On May 21, college students gathered in Pilgrim Chapel at Dallas Baptist University to be commissioned for the missions they’ve been called to this summer.
The service offered times of worship, prayer and celebration for both the students and their loved ones. A total of 261 students will serve on a Go Now mission this summer. The students’ trips will vary from summer or semester to year-long.
The Go Now Missions Commissioning Service was a opportunity to challenge not only those called to the mission, but those in attendance, to share the good news of the gospel.
‘Soul to soul’
Marcy Martinez, Go Now Sending Team chairman, posed the question to attendees, “What’s the best message you’ve ever heard?”
She offered examples from her own life and possibilities for others such as the day they found out where they were going on mission this year. But the best news to share, she noted, is the love of Christ.
The theme verse for this year’s commissioning service was Romans 10:14–15. As a committee, the Go Now Missions team prayerfully selected this verse to reflect the theme: “sole to soul.”
Martinez reminded the students and families that just like in Isaiah 52:9, the messenger brought good news, and whether traveling on mission or spending days at home, believers are called to share the good news.
‘Will you be the messenger?’
“Will you be the messenger that brings the good news?” Martinez challenged the audience. “How can they know if you don’t bring the good news to them?”
Gary Stidham, Baptist Student Ministry director at University of Texas at Arlington, has helped with the sending process with Go Now Missions for many years. He recognized how much faith and trust it takes from both the students to go and the parents to send them on mission.
He offered tangible ways to support the students while they are investing in God’s Kingdom this summer.
“Pray for them daily,” he shared. “Pray for safety as they travel, as they make their way to close or far-off places, but also pray that they would make genuine friendships with their teammates and with the locals wherever they’re stationed this summer — that they’d have real community with the people they’re with. Pray that they’d be useful to the churches they serve, pray that they walk with God this summer and do His will.”
In 2023, 441 Go Now missionaries will serve on mission, including Christmas break, semester, summer, impact and special impact missionaries and campus missionary interns.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Emily Ahrens and originally published by Baptist General Convention of Texas.
