Spring Serve Sends Judson Students Into Their Communities

Headed by Dean of Judson College Seth Bible, Spring Serve took place over an entire day as teams of students, faculty, and staff served in 16 locations throughout the surrounding community.

“It wasn’t difficult for us to find community partners,” Bible said, “a combination of local nonprofits, churches, and businesses — people who are also invested in the community in different ways. And so, for this particular day, we had the opportunity to come alongside of them and help them do what they’re already doing.”

For Bible, Spring Serve fulfills a variety of purposes.

“The first thing we thought about was how well it would pair with our other major college event in our academic year, which is our Fall Retreat,” he said.

At the beginning of the fall semester, Bible explained, Judson College students join together for a weekend off campus during which they prepare for the coming semester, form deeper friendships, and consider their mission as college.

The mission of Judson is to equip students to give their lives for the cause of Christ in the church, among the nations, and in every aspect of society.

As Bible explained, “The Fall Retreat and Spring Serve event act as a pairing of ‘This is who we are’ and ‘This is what we do.’”

The Fall Retreat and Spring Serve event act as a pairing of ‘This is who we are’ and ‘This is what we do.’

The Judson community, and in particular the House System, is not unfamiliar with service events. In fact, over the years, many of the houses have built these opportunities into their community calendars. This initiative on the students’ part played a role in inspiring the creation of Spring Serve.

“I was really encouraged by the house service events,” Bible explained, “particularly because they were student-led. But I felt like there was a larger opportunity that we were missing, which our students had already recognized. We wanted to come alongside that idea and do it on an even larger scale.”

What makes Spring Serve unique is the way it is designed to involve every segment of Judson’s student population. This is purposeful, Bible explained. His desire is for Spring Serve to build camaraderie among Judson students, near and far. This includes dual-enrollment students and students learning at a distance.

It also includes the students within Judson’s Prison Programs, which operates across three extension facilities — two in North Carolina and one in Florida — where roughly 150 students are pursuing degrees from Judson College.

Working with the correctional facilities, Bible and the Prison Programs team coordinated opportunities for the incarcerated students to serve their own populations at the same time as their peers on campus served the Wake Forest community.

“I’m hoping that Spring Serve further reinforces the kind of student that we want to produce,” Bible said, “somebody who’s outward focused, whose desire is to serve as Jesus served, to do what Jesus did, and to love as Jesus loved. I think Spring Serve also pairs really well with our school’s emphasis on evangelism. It doesn’t have to be one or the other. In fact, it should be both all the time. We should be displaying the love of Christ in any way that we possibly can to those whom we are in community with, and we should purposefully and intentionally share the gospel when given the opportunity.”

I’m hoping that Spring Serve further reinforces the kind of student that we want to produce, somebody who’s outward focused, whose desire is to serve as Jesus served, to do what Jesus did, and to love as Jesus loved.

Over the course of the day students helped with a variety of projects, including delivering meals, picking up trash, sorting donations, and cleaning up local parks. They worked in partnership with the Town of Wake Forest, local food pantries, churches in the area, and non-profits such as Raleigh Dream Center and Hope Reins.

“We have an incredible student body, men and women who love Jesus and want to make his gospel known and who also love the people around us, love our community,” Bible shared. “I hope that the organizations we worked with have had an opportunity to get to know them better and see that firsthand.”

“We love the town of Wake Forest. We love its people. We’re grateful that, in God’s providence, he put Southeastern Seminary right here, and we feel like this is the kind of annual event that can help demonstrate that love to the community in a way where they can come to expect it every year.”

To learn more about Judson College and the mission of its students and alumni, visit judsoncollege.com/about.