Students pray in Phillips Auditorium during a missions conference held by Intervarsity and Equip Ministries.
Jordyn Pair | Collegian
“When most people hear the term ‘missions work,’ they immediately think of a third-world country, but what we need to realize is that a missionary can be called to serve anywhere.”
Guest speaker Doug Rutledge summarized the message of the fifth annual missions conference in his presentation. Hosted by Hillsdale College’s Intervarsity and Equip Ministries, the Nov. 5 conference featured two main guests: Rutledge as well as Hillsdale alumnus Mark Woodard ’91, in addition to a number of student speakers.
Woodard spoke on overseas missions, emphasizing the need for Christians around the world.
Living as a missionary in Papua New Guinea with his family for the last 15 years, Woodard has worked extensively to translate the Bible into the country’s native language.
“There are still so many people in Papua New Guinea who believe that the sun is Jesus and the moon is Mary,” Woodard said. “Their Bibles are blank and those of us who are called to missions work should do whatever we can to fill them in.”
Recounting the effect his family and others have had on people in Papua New Guinea, Woodard challenged attendees to consider if they feel called to missions work.
The second speaker, Doug Rutledge, is the director of Crossroads Farm, an outsourced youth ministry organization in Reading, Michigan. Geared toward teens in rural areas, Crossroads Farm is unaffiliated with any one church but works to connect teens with local churches.
Rutledge emphasized that there is just as much need in Hillsdale’s own backyard as there is anywhere else.
“Teens living in rural towns across the U.S. are more likely to use drugs and have troubled families than teens anywhere else in the country,” Rutledge said, citing a study conducted by the Rural Health Research Center in South Carolina.
When the missions conference originated in 2011, it was different, according to conference organizer senior Bailey Amaral. Taking place off campus, the conference started as a place where students could share testimonies of missions work in which they’d participated.
In the five years since, the conference has grown steadily in attendance and scope, this year’s conference being held in Phillips Auditorium.
“We started featuring guest speakers at the conference in 2014,” Amaral said. “With this year’s speakers we wanted to emphasize the equal importance of overseas missions and missions opportunities in the U.S. and even around Hillsdale.”
While Woodward and Rutledge come from different missions backgrounds, each said no one form of missions is the best.
“I thought that Mark and Doug both had fantastic messages on how many opportunities Christians have to evangelize,” freshman Kendra Lantis said. “I really appreciated the inclusion of the need for missions work close to home, not just abroad.”
Attending students said they felt encouraged and challenged by the conference as a whole.
“We often forget the responsibilities we have as Christians to serve and teach others about Christ,” freshman Jacob Broussard said. “I thought the conference was a great and challenging reminder of those responsibilities.”