Imagine you are making plans to sign up for a week of service, it would be obvious to have some basic questions. What will we do? Who will we serve? How will our efforts be significant in meeting real needs? These are all fantastic questions that deserve thoughtful answers so you can feel prepared to minister and know that your efforts are aligned with the kind of change that will continue after you have returned home from your short-term work.
Are you also asking questions about the spiritual content that the organization will provide during your mission week? Do you expect that there will be meaningful content that will frame the experiences of your students as they serve or are you prepared to do so personally in case that is not provided? Students Living a Mission interacts with youth leaders from across the country and hears the range of responses to these questions from partnerships with mission organizations. Most frequently, the spiritual content is described as being fairly elementary with a scripted devotional read by an intern and a handful of songs played by a staff member or by a musical participant. We’ve experienced and heard about Christian mission organizations that do not even reach this threshold with no provided devotions and potentially as little as a prayer at mealtime or “cultural celebration” with a local band but zero element of worship.
If we are honest, we find it hard to understand how this model of missions aligns with the example of Jesus who consistently taught scripture to his students within the context of service and worship. If a faith-based organization provides meals, lodging, and opportunities to serve but neglects to plan for biblical teaching and empower you as a leader to dialogue about God’s purpose for them to participate in his kingdom, how can they claim to be any different from other programs who do without acknowledging God? Understanding this potential should cause you to reflect on what your goals are during a mission week and what long-term implications you want to come from your short-term experiences.
SLAM is committed to developing students to “live a mission” and we are convinced that worship and biblical teaching are at the very root of what shifts a student from one who engages in a mission trip to a consumer who becomes a person seeking to bear fruit that will be for the benefit of others. Rather than these elements relegated to an afterthought of the trip, they are woven into the fabric of the experience so that students will be engaged with spiritual disciplines and conversations throughout the week.
Students are constantly bombarded with new experiences. Sports, clubs, and extracurricular activities take them to new places where they get to try new things and meet new people. Not all of these experiences are intentionally framed for leading them to make their conclusions about how this experience should fit into their understanding of life. When these experiences are framed by coaches, teachers, etc., they may be done so through a lens of competition, adventure, education, or any number of other criteria. Though a mission trip sets the stage for framing about considering the needs of others, there is still a broad range of takeaways that students may internalize. That could be as simplistic as being “thankful for what I have” or amazed at how “joyful others are despite being poor”. Returning home with these lessons is not bad but often lacks the kind of staying power that leads a student to live with a different set of daily priorities.
Scripture and worship are the ultimate means of framing our experiences as followers of Jesus. Regardless of what we see and discover in life, God’s word serves to enlighten our perspective from his viewpoint. Worship is an act of aligning our hearts with the Lord’s and even surrendering our plans and purposes for those that He reveals instead. Isaiah 55:10-11 likens God’s word to rain that brings about a crop from the ground. Like the rain, God’s word does not “return void” but elicits the response that God purposed for it. There are likely aspects of our ministry to students that have the potential to return void. Not every game or conversation will be life-changing. Even a service project runs the risk of falling into the category of “stuff we did that didn’t change a student’s life”. But we have a perspective from God that when we prioritize his Word, there is a significance that must be responded to. SLAM believes this to be true and organizes weeks of service in a way that students cannot avoid encountering the potential for life change.
Here is a glimpse of what that looks like practically:
Biblical teaching and worship don’t happen by accident. They also take time to develop with depth as most things that are important can’t be squeezed into a brief time slot. SLAM’s schedule prioritizes time spent learning and worship as part of the rhythms of each day. Morning sessions allow students to engage the Lord from the start and prepare for the ways they will serve throughout the day with God’s perspective on their work. Service project facilitators often spark informal conversations on the mission sites to reflect on the biblical theme and how it is lived out. Similarly, meals include time to enjoy each other’s company but also to prompt the kinds of meaningful dialogue that Jesus often had when surrounded by friends at a table. Evening sessions are led by musicians and speakers who have experience leading students in worship, and prayer and have formal biblical education to contextualize it for the groups that are present. Small groups are facilitated by biblically-trained leaders who can help students process their experiences in light of what they are learning. From dawn to dusk, God’s word is present and students are encouraged to wrestle with the implications it has for their lives.
In all of these efforts, we believe that you as the leader with perspective on your students’ backgrounds, personalities, and talents are in the perfect position to reinforce and further develop these teachings. We want to teach in a way that gives you material to work with in moments as you travel and gather as a group and as you return home to live out this calling as the body of Christ in your church and community. We want to partner with like-minded leaders who want to see students encounter the Lord and allow Him to direct their paths throughout a lifetime. Let’s serve together recognizing that hearing the words of Jesus and putting them into practice will be a rock-solid foundation to build upon for the future.
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