From www.world-changers.net:
THE MISSION OF WORLD CHANGERS
World Changers seeks to provide Christian youth and adults with opportunities to meet the physical and spiritual needs of others through practical learning experiences that teach servanthood and personal commitment to missions.
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Groups are typically housed in local schools, churches, or college facilities. Breakfast and dinner are provided cafeteria-style at the lodging site. Lunch is provided at the work site by local churches. In preparation for the week, youth are required to complete an pre-project study based on the theme Set Apart, including a local work project.
ABOUT PARTICIPATION
To participate in a World Changers project youth must be Christians who are actively involved in their local church ministry.
HISTORY
World Changers is an approach to youth mission projects among Southern Baptists and other evangelical churches. For years, youth leaders had expressed an interest in finding types of activities that would help their youth to better understand missions through personal involvement. At the same time, individual churches were finding that the time and effort necessary to put together a “hands-on” work experience was extensive. As other organizations began to test and prove the validity of large-group missions and service projects, the then Memphis-based Brotherhood Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention began its own plans for such an endeavor.
World Changers national work projects began in the summer of 1990. Briceville, Tenn. hosted 137 youth and adults one week in the World Changers pilot project. High school youth painted, reroofed, and performed other light construction jobs on nine homes in the area. The participants, who paid their own expenses for the project, were divided into work crews. This allowed them to meet students from other churches in addition to spending time with their own youth group and is a formula still used today. In 1992, World Changers expanded abroad with a project in Ciudad Victoria, Mexico.
World Changers continues to grow. In 2008, World Changers coordinated over 22,000 participants in mission ministries across North America at 95 locations on 1,700 work sites and 47 ministry sites and reported over 830 professions of faith. Over $180,000 was received in donations for the missions offering.
As World Changers finalizes details for projects in 101 North American locations and 28 international locations, we are looking ahead to continued growth in missions ministry.
