Super-sized internship committee

The Contextual Learning Office at Luther Seminary says "The lay internship committee is a small group of five to eight people, meeting monthly with the intern, who have agreed to develop a supportive relationship with the intern" (in the Lay Committee Guide).

Well, I'm lucky enough to have the mother of all internship committees, consisting of 23 people. There are two laypeople from each congregation (for a total of 16) plus the seven pastors. But, after 30+ years, they have a finely tuned system developed. The committee spends some time each month meeting as a large group, and some time divided into administrative and support teams.

The administrative group consists of one layperson from each congregation plus the seven pastors, so it's about two-thirds of the committee. They deal primarily with logistics and finances.

The support group consists of the one remaining layperson from each congregation. These people fulfill the "lay intern committee" function envisioned by the seminary, providing me a sounding board and encouraging me in my developing ministry. It's also their job to knock some sense into me if I ever behave like the people described here.

The entire committee participates in evaluating my work here, and the January meeting will consist primarily of the mid-year evaluation. That means I get to stay home...which is a mixed blessing. I certainly don't mind having an extra free night, but I really enjoy all the people on the committee, so I don't mind the meetings at all.

At our last meeting on Thursday, we gathered a half-hour earlier than usual for extra social time. It was a great gift, since the people from the various congregations don't always get regular opportunities to interact with one another, and I don't get to see them all as often as I might like. As I said, I'm very lucky to have a ginormous and wonderful committee!