Do service trips matter for forming young people's faith? (Photo Courtesy of Leading Ideas)
Leading Ideas | February 24, 2026
There are few things I believe in more deeply than the work of Cross Connection.
If we want sustainable ministry, we must stop sidelining young adults and start trusting them with real leadership.
I have seen the Holy Spirit move in worship circles at the end of long days. I have watched students stand on porches they just repaired and realize that building a ramp is not about wood and nails: it’s about dignity. I have listened to neighbors in Kansas City, Asheville, Richmond, Honduras, and rural North Carolina tell stories that changed the way students understood faith. I have seen college students discover that they are capable of leading real ministry, not someday in the future, but right now.
Of course, God shows up in many places. But Cross Connection has been where I have seen God most clearly.
Cross Connection exists to foster community connections where God transforms lives through curiosity, community, and service. That sentence is not marketing jargon to me, but the thread that has held my leadership together in seasons when I felt like I was sinking. Our Access and Awareness experiences are more than just programs. They are training grounds where theology becomes muscle memory.
Faith: more than words.
During Access and Awareness experiences, faith is not abstract but practiced. Every day follows a rhythm: work or learning, small groups, worship, reflection, and sharing. Throughout the week students hammer, paint, cook, listen, pray, ask questions, wrestle, and process. They experience Jesus not as a set of doctrinal bullet points but as the One whose love is expansive and whose table is wide. Students begin to encounter the Jesus who wills the good of the other. The Jesus who stands with the marginalized. The Jesus who is present on worksites and in community centers and in conversations about housing and race and disability.
And then we send them home.
The question is not whether they had a good week; the question is whether they are equipped to live that faith in their own neighborhoods.
Diversity: refusing to straddle the fence.
There was a season when we had to decide who we were going to be. We wrestled with our lack of diversity at every level and faced the uncertainty of denominational conflict. We stopped straddling the fence and fully embraced being a Reconciling Ministry, reshaping everything. Our commitment to valuing differences seen and unseen is not theoretical. It shows up in where we serve and how we partner.
In Awareness weeks, students participate in interactive storytelling, hear from community leaders, and learn to understand systems rather than stereotypes. In Access weeks, they build ramps and repair homes while sitting on front steps listening to neighbors’ stories. We aren’t forming students to be saviors; we’re forming them to be neighbors.
If seminaries and churches want to prepare leaders for the next generation, we must train them to listen before they speak, to honor before they fix, and to partner rather than dominate.
Curiosity: the discipline of listening.
Curiosity might be the most countercultural. Curiosity requires humility. It means admitting we do not fully understand the systems shaping poverty, housing insecurity, food access, or educational inequities. It means asking better questions. In our programs, students are trained to practice community listening. They learn to ask:
- What gifts are already here?
- What is God already doing?
- Where might the Church join instead of lead?
This is ministerial formation. It is easy to preach about justice, but it’s harder to build leaders who know how to enter a room with curiosity rather than certainty.
Community: leading now.
One of the boldest decisions we have made is to empower 18–25-year-olds to lead every aspect of our summer experiences. Our staff aren’t placeholders; they plan worship, manage budgets, supervise worksites, and cultivate partnerships. When I stepped into the Executive Director role in 2017, I often felt like I was failing. But over and over, summer staff carried this ministry with courage and creativity. They taught me that the Church’s future is not waiting in the wings, but already capable.
If we want sustainable ministry, we must stop sidelining young adults and start trusting them with real leadership.
Service: building dignity not dependency.
In Access weeks, we build ramps, repair porches, and clean yards. It would be easy to reduce this to construction, but a ramp is theological. It declares that a body with limited mobility deserves access and acknowledges that infrastructure and justice intersect, reminding students that dignity is tangible.
In Awareness weeks, service is paired with systemic education. Students connect immediate needs to larger patterns. They begin to understand that the Church’s role is not only to respond to symptoms but to engage root causes. That is formation. When they return home, they carry tools to start similar conversations in their own communities.
How can leaders partner and replicate?
1, Build re-entry into the plan. Do not let transformation evaporate. Before sending students to an immersive experience, schedule follow-ups:
- A testimony Sunday
- A neighborhood listening walk
- A small grant for a student-led local project
2. Empower young adults.
- Write real job descriptions.
- Offer stipends.
- Provide mentorship.
- Trust them with authority, not just tasks.
3. Adopt the daily rhythm.
- Integrate structured reflection, worship, small groups, and community engagement into your own retreats.
4. Set measurable intentions.
- Our strategic plan names concrete targets because formation should be intentional. Churches can do the same. Define what growth in empathy, perseverance, and belonging looks like.
The Future of Formation
There are days when leading this organization feels impossible. Funding is harder than it has ever been, and sustainability is not yet secured. I have taken risks that produced deep relational impact and significant financial strain. And yet, when I stand in a sharing circle and hear a 16-year-old say, “I think I understand what it means to love my neighbor now,” I remember why we do this. Access and Awareness experiences are not about one week. They are about equipping the Church with leaders who can go home and practice what they have learned.
We are working to become the place where United Methodist and similar faith-based communities send their students to encounter God by learning to love their neighbors. Because if we do not form students this way—if we do not give them embodied experiences of faith, diversity, curiosity, community, and service—we will lose them. But if we do? We will raise up leaders who know how to listen, how to build, how to advocate, and how to love.
And that, I believe with my whole heart, is the future of the Church.
Related Resources
Cross Connection, an organization that fosters community connections where God transforms lives through curiosity, community, and service.
Strong Youth Ministry and the Call to Ministry by Robert Schnase
The Changing Contours of Youth Ministry featuring Deech Kirk — Watch the Leading Ideas Talks podcast video | Listen to the podcast audio version | Read the in-depth interview
4 Key Characteristics of Missional Congregations by Doug Powe
Doing Good Well, a Lewis Center video tool kit resource
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Photo from Cross Connection 2025 Annual Report
“This article is reprinted by permission from Leading Ideas, a free e-newsletter from the Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary and available at churchleadership.com.”
Brittany Bethel (Courtesy Photo)
Brittany Bethel is executive director of Cross Connection. She has been a part of CC’s ministry since 2004 and joined the administrative staff in 2012. Brittany began as the Overseas Administrator, allowing her to walk beside churches ready to experience God in another country. She moved into the Executive Director role in 2017. Born and raised in Texas, Brittany graduated with a BA in Music from Columbus State University in Georgia, a MA in Worship Theology from Dallas Baptist University in Texas, and an EdD in Organizational Leadership from Grand Canyon University. She is also a Senior Consultant for PMA Nonprofit Leadership in Charlotte.