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High School Students Face Their Future

July 28, 2015

Calvin Theological Seminary

July is a “quiet” time at Calvin Theological Seminary, but it is an active time of year for ministry.

During the summer, graduates are moving to their ministry locations, new students are finalizing their enrollment either in-residence or on-line, and current students are working in various settings in pastoral internships or cross-cultural internships.

By far the most active group that breaks the “summer quiet” at Calvin Seminary are the participants in our Facing Your Future program.

Facing Your Future is a ministry program that gathers young people, typically junior or seniors in high school, from across the United States and Canada.

This year 29 different students took part. The program provides a setting for these high school students to explore their calling in life and vocation.

Combining study, including lectures by seminary professors, and hands-on ministry experiences, the students are challenged to think of their life as one where God is “calling” them into ministry wherever they may go beyond their schooling.

This experience was enhanced as students broke off into small groups to do mission work in either Salt Lake City, Utah, Roseland, Ill., or Austin, Texas.

For 17 consecutive summers, Face Your Future has served students and the church. The program began through Lilly Foundation grant money and is now fully funded by church offerings and fees from participants.

Facing Your Future looks different year by year as we “review and renew” the teaching and experiences we offer to better connect with and serve this group of students.

The shape of facing Your Future has changed, but the focus and goal have always remained the same. The program is about investing in the future of the church by investing into the current young people in the church. We know the value of this type of ministry.

For example, one of those students who “faced their future” in this program was a student who is now a professor at Calvin seminary. Old Testament Professor Sarah Schreiber is an example of a person who was impacted by this investment in young people.

Another student who has been shaped by and has been a developer of this ministry program is Jessica Driesenga, who is finishing up her sixth year as the Facing Your Future coordinator.

Driesenga has gone from being a Calvin Seminary student to studying as a PhD student at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif.