Conference Promotes Student Engagement in Missions
Missions Reps answer questions from students during All-Dorm Devotions.
Students met and interfaced with missions reps during Calvary’s Conference on Global Engagement.
Last week, Calvary held its annual Conference on Global Engagement, hosting missions reps from over 20 missions agencies. Students attended chapel each day taught by representatives from Calvary’s various Synergy partners. Reps offered several other seminars throughout the week, with topics such as engaging in spiritual warfare, church revitalization, facing the dark side of ministry, and addiction and trauma recovery. Other events like All-Dorm Devotions, a movie night, and Calvary’s Haystack meeting gave students opportunities to interface with missions reps and familiarize themselves with the many agencies represented.
Josh Paxton, Director of the Burnham Center for Global Engagement, said he was happy with how the conference went, and liked the introduction of five chapel speakers for the week. He also mentioned Monday’s dorm devos was “a highlight, and students were able to ask mission reps questions. The theme was ‘10 Reasons Why I Shouldn’t Be a Missionary.’” Students wrote down their questions, “things like, ‘I don’t feel called to missions,’ or, ‘I don’t think I could be a church planter,’ and a panel of mission reps responded to questions to start a dialogue with the students.
Calvary student Lydia Stalcup said, “It was such an encouragement to have so many missionaries come for COGE.” She said the Chapels, seminars, and other conversations provided her with “insightful information for future ministry.” Paxton said these opportunities to interface are some of the best parts of the conference. “My favorite part is just the fellowship of the conference… It’s great to just catch up and fellowship with [the missions reps] and hear what’s going on in their corner of the world.”
Paxton pointed out that the Conference on Global Engagement is the most all-encompassing event at Calvary, and “it essentially takes over the entire school for the week.” He added that, “It’s an important part of Calvary’s culture, and of reminding us that, while we have different programs and different degrees and different interests… reaching the world with the gospel—reaching the lost—is something that we are all supposed to come together around.”
Paul Mattson from Crossworld speaks in Monday’sChapel.
Jeff McIntyre, Scripture Memory Mountain Mission, gives a seminar on “Unwrapping Your Spiritual Gifts.”
Shawn Haynie from Adelphos-USA answers a question on Monday’s Q&A panel.
Calvary Partners with Military Tuition Assistance to Train Students
Matt Blackledge, Air Force Reserves, leads worship at a prayer night on Calvary’s campus.
Vets and Reservists use Military Tuition Assistance to study Scripture and get marketable degrees.
Sgt Jonathan Haggard USMC (ret) served in the Marine Corps for eight years before coming to Calvary University to pursue his bachelor’s degree. He was searching for a local university to use his GI Bill and chose Calvary because it was close, “and the fact that it wasn’t just a Bible college,” but offered a range of widely marketable degrees in business, education, performance arts.
Haggard is studying Business Administration and Organizational Leadership, building off of the skills he acquired during his military tenure. Leadership training was one of the reasons Haggard joined the Marine Corps. He referenced the Marine concept of JJDIDTIEBUCKLE, an acronym for Judgement Justice Dependability Integrity Decisiveness Tact Initiative Endurance Bearing Unselfishness Courage Knowledge Loyalty Enthusiasm. “Those are leadership traits Marines are supposed to have. And I would say they all fit into Christian values.” Haggard’s time in the military was “training to be a leader. And as Christians, we’re called to leadership.”
Matthew Blackledge joined the Air Force Reserves three years ago, and currently pursues a master’s degree in Bible and Theology through the Air Force’s Military Tuition Assistance (TA). “I knew I wanted to go to a place to study the Bible, that’s always been my passion. And also, I had a goal to not go into debt at college. That was a big deal.” Calvary’s commitment to biblical education, keeping costs low, and working with TA met all of Blackledge’s criteria. Now that he’s here, he said, “I actually think I want to keep going and go all the way to PhD. Because when I’m 70, I want teach. I want to tell the story of the Bible.”
Calvary is proud to partner with veterans and enlisted soldiers to provide quality education, equipping them to live and serve, in the church and in the world, according to the biblical worldview.
Calvary University is approved by the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs for the training of veterans.
Calvary University is a member of the DoD Voluntary Education Partnership.
Calvary Alum Directing Amazon Project in Brazil
Gary (back, center) and Sandy (front, second from left) serve with Word of Life Bible Institute in Brazil.
Calvary “Pushed” Him Toward Missions
Calvary alumnus Gary Parker serves with his wife, Sandy, with Word of Life Bible Institute (WOLBI) in Brazil, The Amazon Project. Parker said this ministry has three major foci. The first is “to evangelize and disciple young people,” by means of camping ministries, a K-12 Christian school, sports ministries, and teaching the Bible in public schools. Their second focus is the Missionary Training Institute, offering one-year, three-year, and five-year tracks. Parker said the three-year program is the equivalent of a bachelor’s degree in missiology, while the five-year program partners with online Brazilian universities to give students training in missiology and a university degree.
“The focus is to train Brazilian young people to be missionaries, to take the gospel to places where it’s never gone before around the world,” Parker said. The institute trains students in a variety of skills, including first aid, mechanics, agriculture, literacy, sanitation and water supply, and food preparation.
The third focus of WOLBI in Brazil is a church planting ministry on the Amazon River. WOLBI has a team of missionaries that go out on boats doing survey work to identify communities that are open to churches, then teams of church planters plant churches in the identified communities. Parker said, “As those churches begin to be established, of course, in all of these communities there are young people, so the cycle starts over.” All of the youth ministries are functional on the Amazon on a different scale, including camps, schools, and “floating seminary.”
Parker said, “I see God moving in the Brazilian church and in the hearts of Brazilian young people to not only take responsibility for finishing the job of reaching the nation of Brazil with the gospel, but also having more and more of a vision for reaching the world with the gospel.” He also mentioned how Brazil is uniquely positioned to reach the Muslim world, “because all the Muslim countries hate America, but they love Brazil because of soccer… And so Brazilians have open doors.”
Parker, who serves as Executive Director of The Amazon Project, discovered Calvary when their music team performed at his church in high school. He came to Calvary pursuing pastoral studies, but “a lot of things changed in my heart, and I ended up going back to Brazil where I was born to be a missionary.” While he was at Calvary, his parents returned to Brazil to start a new ministry with WOLBI. “They needed somebody to come with them,” Parker said, “to learn with them and grow with them… and I was looking for something to give my life to.” Now he oversees the various ministries in Brazil, raising funds, and representing the ministry in conferences and promotion. “Think what Dr. Cone does for Calvary, and that’s what I do for Word of Life.”
Parker said, “I believe we have one job description, and that’s making disciples in all nations. Whatever our occupation, we should have the nations in mind.” He looked to his time at Calvary as one of the factors that pushed him towards missions. “The time that you spend in college is a time where you begin to identify how you find your abilities, talents, and opportunities best aligning with that mission… so whatever you’re doing, whether you’re building widgets or preaching, the purpose behind that is the mission of making disciples globally.”
Calvary Preps for Global Engagement Think Tank
Josh Paxton teaching recently in an Intercultural Studies classroom.
Where is the School?
With Calvary’s Conference on Global Engagement just around the corner, Josh Paxton, Director of the Burnham Center for Global Engagement, is gearing up for the conference’s Think Tank. Scheduled for Friday the 31st, the Think Tank addresses the question of how the church, mission agency, and school work together in training missionaries for the field. Paxton said, “The conversation has generally centered around the mission agency and the church. And… as I’ve been in these conversations, the constant refrain in the back of my mind has been, where is the school?” He noted that, as Christian schools have closed over the past few years, mission agencies have turned their recruiting focus toward churches. While recognizing that “the church is God’s primary vehicle in the world today, and the local church bears responsibility for local missions,” Paxton said, “I think the school still very much has a role to play.”
Concurrent to the conversation is Calvary’s Synergy program that has already forged a stronger connection between the school and the mission agency. As the program grows and develops, leaders and students are finding ways to involve the church more in discipling the individuals preparing for the mission field. Paxton said an integral part of the Synergy program is “making sure that [the student’s] local church is behind them, and that they’re being mentored in the process.”
The Think Tank brings together local pastors, Calvary leadership, missions agency representatives, and students around the idea of, “how do we do this better together?” The format of the Think Tanks will be “Ted Talk style,” featuring 30-minute presentations followed by discussion times. Paxton is excited to bring students into these conversations, “because it strikes me it does no good for pastors and teachers and missions agency leaders to sit around and talk about students without students actually being there to give their input.”
Examining how the church, agency, and school work together to disciple and train leaders, Paxton said, “I think we need to take a real hard look at what are the roles of each: what’s the church good at? What’s the school good at? What’s the agency good at? What are our niches and how do we work better together?”
