At First Mennonite Church in Newton, Kan., young adults are lining up to do service.

And this year is no exception. Three years ago, there were also eight from the church doing service, and although numbers vary from year to year, for many years the church has encouraged and sent their young adults on service assignments.

“It’s been part of the DNA at First Mennonite,” said Joel Schroeder, the church’s youth pastor since 2004.

Schroeder and the young adults who are in service programs—Mennonite Voluntary Service, Service Adventure, and Radical Journey—say the key is the structure the church put into place to make sure youth had the information and resources they needed to make a year of service a reality.

“All this summer, the Outreach Commission told me exactly when I should send out letters, what kinds of things I should say,” said Sierra Pryce, who works with the Migrant Farmworkers Project through MVS in Kansas City. “Then all the money from my church congregation went straight to the Outreach Commission. It just made it so easy.”

The Outreach Commission also helped participants plan a program to raise awareness within the congregation about their call to serve, and to motivate congregational prayer and financial gifts. The participants shared both their service plans and their musical skills in an inspiring and enjoyable evening. 

Linda Shelly, a member of the Outreach Commission, said the church makes sure money is not a roadblock.

“We plan up front that Outreach Commission is going to pay the whole amount one way or another,” Shelly said. “This helps many people in the congregation to contribute for the whole group, in ways that go beyond supporting relatives or close friends.”

Young adults also have many opportunities to interact with current and former mission workers, taking some of the mystery out of choosing to do service.

“We had people from the church who had done service after high school or college, and they’d come share their experience,” said Abigail Schrag, who is with Service Adventure in Philippi, W.Va. “So I was already thinking about doing service after my freshman year of high school.”

For Erin Regier, who is in Service Adventure in Albuquerque, N.M., the presentation by two mission workers came at a time when she was trying to make her final decision about whether to go to Bethel College or head into Service Adventure. At the time, she said, she was afraid to plunge into the unknown.

Sierra Pryce, MVS participant.

“(The mission workers) talked about how we are only strangers to this earth and that heaven is our true home, so it was OK to feel uncomfortable,” Regier recalled. “Afterward, my aunt also mentioned that often in this culture we are obsessed with being comfortable. She said that it was time that we get comfortable with being uncomfortable. At that point it was clear what God was calling me to do.”

What advice do the young people have for churches who want their youth to do service after high school or college? Create the type of environment where service is valued and service opportunities are at the forefront. But don’t be pushy.

“I appreciated that I wasn’t herded into it,” Pryce said. “I didn’t feel pressured to do MVS; it was something I was able to decide on my own. The fact that I was able to come to that decision, and they were able to support me wholeheartedly—it was kind of a no-brainer.”

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Mennonite Mission Network, the mission agency of Mennonite Church USA, leads, mobilizes and equips the church to participate in holistic witness to Jesus Christ in a broken world. Media may contact Andrew Clouse at andrewc@mmnworld.net, 574-523-3024 or 866-866-2872, ext. 23024.