As you look ahead in your 2025 ministry calendar and see a question mark hovering over your summer mission plans, your heart-beat may pick up the pace just a tad. What can we do for this summer’s mission trip? Where should we go? The options may feel overwhelming.
Students Living a Mission is actively engaged in meeting the needs of individuals and families in Nashville, Tennessee. It is our home base where we are called to love our neighbors even as we continue to develop capacity and relationships for the work that we are doing around the world. We think it is a pretty great place to live out our mission and can’t help but want to invite others to join us in these life-changing efforts. Sure, we may be biased but here are some reasons we feel justified in thinking you’d love to serve here too.
Nashville has a global population. Don’t assume that just because we are in the South and known for country music, we only fit the stereotype of pickup trucks, cowboy boots, and three-legged dogs. Nashville is culturally diverse with nearly 1 in 7 residents born outside of the United States. SLAM’s parent non-profit Global Outreach Developments International (www.godintl.org) engages with Hispanic, Burmese, and Congolese immigrant and refugee families in year-round ministry. This cultural diversity is reflected in the businesses and restaurants around the city. Serving the poor and marginalized in Nashville is a way for students who participate in a SLAM week to experience the joys and challenges of cross-cultural ministry while traveling domestically for a mission week.

Students Living a Mission calls Nashville home. This translates to our SLAM staff having local relationships and ministry connections that are not curated simply for the benefit of a short-term project. We live, work, and raise families in these neighborhoods and have a finger on the pulse of the needs around us. That means that a partnership with SLAM can extend beyond the brief stay you may have as it provides much-needed support for our ongoing work in the community and also continues beyond your stay with us.
Location, location, location. Nashville is centrally located with easy travel access from so many directions. Whether you are in the Midwest (Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio), East (Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina), South (Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas), or even West like Kansas or Oklahoma, there is a good chance you are within a day’s drive on an interstate from Nashville.

Yummy food. While you are here, you’ll eat a variety of foods that are tasty and likely have opportunities to do some culinary exploration. Enjoy a food truck, ice cream shop, or some other culinary gem at the end of a service project or during some other free time. The possibilities are endless and the results are sure to be tasty.
Cool sights and sounds. Is the food not enough to entice you? There is plenty to see and do in Nashville while you are here. The music culture is alive and well with live music venues galore. Museums, art displays, parks, shopping, and more are available to those looking for bonus sightseeing during their travels. Check out Centennial Park with a full-scale replica of the Parthenon or visit the Grand Ole Opry Hotel lobby with an indoor river and exotic trees and flowers worldwide. The SLAM schedule is mostly full so you may consider coming a little early or staying a little late if you want to take in more of what Nashville has to offer.

Pretty great weather. Okay, if we’re being honest, everyone can find something to complain about with the weather no matter where you go. However, you can choose worse than Nashville. Yes, summers are warm but generally not as high of heat as you may expect. Rain is generally a quick afternoon pop-up storm that dissipates in 20 minutes and returns to blue skies and sunshine. You won’t have to worry about blizzards or hurricanes. And even with the heat, there are plenty of beaches and lakes from the surrounding waterways that give some relief at the end of a wonderful week of sweating for the sake of others.
World-class biblical education. SLAM is facilitated by alumni and students of the Institute for GOD which is a mission and Bible college. This accredited school is committed to teaching God’s word locally and extending that biblical education to partners around the world. During a SLAM week, your students will be surrounded by staff who are not simply dabbling in missions but have been saturated with an understanding of God’s work in the world and how to enact it. We find that this rootedness in Scripture makes all the difference for students to transition from simply a great week to one that continues as they go home. Come to Nashville and discover for yourself a community that takes God seriously enough to do what He says while enjoying the journey together.

Intrigued? Want to learn more? Check out www.slamweb.org to discover the many opportunities to serve with Students Living a Mission in Nashville next summer. You can load up a personal vehicle or your church bus and bring a load of young people down who will not only get to experience a slice of Nashville but even more so to encounter the Lord as they worship and serve together. For all the cool elements that Nashville has to offer, nothing is better than seeing students step out of their comfort zone and partner with God in doing kingdom work to make Earth look a bit more like what He intended it to be from his heavenly perspective.
Over one million people call Nashville home and you can transform the lives of many of them without moving here. Join Students Living a Mission for a short-term mission that has a long-term impact both in Nashville and in the lives of the students who will return home different than they came.
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