Marvin Crowson led Outreach America, encouraging students to establish church congregations after graduation. M any faculty members had dreams that their students would do something wonderful after graduation. Some hoped their students would move on· to start their own businesses or become teacher of the year. For faculry members Marvin Crowson, domestic missionary-in-residence, and Dr. Carl Williamson, missionary-in-residence, their dream was that students would leave Harding and travel all over the world to plant churches. Crowson recruited and prepared students ofall majors to use the skills they learned to make connections in new communities chat would eventually lead to new church plants. Crowson worked with an organization on campus called Outreach America which helped connect students to communities around America that were struggling to establish a sustainable church in their area. The first team to come out of Outreach America moved to Miami, Florida, to work with Portuguese-speaking Brazilians. Lacer, Crowson prepared families to go out and do the same. Many students who were involved with the program had no mission work experience before coming to Harding. "Most people coming to Harding haven't the slightest idea how to set up a study, how to run a study, how to do anything with that," Crowson said. "That's always been the preacher or somebody else who does that kind of stuff, so they're not used to [that]." Williamson was mentored under Crowson as a student. He spent 14 years with his wife and three ocher couples from Harding in Brunswick, New Jersey, planting churches and working as ministers within the churches. Seven years into their mission, they were able to open another church closer to the New Jersey shore with the people they had connected with during their time building the first church. Williamson said that during his time at Harding, he hoped he could emphasize the importance ofchurch planting to his students and, hopefully, recruit more students to move to the Northeast. Junior Lindsey Walsh attended the second church chat came out of Williamson's NewJersey team. The church was called Gateway Church of Christ and was located in Holmdel, New Jersey. Being from the Northeast,Walsh recognized the need for church planters in chat part of the country. "I think it's important to plant churches specifically in che Northeast because they're underrepresented in the form of, like, Protestant Church of Christ or just in general Protestant," Walsh said. "People have this notion that you go [to church on] Christmas or Easter, but even my friends didn't do that." According to Williamson, there was no perfect person for the job, all that was needed was a desire and willingness to learn. "I believe, as we look through scripture even, we see individuals who are not very talented or [are] the weakest in their clan and are very effective," Williamson said. "I believe that's the same thing in mission work today. If someone has a real heart for it, has a desire for it, that's the No.1 thing." story by Kayla Meeler On Oct. 9, 20I8, Marvin Crowson, domestic missionary-in-residence, oversees Outreach America in his office in the Jim Bill Mclnteer Bible and World Missions Center with the goal ofconnecting students to communities in need ofa stable church. Most students who worked with Outreach America had no experience with church planting before getting involved with the organiza.tion. I photo by Lindsey Webb 203 I CHURCH RELATIONS
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