One Year of Your Life....One Focus....One God....One Person Can Make a Difference.
We've been dreaming......A college student takes a year to be in a mission setting and charts a course for the rest of his life. The student could work at the Mobile Inner City Mission in Mobile, or the Bell Street Mission in Montgomery, or First Place in Pensacola. The idea is for the student to experience a life given away. Nine months would be spent living in unfamiliar surroundings, helping to transform lives and make a difference.
However, the mission work isn't the only purpose. A key to the entire program is a mentor relationship that is established by a pastor of a local church. This mentor serves as a guide, an encouragement, and a sounding board for the student. The covenant is that every week the pastor spends five hours with the student, and the student does eight hours of ministry each week at the local church.
From this experience, the students will be uplifted, inspired, and maybe given more direction and freedom to follow God's lead. They will also be taught leadership and ministry skills.
The students' experiences will be valuable for the church as well. For many decades, the church has farmed out the basic ministries of healing, caring for the poor, and disciple-making to "extension ministries," so that the healing was done by rehab centers, the caring for the poor was done by extraordinary people like Fred Toland and Charles Fail in extraordinary places like the Mobile Inner City Mission, the disciple-making was handed off to youth rallies and college ministries. The church needs to reclaim her ministry. These students can help us find ways to incorporate their mission experiences into the everyday life of the local church.
This is not a new concept. It's done by many organizations in a variety of settings. Can we not do it in the Alabama-West Florida Conference?
More soon......
