Last week the Melton campus gathered around the flagpoles during our Remembrance Day commemoration service to acknowledge and celebrate the three strands of our Nation’s story: our First Nations people, those who arrived during European settlement, and our migrant communities who have brought wonderful diversity to our great land. All three of these have been active servicemen and women in our nation’s history, sacrificing their lives for our benefit today.
The command to serve one another is one that Jesus makes clear in John 15 when He said, “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” This passage is a good reminder that our ability to serve one another is granted through Christ’s grace and love for us. It is only through this, history’s greatest sacrifice of Christ on the cross, that we can aspire to love and serve one another as Christ loves us.
Throughout 2023, the Melton community has continued to revisit this commandment. We have reflected on how we can love and serve one another because of God’s grace, and then considered how we can demonstrate this practically.
One of those ways has been through our leadership program. At the start of this year, several students were honoured in becoming part of our first student leadership team, which has sought to empower students to develop the culture of the campus in line with the Gospel message. It was fantastic that several students who are members of this team were the ones who led staff and students through the formalities of last week’s commemoration.
Currently, the staff leadership team are working through the student leader applications for 2024. We were thrilled that out of the total number of eligible candidates, 51% of those have applied. In other words, over half of our students have put their hand-up to serve one another next year; though we cannot give every one of these students a formal role on the team, we are sure that all these students will love and serve the community regardless. As a staff, we are pleased that so many students want to formally serve their community and we are sure that there are many others who do too, without having formally indicated so. We believe that this is evidence of how our campus culture is creating a thriving community.
I’d like to ask that you pray for us as we work through all the applications. We need God’s discernment and wisdom. I look forward to announcing the team in due course.