What is Service Learning?!

Our goal at Christ Lutheran School is for our students to know Jesus and His great love for them. “But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in sin—it is by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:4-5). Because of His great love for us and His death for our salvation, we are motivated to love and serve others out of thankfulness. Through our words and actions, the people around us will also get to experience Jesus’ love. God works through us to impact the lives of others! 

How DO we reach out to love and serve others?! Most people don’t know where to start! At Christ Lutheran School, all of our students have the opportunity to learn about and practice serving others in a safe and impactful way through our Service Learning Program. Each grade level has a specific Service Learning focus towards a particular group of people (i.e. community helpers, people with disabilities, veterans, people experiencing homelessness, the elderly, etc). Through books, guest speakers’ stories, field trips, and hands-on service opportunities, our students will learn about different groups of people.This learning helps students develop a greater awareness of the needs of people around them as they grow in empathy and understanding. Students will have the chance to come up with meaningful ways that they can take action to share God’s love–whether that be cheering at a Special Olympics event, Christmas caroling at a nursing home, or making a teddy bear for a child in foster care. Our hope is that students and their families will join us in these opportunities so we can serve and grow together. 

By the time students graduate from Christ Lutheran School, they will have participated in many different Service Learning opportunities and have interacted with people in a variety of life circumstances. This culminates in junior high when our students develop their own “Capstone Project.” After many years of learning about and serving people, our junior high students design and implement a project to serve a group of people that are near and dear to their hearts. We love seeing what they do and how it impacts their lives! We pray that all of our students discover the things that they are passionate about and learn how to use their God-given gifts and talents to make a difference in the lives of people around them, showing the world the love of Jesus through their words and actions.