Lamb casts net of service across Lee University
Photo by Blake Bouza
The Leonard Center at Lee University, known as the place students go to turn in completed hours of service-learning, now plays host to the brand new podcast called Servecast.
Servecast is helmed by Dr. William Lamb, director of the Leonard Center, and Tyler Shores, special projects assistant.
"We want to be more than an office that accepts service hours," Lamb said. "We want to find a way to create content to get across the message about service-learning and why it's important to students and Christians."
The podcast is recorded in Lamb's office with a mic above his desk as he, Shores and their guests record their conversations. Four episodes have already been recorded.
A typical episode consists of an opening where Shores introduces the topic of the podcast, with Lamb then doing the bulk of the interviewing and Shores asking some follow-up questions.
The series they are working on now, Benevolence, will be featuring lecturers from Lee University.
An episode in this series will include a response from a student who sat in the original lecture. The episode ends with a challenge from Lamb.
Lee's Dr. Lisa Stephenson, director of graduate studies in Biblical and theological studies, and Dr. Jake Stum, project manager of United Way of the Ocoee Region, are a few guests they have already had on the show.
The podcasters plan to incorporate a live audience at the recordings in the near future. Lamb said he also hopes to include conversations with leaders from Backyard, Crossover and other service clubs.
Shores said they want to bring greater conversation around the responsibility Christians have to their community and to their neighbor. The long term goal is to continue that conversation and that encouragment.
"Recently, I've been exposed to new ways of thinking about what Christian service should look like," Shores said. "A deeper approach, one that focuses on being a neighbor and focuses on the lives of people you're in community with."
Challenging Christians to move beyond a Saturday workday mentality and to incorporate service into their everyday lives is one of Servecast's biggest goals.
Getting serious practitioners of service on the podcast is important, according to Shores.
"It's one thing if you can talk in a theoretical or theological kind of way, but if they're not enacting that, what's the point?" Shores said. "We want to continue to find those practitioners and find very vocal people in their various fields to come in and talk about their experiences."
Lamb was hired by Lee 14 years ago in order to start the Leonard Center. He said he has seen hundreds of students who have caught "it," that is, the desire to serve. He said he has also seen students go back and forth between trying to figure out the idea of service as both a requirement and a lifestyle.
"I felt like if we could add something of substance to deliver in [Servecast], that maybe even an alumn would listen to, might spawn them to a better application model," Lamb said. "This is just a reminder ... We want to move students from that beginning, to the application of a lifestyle. I think the podcast can serve as a subtle reminder."
Servecast can be found at servecast.podbean.com or on itunes.com.
