The Free Methodist Church in Canada - Leadership Development, Internships (Important Information)

To have healthy churches we want to create healthy leaders. We believe healthy leaders develop by putting them in healthy church environments. We hope to increase the leadership pool for the present and future needs of The Free Methodist Church in Canada both locally and globally. Healthy local church leaders know that our connectional nature now requires global awareness and personal involvement. The internship provides one opportunity to prepare for ministry challenges in a rapidly changing world.

The local church develops leaders.

The FMCiC sees itself as a resource to help local churches identify, train, and deploy new leaders for the Kingdom of God . The Internship provides candidates for ministry an opportunity to get on-the-job training. The longer internship is the better internship in our view.

Why do we have internships?

Maybe on-the-job training is reason enough. But there is more: The Internship is part of an organic system of building healthy churches in the reach of every Canadian and beyond. We are not building programs but a system, the Century 21 (no, not real estate) system of planting churches and growing healthy leaders. We both agree that the local church is the focus of ministry.

Interns spend extended time in local churches.

We put interns into local churches for extended periods of time so they experience local church life. The supervising pastor spends regular time with the intern in training, mentoring, and sharing all aspects of the pastoral life. Extended time in the local church with experienced pastors is the best way to allow Interns to “catch” what God is doing in the healthy local church and let it become part of their emerging ministry DNA.

The Intern is a learner/worker.

The intern comes as a careful observer, asking questions, probing all aspects of ministry life from personal spiritual disciplines to calendarizing ministry strategies. The supervising pastor is expected to let the intern develop skills by doing ministry, build a “track record” of accomplishments. This can range from starting a Bible study, or carrying out a brand new initiative, to equipping and deploying a new ministry leader in the local church.

Are all interns going directly into full-time local church ministry?

Right now we have many interns who have moved into full time ministry from internships:

Paul Millar is an Ordained Minister and is appointed as Youth Pastor at Arlington Woods FMC in Ottawa , ON .

Matthew McEwen is an Ordained Minister and is appointed Pastor at Holt FMC in Mount Albert , ON

Greg Elford is an Ordained Minister and is appointed as Pastor at New Heights FMC in Mission BC

Hilkka Aavasalmi is an Ordained Minister and is appointed as Pastor at New Hoope FMC in Bracebridge, ON

Grant Wolfe is an Ordained Minister and is appointed as the Pastor at Grapeview FMC in St. Catharines , ON

Matt Wiley is a Ministerial Candidate tracking for ordination and is appointed as Pastor of Student Ministries & Children's Education at Rice Road Community Church in Welland, ON

Darryl Dozlaw is a Commissioned Minister tracking for ordination and is appointed as Pastor at Northview Community Church in Regina , SK

Keitha Slack is a Ministerial Candidate and is appointed as Assistant Pastor at Valleyview Community Church in Val Caron, ON

Chris and Terri Payk are Ministerial Candidates. Chris is appointed as Pastor of Missions & Discipleship and Terri is appointed as Pastor of Children's Church at Rice Road Community Church in Welland, ON

Phil Hamilton is a Ministerial Candidate and is appointed as Pastoral Student Intern at Whitby FMC in Whitby, ON

Aaron James is a Ministerial Candidate and is appointed as Assistant Pastor at Blue Mountain Community Church in Thornbury, ON

Others have not finished school yet; still others are working in unpaid positions in local FM churches and tracking for credentialled ministry in the FMCiC.

What are the prerequisites for Internship candidates?

1.	Membership in a local Free Methodist Church (Manual, Ch 1, Par 150)
2.	Holding a Lay Minister’s License in a Free Methodist Church (Manual, Ch 8, Par 810)
3.	Preferably, both membership and lay minister’s license are from the church where you want to intern.

Preference is given to candidates who:

1.	Have been recommended by the local church (Manual, Ch 3, Par 383b) to the Director of Personnel to be considered for Ministerial Candidacy (Manual, Ch 8, Par 815)
2.	The candidate has already connected with the local FMC where the internship will take place, i.e., attends there regularly.
3.	It is strongly encouraged that the intern candidate and the identified supervising pastor build a relationship prior to the formal start of an internship. The “DNA” transfer of healthy leadership happens in the context of a healthy relationship between these two people.

Internships: First Steps:

1.	Fill out an application found on this website.
a.	The Intern fills out an application
b.	The supervising church fills out an application
2.	Study and submit the checklist of “things to do.”
a.	Intern checklist
b.	Supervising church checklist
3.	Begin the dialogue between the local church supervising pastor and the intern candidate.
4	Submit a job description for the intern
5	mail the Director of Personnel office if you have questions deplanches{at}fmc-canada{dot}org

Please remember to add the "@" and "." when emailing us


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