Wesley Baldwin

The Intern Ministry was a true blessing to our life and ministry. Personally, I was able to study, learn, and observe under the godliest and most effective men in ministry today. The wonderful thing is that it was not just learning by observing, but also by doing. The hands-on experience in ministry and touching people through the Intern Ministry helped to solidify the call of God on my life.

Grant Janik

Ministry for me has been a blast! I know that my ministry experience wouldn’t have been as rich if I hadn’t had the opportunity to be at Prestonwood. The Intern Ministry at Prestonwood gave hands-on experience resulting in confidence and encouragement in and toward ministry. I am a better speaker, certainly by God’s grace, but also because of my time at Prestonwood. I am a more organized planner; I have learned to delegate better, become a better administrator … and so much more, because of my time at Prestonwood.

As an intern, there were certainly challenges, but in the end, I know that almost every side of ministry was taught to me while at Prestonwood. It trained me to have a ministerial mind about situations that I now face and will face in days to come. The people made the experience, and I’m grateful for that experience and the base of knowledge that Prestonwood invested in me!

Chris Kouba

Being an intern here at Prestonwood was a great experience for me. As a pastoral intern, I had the opportunity to learn incredible wisdom and ministry skills from Pastor Graham and Dr. McKinley, both from working hands-on with them and also watching them lead. There is no question that so many of the leadership principles, along with pastoral care, time management, and message preparation, were learned from these men during this internship. I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to learn from them and continue to see each year how it has taught me lessons I couldn’t have learned any other way. I also am extremely grateful for the opportunity to experience this internship with so many other interns.

One of the highlights of my experience was the chance to relationally connect with guys who are now serving in ministry, whether as pastors, or in student or children’s ministry throughout the country. This is easily one of the most underrated parts of the program, getting to experience life and ministry with other guys in the same situation.

Diana Pendley

The investment this program made in my life showed me the direction God was leading me to go. As a 23-year-old, I knew for certain that God was telling me to follow Him and go into full-time ministry, but I never imagined it was children’s ministry. With a degree in business and finance, I thought God probably was going to use that in my life, and even though God has used those degrees, my internship is what showed me crystal clear that I was to serve Him in children’s ministry. I’m so thankful for the gift that allowed me to be an intern. I can’t imagine not being a children’s minister, and it all started because I was given the opportunity to be an intern!

Dr. Jeremy P. Roberts

Having the opportunity to serve as an intern at Prestonwood afforded me a rare glimpse at the inner workings of one of the great stories in ecclesial history: the miracle of Prestonwood Baptist Church. Pastor Graham would sit with the interns around a table with coffee and a book all of us young “preacher boys” read through together; and he would mentor us about how to lead a church body. Not only the formal training, but more importantly, the informal sharpening of my ministry in its most formative years came from pouring coffee for staff members during meetings, observing how to prepare and deliver sermons, learning the importance of excellence in administration, and honing Pastor Graham’s repetitive words, “Excellence in all things and all things to the glory of God.”