Roots

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Program Details

  • Week at a glance
  • Morning:
  • The mornings will be the main time for the learning content of the school. A team of trainers will be coming in to assist us as we learn and grow. These times will be as participatory and hands on as possible. (Target areas: Biblical Foundation, Spiritual Formation, Missions and evangelism, and Leadership/teambuilding.)
  • Afternoon:
  • The afternoons will vary greatly from day to day. One day a week is set aside for a volunteer opportunity of your choice. You’ll be going to the same project every week for the 3 month school portion of the program. This will allow you to build relationships and hopefully see the fruits of some of your labor! Other afternoons will include 1-on-1 time with your accountability partner, time with a spiritual mentor, team building activities, homework time for some of your projects, Hands-on learning workshops and more. Some of your homework projects may include personality or spiritual gift testing, preparing a bible study you’ll be leading, reading assigned books or articles and the like. Learning workshops may include participating in a prayer labyrinth, visiting an Abbey, visiting a local ministry, finding spirituality in film, writing a worship song etc.
  • Evening:
  • Evenings may include ‘Family’ fun nights, cultural dinners with local ethnic families, local church community group/bible study and free time.
  • Weekend:
  • Saturdays will consist of mostly three things: Team service projects, team building activities (such as ropes course, white water rafting, team hike etc.), or a free day. Sundays will include attending Mosaic Church and rest.
  • * Schedule will vary especially on weeks involving field trips to other locations.

This ‘City of Roses’ is incredibly beautiful with so much to do. Whether you’re searching through the world largest used book store, hiking one of the many urban hiking trails, eating gelato in the park blocks, or sipping an espresso in a coffee shop is up to you.

Portland is in the valley, it’s just an hour and a half to the ski slopes or the beach and you could live here for three months! While in Portland for the first half of your six month ROOTS experience, you and a handful of other students will bunk up in the basement of two host homes.

Some days you’ll journey on public transit to Mosaic Church for your morning training. Other days you’ll have the opportunity to participate in hands on training in various locations around the northwest! Learning and growing doesn’t have to be boring! You’ll find this experience to be unique as we take the experiential and participatory learning approach together in community.

This isn’t a time or place to just sit and listen but a place where your questions, your comments & your insights are valued and heard as we truly learn and grow in community together. Your afternoons might be filled with serving at local area schools, homeless shelters, on the Indian reservation or another place of your choice.

Your evenings might include ethnic dinners with local families, participating in a community group, teaching a Bible study, or maybe a night out exploring Portland with some of your fellow students! If your three months in Portland doesn’t open up your heart and mind the three months overseas experience sure will. You and one other student will journey to some other spot on the globe to see and participate in one of the Alliance missions fields first hand!

No matter where you’re at on your faith journey this experience is guaranteed to stretch, grow and challenge you as you see scripture, God, Christianity, evangelism and community in a whole new light.

Is this a journey that your ready to embark on with a small group of your peers? We sure hope so!

Tracy Irvine
PNW District Office of C&MA ROOTS Director

 

  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • What’s in the name?
  • ROOTS are the foundation of your faith. We hope you get grounded during this experience so that you’ll bear more fruit for the rest of your life!
  • Who is the program designed for? Do I have to want to be a full time missionary at some point to participate?
  • NO! This school is geared towards all believers who are looking for a life changing, eye-opening experience that will help them grow in their walk with the Lord. We believe that an overseas experience may be life changing for anyone as one experiences Christianity and Church experience differently. As you see the poor and the marginalized in a new light, we believe your heart and mind will be opened in new ways. God has called us all to love and serve no matter if that is state side or overseas, in full time ministry or volunteer! Therefore, whether or not you plan to head into full time ministry, we believe this program will stretch and grow you.
  • Is this a YWAM program?
  • No, this is not affiliated with YWAM and is different in it’s purpose and mission. ROOTS is sponsored by and run by the Pacific Northwest District Office of the Christian & Missionary Alliance.
  • How is this ROOTS different than YWAM?
  • All YWAM programs are unique and therefore it is hard to compare ROOTS to it. YWAM, however, is geared more towards training and recruiting overseas missionaries. ROOTS mission is to help build mission minded individuals; passionate followers of Christ who are mission minded in their neighborhoods, workplace, schools, families, ministries and around the world! ROOTS is also unique in that you’ll be doing your overseas experience in a team of two with existing C&MA missionaries, as opposed to being a large team on a base that has teams cycling thru it constantly. We believe this model will allow for more interaction with the missionaries, the local people and culture!
  • How will students be selected?
  • Students will be selected based on love for God, love for others, servant heart and teach-ability. Selection will be based on application, references and interview (by phone or in person).
  • Why should I choose this program with all of the options out there today?
  • We believe that ROOTS is unique in many ways, although any time you set apart to focus on your walk with God, it will be valuable and life changing! Here are some things that make ROOTS a unique program.

 

  • What Makes ROOTS Unique and Attractive?
  • The discipleship school will be experiential, participatory and hands on giving a unique learning environment that may not exist in a traditional classroom setting.
  • We believe this holistic training will give students a broad scope of learning that is well rounded but not so broad that the content is shallow.
  • This school would also be unique in that it is denominationally tied and partnered with the local church. By learning in the local church setting the transferability after will be much easier. This partnership will also give identity and denominational loyalty.
  • Fieldtrips and a variety of trainers will allow students to learn from people currently in ministry areas from which they are speaking. Students will not only listen to them teach but get to see them model this in their own ministries, lives and local settings.
  • We’d offer longer overseas missions opportunity than most local churches. This allows students to build relationships with locals and missionaries, as well as cross the line from being a tourist on vacation to being a missionary. By going in groups of two they will be forced to interact more with the missionary and locals without the comforts and safety of a larger team.
  • Students will be serving in community service projects and required to travel mostly by public transit. They will not only learn the skills needed to make their way around a foreign city for their missions experience, but will be forced to mix and mingle with the poor and marginalized. Those God calls us to but we often avoid.
  • By experiencing communal living they will learn to how to get along in close quarters with other students who they don’t know, and who may live life quite differently than they do.