Checklist for Drafting the Learning/Serving Contract

Note: It is not essential that all of the following be incorporated into your contract. It is essential that you consider all of these suggestions as part of the input that comes from the silent partner in your contract negotiations, the church-at-large.

A. Congregation at Worship

Preaching. (Once a month would be a minimum.)
Preaching evangelistic sermons. (You and your supervisor decide what "evangelistic" means! Two evangelistic sermons would be average.)
Preaching stewardship sermons. (Once in the Fall and once shortly before you complete your term.)
Worship leadership, including planning specific services, and work with worship and music committee.
Observing and/or assisting the pastor in pastoral acts such as baptisms, private communions, wedding rehearsals and weddings, and funerals.
Sermon evaluation meetings with a group of representative worshippers (other than congregational Internship Committee). (One such meeting per quarter would be average.)
Study opportunities in the area of worship (e.g. workshops, seminars, pericope study group, etc.) Specify any such anticipated opportunities.
Use of the arts and appropriate media as a part of worship.
Eliciting ideas for worship and worship aids from the worshipping community.
Designing worship appropriate to various cultural contexts.

B. Pastoral Care

Cultivation of personal piety. What personal devotional practices do you intend?
Opportunities for spiritual direction? Consider this as an adjunct to your spiritual well-being.
Visiting members, including youth, aged, the bereaved, inactives, etc. (Ten hours of such calling per week would be average.)
Visiting unchurched people. (Harder to identify in some locales, but present most everywhere. Get acquainted with your community as a mission field. Two such calls per week would be average, if outreach is taken seriously.)
Grief ministry, including visits with the sick, the bereaved, those separated or divorced, the unemployed, etc. (Time factored into #3 above.)
Counseling, either as a result of personal contact or from referrals. Don't be concerned with distinguishing where pastoral visiting leaves off and counseling begins. Sensitive, persistent care for people often eventuates into a form of counseling.
Evaluation of pastoral calls by the use of verbatims. (One per month would be average.)
Assisting all members to participate in this ministry by including others when making calls or by recruiting persons who have received specific ministry and/or training.
Study opportunities in the area of pastoral care and counseling. Specify particulars.

C. Lay Ministry

Dialogue with members in strategic social, political, and/or economic positions as to how their faith and vocation interact.
Helping to identify the gifts and abilities of new and ongoing members and following through by assisting these people to use their talents in and beyond the parish.
Recruiting, training, and supervision of volunteers as they work in various congregational or community programs.
Recognition in worship services of ministries outside the congregation.
Vocational guidance and/or counseling. Ministry to the unemployed. Megatrends 2000, a book written by John Naisbitt and Patricia Aburdene (published by New York: Wm. Morrow and company, 1996), reports that three career changes is getting to be normative in our land.
Marriage enrichment. Parenting helps. Singles' ministries. How about some intentional ministry or programmatic emphasis in each of these three areas during the year?
Involvement in specific programs related to lay vocations that may already be in place: Stephen Series, "Monday's Ministries," Crossroads, Via de Cristo (Lutheran Cursillo), etc.

D. Parish Education

Teaching at least one class in the congregation's or agency's educational program. (One class per week would be average.)
Orientation to the administration of the entire educational program of the congregation.
Learning more about the use of the arts and appropriate media in education.
Participation in the training of teachers and the evaluation of their work.
Teaching evangelism. (A four lesson course would be average.)
Teaching stewardship. (A four lesson course would be average.)
Actual administration of one educational program from initial planning through evaluation.
Teaching an adult forum series in which the encounter of Christianity with the other world religions or ideologies is examined. (A four lesson course would be average.)

E. Evangelism

Sharing one's own faith in an explicit way both within the congregation and the community.
Work with the evangelism committee or other committees which seek to involve all members of the congregation in evangelism. (Four such meetings would be average.)
Become personally involved and encourage members of the congregation to participate in the global mission of the church through contact with persons overseas, study seminars, Global Mission Events, etc.
Leadership in inclusive ministry through evangelization of minority members in the community.
Leadership in inclusive ministry, working toward representation by minority members on congregational boards and committees.
Help lead the congregation out of a preoccupation with its internal affairs into loving mission and service to people beyond its boundaries.
Help the congregation bring about constructive change in its own life. This necessarily includes dealing with conflict. Work to understand the dynamics of both prophetic ministry and reconciliation ministry.

F. Social Ministry

Participation in programs of social outreach conducted by the congregation or other church/community agencies. (One half day per week would be considered average.)
Work with social ministry committee or other committees addressing social issues or assessing community needs.
Develop a referral list using governmental, private, and church agencies.
Assess critically the church as an institution in relation to the adequacy of its ministry among the people it serves.
Challenge practices in the congregation and community which foster or support sexism, racism, or ageism. Review, in advance, challenge strategies with your supervisor.
Cooperate with other congregations or agencies in ministering to the homeless, the gay and lesbian communities, and the disenfranchised of the community. Again, don't surprise your supervisor with the nature of your cooperative efforts.
Learn intervention tactics in situations involving alcoholism, drug dependency, child or spouse abuse, etc. If possible, assist with an intervention.
Study opportunities you expect to have or seek out in the area of social ministry.

G. Stewardship

Participation in the stewardship program of the congregation, including budget development and monitoring. (For the purpose of fiscal stewardship, an intern is considered to be a member of the congregation.)
Participation in stewardship calling or other program wherein the congregation's members are challenged financially.
Continue to keep your own time management under surveillance. (Twice during the year, keep a time log over a two-week period.)
Work with the financial secretary toward understanding the process of recording financial contributions and making reports to the congregation and to individual contributors.
Work with the church treasurer toward understanding the process of the disbursement of contributions. Pay particular attention to the manner in which benevolences are treated.
Encourage members of the congregation to consider personal involvement with and financial contribution to community and church organizations beyond congregational boundaries.
Study the social, economic, and political realities of our time and how the church and its theology interact with them. (Two books or workshops in this area would be average.)
Explore the matter of large gifts from individuals and bequests. This is sometimes called "third pocket" stewardship.

H. Interdependent Relationships

Become personally acquainted with leaders of other congregations in the community and judicatory.
Contacts either in person or by correspondence with representatives of synods or church-wide agencies leading to an increased understanding of their function. (Two such contacts would be average.)
Recruit congregational leaders for visits or meetings which focus on the congregation's relationship to other congregations or agencies receiving benevolence support. (Two such visits or meetings would be average.)
Study advocacy and service programs sponsored by the local ministerial alliance and the statewide Council of Churches.
Spend time at an agency or judicatory office or with an administrator from them in order to understand the activities of the agency or office. (Six hours spent in such exploration would meet minimal expectation.)
Assist in the preparation of the annual congregational report to the judicatory to become acquainted with the categories and rubrics.
Report to the congregation or Church Council concerning a meeting or visit you had which resulted in a more comprehensive view of church activity. (Two such reports would be average.)

I. Ecumenism

Engage in dialogue with people of other faiths.
Study of the multicultural and global context within which the Christian faith makes its witness. (How about making the reading of Megatrends 2000 a part of such study?)
Study of the arts as giving symbolic expression to the culture of our time.
Developing a concern for the entire world: its people, nations, and institutions; as well as for all the products and resources of nature: acceptance of ecological responsibility.
Become familiar with church-wide policy on ecumenical relationships, particularly relationships with Roman Catholic, Episcopal, and Reformed traditions.