Ross Shannon, pastor of First Baptist Church in Lapeer, Michigan, sets the tone up front in our interview: “We don’t look at our interns as cheap labor.” Instead, he sees internship programs as a way for churches to invest in future pastors and leaders. For anyone expecting a summer of driving the van to camp or coaching the softball team, the program starts in a much different place. Reading. Lots of reading.

“Their time is largely spent reading assigned books, writing response papers, and discussing the reading with both pastors,” Ross says. “The interns also shadow the pastors for staff meetings, church services, and visitation.”

Many churches have hosted interns from time to time, Ross points out. When he arrived at First Baptist, he started a formal internship program, one that runs every year. Ross hopes the model will catch on, so he invited me to a discussion with him, Associate Pastor Kevin Moses, and one of the church’s interns, Caleb TeBeest.

Ross Shannon: I did two internships. I did one in Nova Scotia, at a little church planted by Continental Baptist Missions. That was really formative. And then I interned with Pastor Mark Dever at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., as well. So yes—internships are a big part of me. That’s where I really began to understand the church. And that desire and love for the church is what the Lord used to lead me into pastoral ministry.

Ross: It’s very intense and intentional. They do two classes a year. At the time I was doing it, there were six guys in the fall and six guys in the spring. The staff takes a break from interns during the summer. Their program is heavy reading—you had five papers a week, a response paper due every day.

Ross: Initially I bought books for young guys, like a summer reading program. It was low budget. About three or four years ago the church had a staff transition, so we had some funds become available. We started budgeting for the internship, allowing it to be nine to eleven months long, and paying a monthly stipend.

Caleb TeBeest: While attending Moody Bible Institute I interned at a church in Mount Morris, Michigan, about half an hour from here. And when I graduated, I knew I wanted to find an internship or residency or something like that, just to get some more actual ministry experience. I looked around a lot but wasn’t finding much. The Mount Morris church reached out to our associate pastor, Kevin—they knew each other from college or something. That’s how I got connected here.

Caleb: Well, there’s a big emphasis on membership! That might be the case for many church groups, but here is it much more emphasized. Be a member, be involved, be serving. It’s the emphasis. And there’s a lot more interaction between churches. We speak at other churches; we have co-events and co-services together. And then we pray for them, every week.

Caleb: He’s very sensitive to people—very congregation centered. He cares; he sacrifices for his people. I don’t know how pastors get anything done! Just watching them work—I’m like, how do you guys have time for anything? They have these last-minute emergencies come up—a speaker just dropped out, and now you have to fill it. And somehow, they get it done every week (and nobody notices what happened behind the scenes). It’s hard work—it’s caring about your people.

Ross: Oh, yes—a hundred percent. Some of it is just doing life on life with another brother in Christ. As they’re growing, you are growing with them. As they go through things, you are going through those things with them. With Caleb, he is really strong in Hebrew. I passed Hebrew. So I’ve asked him questions about passages I’m preaching. In a sense, he’s in a season behind me—I’m older than him. He’s newly married, and they’re working through such good questions about the Lord’s leading. It makes me a better husband to hear Caleb talk through his questions.

Kevin Moses: I didn’t! My major was in physical education, coaching, and recreation. I wanted to work with people in ministry, so I took a Biblical counseling minor—that helped lay a foundation and helped me learn how to use the Bible to help people. The education degree helped me learn how to teach and how to lead. And now in hindsight, I see God’s hand in all this.

Kevin: I learned from so many wise people here. I began to see a different philosophy of ministry than I grew up in and was drawn toward this kind of shepherding ministry. I’ve continued to learn by taking some seminary classes, just trying to fill in the gaps that would serve our church and help me grow. So it’s been mostly on-the-job training, but I’ve had really good people. Now I’m trying to connect relationally with young men who are looking for an internship or looking for training with our church.

Ross: No, but wherever they end up, whether it’s missions or teaching or even a layperson with a secular job, we want to give them an ecclesiology so they can be a blessing in that church—so they’ll be good church members.

Kevin Mungons is a Chicago-based writer and editor. Darrell Goemaat is director of photography for Regular Baptist Ministries.