Your college years are a period like no other in your life. While you work towards your degree, you will be presented with a plethora of opportunities and experiences unique to your time as a student. At many colleges, a number of these opportunities and experiences involve some sort of community service. Whether a college requires or simply encourages its students to serve their community during their college years, one thing is for certain: serving in ministry during college changes you.
Service hours help college students discover and strengthen their skills in serving others. As you figure out where you will be and what you will do with your future, getting involved in ministry opportunities can open new doors and lead you down paths you might never have found otherwise.
Why Should You Serve in Christian Ministry During College?
Your college years are a prime time for you to grow academically, emotionally, and spiritually. Being intentional about serving Christ in your college years grows you in all areas. Learning how to balance serving Him with a rigorous academic schedule now sets you up to know how to serve Him later in life as you take on a full career and get even busier. There are innumerable benefits of serving God in college. Learn about five of these benefits below.
Why Choose a Christian College
1. Serving Helps You Grow in Spiritual Maturity
Serving in a church or local ministry during your college years can help you solidify your own faith. When you spend time focusing on how to serve Christ, you learn how to view every aspect of your life as a service to Christ, transforming you to become more like Him. College is a time when many students examine how to make their faith their own. Serving in ministry is a great way to help in this process.
2. Ministry Helps You Stay Connected in Community Involvement
During your time in ministry, you will meet and build relationships with fellow Christians across a variety of backgrounds. Your community for Christian fellowship will expand, and your community at college will likely be different from your community back home, so you’ll get to be around different perspectives and be enriched through listening to different life experiences. Serving in your community also opens you up to multi-generational settings, so you’ll be poured into by people of all ages.
3. Serving Helps You Find Christian Mentors
College is a transitional time full of big questions and decisions with lifelong impacts that can be difficult to navigate on your own. Throughout this transitional period in life, it is especially important to have people that will lovingly speak truth and wise encouragement into your life. Getting involved in ministry in the community or at your local church is a great way to find Christian mentors who can come alongside you and help you grow in your faith.
4. Ministry Exposes You to the World Beyond Your Campus
With all the change entering college brings it can be tempting to remain in the comfortable, stable bubble that college campuses provide. However, branching into the community surrounding your college will grow you in ways remaining stagnant never can. Getting involved in a ministry off-campus is a great way to interact with and serve the members of the community God has called you to. You might even find some new favorite places to do homework, invite your friends to hang out at, or show your parents when they come to visit.
5. Participating in Ministry Can Help You Put Your Faith Into Action
When you invest time in serving and ministry, you are investing time in sharing and growing your faith. Serving gives you the opportunity to show the love of Christ to others, reach people with the Gospel through word and deed, and obey Christ’s commands to love our neighbors and serve in imitation of Him. You’ll get tangible practice of living out your faith as you serve in college.
What Are Some Ministries I Can Participate in During College?
You might be ready to dedicate yourself to serving in a ministry, but with so many ways to serve, it can be hard to determine where you can be of most help to others. To figure out what ministry you’d be best suited for, start by thinking about your gifts and interests. Perhaps you have a knack for teaching or music. Maybe you have a heart for children or people in need. Here are some ways different skills and gifts can serve a community.
Teaching + Culture = A Community Language Program
If you like teaching and learning about different cultures, see if you can join any ministries at your university, church, or community program that help teach non-native English speakers. Through this ministry, you’ll be building bridges of love with your community and experiencing new perspectives, all while providing for a practical need.
Working With Kids + Music = Helping with Children’s Ministry at Your Local Church
The church is one body with many parts, meaning any local church has plenty of needs across various skills. Whether you are narrating Bible stories to kids as a Sunday School teacher, supporting teens as a youth group leader, or leading the congregation in song on the worship team, by getting involved in ministry at your local church, you will help deepen unity in the church body, help others in their walks with Christ, and be strengthened in your own faith through community with other Christians.
Organization + Nonprofit Work = Working at a Local Shelter or Community Center
There are people in need in every community. If you have a passion for helping those struggling to get by in life, search for volunteer opportunities at nonprofit community organizations. You could help feed the hungry in soup kitchens, support expecting mothers at pregnancy resource centers, or get winter jackets for kids through clothing drives. Ministries like these will let you serve and love those often ignored elsewhere, just as Christ served and loved outcasts in His ministry.
Put Your Faith Into Action at Cairn University
Serving in ministry is a vital part of every Christian’s growth as a person and as a servant of the Lord. Serving during your college years fosters your compassion for others, reveals and refines your unique passions and skills, and nourishes your desire to serve Christ with your entire life.
At Cairn University, we encourage all our students to walk a different path, one centered on Jesus Christ. We provide our students with a well-rounded, biblically-focused education that prepares them to engage with the world around them in an educated, competent, and biblically-minded way.
If you want to learn more about Cairn’s mission, you can request more information here or immerse yourself in our community by scheduling a visit today.
