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Service For The Lord’s Day
Higher Education Sunday — August 17, 2008
Will your congregation be saying farewell to students heading off to college this fall while welcoming new and returning students to your community? There a number of ways you can honor your students who are leaving for college or graduate school and welcome new and returning students to your community of faith.
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Commissioning for Higher Education
Our common baptism is our sure sign and seal of God’s call to salvation and service. United with Christ in baptism, we live as God’s disciples always. That path takes some of us into disciplines of higher education. We follow that path in response to God’s call, there manifesting the new life we enter through baptism. Discipleship is both a gift and a commitment, an offering, and a responsibility. The grace bestowed on you in baptism is sufficient for your calling because it is by God’s grace we are saved, and enabled to grow in the faith and to commit our lives in ways that serve Christ. Your call to study is to be embraced as an expression and continuation of the call to be his disciples.
Minister: Who is your Lord and Savior?
Student: Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior.
Minister: Will you be Christ’s faithful disciple, obeying his Word and showing his love?
Student: I will, with God’s help
Minister: Do you welcome the responsibility of further study because you are determined to follow the Lord Jesus, to love neighbors, and to work for the reconciling of the world?
Student: I do.
Minister Do you, members of this community of faith, confirm the call
of God, to our brothers/sisters, to undertake further study in
the service of Jesus Christ.
All: We do.
Minister: Will you support and encourage them in this calling?
All: We will
Commissioning Prayer
Faithful God, in baptism you claimed us; and by your Holy Spirit you are working in our lives, empowering us to live a life worthy of our calling. We thank you for the treasures gathered here before us. They have been your gifts to our families, our community, and this church. We have cherished them, nurtured them, and learned from them. Now we commit them to you as they go forth from us. Hold them close to yourself, sustain them with joy and strength for their work, and use their gifts for the common good wherever they may be. Establish them in your truth and guide them by your Holy Spirit, that in your service they may grow in faith, hope, and love, faithfully following Jesus Christ, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and forever. Amen.
Charge
To the students: You are now commissioned by this church to further study. As you go, clothe yourself with the mind of Christ. Seek places to worship and serve him wherever you go. Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God through him.
Welcoming Students into a Congregation
New students will start arriving on campus this month. Those students will begin to settle into their dorms or apartments and will start to get adjusted to campus life. We urge congregations close to campuses to issue a special invitation to students to join your fellowship while they are on campus.
Acts of welcome and support for college students might include:
- A breakfast or luncheon some Sunday early in the semester, to which students are sent personal invitations.
- Inclusion of students and staff in the leadership of worship that Sunday.
- Circulation of invitations and opportunity to sign up for an adopt-a-student program, matching students and church member-hosts for the remainder of the year.
- A reception at which the church’s outreach to and mission opportunities for students are presented, and the category of affiliate membership is explained.
- Invitation to be added to the church’s mailing list.
- Help incoming and returning students move-in. Provide care packages include your church information and offer rides to church activities including worship.
Staying Connected With College Students of Your Church
Will your congregation be saying farewell to students heading off to college this fall? Here are ways to stay connected with college students of your church:
- Honor your students who are leaving for college or graduate school.
- Observe Higher Education Sunday by taking up a special offering for a scholarship fund for deserving students in the congregation or to give to an Extra Commitment Offering that supports higher education work of the PCUSA.
- Complete the “Connection Card” to connect your students to PCUSA campus ministers, chaplains and congregations to notify them that your students are on campus/in town.
- Check out the opportunities for financial aid by visiting the PC(USA) Office of Financial Aid for Studies.
- Look into PC(USA)-related schools, colleges and seminaries for great educational experiences. Visit the Association of Presbyterian Colleges and Universities Web site. Also visit the Racial Ethnic Schools and Colleges and the Office of Theological Education Web sites.
- Encourage your young women to join the National Network of Presbyterian College Women (NNPCW) or Racial Ethnic Young Women Together (REYWT).
- Talk to college students about the Young Adult Volunteer program.
- Encourage young people who are in a process of exploring who God is calling them to be and how they can use their gifts — in personal life, in household and family, daily occupation/career or participation in the nation and world — to become a part of the Presbyterian Leadership Search Effort (PLSE). This community connects youth and young adults (ages 15-25) to denominational programs with a mission to explore the broad meaning of Christian Vocation.
- For more great ideas to stay connected to your college students download the 12 Months and 24 Ways.
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