499 OnSite Internships

The School of Divinity has a list of approved OnSite locations with ministries from all across the country that you may choose from. OnSite locations must be used for your official credit bearing 499 internship.  

OnSite locations can also be used for additional, non-credit bearing internship opportunities. The student is responsible to pursue the appropriate opportunities; our office will not place you into a ministry.  

Your official credit-bearing internship (499) must be done at an OnSite Tier 3 location and cannot be done at your home church. 

Tier 1 – early opportunities that are broad and have a one to many, supervisor to students ratio. Recommended if you are a freshman or a sophomore. 

Tier 2 – experiences are mid-level opportunities that provide no more than 1 mentor to 3 students ratio.  Recommended if you are a sophomore or a junior. 

Tier 3 – experiences are high-quality opportunities that have a 1 to 1 student to mentor ratio. Tier 3 experiences are the only option if you are doing your 499 internship. These internship opportunities can also be used for additional non-credit bearing opportunities. 

Yes, it can be a local ministry if they are an approved Tier 3 ministry. Please note, your home church cannot be used for a credit bearing 499, even if they are a Tier 3 ministry.  

The approved site must provide an internship opportunity that falls within your major. i.e. pastoral ministry youth ministry, church ministry, camp ministry, women’s ministry. They should also provide opportunities for growth in areas that you want to learn and improve in. The location is expected to teach, guide, instruct, mentor, and provide accountability through the internship.  

The location should provide a mentor who is playing an active role in the process of getting you started with the ministry, will identify areas and opportunities to learn and grow, and participate in regular informal evaluations and a couple formal evaluations.  

These specific duties should be decided by you and the site supervisor and must fit within the context of your degree. From this discussion a simple job description should be established and include duties that fall within your major. 

All of this information will be submitted in the application.  

The 499 internship requires at least 200 hours of ministry involvement. This would include preparation, presence, and participation – all elements for a successful ministry experience. This is an A term course which is the combination of the B & D terms. The 499 internship requires a minimum of 12 weeks and at least 200 hours.

Once you register, it will automatically be provided in Canvas. Just like all other courses, there is a professor, syllabus, and class processes and details. It is important to stay on track with the assignments, forms, requirements and due dates in Canvas.  

If you are an international student conducting an internship within the U.S., you must contact International Student Services to obtain the CPT form, and complete it before applying for your internship.  

Once you have a location and you’ve talked with the site supervisor about a job description, you can submit an application.

After clicking the link, use your Liberty credentials at the login box to access the online application. You’ll input your location and site supervisor contact information and attach the job description.

After submitting the application, the application will send emails to both you and the site supervisor. Your supervisor will email you the supervisor agreement and you will either email that back to explearning@liberty.edu or upload it into your application. Once that is done, you’ll receive an email stating you’ve been approved. 

Please note: All of this must be completed one week before the FCI deadline of your anticipated term. For any further questions about this process, please contact explearning@liberty.edu