By Aubrey Headrick

Cornerstone is the first university to partner with TheCommon.org.

Jay Kroll, a graduate of CU and a founder and facilitator of this site, helped bring this connection to the campus, and Kroll said, “the potential of so many students getting involved is exciting!”

The site began a couple years ago and has quickly grown. Churches in Grand Rapids, Chicago, the UK and even Kenya are connected to TheCommon.org. Many ministries in the Grand Rapids area are as well. There are 150 communities around the world plugged into this site.

Rick Devos and Ben Gott were attending Mars Hill when Rob Bell, a teaching pastor at Mar’s Hill, started talking about sending out e-mail blasts to the entire congregation when a need arose. Devos and Gott devised a more organized way to connect those who have needs to those who want to help: TheCommon.org.

TheCommon.org is a Web site that connects people. Needs are posted from individuals, churches, ministries and now Cornerstone University and are filled by others who have posted their abilities. This way, people are connected with people, sharing what they have to better the world.

Kroll said that people naturally want to help each other, “but the way church organizes it is so complicated.”

The site is ability-driven and need-driven. Someone’s need is another’s ability to fulfill. This site connects the two quickly and easily.

A personal profile is set up when you join TheCommon.org. You are able to fill out what abilities you have or what services you need. Notices are sent and received that match needs and abilities. Whether a soup kitchen is in need of workers or an elderly lady needs her lawn mowed, people are connected to help each other out.

People who need anything from textbooks to couches to carpooling can submit posts. Those who have offered such things are alerted to the needs in an inbox, and then they can choose to offer assistance.

“Our goal is to make connections easier,” Kroll says. He is passionate about TheCommon.org as a tool to get the body of Christ serving.

“My goal with this is for the concept of service to change from a quarterly project that we do to being part of our DNA. It’s what we’re called to,” he said.

RAs, CAs and Student Development are facilitators of the CU community on TheCommon.org. Their job is to monitor the site to make sure that content stays appropriate, and they also help with keeping things moving. For example, if a request has been up for a couple weeks and no one has responded, they might put it in another category or reword the request.

Larry Rice, Director of Global Opportunities, is one of the people that helped get CU partnered with TheCommon.org. What he offered as the grander vision of the web site is this: “[It is] a tool to help the Body of Christ fulfill its mission.” He asserted that as Christians we are called to minister to and build up each other, and whether the need is as simple as trading textbooks or carpooling, TheCommon.org can help.

Communities are formed on TheCommon.org so that people are actually helping people in their area. For example, Cornerstone University is its own community. However, there is an opportunity to blend communities.

If a church had a heart for a certain ministry, they could blend their communities. As a result, the needs and abilities would be specifically lined up.

“My hope is that students will not only be connected within our own community, but also with the local non-profits and ministries,” Rice said.