Church Planting Internships

What would it be like to be a missionary?

Spend a semester in Papua New Guinea getting firsthand experience in cross-cultural church planting. Get exposure with experienced Ethnos church planters to the culture and language of tribal people, translating the Bible, preaching the gospel, and establishing indigenous churches among them. Find out if cross-cultural church planting is where God wants you!

Dates for each year are January to mid-May or July to mid-November. The cost is $9,500 USD. This is 15 weeks total on the field.

Ask at your school about credit for this internship.

Questions? Want to apply?

Semester plan

Orientation: The orientation lays the foundation for the semester, covering such topics as motivation for missions, evangelism and discipleship, cross-cultural communications and mission methods.

Language: Learn how to learn a language, and diligently put those principles into practice to learn Melanesian Pidgin throughout your time in Papua New Guinea.

Culture: Find out how to gather culture information, analyze it and draw conclusions from it that help a missionary know how to correctly communicate God’s Truth in another culture.

Literacy: Instruction in teaching illiterate people how to read and write their own language. You’ll practice these skills by attempting to develop literacy primers yourself.

Translation: After learning more about basic principles of Bible translation, you’ll endeavour to translate chapters of the Bible in a way that tribal people can understand clearly.

Chronological lessons: Learn what’s involved in Ethnos’ foundational Bible teaching, and develop three Bible lessons with tribal culture and language in mind.

Evangelism: Find out how to teach Bible lessons effectively in a cross-cultural environment, and teach a lesson for practice.

Early church development: What does a church planter do once there are believers? You will interact with current church planters who will help you grasp the challenges of helping to disciple new believers into mature Christians.

Maturing church development: You’ll visit a maturing indigenous church after being introduced to Ethnos’ Maturing Church Model and how it is used. You will get to see firsthand the results of church planters using the principles you have studied and practiced.

Wrap-up/debrief: Write an overview of your internship, touching on each aspect of cross-cultural church planting and what God has taught you. You will receive an evaluation by the internship advisor.