Student Missions
Missions and ministry are the heartbeat of Virginia Baptist Collegiate Ministries. For more than 50 years, students from our state have been investing themselves in service to others. In that time, hundreds of young adults have worked around Virginia, around the country and around the world in every conceivable capacity.
There are several different ways that students can get plugged into the work of God's kingdom. The Virginia Baptist Collegiate Missions Program involves students in work ranging from youth ministry and camp counseling to worship leadership and overseas experience. In addition, the Mission Mobilization Connection of the Virginia Baptist Mission Board, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, and the North American Mission Board and International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention offer a wide range of opportunities for summer ministry, short-term ministry and longer-term appointment.
Summer Collegiate Missions
Virginia Baptists through Baptist Collegiate Ministries has one goal in mind as we look to the summer opportunities for service and missions. That goal is to take the good news to the Nations!
We want to provide as many opportunities as possible to help you fulfill the calling that God has laid on your heart. Please check back for Summer 2011 mission opportunities as they are finalized.
Mission Partners
In addition to its own program of summer missions and special mission projects, Virginia Baptist Collegiate Ministry cooperates with a variety of mission sending
agencies to provide the widest possible range of ministry activities for students.
We encourage you to investigate the opportunities for service offered by our
partners listed below. When it comes time to apply, we urge you to select a
position or agency based on your sense of call, your gifts for ministry and
your current circumstances rather than applying to multiple programs. Because
each agency, including Virginia Baptist Collegiate Ministry, follows its own
calendar and process, following this advice will help insure that the most
committed and most appropriately gifted students get placed in each ministry.
Virginia Baptists maintain a variety of mission partnerships with Christian brothers and sisters around the world. The Glocal Missions and Evangelism Team coordinates these partnerships, receiving our partners when they come to serve among us and mobilizing Virginians for service in the locations of the partnerships. Partnership mission projects are usually short-term (one to three weeks) and volunteers are most often organized for service in teams. Current partnerships are in Austria, Paris, Brazil, China, among the Romany people in Eastern Europe, and in the Northeastern US. Volunteers with the Glocal Missions and Evangelism Team are usually asked to provide for their own expenses.
The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is a relatively young mission organization formed by like-minded Baptists about a decade ago. Mission requests are from a variety of ministries across the US and around the world. Financial arrangements vary with most placements including assistance with expenses or some offering a stipend.
The North American Mission Board is the Southern Baptist mission agency that addresses the US, Puerto Rico, Canada and Mexico. A variety of mission requests can be found on the "Studentz.com" section of their website. The NAMB student mission program includes summer, semester and two-year opportunities. It also includes the "Innovators" program, a bivocational approach to mission in which student missionaries are employed in secular jobs as a part of their service. Expenses and stipends are provided for summer, semester and two-year missionaries. Innovators' support comes from their employment. When applying through NAMB, please select "Virginia Baptist Mission Board" as the sending agency when you get to that portion of the application.
The International Mission Board provides Southern Baptist mission outreach beyond North America. Throughout the year, the IMB receives thousands of requests from around the world. Their website is helpfully organized, allowing you to view requests by region, by date, or by type of service. "TheTask.org" will also provide useful information like what types of inoculations are recommended for each ministry location. IMB summer missionaries raise their own financial support for service. When applying through IMB, please select "Virginia Baptist Mission Board" as the sending agency when you get to that portion of the application.