A Story of Beginnings: The NBA XPLOR Program

by NBA Cares

Nashville, Tennessee: When Meagan graduated from college, she looked around at what she might do with the rest of her life: She wanted a life of purpose that both enriched and tapped the budding call she was feeling about living a life of service that intersected her faith. Did that mean seminary, ministry, or something she hadn’t even considered?

Many friends were on a similar journey. They found their way to AmeriCorps, or Teach for America. While those programs put the young adults in a context of volunteer service, they didn’t engage the faith conversation she desired.Then she heard about a church-sponsored, young adult, service-year opportunity. The yearlong program emphasized living in intentional community with other young adults, who followed spiritual practices together – including reflection on what God might be calling them to do and be.
They worked as volunteers in the community where the communal house was located, in social service agencies that matched their interests and skills to the needs of the community.

“I just asked, ‘Where do I sign up!’” she said.

While programs like this exist in a couple dozen denominations and faith groups, such an offering is not available for young adults in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) — at least, not yet.

Young Adult Service Year Experiences
Developing a network of congregationally based, yearlong service opportunities for young adults engaged in vocational discernment is part of an emerging initiative that has the attention of Disciples partners from across the life of the church.

A mid-March gathering in Nashville, TN, hosted by the National Benevolent Association (NBA) of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), brought together 35 conversation partners from general, regional and congregational ministry staff to young adult seminarians and others engaged in service ministries.

“The mission of the NBA is about connecting, inspiring, and accompanying one another. Even while NBA convenes this initial conversation, we recognize that nurturing hearts for service is best done in partnership with others from across the Disciples landscape. We seek to start a conversation throughout the Disciples church and involve Disciples who have resources and experiences to lend to the shaping and growth of this kind of ministry,” said Rev. Rebecca Hale, NBA Vice President of Church Ministries.

Many partners
The conversation moved beyond Disciples, with participation from Rev. Mary Blaufuss, Executive for Volunteer Ministries with the United Church of Christ (UCC), who shared how the UCC launched their program. And she spoke about the support available for volunteers during their year with such programs. For example, interns often qualify for student loan deferment. There are options for heath care when young adults are not covered by their family plan. A modest stipend covers personal expenses, she told the gathering.

“The model or models that emerge from this kind of movement need the input of young adults themselves, as well as deeper conversation with local congregations. We remain open to even more ideas. Meanwhile, we are grateful to be part of a constellation of support to make sure this initiative has a chance to become sustainable,” said Hale.

During the Nashville event, participants spoke about Disciples service programs currently available for young adults. These service opportunities include volunteering internationally as a global missions intern, to summer volunteers teaching youth about issues of peace and justice, to college undergraduates in leadership development programs. Already, there are several ways that the Disciples church seeks to support and nurture faithful leaders. This emerging initiative of congregationally-based, year-long service opportunities will complement and further strengthen the wider community of Disciples.

Many models
“The hopes and needs of young adults across the church vary in different communities,” said Rev. Virzola Law, Pastor of Discipleship/Leadership at The Boulevard Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Memphis, Tennessee, who participated in the conversation. “Some of the current models bring young people from all across the country to a neighborhood of ‘need’ and then don’t actually serve that community to develop its own strengths,” she added. “We want to avoid a paternalistic approach to service. What happens when we empower the young adults who come from the neighborhood around The Boulevard?” said Rev. Law. “Let’s put those folks in a house together, work with them on spiritual discernment and vocational discernment as they reach out to empower their neighbors!”

“While we might wish we had started this kind of program a long time ago, there are some advantages to coming later into the process,” Hale said. “For one thing, we want this process to be intentionally aware of power issues around race, gender, class, etc…. Some of the other programs are realizing that they were not founded with that awareness, so they are making mid-course corrections that are harder to implement once the organization is established.

“There are other lessons our ecumenical partners have learned along the way. We don’t have to make all the same mistakes. We can make new mistakes!” she added, laughing.
Next steps include:

  • Research and dialogue with ecumenical programs on their models of mission year service programs
  • Plan and complete focus groups involving more young adults to best determine their hopes related to a service year program and to garner the needs of communities that volunteer mission can happen
  • Plan and complete focus groups involving local congregations to garner the needs within a local community and to imagine mission year programs in their geographical areas
  • Continue dialogue with Disciples partners to foster and create support systems that collaboratively develop sustainable projects across a variety of geographical locations

Find out more information on the NBA XPLOR program!