Service and Mission with Messiah College
Messiah College Mission Statement: To educate men and women toward maturity of intellect, character and Christian faith in preparation for lives of service, leadership and reconciliation in church and society.
We seek to involve students in cross-cultural service and ministry experiences. These will include both learning and teaching; receiving and giving; listening and speaking; being and doing—so that witness happens through everything students do and say. Through these experiences students have opportunity for life change (and changing lives). It is our desire to help students become kingdom builders who will take vocation and calling seriously.
Principles:
- Building partnerships to foster long-term relationships with existing organizations rather than independently planning trips and through these organizations, committing to communities.
- Striving to do projects that fit into a vision of community development, (peacemaking and social justice support) that honors the local church, community leaders, and the goals of the community.
- Valuing relationships that develop with local people and the learning, growth and commitments of the participants.
- To be intentional about the training and orientation we give participants. Teams will meet regularly to learn about service and mission, their particular project and project location and will learn to work together as a team. Team leaders will also be engaged in dialogue with each other and the field staff where the team will be traveling.
- Helping students to see that education also happens outside the classroom and can enrich the college experience.
- Providing an opportunity for spiritual growth.
Four main foci:
(An in-depth exploration of these concepts is found in Calvin E. Shenk's book, Who Do You Say That I Am? Christians Encounter Other Religions)
- Service
Service projects can often be done effectively within the limits of short time periods, young age groups, limited language capabilities, etc. We will seek to send our teams to do hands-on projects. As much as possible local people should direct the work and we will work under their leadership.
- Evangelism (witness)
Witness through word and deed happens in both service and evangelism. Effective evangelism requires longer times and greater language and cultural facility. One-time, short-term teams can play an important role in this long-term effort. We will reflect Biblical understandings, missiological wisdom and sociological insights as we work with training our teams in this area.
- Dialogue
Dialogue about what we believe with those of other faith convictions happens when one is not focused on debate or proselytizing. These teams present an opportunity to encourage this kind of dialogue that has great potential for enhancing the witness of the team.
- Presence
There are countries where sharing one's faith verbally is not accepted. The presence of a team of Christian students working in a community like this has the potential for significant impact.
