Spring Garden Baptist Church (SGBC) has used their CBOQ grant to foster their child and youth ministry programs by hiring an intern, who played a significant role in supporting the youth pastor and working with the children. In this process, the church learned the importance of investing into building the next generation of leaders, as well as the value of spending time with and giving feedback to this next generation. Spring Garden sees the value in partnering with seminaries to develop future leadership, whom they hope to cultivate through constructive feedback and providing opportunities to lead.
The last year was spent building into SGBC’s intern, providing him opportunities to preach, lead communion, and serve in areas of children and youth ministry. He has received regular feedback on how he is doing and has had good conversations about ministry. This grant has given an opportunity to build a meaningful relationship with the intern. He has been able to build strong relationships with some of the youth, and the church’s congregation has benefited from getting to know him. Recently, one of the church’s new Iranian families shared that their daughter had a great experience in their summer camp ministry, stating that their daughter came home “excited and happy every day after camp and how she felt so safe and loved by the leaders of the camp.” Additionally, other parents are asking the church to host more weeks of camp next year due to their children loving the camp experience. This has fostered significant “good will” in the local community, who appreciate the service provided to all in the neighbouring area through the day camp. These experiences would not have been possible without the intern, whose hiring was made possible through CBOQ’s grants.
Spring Garden’s intern has grown in many ways, becoming more open minded in his understanding of what ministry is and becoming more self-aware of his own gifts and passions. Before his internship, he had a “plan” of what his ministry pathway looked like, but near the end of the internship he began to open up to exploring his options of seminaries as he pursues his Master of Divinity.
The grant also has helped SGBC see the importance in developing the next generation of leaders. The church’s members recognize the importance of leadership development and are gracious in welcoming and enveloping their intern into their community. The internship has been a reciprocally beneficial relationship for both our community and the intern, where they can grow from one another as they work together for God’s Kingdom. Leadership development is a sign of a healthy church and having a formal internship program engenders a culture of mutual growth and discipleship.
Spring Garden has found the value in having a paid internship which provides structure and accountability for the intern. They would like to continue applying for this grant in the coming year to see how they can continue to develop this area of ministry.
APPLY FOR CBOQ GRANT HERE: baptist.ca/grants
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