opportunity to see some of the youth that I had been personally mentoring step out in faith and pray for people they didn't even know to be healed, and they were! Working with these kids has definitely been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.

3) I learned the importance of encouraging others in ministry as well.

4) I learned how poisonous negative attitude can be; and in contrast, just how powerful a positive attitude can be.

5) I was challenged on a whole new level concerning praying for the sick. Of course I had always believed that God heals and had prayed for people to be healed in the past that received healing; however, this summer it took on a whole new life. Now, I almost go about my day "searching" for people to pray for. I really saw how God can use things such as healing and miracles as a sign for people to believe, and I've been seeing it happen over and over again.

6) I received assurance that it is okay that I don't know what particular area of ministry God has called me to. There were times this summer where I found myself frustrated that I hadn't ever felt a clear call to any group of people (kids, youth, adults, women, missions, etc.) like some of the other interns had. All that I have ever clearly heard from God concerning His call on my life is that He wants me to preach His word. Now however, partly because of a peace that God has given me about it and partly because of something Pastor Jeff said to our intern group during one of our sessions with him, I really do feel much more at ease about it. One day, Pastor Jeff told our intern group, "God really is much more concerned about where you end up then you are!" Right away that registered with me and I've had a peace about it ever since.

7) I was shown a truly wonderful example of how a balanced, relevant, Spirit-filled, 21st century church should operate. When we are a part of a church from an attendee aspect only, it can be somewhat difficult to really see the inner workings of all that is really going on, but I can say with confidence that Allison Park truly is going after God and making an impact on the city of Pittsburgh, they really do exist for "the one" and that is something that seems to have infiltrated every aspect of the church.

8) I learned of a whole new paradigm of church-networking. For quite a while I had really been thinking about how much more effective we as THE Church would be so much more effective if we were united and working together for a common goal instead of individually for own reasons however noble they may be, and I got to see this in action when I came to Allison Park through MCM (Multi-Church Movement) and City Reach. It was so incredibly inspiring and refreshing to see churches come together with a common goal, to see people come to Christ! I truly believe that this is going to be one of the most effective ways that the Church will be able to function during these upcoming years and I can't wait to see what God does with it!

9) I learned that you can feed a whole lot of people with Hamburgers and hot dogs from Aldi's :) haha

10) I was able to see yet again just how faithful God is to me. When He specifically told me to go to Pittsburgh this summer I had absolutely NO idea why, and although I'm sure I haven't even fully figured all of it out yet, I know that I am so incredibly grateful to Him for everything this summer. I built so many relationships with people that I know continue to enjoy, I learned more about ministry and myself than ever before, and I now really feel confident to do exactly what He has called me to do. Whatever that is :)