[1]GLORIETA, N.M. (BP)–Who will go for us to do home missions? is a question which Mission Service Corps (MSC) volunteers answering.
MSC is the North American Mission Board’s program of adult volunteers who pay their own expenses and serve full time for one or two years in missions in the United States or Canada.
“Look at MSC as a viable strategy to do two things,” urged Bob Mills, NAMB’s adult volunteer mobilization associate, addressing participants at North American Missions Week at Glorieta (N.M.) Baptist Conference Center July 12-18.
“Volunteers can strengthen an existing work or start a new work. Whatever we are doing as home missions in North America is available to MSC volunteers.”
Mills added that volunteers are the key to impacting new work areas. “It’s not enough just to give your money,” Mills said. “Prayers are needed to undergird the work, but people are needed to put feet to those prayers.”
According to Mills, many opportunities are available for Bible study leaders, workers with senior adults and people who want to be involved in personal evangelism and visitation. “MSC usually has more than 1,000 available positions for ministry,” he said. “Some require a seminary degree, but most do not. Some are on church staffs. Others may be on college campuses, in state offices or in totally unique places.”
There are a few requirements to becoming an MSC volunteer. The person must be committed to Jesus Christ, be an active member of a Southern Baptist church, be willing to share his or her talents, be in good health to do full-time work, maintain financial resources to provide for one or two years of service and have health insurance.
“We find that most of our volunteers come from polar ends of a spectrum in terms of age,” Mills said. “They’re either just out of college or they’ve just retired. In fact, more than one-third of all those now serving are senior adults.”
MSC volunteers also provide the avenue for other volunteers to come into their area of service. “Most short-term volunteer activities in any given area are coordinated and implemented by MSCs,” Mills said. “MSCs are providing the infrastructure for more work to be done.
“There is a place of service for everyone,” Mills encouraged. “We have opportunities for anyone who feels called to take that step of faith.”