Students are thoroughly encouraged while growing up to always volunteer and do community service. Whether it was through clubs, national school organizations, or simply on their own time, the encouragement was always there. Yet, often times when students reach the age when they go to college, they lose sight of engaging in community service on a regular basis.
It might be through joining clubs, student organizations or honoraries, athletic events, or simply being swamped in homework and studying, college students become overwhelmed to the point that performing community service takes the back burner, and honestly, that is not their fault.
I have never despised community service, it was something that I grew up loving. I remember volunteering in middle school and high school in my community and how it provided me with a joy like no other. The times I was able to volunteer gave me some of the best memories that I have to date. There is nothing like working with kids and seeing their faces light up when participating in an activity, or seeing the happiness of a parent’s faces when they see how happy their children are.
Even though community service may be put on the back burner in college, there are still ways to provide community service. This could be through fraternities or sororities, clubs, organizations, honoraries ecetera. One group of people that typically does not come to mind however is a religious community.
Religious communities are known for their popular times of celebration where they celebrate the religious figures they worship. It is in which these times they often do a lot of their community service. Whether it is a food drive, present drive, soup kitchen sign up, whatever it may be, it often isn’t well attended. However, there is one church based in Cincinnati that takes community service to a whole new level, Crossroads Church.
Starting May 9, all 18 of the Crossroads Church branches will begin to enact their yearly Go Local project. The Go Local project is five days of different community service projects in which members of all 18 Crossroads Church branches sign up to attend and help give back to their local communities, over 700 communities to be exact. Then on May 12th and 13th, all of the Crossroads Churches will be closing their doors for the weekend and not having service in order to provide everyone with the opportunity to participate in the service projects. The projects range from construction and gardening to painting and event hosting. Whatever is really needed in that community, Crossroads Church is there to help.
Community service should be about fun and giving back to a community and to people that are less fortunate, and that is the experience that Crossroads tries to provide. But also for Crossroads Church, it is a way to show that church isn’t just about reading the Bible, listening to religious music, or going to service every Sunday. It is about making a positive difference, and truly show how God can work in people’s lives every day.