A photo from the weekend of my high school outreach trip.
I was just thinking on some of the things I did with my old church as a student in high school. One of those things included going into the city and taking time to hear people's stories and serve them. For years I called it my "in-city missions trip". Sure, that's one way to put it. But as I thought on it some more, I realized a better way to say it was "community outreach/engagement".
Thinking on that, It really showed my mindset in high school. I did not see the rest of the city as my "community". I saw the rest of the city as a place that I stayed away from and every now & then would go into to "bless" or "serve" someone.
Years later, I am grateful to understand what it is to reach out to the community in different ways very often rather than once or twice a year "go into the city" and serve here and there. It begs the question, however, who do we see as our Community? And how often do we really engage our community for Christ? And ultimately, do we really desire to see our city (as a community) changed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
students are expected to have a presence in the community throughout the semester and reflect on their experiences regularly. In these reflections, they use course content as a basis for their analysis and understanding of the key theoretical, methodological and applied issues at hand.
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