Past Directors to Be Honored at MIP Commissioning
On May 17-18, 2013, the Division of Education of the Church of God will commemorate 35 years of the Ministerial Internship Program (MIP). As part of the weekend of ceremonies and celebrations, organizers will pay tribute to the past leaders who have shaped this life-changing leadership training program of the Church of God.
MIP was launched as a denomination-wide program in 1978 under the direction of its founder, Dr. Robert E. Fisher. Fisher had been appointed to lead the former Department of General Education two years earlier. Fisher’s vision of MIP began in the early 1970’s when he was state overseer of Hawaii. Because of the distance and lack of resources available in Hawaii at the time, Fisher began a program for a group of young converts of assigned readings, mentoring sessions, door-to-door witnessing, and other evangelism exercises. The pilot became a forerunner of the Ministerial Internship Program of today.
Fisher served as director of General Education, and of the MIP, until 1984. James D. Jenkins followed Fisher and served until 1988. In that year the General Education Department was changed to Ministerial Development and H. Lynn Stone was named Administrative Coordinator and Esdras Betancourt was Hispanic Coordinator. From 1992 until 2006, Larry G. Hess led the Office of Ministerial Development and directed the activities of MIP. In 2006, the Office of Ministerial Development and the School of Ministry were merged and became Ministerial Development/School of Ministry (MD/SOM). Leading the merged department from 2006 until 2010 was Donald S. Aultman. In 2010, the leadership dynamic changed to place the Division of Education, and therefore the offices of MD/SOM, under the portfolio of an assistant general overseer. From 2010-2012, Mark Williams led the division and since last summer, MD/SOM and MIP has been led by Assistant General Overseer J. David Stephens.
The primary component of the upcoming MIP weekend will be the commissioning of the dozens of candidates who have completed the requirements of the program. The commissioning service will take place on Saturday, May 18. The weekend of activities begins with registration on Friday May 17.
