How Does It Work?

As far as Mission Year is concerned, neighborhood outreach simply means Team Members intentionally building relationships with their neighbors, in order to move them closer to whom and where God wants them to be. In the beginning that may just be two or three team members walking around the block, introducing themselves to people. Later on they may stop back to ask for prayer requests, to share opportunities, or just to hang out with new friends. Team Members try all kinds of things over the course of the year until they find effective ways of connecting with people.

The process is not always easy, and seldom moves as fast as we would like, but it almost always works out. Meaningful relationships develop over time, so that eventually our Team Members find themselves deeply involved with their neighbors' lives, helping to meet all kinds of practical needs, and sharing their faith in a very natural way.

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Takes Place

Saturday and Weeknights

Mission Year Team Members faithfully and enthusiastically volunteer at least 24 hours a week at one or more community service sites, aiming to strengthen the ministry or organization where you're volunteering, encouraging your co-workers, and serving the people there to the best of their ability.

Community Service gives Team Members the opportunity to serve the needs of their new neighborhood in Jesus' name. Sites may be neighborhood public schools, hospitals, parks, senior centers, homeless or women's shelters, housing agencies, community development corporations, or other locations, depending on Team Members' individual interests and abilities, as well as the needs and opportunities in the neighborhood.

In order to have their community service overlap with their neighborhood ministries, Team Members generally choose service sites near their apartment or house, starting their service before 10:00am and ending before 7:00pm. Team Members who choose to work at schools or other sites that dismiss early generally find an after-school or community program to volunteer for in the afternoon.

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Takes Place

Tuesday through Friday, 10:00am to 6:00pm

Team Members participate in Sunday morning service at a local church and also seek out some specific ministry where they can make a contribution within that church. They can join a weekly bible study, drama ministry, or prison outreach. While Team Members may or may not feel entirely at home in their church, their aim is to understand, appreciate, and encourage their church staff and fellow church members to the best of your ability. The main point here is for Team Members to become part of God's family in their new community and to establish a spiritual home base from which they can reach out to their neighbors as followers of Jesus.

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Takes Place

Sundays and Weeknights

Mission Year Team Members faithfully spend time each week actively pursuing Biblical justice in their community. Their initial goal will be to identify and understand specific examples of individual, group, and systemic abuses of power which directly affect some or all of their neighbors. Later, Team Members will identify more experienced advocates who can enable them to responsibly help rescue, protect, or otherwise intervene on behalf of those neighbors, in areas of injustice.

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Takes Place

Through out the year

Mission Year Team Members pursue their own relationship with God through taking advantage of scheduled quiet times, weekly Sabbath days, Citywides (all city worship and teaching gatherings), Weekly Reflections, and training sessions. Their aim in all of these things should be to better understand and more closely follow the teachings of Jesus. One discipleship tool we will often encourage Team Members to use is our Mission Question: In this moment, how can I best love both God and people?

Growth in personal discipleship is one of our foremost concerns, rivaled only by our obsession with actually blessing our neighbors in significant and lasting ways. Simply stated, every aspect of Mission Year, in one way or another, is intended to help Team Members develop as a follower of Jesus. From the beginning of orientation all the way through the end of the closing retreat, our goal is to give Team Members a genuine opportunity to better understand themselves and the world around them, to pursue the disciplines of thought, prayer, worship, sacrifice, and service, and to draw closer to God by loving some of his most precious people.

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Takes Place

24/7

Orientation

First 3 weeks of Mission Year.

Trainings

Bi-monthly.

Citywides

Bi-Monthly, (Time of worship for whole city).

Devotions

Every morning, 9:00am to 10:00am.

Living in Christian community includes much more than sharing the same space and putting up with messy roommates. Christian community living involves intentionally putting into practice the “one anothers” of Scripture (praying for one another, encouraging one another, submitting to one another, serving one another, etc.).

Team Members participate in team devotions, family times, team dinners, curriculum, and team business meetings, pursuing the best possible relationship with each teammate.

Community living is likely to be the most challenging part of your Mission Year by far. After all, most teams are like most families...dysfunctional in at least a few areas. However, Mission Year is designed to provide you and your teammates with plenty of team building opportunities and lots of encouragement to learn how to love one another, because we know from experience that this will be a key to your success in ministry.

Whenever possible, we seek to have multi-ethnic/multi-cultural teams, in order to provide you and your neighborhood with a fuller expression of the Kingdom of God. Through Mission Year, God is inviting you to open yourself to the gifts that other Team Members offer and to embrace the growth that each Team Member provokes. As the Apostle John puts it:

Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we should also love one another. No one has ever seen God. But if we love one another, God lives in us. His love is made complete in us.

1 John 4:11-12

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Takes Place

24/7

How many people are on a Team?

Usually 5 to 6

Why are most teams co-ed?

For a couple of reasons. 1. Safety. 2. Cost; It's more cost-effective to have one house per team than two. 3. Diversity; Team Members get a well rounded experience in a co-ed house.

The Mission Year curriculum brings together a diverse collection of books, articles, movies, and taped messages that our Team Members read and discuss on a weekly basis throughout the year. The goal of our curriculum is to expose our Team Members to a variety of perspectives on a variety of subjects, ranging from interpersonal relationships to social justice to spiritual growth. Selections may include:

• Beyond Charity, by John Perkins
• Community and Growth, By Jean Vanier
• Freedom of Simplicity, by Richard Foster
• Jesus and the Disinherited, by Howard Thurman
• Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich
• Out of Solitude, by Henri Nouwen
• The Corner, by David Simon and Edward Burns
• The Irresistible Revolution, By Shane Claiborne
• The Ragamuffin Gospel, by Brennan Manning
• Why are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?, By Beverly Daniel Tatum

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Takes Place

Thursday Night

The important thing to remember as you wonder, “How will I do all these things?” is that you will be receiving lots of practical training throughout the year. Of course, to get you started, there is intensive orientation and training for at least three weeks and regular training sessions every two weeks thereafter.

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Takes Place

Friday Night

Citywides are designed to address the spiritual and emotional needs of Team Members for encouragement and fellowship. Every two weeks, teams come together from across your Mission Year city to participate in praise and worship, fun and games, testimonies, small groups, food, and guest speakers in an open and informal environment. These meetings are your City Director’s opportunity to introduce you to people and ideas he or she thinks are particularly timely and helpful. We may not always agree with everything our guest speakers say, but you can be sure we think they are well worth listening to.

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Takes Place

Sunday Night

Mondays are your official Sabbath from normal Mission Year responsibilities. While you may not spend Mondays doing ministry, your plans for each Sabbath should, nevertheless, still flow from faithfully responding to the Mission Question: In this moment, how can I best love both God and people?

Sabbaths help us pace ourselves for the long haul, instead of the quick burnout, which is another way of saying we need to recharge our bodies and souls whether or not we feel like it. Given the desperate needs all around you in the city, it may be hard for you to step away from ministry in order to take care of yourself, but do your best to trust God’s wisdom in laying down the fourth commandment. Get out and away, do things that heal and energize you, and don’t forget to catch up on your sleep.

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Takes Place

Mondays

Sunday Afternoon

On a rotating basis, a few people go grocery shopping on Sunday. In addition to being a wonderful time to hang out with neighbors, Sundays are also good times for Team Members to do laundry, read curriculum, write your monthly support letters, call family or friends, and generally stay caught up with their lives.

Support Letters

Once a month Team Members write a letter that they send as an update to family and friends. This is an opportunity to let others know what they are experiencing and to invite their ongoing financial, emotional, and prayer support.

Cost

We ask all of our Team Members to raise $12,000 over their year. This covers the cost of housing, feeding and training our Team Members. We have a development department that works with each Team Member in the process of raising support.

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Takes Place

Weekly