ServeUP 2017 New Orleans and Baton Rouge
Final Report
4/27/2017
Tom Brink
After 12 years, ServeUP continues to be a highly effective tool towards fulfilling
the mission of Intervarsity New England: moving skeptics to seekers and seekers
to become followers of Christ. ServeUP also contributes to the ongoing work of
reconstruction of communities in the Gulf Coast who have experienced incredible
loss and destruction.
We had 66 students become followers of Christ this March with over half of
the non-Christian students who attended making a specific movement along the
conversion continuum. ServeUP 2017 had the highest conversion ratio of
any ServeUP at 31%, this means that 31% of the non-Christians began a
relationship with Jesus for the first time. This is amazing considering some
unique challenges which we began with.
ServeUP 2017 was unique in a few ways.
First, we moved from our site in Tampa, Florida with the Tampa Underground to
a new location in Baton Rouge, LA.
Secondly, we changed the curriculum of all sites to focus upon racial
reconciliation as a path to communicating the gospel of Jesus.
Both of these changes were very risky moves.
Moving to a new site meant that we were new to everything and that the students
had to be more flexible, but it was well worth it.
In August of 2016, over 100,000 homes in Baton Rouge were flooded. Over
300,000 people experienced some degree of the plight of New Orleans, as they
lost all their belongings and had to watch their homes gutted. We learned of the
need for help in Baton Rouge very late in the “ServeUP cycle”, and thus we had
to improvise housing in a motel, coordinate a travel system for meals, and quickly
call together a team of non-regular volunteers. With the generous leadership of
First Presbyterian Church of Baton Rouge and the partnership with an arm of the
Tampa Underground, The Timothy Initiative, these barriers were overcome. We
had 130 students, staff, and volunteers serve over 15 homes and organizations
in Baton Rouge. Students had meaningful work, helped people rebuild, had a
significant experience, and were transformed by Jesus.
The second risk was to introduce a new curriculum topic (racial reconciliation and
the gospel) to each week of ServeUP.
To do this, we ran the risk of entering into a very complex discussion in the
already complex reality of ServeUP. The complexity could lead to a paralysis of
options or a focus upon race to the exclusion of Christ and the gospel. Our staff
rose courageously to this challenge and entered into the complexity. The
amazing thing is that in the midst of such complexity we had the highest
conversion ratio ever in ServeUP!
Another highlight was that we had 7 campuses come to ServeUP for the
very first time with a record high (64) number of groups attending.
We also saw many student leaders giving calls to faith in small groups, on
the site and a few large group calls.
Observations for the future:
Service work
As we move into the 13th year of ServeUP many NGO ‘s are transitioning and
the work is changing. A smaller amount of the work we do in New Orleans is
really directly related to Hurricane Katrina anymore. The work is the ongoing
work in the city to help those in need. Many NGO’s are changing with these
needs.
Curriculum
Each site PD and team made the new curriculum relevant for each week but it
was stressful, complex and somewhat all-consuming work. We need to focus,
clarify and simplify the curriculum for the future.
Yet amid this complex work many students responded well to the discussion.
One University of Maine student leader who is white was excited to share how he
was learning how this conversation about race and the gospel was now very
important to his understanding of the gospel. “God was in Christ reconciling all
things to himself by making peace through the cross.”
Recruiting
Our numbers have dropped over the past 2 years from 751 in 2015 to 635 in
2016 to 525 this year. We also had a lower Christian to non-Christian ratio than
normal (41%) so we had 77 less non-Christians at ServeUP than 2016. In the
last 2 years, out of the 226 students lost (from the high number of 751) 70% have
been non-Christians.
Recommendations for the future
1. We need to investigate new work sites in New Orleans to keep the work
relevant and significant. We also hope expand to more weeks in Baton
Rouge and the partnership with First Presbyterian BR.
2. We will need to narrow the focus of the present curriculum believing
that “Less is more” and help all to engage with it prior to the fall.
3. We will need to re-ignite recruiting for non-Christians
We should have a goal to recruit at least 300 non-Christians for 2018.
We want to thank the over 60 InterVarsity staff who recruit, train,
share Jesus and place themselves in uncomfortable situations on this
trip in order to advance the kingdom through whole life conversion to
Jesus Christ.
We want to thank Greg and all the Toah Nipi staff for sending down
Jonathan to help in Baton Rouge.
We also want to thank all our NGO partners whom we serve
alongside of. We are especially thankful for the long-term partnership
with Gentilly Baptist Church, our new partners at Camp Hope and
First Presbyterian Church Baton Rouge, without whom there would
be no ServeUP. We also thank the Timothy Initiative for sharing its
staff and for coming alongside of us to partner in ministry in Baton
Rouge.