FLORISSANT — A summer missions internship program offered by the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) has allowed a small St. Louis church plant to transplant its gospel-centered community in a way that is bearing much fruit.
North Church Pastor Rik Maxedon has taken a different approach in the way he uses his summer interns to better accomplish ministry.
“We like to say that we do not use interns to get ministry done, but use ministry to get interns done,” Maxedon said, playfully repeating a well-known mantra.
Interns who have passed through North Church’s doors have gone on to serve in church leadership roles around the country. Their testimonies are that God has helped them all become better leaders by this experience. Rebecca Cline and Joe Newlin are among those who have returned to North Church to serve others in the community they have grown to love.
“It’s an opportunity for us to engage in the life of a college student to leverage the 10 weeks we get with them to tangibly imprint the gospel in their hearts in a profound way,” Maxedon said.
North Church tries to blend truth with service. God’s grace motivates church members to love one another and to go deeper into repentance. By practicing confrontational love within the church, members learn how to better care for the outside community.
Maxedon seeks to cultivate an atmosphere in his congregation where the illusion of safety yields to the real thing. People are free to break down walls they build between their struggles and others. In doing so they are no longer isolated.
Sin grows when we are unsafe and vulnerable. God intends to grow love in our hearts, and North Church interns are encouraged to be open with the pastor and others with their struggles, insecurities, apprehensions, and doubt. Others can then bear their burdens, reflecting the love God has shown us in Jesus Christ.
“What I want to do is get in, get dirty with you, and connect you to a Holy God,” Maxedon says to his interns.
The church features mentors, home groups, and intimate host families that seek to plant the gospel in the community, creating open doors that welcome others into the gospel-centered unit that is being provided. Working from the inside out, Maxedon seeks to make the love his church shows an overflow of the love they show each other. Experiencing God’s love is the ultimate goal. This comes by the overflow of God’s love in the hearts of His own by His Holy Spirit through Jesus.