Intern Academy

I had many people in my life, when I was in a teenager, who really poured into me and showed me the love of Christ. The many interns and directors that served God and impacted students at Bayside Community, inspired me to let God use my gifts and talents and let him work through me. I wanted students to feel inspired and encouraged by the love of Christ in ways that I had the privilege of experiencing when I was in high school.

So after my first year of college, at Southeastern University, I had a great opportunity of serving as a summer intern at my home church at Bayside Community. The experience was fun, challenging, enlightening, and emotional all at the same time. I was able to sit under the leadership of Chip Taylor and learn many things about youth ministry that I never knew.

It was not but a summer later that I felt God lead me to North Webster, Indiana where I served as the summer intern for Matt Gaylor @ Epic student ministries. It was this summer where I found out a lot about who God really created me to be. I spent most of my time getting to know these amazing students that I had no prior connection to and the rest of my time reading many books that were assigned which helped me mature greatly as a Christ follower.

As of now I am finishing up my tenth month of a year long internship at Bayside Community. I am once again able to learn from Chip and able to sharpen my gifts and learn to create lasting relationships with the students here. I love being able to focus on certain areas and let God and experience teach me in a safe environment. From leading worship, to mentoring, to teaching, or preaching I have grown in ways that without these internship experiences I would have most likely struggled with. I highly recommend that if anybody is pursuing youth ministry to take at least a summer to learn under one of these amazing leaders.