Missions program meets SOE standards

Northwestern College’s missions program has once again been approved for Standards of Excellence in Short-Term Mission (SOE) membership.

The SOE, www.soe.org, is an accrediting and resourcing body for organizations that send, receive, facilitate and support short-term missions endeavors. Members of the Christian nonprofit send thousands of volunteers to numerous locations around the world on hundreds of short-term missions trips each year. Standards of Excellence members strive for Christ-centered and effective missions strategies, partnerships and stewardship.

“Being a part of the SOE ensures that we do short-term missions well,” says Patrick Hummel, director of missions at Northwestern. “This accountability helps to not just focus on giving our students a great service experience, but that we also serve alongside our partners to their benefit.”

Northwestern offers two opportunities for students to participate in short-term missions. Spring Service Projects (SSPs) are missions trips to national and international sites that occur over the college’s weeklong spring break. Northwestern annually sends over 200 students, faculty and staff members to sites from Nicaragua and the Netherlands to California and New York to serve with local ministries.

Students can also participate in the college’s Summer of Service (SOS) program and spend their summer break serving in hospitals, orphanages and refugee camps in places like Jamaica, South Africa and Thailand. Unlike SSPs, where students travel and serve together in teams, SOS members train together, but often are the only Northwestern student at their site, joined by a few others from around the country.

“Not only are these trips high-impact learning and growing experiences for our students, but they are also a tremendous help to our ministry partners across the country and around the world,” says Hummel.

In order to retain the college’s SOE membership, Hummel and members of the missions department submitted a report to peer reviewers and participated in an interview process to address questions about the missions program. The written report addressed key quality indicator questions for each of the seven standards of excellence set forth by the SOE, which include God-centeredness, empowering partnerships, qualified leadership and appropriate training.

“We are pleased that we once again passed the review and our covenant membership has been renewed,” says Hummel. “We believe short-term missions help our students more fully understand how God is working in the world, and how the great commission is being fulfilled in their role.”The U.S. Standards of Excellence in Short-Term Mission were developed in the early 2000s with input from five mission networks and more than 400 mission leaders. Dr. Barb Dewald, Northwestern’s associate dean of Christian formation, was one of the nine members of the ad-hoc committee that developed the standards.