While JBU has a rich history of student ministry leadership programs including worship leaders and the Student Ministry Leadership Team (SMLT), Campus Chaplain Keith Jagger, Ph.D., noticed areas of the JBU community that the Office of Christian Formation wasn’t able to reach readily.
“It has always been a dream of mine to develop a group of students to pour into more closely, who then commit to living life out more intentionally in their natural friendship groups,” Jagger said. “Given the time investment required for worship leaders and SMLT, we needed something in our office that could reach out a little further into areas of campus that we just weren’t reaching.”
Jagger said that Jesus’ model of discipleship and a desire for a broader impact on campus gave birth to the idea of the Chaplain Interns program, which is now entering its third year. The Office of Christian Formation selects JBU students to be chaplain interns each year, and these students commit to a year of deepening their spiritual maturity and serving as spiritual leaders on campus.
Jagger said this branch of student leadership is a little more behind the scenes. Chaplain interns meet weekly with Jagger and seek out mentorship. They also identify someone on campus they can mentor throughout the year.
During the 2023-2024 school year, eight chaplain interns took turns praying over chapel services, praying at the Sunday night Gathering service, leading six testimony nights, and sharing devotions with the Parent’s Council, Alumni Council, Admissions, and at Advancement events and resident assistant in-service training. They helped host JBU’s external chapel speakers and took seminars on prayer and other personal and spiritual disciplines. At the end of their program year, chaplain interns help interview prospective interns for the next year to learn how to interview and hire prayerfully.
JBU junior education major Esther Place said the Chaplain Intern program has been an excellent and stretching experience for her.
“Being [a chaplain intern] has given me such a broad vision and understanding of JBU, its mission (especially on a spiritual level), staff/faculty and students,” Place said. “Overall, this program has opened my eyes to the deeper parts of JBU and the community that make it what it is. It has helped grow my love for this place and increased my desire to see God move in it.”
Jagger said he has loved watching the chaplain interns lead in their sports teams and other campus leadership roles, and he sees how they have grown in learning how to bring up Jesus in their daily conversations.
“It’s a joy to be in the trenches with the next generation, enjoying them poking fun at a member of an older generation (me) and also watching them wrestle through some really tough stuff up close,” said Jagger. “It’s hard to see them graduate and move on, but I hope these are lifelong relationships that help build the kingdom of God in our time.”