Milepost - Silverwood Mennonite Church

         One of the parts of the “goodly heritage” at Silverwood is the story of our survival and growth by relating to college students. A significant number of those who attend here (and now are members) began attending Silverwood as college students or shortly after graduation. However, this focus and ministry has been allowed to dwindle and dry up over the past years.
     As Goshen College begins a new school year it is time to rethink our relationship with these “immigrants” who have moved here to begin a new life. It seems odd to me that we would shift our emphasis to Hispanic immigrants in our town and ignore the young adult immigrants (college students) who come here each year. While I think that we need to stretch ourselves to relate to, communicate with, welcome and identify with the significant Hispanic community that is present in Goshen, we are also negligent if we ignore the college students who live in this community.
     I hope that we can renew the culture at Silverwood that will bring an integrated approach to outreach, community life and worship.   Worship, community life and outreach cannot stand alone; each needs the other—and they need to be supplemented by our learning together and serving each other. What can we do at Silverwood to reclaim the heritage of welcoming students to our community and to our congregation? Let me make several simple concrete suggestions:
1. Make a personal connection with the students who come. Introduce yourself; get their name and where they are from; remember that name so that you can greet and take the relationship further the next time you see them. It is better to learn and remember one student’s name, than getting the names of three students and remembering none. Name tags to help this process!
2. On the following Sundays look for the students that you met in the past weeks so that you can welcome them back by name as they return.
3. Invite students back to worship; invite them to the Second Sunday Potluck. (In order for this to work, you will need to attend the potluck yourself!) Tell them that you are bringing extra food because you are expecting students to come and tell them to invite their friends. Remember students like to eat, and they miss “home cooking.”
4. At the potluck, eat with the students who come. Take the potluck meal as a time to stretch beyond your circle of friends. Remember that there is no rule that says that “families, or husbands and wives must eat together.”
5. As you eat together, inquire about how the year is going. Ask if there are specific struggles or adjustments with which the student is dealing. You do not need to provide a solution to the situation, but you can at least learn about the issues facing these persons.
6. Be ready to interact with those students, parents, guests, and newcomers who show up to see what we are about. Think and plan how you will interact before you see a student or visitor. Be ready to take each relationship to the next step.

Remember that outreach is not rocket science! Another name for outreach is “relationship building.” Outreach can happen through the ears, through the eyes and through the stomach. --Ron Guengerich