"Suddenly it hit me—I need to pay more attention here to what I am doing. People are dying and they don’t know who Jesus is.”

“God really gave me a chance to think about things … to really know what I believe.”

“I really started to come to the realization that I needed to change my teaching to make it Christ-centered.”

“I found a lot of faults about myself. There are just so many weak points that were just brought right out in the open.”

“I learned that with the help of God, I can do things that previously I didn’t think I could do.”

“I had so much time to read the Bible, to study, and to pray.”

“I had one of my little girls on my lap and somebody was praying; she turned around to me and said, ‘Teacher, can you teach me how to pray like you pray?’”

“I saw a lot of miracles.”

So many stories. So much to learn about learning. So many beautiful young people who spent themselves for the Savior.

These responses were gathered as part of a five-year study of students across America who dedicated one year of their lives to missionary* service. The purpose of the study was to determine the impact of the experience on young adults, and to determine what aspects of the experience are transformational.

Meeting the Challenge of High Expectations

High expectations usually create a greater determination to succeed. I liken this dynamic to the functional difference between a thermometer and a thermostat. A thermometer simply registers the temperature of its own environment. A thermostat sets the standard for the desired temperature, then employs every resource available to make the desired temperature a reality.

Students were expected to do things beyond the range of their perceived abilities. Sophomore English majors taught secondary students in Pohnpei. Nursing students ran medical clinics. Theology majors planted churches. Young men and women served around the world as teachers, deans, pastors, principals, chaplains, Bible workers, engineers, and project managers. In spite of apparent insufficiency, they surpassed their own previous expectations.

Students claimed to have been “pushed,” “stretched,” and “challenged,”—well beyond what they thought they could handle—emerging with confidence to do things they never dreamed of doing back home. Jesus must have shocked His disciples when He said, “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father” (John 14:12,13 NIV). It’s hard to imagine the disciples buying into that bold claim after witnessing Jesus feed the multitudes, heal lepers, and raise people from the dead. Maybe Jesus was exaggerating. Or, maybe the greatest event in God’s kingdom occurs when the Spirit of the risen Christ saturates believers with both the humility of a servant and the boldness of a champion.

Perseverance Through Adversity Results in Transformation

Riddled with personality conflicts, ethical and moral dilemmas, loneliness, frustration, ambivalence, despair, and often what seems to be a long list of unanswered prayers, students experienced life to the extreme. Some compared it to the weather in the islands—unmerciful downpours of rain that give way to beautiful sunshine in a matter of moments. Almost all of the students were unwilling to trade the trials that a year of service taught them.

James understood this dynamic when he said, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (James 1:2–4 NIV). Paul echoes the same sentiment saying, “...but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope” (Romans 5:3, 4 NIV).

Practicing Spiritual Disciplines Produces Spiritual Growth

Spiritual disciplines are the exercises of the spiritual life—Bible reading, prayer, service, repentance, fasting, worship, solitude, stewardship, evangelism, leaps of faith, and moments of sacrifice. In some cases, students were required to teach Bible, lead out in worship, facilitate small groups, organize service projects, and many more activities that deepen the strength of the soul. When students “pray like never before,” or discover “the most effective ways to communicate the gospel in another culture,” it’s hard to imagine a better venue for training young people to be disciples of Christ. “I came to own my beliefs because I had to search them out for myself,” stated one student. Another student claimed, “For the first time in my life, I felt like my faith in God belonged to me.” Christ gains lifetime workers when students conclude, “my life is now about serving others.”

One of the assumptions of this study was that service might be an effective vehicle to transform young adults spiritually. This is certainly true from my perspective. It was during my own year of service that I fell in love with the joy of service. It has made an ineffaceable impact on my life and has given me a pattern to engage in learning about God’s amazing grace by giving it away through service to others. It’s not a new technique for our churches and schools, nor is it a foreign concept:

“True education means more than the perusal of a certain course of study. It means more than a preparation for the life that now is. It has to do with the whole being, and with the whole period of existence possible to man. It is the harmonious development of the physical, the mental, and the spiritual powers. It prepares the student for the joy of service in this world and for the higher joy of wider service in the world to come.”1

In summary, these college students believe their relationship with God grew as a result of their service. They maintain that their year of service caused them to cling to God, and rely on Him in ways that would not have occurred in their normal setting. Many students reflect on how their worldview expanded or how serving others developed their leadership skills. Ultimately, the impact of serving for a year fostered life-changing spiritual growth.

Troy Fitzgerald is the Walla Walla Church youth pastor.

1 Ellen White, Education. (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Publishing Assoc., 1952), p. 13.

*This study includes task force workers and student missionaries. Whether they served domestically or overseas, they did the work of missionaries.