KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Family members, friends, and members of the Midwestern Seminary and Spurgeon College community gathered to celebrate the overseas service of Fusion students during the 2026 Fusion Commitment Ceremony.
Students from Fusion Impact, Fusion undergraduate, and Fusion Master’s served alongside missionaries, local churches, and believers across South America, Europe, North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East.
The Commitment Ceremony marks the conclusion of the students’ Fusion experience while calling them to pursue the Great Commission throughout their lives.
“These Fusion students made a real, eternal impact this summer,” said Midwestern Seminary President Jason Allen. “Serving in some of the most difficult and spiritually dark places on planet earth, they faithfully represented our Lord Jesus Christ and faithfully presented His gospel message to countless individuals. I am so proud of them.”
Celebrating God’s Faithfulness
James Dickens, training coordinator for Fusion, explained that each Fusion ceremony serves two primary purposes: to celebrate the faithful completion of a significant task and to commission students for the next phase of the program or life.
Fusion Impact students completed an intensive week of training before spending three weeks serving missionaries and churches in international contexts. Fusion undergraduate and Fusion Masters students completed an academic year of theological, missiological, linguistic, and practical training before serving overseas throughout the summer.
Addressing the students on all levels, Dickens told the students, “You have faithfully carried out the task that was given to you. You have been faithful in the significant task of making disciples in hard places.”
Erik Odegard, director of Fusion, celebrated the work and accomplishments of these students over the course of the summer. During their overseas service, Fusion teams engaged 57 unreached people groups with the gospel, trained 1,276 believers in evangelism and Christian growth, proclaimed the gospel to 2,916 people, and saw 93 people profess faith in Christ with 59 later being baptized.
Beyond the measurable results of their ministry over the past three months, Odegard celebrated the spiritual growth demonstrated by students throughout the summer. Students learned to build one another up in the faith, speak the truth in love, extend forgiveness, bear burdens, encourage missionary partners, and strengthen local churches.
“You overcame all sorts of obstacles of fear, frustration, dangers, discouragements, temptations, and sicknesses,” Odegard said. “Today, we’re celebrating all that God has done these last few months through you.”
Committed to Proclamation, Worship, and Hope
Delivering the ceremony’s charge from Psalm 96, Odegard called students to make disciples for the glory of God for the rest of their lives.
“Fusion is about this one-year process, but we have our eyes set on something far in the distance, of the kind of man or woman that you will be in the years to come,” he said.
From Psalm 96, Odegard identified three commitments that should characterize students’ lives: a commitment to proclamation, a commitment to worship, and a commitment to hope.
First, he encouraged students to continue proclaiming the character and saving work of God wherever He places them.
“Today, commit yourselves to proclaiming who He is and what He’s done,” Odegard said. “Maybe you’ll do that in Ecuador. Maybe you’ll do that in Madagascar. But if not, proclaim by singing to the Lord in your weekly services with your local church. Proclaim by sharing your testimony with your coworkers and your family members.”
Second, Odegard called students to worship God with every aspect of their lives. He especially emphasized the local church as God’s ordinary means of sustaining believers in lifelong discipleship.
“God’s vehicle for your discipleship is not the Fusion program,” he said. “This was helpful for a little season of your life, but God’s vehicle for the rest of your life to get you across the finish line of the faith is His body, the local church.”
Finally, Odegard urged students to commit themselves to hope in Christ’s return. Because Christ has borne God’s wrath for His people, the coming judgment offers believers confidence that every wrong will be made right.
“As you make this commitment to make disciples for a lifetime, it will not be easy,” Odegard said. “You need hope in the years to come. Your hope in God’s judgment will empower you to endure unfair hardship and unjust treatment in the days to come.”
Looking Forward
To commemorate the students’ service, Fusion Impact participants received flags representing the countries where they served. Fusion undergraduate and Fusion Masters students received coins affirming their completion of the Fusion process and reminding them of the program’s core commitments.
Odegard then invited the students to affirm their commitment publicly, asking, “With God’s help, will you, for as many years as God gives you to live, seek to glorify God by making disciples of all nations?”
Following the students’ commitment, Bierig closed the ceremony in prayer, asking God to make disciple-making the defining commitment of their lives.
For more information about Fusion or to apply to the program, please visit Fusion at Spurgeon College.
By Jonathan Lumley
