The pace-setting church has celebrated the graduation of the first set of young ministry interns of the Daystar Ministry Internship Program.
This program was 6 months of intensive mentoring and hands-on training, allowing young ministry-inclined graduates to learn how the Daystar church system works, first-hand.
As part of efforts to prepare students and fresh graduates for the corporate world, Daystar Christian Centre, commenced an Internship Program for young Nigerians and graduated their first batch of interns in 2021.
In a brief graduation ceremony for the first batch of Ministry Interns, held on Wednesday, September 28, the church said deliberate efforts need to be geared towards helping young people to develop character and competence as these are two requisite ingredients for success.
In her welcome speech, the church’s Head of Human Resources & Office Management, Mrs. Amara Ugochukwu said, “Our internship programs are part of our talent resourcing strategy as well as our corporate social responsibility efforts.”
She iterated that, “We constantly seek opportunities to empower people to discover, develop, and maximally utilise their God-given potential for the betterment of their societies and humanity. And we find that investing in the development of young persons is an important approach to shaping the future.”
The intent of the program is to groom young talents, imbibe esteemed national values and culture of excellence right from the early days of their career, and prepare them to be better leaders.
The internship program is one of the many corporate social responsibilities of the organization that is focused on talent resourcing and development.
One of the associate pastors, Pastor Solomon Kpandei, who represented the Senior Pastors, Dr. Sam and Nike Adeyemi, noted that the internship program offers intending Pastors the opportunity to learn in a structured and broad ministry environment.
Pastor Solomon emphasized, “In line with our vision to raise role models in every sphere of society, the pastoral interns were allowed to have a practical insight into the operations of various aspects of our ministry. They worked closely with our associate Pastors and leaders to get the best hands-on experience of the ministry.”
In her remarks, another associate pastor at the event; Pastor (Mrs) Grace Ofili, admonished the graduates of the internship program to preserve their experiences by actively extending the work ethics they have learnt to their various endeavours and eventual ministry work.
She urged them to exemplify and pass the values learnt during the internship to their friends and communities and spread good vibes to create a better society.
The internship program lasted from April to September 2022. It was an intensive practical experience for the Pastoral Interns as they worked closely with various Pastors and leaders within the church system and the administrative teams.
With excitement, the interns shared testimonies of their experiences and learnings. For Teresah, the program provided clarity about her purpose. Bolajoko and Kelvin believe the program was tailor-made for them as it provided answers to many questions on their minds before they got admitted to the program.
Another intern, David believes his interpersonal relationship abilities have significantly been impacted by the program, and for Faith and Alice, the program has been overwhelmingly insightful.
In addition to their personal experiences and learnings, all the interns are grateful for the friendship they found in each other as they formed a well-bonded team.
The program’s success is attributable to the collaboration between all the work teams, and being the first batch of the Ministry Internship Program, it is pretty significant.
Commencement of the next phase will be announced in due time.
Signed:
Gabriel Kolawole
Head, Communication and IT
Daystar Christian Centre.
