Students serve Lynchburg
Christian/Community Service opportunity ministers to the local population
On any given Saturday around 10 a.m., one may see groups of students preparing to fulfill the Great Commission throughout the Lynchburg community.
Neighborhood — CampusServe provides students with a chance to aid children and adults through 14 different sites in Lynchburg, including the Brookhaven community pictured above. Photo credit: Haley Jones
These students are part of the organization known as CampusServe.
According to Jonathan Susman, current director of CampusServe, the group was started in 2003 by Liberty alumnus Paul Atkinson.
“(Atkinson and his friends) recognized they were here in Lynchburg for several years, but they didn’t want to simply ‘be’ in Lynchburg and not be involved in the community,” Susman said.
According to Susman, the group began its ministry in Greenfield, a government housing development.
“(Atkinson and his friends) started going and knocking on doors and getting to know people,” Susman said. “They started inviting kids to come out and play with them. Through that, (they) sought to serve people and share the gospel with them.”
Since its beginnings in Greenfield, CampusServe expanded to other government housing complexes, beginning with College Hill and Birchwood.
“The organization grew as people (started) seeing similar needs in different communities,” Susman said.
According to Susman, CampusServe currently serves 14 sites throughout the Lynchburg community. Some focus on specific locations, while others focus on certain people groups.
One of the groups that serves Greenfield is “Respond,” whose focus is evangelism and adult discipleship. In addition to serving on Saturdays, Respond and several other groups serve throughout the week.
“(Atkinson and his friends)see Saturday mornings as a side thing,” Susman said. “Oftentimes they share meals with people throughout the week. Other times they may help them financially or (help them) find a job.”
Another group that serves Greenfield is “Mom’s Life,” whose focus is single mothers.
In addition to the housing development outreach groups, CampusServe has four other teams with two of them serving nursing homes, The Elms and The Summit, which are two nursing home facilities in the Lynchburg area.
According to Susman, “Branch” is CampusServe’s most diverse group, as members are involved in different projects each week. The projects are mainly manual labor ranging from raking leaves to painting and tearing down walls in house. The group is currently renovating a house.
Another group, “Signs,” focuses on ministering to the homeless.
For students interested in volunteering with CampusServe, Susman encouraged them to go to DeMoss 1113 on Saturdays at 10 a.m.
Although students can earn Christian/Community Service (CSER) credit through volunteering with CampusServe, they are required to serve 30 hours rather than the standard 20.
“We want to know that students are committed to serving and proclaiming the gospel and not just fulfilling a graduation requirement,” Susman said. “So increasing the time required to serve is a way to measure that.”
While some students join CampusServe to evangelize and earn CSER credit, some students come out just to minister to others in a different area of the community other than Liberty.
“Students can choose in what capacity they wish to serve and with whom — who they want to get to know in the community,” Susman said.
Susman encouraged students to continually volunteer at the same site each week so as to develop deeper relationships with those they serve.
“We really have been working toward helping students see themselves not just as going to something, but as part of something,” Susman said. “(We are) calling them to consistency in the relationships they are pursuing with people in the community because we see that Jesus was very consistent. He got to know people really well during his time with them, whether they were his disciples or others.”
Susman is a firm believer in the discipleship aspect of the ministry and aims to see every student at Liberty involved in this call.
“Part of the vision of CampusServe is we want students to really take hold of the fact that if they are following Jesus, they are called to be making disciples,” Susman said. “So we want to see every person at Liberty engaged (with people who may or may not have the same beliefs).”
Susman also believes in the relationship aspect of the service rather than the act of service itself, hence why CampusServe hours were changed for CSER.
Students are invited to participate whether the task is aiding at a nursing home, playing with little kids, helping build a home or just fellowshipping and ministering
to others.
For more information about CampusServe, email campusserve@liberty.edu.
MAURER is a feature reporter.