By Bob Allen
Students making the transition into a new grade, new school or even a new town can find spiritual guidance beginning Aug. 3 when Back2School returns to the devotional website d365.org.
Writers for the six-week series are ministers from the Presbyterian Church (USA), Episcopal Church and Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, denominational partners with camping ministry Passport Inc. in producing the online daily devotionals since 2006.
A companion six-week Bible study for the Back2School theme of “Seasons” is available for purchase.
Passport, a CBF partner ministry founded in 1993 by married couple David and Colleen Burroughs, launched the devotional website d365.org to provide a quickly composed Advent series following 9/11.
After the 2001 terrorist attacks, Passport leaders feared Advent devotions written months earlier would feel irrelevant to teenagers coping with events of the day. They launched Following the Star, a website offering devotions written from the first Sunday of Advent to Epiphany Sunday.
With CBF support they followed up three months later with a Lenten series and in 2006, through a partnership with Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, began offering daily online devotions year-round.
In 2010 d365 introduced a third special series coinciding with the beginning of a new school year.
Reflecting on a new theme each week and based on the Revised Common Lectionary, the d365 devotions are written specifically for students. Last year more than 2 million visitors experienced personal devotion through d365.org, according to Passport’s 2014 annual report.