First Week Done, But The Best Is Yet To Come

Wow…week one of my internship is already over, and I am even more excited for what I am going to be doing than I was before I got here. This church is doing some amazing things and I get to be a part of that!

The campus at First Christian Church in Kernersville, NC is so much different that any church I have been too.Though this church has between 1300 and 1500 people who attend on Sundays, there is so much more going on besides just church. When Isaac (the other intern) and I went to lunch with Pete Kunkle (senior pastor and planter of FCC), he outlined how the vision of the church was be be like the synagogue in Jesus’ day. During that time, the synagogue was the center of town; every part of the Jewish life happened in the area of the synagogue. It wasn’t just about the worship service on Sabbath, and that is what FCC has done. In addition to the FCC ministries, the campus is home to a pre-k through 11th grade school called First Christian Academy (FCA). Next year, it will be a full pre-k through 12th grade school. On top of that FCC is home to the Family Life Center, a recreation and exercise facility that houses a weight room, gym, walking/jogging track, and various classes from zumba to self-defense. In addition to these, the FCC multi-purpose room (auditorium) is the largest room in the area for conferences and events.  The Rotary, Lions and other clubs frequent the campus to host their events. Pick any given day the FCC campus, and the parking lot is always full. There are thousands of people who participate in activities inside the church who do not attend. When they attend or participate in any of these activities, they are being exposed to a Godly environment more than they would on a regular basis. Just being in the building is exciting!

The goal of this internship is to give Isaac and I a working picture of how a church is run and give us experience in teaching a wide range of age groups. This is based on the idea that our first jobs will probably have us in charge of more than just middle and high school students.

I had a pretty busy first week. On Monday, we were a part of the FCC staff meeting. This is a time of devotion for the staff members, lead by Pete Kunkle, and it get everyone of the same page for the upcoming week. To continue the fellowship, the ministers have made a tradition of going to lunch as a group after the meeting. In between, Isaac and I were busy filling out the proper paper work, getting us ported into the proper computer networks, getting us keys and key cards and general other things that come with arriving on a large campus. These activities took up most of Monday and Tuesday. However, on Monday night I went with Pete Ramsey (my supervisor) and went on house calls to some of the middle school student’s houses. This is a chance to personally meet new students, keep in touch with students who already attend, and build a relationship with the parents.

Wednesday was a busy day by breaking away from the paper work of the first two days. Isaac and I were recruited to help with FCA’s last k-5  chapel of the year. Pete Ramsey taught the story of Esther and Isaac and I were the sound effects. After chapel, we were taken to lunch by Pete Kunkle where we were able to pick his brain about church, he was able to pick our brains about our internship, and we were able to see a little bit of Kernersville. By the way, the sea food at the restaurant we ate at was the best I have had in a long time! We were then kidnapped by Mike Wallace (associate pastor) and he had us review the ministry reports of everyone in the department. This was to show us that we may have to write reports for our elders, and it gave us a chance to see what is and what isn’t good or appropriate to put in a ministry report. Not long after that, I attended the children's musical that was in place of regular Wednesday night activities and an ice cream social afterwards where Isaac and I were officially introduced to the church as interns.

Thursdays we have off.

Friday was our chance to participate in the last middle and high school FCA chapel. We again introduced ourselves and led a small group of students in prayer for their summer. The rest of the day was filled with end of the week duties, such as stuffing folders for Sunday, and preparing for summer lessons and themes. I am working of creating a poster for the summer series of lessons that Isaac and I will be helping to write.

Sundays at FCC are a little crazy. There are three hours of services and classes: 9:00, 10:15 and 11:30. This was all about observing for me as I observed Tim Snow teach K-5’s lesson first hour and Pete Ramsey teach middle school’s lesson second hour. Both of these classes I will be teaching next week.

I am very excited for all the work that I will be doing at FCC, even though it is a lot of work. Please keep praying for me as this internship starts ramping up.