Page under construction
Explore Internships
Take a Year Out to Explore Your Faith and Calling
Are you considering a year out? Wondering what to do after school, college, or uni? Want to do some theological training with practical experience? Or simply looking for direction in your faith, future career or calling?
Explore offers fully funded church and pioneering based internship opportunities for people aged 18-25s
Is your church or pioneering context considering hosting an intern? Are you looking for guidance and support for how to do it? Do you feel overwhelmed or unsure by all the practical arrangements?
Explore works with churches to help create comprehensive internship experiences that can bring new life and energy to your context.
INFORMATION FOR INTERNS
Explore is a fully funded programme for young adults aged 18-25. Each intern is based in a local church community or pioneering context, and has a chance to study at Northern Baptist College. ​
There are opportunities to gain experience in various areas of church mission and ministry, including children's work, youth work, schools and community engagement, worship, teaching and preaching, pastoral care, ecumenical partnerships, audio and visual technology, and church leadership.​
Our internships include training weekends away with other interns and students at Northern Baptist College, as well as opportunities to take part in regional youth weekends, and Ministers' conferences, and network opportunities with other young adults in the wider Baptist Union​
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
Ignite your leadership potential over a 10 month programme with a bespoke curriculum, featuring residential sessions and insights from various leadership practitioners. Unleash your unique gifts and calling while deepening your understanding of Christian discipleship and leadership.
PROGRAMME OF STUDY
Choose a study programme that suits you, with opportunities to take modules in youth work, pioneering communities, and Christian theology with Northern Baptist College. Join in on residential weekends with other students and get a flavour of what it’s like to study at the College.
LOCAL CHURCH PLACEMENT
Whether you’re interested in children’s work, youth work, pioneering new projects, leadership, worship or any other areas of church mission and ministry explore it in the context of a supportive local community.
MENTORING
Recieve one to one regular support with a mentor who will help you think about how your year is going, reflect critically, and explore your thoughts, ideas and plans for the future with you.
NETWORKING
Get to know other interns, church leaders, and other Christians through regional and national gatherings, weekends away and events. Be inspired by the stories and work others are doing in a variety of contexts.
‘Explore’ is a partnership between Northern Baptist Association, North Western Baptist Association and Northern Baptist College. Support is offered by these three organisations throughout the programme.
Internships typically start in September and end in June. The programme of study is free. Cost of living depends on placement, but the expectation is that costs will be partially or fully funded by the church.
INFORMATION FOR CHURCHES
We are looking for Baptist churches and pioneering projects in the North of England who can offer placement and accommodation to one or more 'Explore' interns.
​
Below are some important things for you and your community to consider before taking on the responsibility of hosting an intern.
​​
Looking for an Intern​
Finding an intern will depend on what kind of experience your church community can offer. What areas of church life, mission and ministry and leadership can you offer to a young adult in order to help them grow in character, knowledge, understanding, faith, skill, discipleship and their sense of calling?
From children's work, to sound engineering, to pioneering, to pastoral care, many of our churches can offer a wide breadth of experience to young adults trying to find their way in life.
Once you have discerned the kind of experience you can offer, and made all the other considerations below, talk to us so that we can help find the right intern for your context.
It may be that the intern you are looking for is already a part of your community. If you think that someone in your church would benefit from an internship with you, or with another church or context, then please put them in touch with us.
Wellbeing and Safeguarding
Being an intern in a church or other community setting can be a formative experience that can help shape the future of a young adult, but they can also bring new life to your church. Hosting an intern, however, also brings many responsibilities that must be fulfilled to ensure that any intern can have a safe, supportive and enriching experience.
An internship should never be about a church seeking cheap labour, but should always be primarily for the benefit and formation of a young adult's life. It is vital that the church understands what they are offering and what they should be expecting in return from this kind of arrangement.
We expect every placement to provide a line manager for each intern, and a network of support within the community who will help keep the intern on track, prevent isolation, and help integrate the intern into the community.
The College and Association will also provide a similar level of support, including a mentor outside of your context.
We expect that every placement will have up to date safeguarding policies and procedures, including a safer recruitment policy, and that staff and volunteers are appropriately up to date with their safeguarding training.
Costs and Accommodation​
We anticipate that it will cost a church approximately £6000 to host an intern for one year (10 months). We expect that the church/context will provide this, or at least support the intern in raising the funds.
​
Costs associated with study at Northern Baptist College are all fully covered by the College and Association.
​
It will be expected that the placement church will also provide appropriate accommodation for an intern either with a host family from the church, in a church or rental property with other appropriate people, or if they live close enough in their own accommodation or family home. ​​​
Covenant Agreement
'Explore' is a partnership between Northern Baptist Association, North Western Baptist Association and Northern Baptist College.
Your Association and College will work with you to support the interns. We require that each internship arrangement will sign a three-way covenant agreement between the Placement (Church), Intern, and College to ensure that each party has shared expectations and understanding of what the internship will involve. This includes matters such as the amount of time the intern will be expected to spend in the placement and with college, which is typically between 20-24 hours per week; that there is an expectation that they will regularly be around during the community's main gathering times (e.g. Sunday mornings); and that the intern is given sufficient time to study within their placement hours.
This is not a legally binding contract, and the intern will not be an employee.
The Internship Best Practice Handbook​
Baptists Together have produced a comprehensive handbook for any church or group that are considering internships. It covers all the other basic considerations we expect your church should be able commit to before agreeing to host an intern. You can view and download the handbook on the Baptists Together website
Some Key Questions to Consider:
-
What are the reasons that we would like to have an intern?
-
Can we provide an enriching experience for a young adult on placement with us?
-
What areas of church ministry, discipleship, and leadership experience can we offer?
-
Can we provide the right level of support needed to host an intern?
-
Can we afford to host and look after an intern?
-
Do we have an appropriate family, or house that we could accommodate an intern in?
-
Can we put everything in place before September?
-
Have we read through the Internship Best Practice Handbook?
-
Have we had a conversation with the Association Lead on Internships?
-
Do we have or know a young adult in our congregation we could give this opportunity to?
Still interested? ... Talk to us.
If you would like to arrange a conversation with your Regional Association Lead for Internships, or Northern Baptist College to speak about our programme of study you can contact:
