Midwestern Seminary and Spurgeon College announced a partnership with the North American Mission Board on January 10 that will enable missions-minded college students the opportunity to train and be mentored by church planters and serve local churches within the North American context.
Traditionally, Fusion students have trained at Spurgeon College’s Kansas City campus during their first semester of the program and then deployed to serve overseas with International Mission Board missionaries during their second semester. Now through the program known as Fusion: North America, they will train on campus in the fall and spring semesters, then deploy over the summer months to locations such as New York City, Puerto Rico, and Quebec, Canada.
“We cannot be more pleased to announce Fusion: North America and our partnership with NAMB,” said President Jason Allen. “Much thought, planning, and effort have gone into bringing this concept to reality, and we are very much looking forward to the ways it will benefit the local church. We are grateful to NAMB President Kevin Ezell, and his team, for their willingness to partner and provide such an incredible opportunity to our students.
“While our existing partnership with the IMB (now known as Fusion: International) will continue and overseas options will be available, Fusion: North America will enable our students to develop a passion for missions where there is great need – right here in North America. Our goal is to instill in these students a heart for a lifetime of serving Jesus Christ and proclaiming the gospel to the lost.”
Ezell echoed Allen’s comments saying, “This partnership will be an incredible opportunity for Spurgeon College students to gain experience on the mission field and serve alongside missionaries who are sharing Jesus every day. I am grateful to Jason Allen and the Midwestern leadership for putting their institution on the front lines like this.
“We need more workers in the harvest,” he added. “Fusion: North America will give college students hands-on experience, but my prayer also is that it will ignite a passion for the mission field and for reaching the lost. Everyone has a part to play in this task, and we hope this opportunity will help more people discover their calling.”
Fusion: North America training will consist of students spending time during their first year at Spurgeon College living within the context of a cohort that is intentionally preparing for a summer of service alongside a NAMB church planter.
Cohorts will participate in bold evangelism and Bible-centered life-on-life discipling, beginning from the training phase through the summer project, which will last approximately 10 weeks. Fusion: North America candidates will receive top-notch Fusion training specifically tailored toward evangelistic ministry in North American contexts.
“Fusion has always been about releasing biblical adults committed to a lifetime of making disciples for God’s glory,” said Erik Odegard, director of the Fusion program. “We have always achieved this goal through a process, which includes life-on-life discipleship, practical challenging training, and an international deployment. So, what we’ve essentially done is to change the location of deployment. We’re looking for some of our students to serve alongside North American church planters while others will serve with international missionaries.”
Odegard said there are a few training elements that will be tailored specifically to North American church planting, but the end goal remains the same.
“Now, we get to expose Fusion teams to the work and lives of North American church planters—seeing the way that church planters lay down their lives for the sake of the gospel. This will give our students a whole new perspective on what it looks like to leverage their lives for the glory of God.”
Founded in 2005 at Midwestern College (now Spurgeon College), Fusion began as a directional process whereby young Christian adolescents would grow into biblical adulthood by embracing the call of the gospel through several rites of passage. The Fusion leadership team engaged these students in spiritual training, academic training, physical training, and contextual training. As the small group teams matured and developed, in their second semester, they deployed to overseas locations to serve alongside missionaries and to proclaim the gospel to a lost and dying world. Fusion’s motto is, “So that others may hear and live.”
To learn more about Fusion: North America, visit spurgeoncollege.com/fusion-na.
