Divinity School announces New York City internship

The Dean and Dorothy Kaufman Internship in Urban Ministry will be awarded each year to students enrolled in the school’s master of divinity program. The internship was established to honor the Kaufmans for their ministry to Manhattan’s Metro Baptist Church.

“The aid is part of an effort by the Wake Forest Divinity School to engage students in the particular issues facing urban churches and neighborhoods,” said Scott Hudgins, divinity school director of admissions and student services.

After serving on staff at several large churches including Woodmont Baptist Church in Nashville, Tenn., and Providence Baptist in Charlotte, N.C., Dean and Dorothy Kaufman retired to Manhattan, where Dean Kaufman served as associate minister of Metro Baptist Church. While there, the Kaufmans provided leadership to the church’s varied social ministries in the community.

Under the leadership of Metro Baptist pastor David Waugh, a 1971 graduate of Wake Forest, the church moved to consolidate and expand those ministries with the incorporation of Rauschenbusch Metro Ministries. The ministry center was named for Walter Rauschenbusch, who birthed the social gospel movement while pastoring in the Hell’s Kitchen community at the start of the 20th century. Rauschenbusch wrote “A Theology for the Social Gospel,” which called for the evangelization of social systems by the church.

The center’s willingness to experiment with varied community ministries will provide an ideal laboratory for the observation and participation in urban ministry, added Hudgins.

The Wake Forest Divinity School will open this fall with about 35 students from a variety of denominational traditions and is expected to grow to 135-150 students within three years. The school’s curriculum is centered in the classical theological disciplines of biblical studies, church history, theology and ministry studies, which includes areas such as pastoral care and preaching. Courses will be taught by divinity school faculty, as well as faculty of Wake Forest’s undergraduate, graduate and professional schools. All students are required to participate in a second-year supervised ministry program, where they are guided by area ministers in field placements. The Kaufman internship will be used to fill this requirement.

Wake Forest’s divinity school, whose mission is Christian by tradition, ecumenical in outlook and Baptist in heritage, prepares individuals for ministry in the Christian church.