Ministry

Excellence that truly serves the world rarely starts with something grand. 

It starts with one choice, one person, one act of service. That was the heart of chapel this week as we looked at Jeremiah 29:1-14 and the people of God who found themselves far from home living in a place they didn’t choose and surrounded by people who didn’t share their faith. 

Within that difficult situation, God said through Jeremiah: “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city… pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” (Jeremiah 29:7) These words weren’t spoken to people having an easy time – they were spoken to people in exile. Yet God still called them to serve, to build, to plant, to bless.

That’s not so different from us. At Endeavour, we’re talking this term about “excellence that serves the world.” For us, that doesn’t just mean trying to be the best for our own sake; it means choosing to use what we have, our learning, our kindness, our leadership, our faith, for the good of others. While at Endeavour we have a variety of faith expressions, all of us have chosen to be part of a College that believes serving others is good, right and world-shaping.

Jeremiah 29 reminds us that circumstances don’t get to decide whether we serve. 

The exiles could have said, “We’ve lost too much. We’ll wait until life is easier.”

 Instead, God invited them to live out their identity right where they were. That’s the invitation to our students, staff and families too: don’t wait. Start with one. Serve someone today – a classmate, a colleague, a teacher, a neighbour. Do something specific, doable, and real before the day ends.

Because excellence, in God’s eyes, isn’t just achievement. It’s love in action. 

It’s choosing joy over bitterness, prayer over resentment, service over self. And when each of us does that, even in small ways, our College becomes a community that doesn’t just talk about serving the world, we actually do it.

Chris Mann

College Pastor