LOM presented their 2015 Innovative Program Award at the recognition banquet on Thursday night at the LOM Conference. The winner this year, the fourth the award was presented, was Voyageurs Lutheran Ministry (VLM) of Minnesota and their Jacob’s Well Leadership Initiative. That project begins to address how summer staff and year-round leadership talk to those who are “unchurched” but come to their site. The program centers around 15 month internships; six months spent with VLM and nine months spent with Jacob’s Well (JW), Minneapolis. They currently have three interns in the program. The six months spent at VLM are summer months both before and after the nine months with Jacob’s Well. During the first summer at camp, the intern(s) experience what all summer staff experience – the community, the campers, the program, and the joys and challenges of talking faith with others. It is during this season that the internship idea is presented, and interested staff are encouraged to talk with both the VLM leadership and the JW leadership. During the nine months with JW, the intern(s) experiences and participates in the JW community while focusing on how they can bring this experience back to camp the following summer. Jacob’s Well sees themselves as a church for those who don’t like church.
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