By Laura McKillip Wood
Stephen’s life was not going how he wanted it to go. Despite being raised in a ministry family, he was working two jobs and, as he put it, “was simply not in a good place.” When he heard about an organization called Entermission, he had just enough time to give his two-week notice, pack his bags, and join a team. His year was challenging, but it transformed his life. As Stephen says, “I can’t even picture who I was back then. I was baptized at a young age, but that time at Johnson University during our learning was a conversion experience for me.” Stephen would later serve with a team of other young adults his age in Colombia. In the end, he felt God was calling him to enter vocational ministry. He has just finished his first year at Great Lakes Christian College.
A Gap Year that Changes Lives
Stephen is like many other young adults today. They want to do something meaningful, but they are not sure what that is. They may be reluctant to enter college and pay the high tuition rates before knowing what they want to do with their lives. Entermission is designed to provide these young people with an excellent gap-year experience to help them discern God’s will for their futures. Entermission offers several options for people aged 17-25 who, according to the website, “want to learn how to live on mission in all areas of their lives, and who want to step away for a short season to learn how to live into God’s vision for their lives more fully.” Their time with Entermission serves as hands-on vocational training in ministry.
The experience begins with time together on the campus of Johnson University, during which students live in the dorms and share their lives with one another. They study the life of Jesus and learn to implement core concepts that will carry on throughout the year during their time together.
The students then begin their gap experiences. The five-month gap semester program lasts from mid-August to mid-December. During this time, students learn about ministry in the United States and travel the country working in inner-city ministries, children’s homes and orphanages, Native American reservations, and serve at the International Conference on Missions.
For those interested in cross-cultural work, Entermission offers a 10-month program that begins with the initial five-month American experience. After that, students pack up and travel to international destinations where they work with a local ministry for the duration of the program. Students are challenged to incarnate the values, skill sets, and experiences they’ve cultivated throughout the year and to use them in their new contexts.
The resident assistant program offers graduate students a chance to invest in those in the gap year programs. They also receive mentoring from staff, but they help those in the five- and 10-month programs on their journeys.
Led by Veteran Missionaries
Part of what makes Entermission valuable comes from the experience of the lifelong missionaries who lead the ministry, Chris and Nicia Irwin. Chris was raised by a single mom in Kentucky and later moved with her to Springfield, Ohio. He eventually met Bob Stacy, who encouraged him to attend Cincinnati Christian University.
During his freshman year at CCU, Chris met Nicia, who grew up in Zimbabwe as a missionary kid. She and Chris became involved with Team Expansion during their college years, and after they married, they moved to Ecuador and began working as church planters. After 18 years, they transitioned to Europe and began working in Spain. They thought their transition to Europe would be smooth and easy. However, once they arrived, they realized that living in a post-modern, post-secular culture that had already moved past the felt need of a church proved much different. “We realized that, while God and his Word do not change, culture does, and we had to learn a new way to engage those who were not interested in coming to church,” Chris says. “We learned that the fact that people aren’t interested in coming to church doesn’t mean that they are any less spiritual.” Chris and Nicia say God used their 10 years in Spain to teach them a new way of being Christians. They learned to engage those who will not come to church and unlearned certain approaches they had used in the past. They realized that people are tired of being treated as objects to be won. “We began to see them as people and not projects,” Chris says. “While we live in the most connected age digitally, people are desperate to be seen and known.”
When they returned to the United States to care for Chris’s mother, who was suffering from dementia, they learned about Entermission. They became interested in its approach to missions and its desire to balance out an often one-sided approach to the world, which is centered on Genesis 3 and presents a world that is broken, sinful, and dangerous. Entermission balances that with the kingdom framework that Jesus brought, focusing on all that God now desires and the potential that we all have to grow, learn, and heal. Chris says, “We want to become a people of faith who are known for more than the things we are against—but as championing the things that are praiseworthy now.”
Potential for Growth
The Irwins are proud to have both Johnson University and Ozark Christian College recognize the value of their gap-year programs by offering college credits for those who complete the 10-month experience. They hope this will help more young people begin vocational ministry and attend a variety of Christian colleges, and that churches will learn more about the opportunities they provide and encourage their youth to participate. Entermission dreams of continuing to provide robust opportunities for youth to participate in the work of God around the world!
To learn more about the work, contact Chris and Nicia at [email protected] or visit their website at https://www.entermission.org/.
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