We’ve seen so much change and upheaval this year that it is dizzying.
The world has felt upside down. Although has it ever felt right-side up?
I often remind our staff and faculty that Manna University is not a church, but we are part of THE Church. Moreover, we serve the local church. It’s a core value.
When Jaemi and I were first married, I would occasionally get motivated and decide to surprise her by doing something helpful. Wash the dishes. Change a diaper. Do something around the house. Then, she would ruin it by asking me to do it first.
I was fine doing those things when I chose to do them. But the moment she asked, it felt different. It felt like work. I went from wanting to serve, to feeling like I had to.
I remember a similar shift in my own spiritual life.
There was a season when serving God felt natural. I wanted to be in a small group. I wanted to be involved. I was engaged. Then, somewhere along the way, it started to feel like an obligation. I had to be there. I had to serve. Even as a pastor in my early days of ministry, there were moments when I would rather have been somewhere else.
That shift matters because when I have to do something, I immediately start calculating cost.
How much time will this take?
How much energy will this require?
How quickly can I get through it?
Honestly, my focus shifts to me.
However, devotion to Jesus and His mission doesn’t work that way.
It requires (and deserves) faithful presence through service.
It’s one thing to talk about impact. It’s another thing to be present.
This shift keeps us from reducing people to needs, problems, or projects.
Presence is slower than strategy, but it is often where the most meaningful work happens.
Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of seeing this kind of presence up close through our partnerships that matter deeply to us at Manna University: Uncharted International and Manna Missions and Outreach.
Each operates in very different contexts, but they share something essential: Faithful Presence through Service.
Uncharted International serves in places that are often overlooked and difficult. Their work is not built around exporting a model. It is built around relationships. Uncharted comes alongside local leaders who already understand their communities and support what is already happening. They don’t have to, but they get to “accelerate discipleship movements in hard places by connecting and empowering God’s people in response to the 3 billion people who live without access to the Gospel.”
Closer to our Fayetteville, NC “headquarters”, Manna Missions and Outreach carries that same posture.
Again, we don’t approach missions as something we go do for others. We partner.
Whether it’s local outreach or global engagement, the goal is the same: come alongside what God is already doing and serve into it. That shows up in simple, consistent ways. Meeting needs. Building relationships. Showing up again and again in the same places. Not because we have to, but because we get to.
Faithful presence matters.
In leadership, especially in ministry and theological education, there is always a temptation to prioritize scale over substance.
“How many people did we reach? How fast did it grow? How visible is the impact?”
Yet, presence doesn’t always scale cleanly. It requires patience, consistency, and showing up when there is no spotlight.
In complex places, that kind of presence is often the difference between shallow impact and lasting transformation. What I’ve seen through these partnerships has shaped how I think about leadership formation at Manna University.
We are not just preparing leaders to think well.
We are preparing them to be present well and to step into hard places without needing control or recognition.
I’m so proud of our students who bravely step out of their comfort zones on Manna Missions trips and outreach opportunities. I’m grateful for our faculty and staff who lead from the front by serving alongside our stakeholders along the military highway and around the world. Not because they have to, but because they get to.
Dr. Carlo A. Serrano, President