INTERN PROGRAMME 2017 St Stephen s Church, Twickenham One or two years of ministry training in a friendly and vibrant South West London church. This is a great opportunity to mature in your relationship with God and be equipped for future ministry whilst discerning God s call on your life. St Stephen s Church St Stephen s is a large, friendly community of all ages and stages of life. We are a charismatic, evangelical church (Church of England) with 500+ adults and 200+ children and youth. We are blessed by an extraordinary location in East Twickenham - a suburb of Richmond Upon Thames in South West London. The combination of easy access into Central London, local parks and riverside walks, Twickenham Stadium for Rugby fans and a village feel with great local shops and pubs make this a lovely location in which to live and work. Many people have found a spiritual home at St Stephen s over the years, some with previous experience of church, and others with none. Our hope is that everyone coming in through our doors will be welcomed, make friends, and discover more of God's grace. In everything we do, we value hospitality, generosity, the dignity of every person, appreciating the traditional and contemporary, embracing Word and Spirit, encountering the presence of God and maintaining a good sense of humour amidst it all!
Our vision Our current vision at St Stephen s is to be 'Offering Life in Jesus to all; This is worked out on a practical level through the A, B, C, D, E of Adoration, Belonging, Community & Compassion, Discipleship and Evangelism. We seek to keep a focus on Up (God), In (each other) and Out (the community and world around us) in all we do. Hence we are committed to being an outward looking church, serving our community and the wider world with the good news about Jesus. This outward looking focus is sustained and empowered through encountering God in worship, prayer and study of the bible, and our relationships with each other as we support, encourage, honour and care for one another. St Stephen s is going through an exciting time as the church leadership is developing under God a refreshed 5 year vision. This is intentionally placing a greater emphasis on the Out focus to ensure that we grow as a church in being able to go out with confidence and joy. Within this, we are beginning to journey what embracing a missional approach could mean for us as St Stephen s community together. We aim to keep the attractional and programme based church-life that St Stephen s has valued for decades; but alongside that, increasingly equip all members of our community to brings God s transformation in the places where we live out our day to day lives and around the world. Church is a movement not an institution and we re committed to raising and equipping disciples who can make disciples and who are ambassadors for Christ on their day to day frontlines. Our Intern & Ministry Assistant Programme In partnership with another New Wine West London church we have been developing an intern programme that enables you to serve God in the church and community, take on significant ministry responsibilities and receive input and training. We see our internships as an investment in your future and the future of the church. This year we are once again partnering our St Stephen s Intern Programme with the New Wine Discipleship Year training hub at St Pauls in Ealing. Through this partnership, the training and input you will receive is high quality, intensive, formational and tailored to help you grow and develop. Together with your co-interns you will deepen your knowledge and experience of God; develop key ministry skills; discover, exercise and nurture your spiritual gifts and grow through serving in a local church. Our desire is to tailor the internship around your gifts and strengths, whilst challenging you in areas you might not have tried out before so that you can grow and develop.
In 2013-4 we had 5 interns, serving as Youth, Children & Young Families, Operations, Worship and Media & Production interns. All 5 stayed for a second year as Ministry Assistants and some of them have in fact since been able to take up paid positions on the St Stephen s staff team as other staff members have moved on. The 2015 intake had 4 interns, 3 of whom are currently working out their final term in their second year and are now well positioned to be competitive candidates for paid ministry employment. Two have already secured posts as a chaplain assistant and a youth-worker and the other is in the middle of applications for the ministries they are pursuing. For the 2017-18 intake we are aiming to recruit 4 interns to work across the life of the church. They will focus in the following areas (ministry team in parenthesis): Worship (Worship Team) Children & Young Families (Children s Team) Youth (Youth Team) All of these intern positions will also have the opportunity to work in a secondary ministry area during their time with us, so that they can develop a new breadth of skills. These broader ministry areas are: Media & Production Social Engagement & Compassion Ministries Position 1: Worship Intern We're looking for a young worship leader who's passionate about leading people into the presence of God through worship. You will have the chance to join a rapidly developing young team. You ll have plenty of opportunities to lead and support worship in our Sunday services, in many mid-week ministry events and services and also to get involved with audio and technical worship support work. Our worship team has access to a studio and if you are a keen song writer there could be space to develop this. We have a broad range of musical worship styles expressed in this church, from organ music through to the contemporary band experience. Interview for this position will involve practical demonstration of your musical ability. Position 2: Kids & Young Families Intern We're looking for a hard-working and fun intern who understands the importance of helping children to discover and engage with God as an individual themselves. We have dedicated kids and young families teams that run lively and popular Kids Church and Toddlers Church on Sunday mornings and Little Acorns and Refresh midweek groups. There will also be loads for you to input into our yearly Easter holiday club and Halloween alternative event. Your internship will give opportunity for working across all of these groups and
events and also to help develop the work further. The work is at an exciting time of growth and development with the number of families we have connection with growing monthly. Position 3: Youth Intern We're looking for a responsible and fun intern who can join the team here developing our work with youth. We have a vibrant youth team working across Younger Youth on Sunday mornings and monthly Friday nights, Older Youth on Sunday and Thursday evenings and in the youth social club Generator on alternate Friday nights. We have a dedicated youth space The Venue which is a great space for the church youth and friends to hang out. Media & Production Broader ministry areas: If you have a passion for making sure that church communications are vibrant and relevant to Millennials, then we d love to give you additional opportunity to grow additional skills during your internship. Our Media and Communications Manager (one of our previous interns in fact!) needs ministry support from someone who is confident with visual and media communications. There is scope for developing the way we use our website, social media and video as well as our written publicity and monthly magazines. If you are creative and want to develop a ministry or career in media and production then this could be a great training ground for you. Social Engagement & Compassion St Stephen s Church has an active senior s ministry and pastoral ministry. We also run a weekly Drop-In meal for local homeless and vulnerable adults. In additional we partner with a local charity (Crossway Pregnancy Crisis centre) which offers advice and support for those facing pregnancy crisis, and a local money advice service (TWMAS) which helps those ensnared in crippling debt. There are ministry opportunities for exploring and developing gifts in compassion and pastoral ministry in these types of areas. We also have ample opportunity to partner with local churches in more deprived and culturally diverse areas if you wish to be stretched and developed in these areas.
ALL intern positions will: 1. Spend every Tuesday at St Paul s Church in Ealing for a full training day at the New Wine Discipleship Year programme. 2. Work on Sundays either in your main ministry area or in another ministry area of your choice (if your ministry area isn t active on a Sunday). 3. Receive line management & supervision, coaching & mentoring provided by St Stephen s Church. 4. Engage in general service in the church life every week including chair moving and event set up and pack down. 5. Be given, as the year progresses, plenty of opportunity for significant responsibilities including leading and preaching if appropriate. 6. Attend the national New Wine Discipleship Year residential weekend away, the New Wine s Retreat to Advance conference and take a place on a volunteer team during the New Wine summer festivals (or HTB Focus festival as an alternative option), * (*We hope that applicants will be willing to raise some of their own funds towards the cost of these extras but we will not refuse an internship to anyone who is not in a position to raise funds).
For more information and an application form if you haven t downloaded one from our website (http://www.st-stephens.org.uk/news/vacancies) please contact: Jules Morgan (Operations Director) julesmorgan@st-stephens.org.uk 0208 842 5258 All positions are subject to satisfactory references, an advanced DBS check, and a formal interview. Closing date 1 July 2017 Application process Submit an intern 2017-18 application form to Jules Morgan (Operations Director and Intern Programme Director) by 1 July at the very latest (you do not have to wait until the deadline to submit your application) Shortlisted candidates will be called for interview on a rolling basis once their applications have been received and if they meet the standard required. Referees may be contacted for a verbal reference before interview. Successful applicants will be informed as soon as possible after interview and conditional offer letters (subject to checks) will be sent to successful candidates. Appointment and Induction process DBS forms and checks will need to be completed and written references received. When all checks and references are satisfactory, appointments will be confirmed in writing Interns will be issued with a Voluntary worker agreement to sign. Interns will be allocated host homes to move into during early September**. All interns will be introduced and welcomed at the Sunday services on Sunday 10 th September Interns will start work in the church offices on Monday 11 th September day 1 will be an orientation day, further details will be sent with offer letters. The first Discipleship year training day is at St Paul s Church Ealing on Tuesday 12 th September. ** If you live locally and would prefer to remain with that arrangement, this is usually acceptable.
The Nitty Gritty things you ll probably want to know before applying Q? Is the internship paid? This is a voluntary internship. We ll provide a host home with a local member of the church congregation. Your host should provide meals but if you and they agree that you will self-cater, you ll get an additional weekly food allowance. In total you ll receive up to a maximum 125 a week living and expenses allowance (less if your host provides food). Q? How many internships are you offering? We are aiming to recruit a total of 4 interns into a cohort from Sept 2017 July 2018. There is the potential for a second year as a Ministry Assistant for some interns, but this is not guaranteed at the outset. Q? What training will I receive? There will be a weekly programme that provides 1 day a week (Tuesday) for training and participation in the New Wine Discipleship Year at the local training hub at St Paul s Church in Ealing. This includes a full training programme. For further information on this see https://www.dy.new-wine.org/ An additional in-house training programme, managed by the Ops Director with input from ministry leaders. The aim is to provide you with peer support training, mentorship, pastoral supervision, and some skills based training. This will include a monthly rolling programme of group training, group pastoral support and prayer time, action learning sets, individual study time, and some ring-fenced social time together as interns. Q? What will a typical week look like? Your week is going to be built up of 4 hour blocks. A morning, afternoon or evening will count as one block. Your weekly programme will contain 12 of these blocks and you ll also have a full day off. There s probably not going to be a typical week for any intern, but there is a basic pattern of : 1. 3 blocks of training (2 on Tuesday and 1 on Wednesday) 2. Up to 1 block of general service 3. Up to 1 block of involvement with other ministry areas on a termly rolling basis. (This is opportunity for you to broaden your experience into wider ministry areas, and the list to choose from includes): 4. Up to 7 blocks of ministry experience and personal training (including Sundays). Your ministry time will include team meetings and line management support meetings. 5. One full day off (usually Saturday each week)
Each internship is going to be bespoke and some will involve evening work, but each intern will volunteer at the church over 4.5 days a week (including Sundays), have a full day off and receive 1.5 days of training and study. Q? What if I m still not sure? Start by praying and talking with a mentor or trusted friend. There are plenty of training internships on offer out there so ours may not be the best fit for you. We think it s more important that you find the right next step for you, rather than you just filling a programme place for us but not feeling sure about it. Our programme is not about using interns to fill a ministry gap, but rather an intentional investment in the individuals we feel God brings to us for the programme. We ll be praying the applicants through the application process and our hope is that this will be a discernment process on both sides. We won t take just anyone, and if we call you for interview it means that we are seriously considering taking you onto our programme so please do take this process seriously and consider us carefully before you apply. We want to invest in our interns and will honour our commitment to growing and developing you. If you think this is how you want to spend your next 12 months please put in an application we d love the opportunity to be part of your journey.