About the Program
Compass is a leadership development program for high school students featuring a month-long immersion component and a three-year mentoring component.
Students kick-off their Compass experience with the month-long immersion component called the RMI—Real Ministry Immersion. Based at the beautiful Gordon-Conwell and Gordon College campuses just outside Boston, Massachusetts, the RMI is a series of three back-to-back expeditions designed to challenge and encourage students toward Christian leadership and ministry: a wilderness expedition in the Adirondacks, a theological expedition led by Gordon-Conwell faculty, and an overseas ministry expedition.
After the RMI, students are mentored for three years by hometown pastors and leaders. Mentors help students process their RMI experience and walk alongside them as they make major life decisions and seek to follow God’s call. Mentors meet regularly with students and supervise the leadership and involvement of students in various ministry contexts.
"The Compass program changed my life..." Compass has been encouraging high school students to pursue Christian leadership and vocational formation since our first cohort in 2002, and since then we've helped churches identify, equip and mentor hundreds of young Christian leaders from across the nation.
Compass History
Compass is a ministry of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Boston, Massachusetts, and is generously supported by the Lilly Endowment, Inc. of Indianapolis, Indiana, as part of its Theological Program for High School Youth initiative. Gordon-Conwell is evangelical and multi-denominational, and Compass invites students and churches from across the country and across denominations to apply and to partner with us in raising up the next generation of church leaders. Since our first cohort in 2002, more than 300 high school students from more than 200 churches in 27 states have participated in our immersion and mentoring components.
To learn more about Compass, explore the menu on the left or contact us anytime.