World Harvest Mission

The WHM team in Shepherd's Bush is praying that God would to use us to build a community that is centered on Jesus and is marked by love, mercy and creativity. This new city within the city would be made up of all members of the community - rich/poor, British/immigrant, young/old, folks with backgrounds from Europe, African and Asia.

We want to be a community in which disciples are made, formed and empowered. Now that means we are making disciples, but disciples of Jesus find their identity in relationship to their brothers and sisters. So we find our purpose not in making individual disciples, but disciples in community with each other and the Holy Spirit.

We want our church to be a community that embodies and demonstrates the reign of God in Shepherd's Bush. This means sharing the joys, sorrows, successes, and failures of life, worshiping God together, serving together, making new disciples, and equipping each other to live well in the sphere God has placed us. We’ve said that we want to put particular focus right now on growing community, and on evangelism.

Overview of Internship Program

Each summer a group of college-aged to thirty-something individuals descend on London to work with World Harvest. After going through training (see below), they spend the remainder of the summer working alongside current World Harvest teams. No two summers are ever the same; no two people have the same experience. The hope is that through the experience, interns will become more aware of the power of the Gospel in their own lives and out of that awareness will be motivated—even compelled—to invite those in the world around them into relationship with God. It’s also a chance to explore the possibilities of God’s calling on their lives through their time on the mission field.

Internship Training

“What does it mean for me to ‘live missionally’ wherever I am, whatever I’m doing, and whoever I’m with?”

“What does it look like to live and work with a team on the mission field?”

“How do I love when I am tired, and my passion for Jesus feels weak?”

“What are the challenges of crossing cultures, and what does the gospel have to do with them?”

These are just some of the questions that surface in the course of the internship, and the training time sets the context and vision for a summer of wrestling through the answers as we pursue God and his kingdom together.

The summer begins with a course of training administered by World Harvest UK, MAP team members, and our national associates. Training includes Cross-cultural Training Days (based loosely on principles from STIM and the Alliance for Saturation Church Planting) and Sonship. The intern team usually meets for about 10 days to listen to lectures, pray, and interact in various training and team-building activities. It’s a time to explore the dynamics of living cross-culturally, and how to bring the Gospel to bear on that.

Cross-cultural Training Days

The purpose of this training time is to begin to build a framework for missional living in another culture. The training focuses on preparing and equipping the team for dealing with issues that surface on any mission field- like culture shock, communication, and team functioning - in a scriptural and Gospel-oriented way. We’ll also explore a few different approaches to missions and some of the issues in the church-planting cross-culturally.

Sonship

Developed by Jack Miller, the founder of World Harvest Mission, as a leadership discipling course, Sonship is an in-depth study of the Gospel. It highlights the ongoing necessity for the Gospel in the Christian life and provides tools for dealing with issues of conflict, sin, and the freedom of forgiveness that will inevitably surface during the summer.

Interns & The Shepherd's Bush Vision

After the training time, the team will spend the rest of the summer working alongside the WHM team in Shepherd's Bush. The Summer Internship Program contributes to the larger vision of the WHM ministry in London: To participate in the coming of Christ’s rule and renewal of all things.

We do this through church planting, training, and mobilizing laborers for the harvest. Our goal is to begin Christ-centered churches among the diverse sub-cultures in London. The WHM ministry in London provides an ideal location for interns to significantly contribute to an on-going ministry and at the same time be immersed in religions and cultures from around the world.

Intern Ministry may also include:

• Meeting the people of Shepherd's Bush and helping to connect them to the church planters that work there
• Supporting the youth outreach of the church plant
• Volunteering in various mercy ministries
• Engaging in follow-up ministry which flows out of building relationships
• Spending a week serving a different church plant or ministry, experiencing a different model of missions.
• Helping with the musical worship of the church plant