CSER begins

Students serve community

There are many new and exciting ways to serve the city of Lynchburg this fall. The Center for Christian/Community Service (CSER) is offering a variety of opportunities to fulfill students’ CSER requirements.

CSER not only allows students to work in the city of Lynchburg, but all around the world. Whether serving on a mission trip to a country overseas or being a volunteer leader for a local youth group, it is easy for students to serve in places they love with the opportunities Liberty provides.

Assistant professor and CSER coordinator Darren Wu stressed the importance of this, quoting the mission statement of the center: “In recognition of the scriptural admonition that ‘faith without works is dead’ (James 2:17) and in fulfillment of the Great Commission of world evangelization found in Matthew 28:18-20, the Christian/Community Service component of the curriculum serves to affirm the Christian worldview and provide a practical expression of God’s love for mankind.”

After taking Biblical Worldview 101 and 102, every residential student is required to serve at least 20 hours per semester for six semesters in addition to taking their biblical worldview 101 and 102 classes. Luckily for Liberty University students, there are many great service opportunities this coming fall.

There is a CSER fair planned for Wednesday Aug. 27th, Thursday Aug. 28th and Friday August 29th in the back hallway of Demoss. “Our center will host about 100 organizations during the 2014 CSER fair,” Wu said, “We are equally excited about our organizations that we have partnered with for years, but are also excited to say that there are about 40 new organizations that will be represented at this year’s CSER fair. They range from churches to rescue squads.”

Students can always do multiple semesters of CSER serving organizations listed on the CSER website, however students are also free to find their own opportunities to serve. “Already in the first week of school, our students have identified 20 new organizations and churches that they will be completing CSER with,” Wu said, “We anticipate this number to drastically grow as the semester develop.”

New CSER opportunities include volunteering on campus at places such as the Liberty Ice Center or the Liberty University School of Engineering as well as different organizations outside of Liberty University.

Liberty students continue to serve to carry out the great commission and to show love to the community. “We are thankful to our student body who have already contributed over 324,000 hours of service just this last year” said Wu.

Just like any other class at Liberty, students must register through their Assist account in order to receive credit. However, changes have been made in recent years to make signing up easier. “The CSER registration and evaluation process is now automated in order to more efficiently service students and their respective supervisors,” Wu Said, “Tutorials are available at www.liberty.edu/cser if you need more information on the new online processes.”

Registration is currently open, but the latest students can register CSER is Monday Oct. 6th. Students have from then until Monday Dec. 1st to finish their evaluations. Make sure to sign up and serve this fall.