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Strengthening the church-college connection Vicki Brown, Jul 7, 2009
PHOTO COURTESY OF WILEY COLLEGE
The Wiley College A Cappella Choir, shown with professor Stephen Hayes, frequently sings at United Methodist churches.
By Vicki Brown Special Contributor
The pastor of Waynesboro First United Methodist Church was a little surprised when she learned the church had committed to raising $10,000 to fund a Martin Methodist College scholarship and become one of the college’s partner churches.
“We’re a fairly small congregation, about 100 people for worship,” said the Rev. Lea Thornton, adding that the church did not have a lot of young people at the time. But Ms. Thornton, who was appointed pastor after the partnership commitment, has come to see it as important.
“We are looking to the future,” she said. “We wanted to show the youth we are committed to them, and this tells our youth that we are supporting them and their future.”
The Martin Methodist church partnership program is one example of how church relations directors at United Methodist-related colleges and universities around the country are strengthening ties between local churches and higher educational institutions.
Not every United Methodist-related higher educational institute has a full-time church relations director. Sometimes the campus minister or chaplain handles the job; sometimes the job is part-time.
Linda Gesling, church relations director at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minn., for eight years, believes the ties loosened in the 1960s and 1970s. She replaced a part-time church relations director.
“There are people who still don’t know Hamline is United Methodist-related,” Ms. Gesling said. Faculty and staff need to know that being a United Methodist-related institution carries a certain value, she added, and sometimes faculty need to be reassured that a church relationship in no way prevents rigorous scholarship.
Her work has ranged from scheduling choir performances at local churches to offering a United Methodist 101 class on campus to helping set up the McVay Youth Partnership. The program, a church/university partnership funded by the McVay Family Foundation, provides after-school programs for middle school students at five sites around the city—two of those at United Methodist churches.
The programs are staffed by Hamline students. The middle-school students create art, music and drama, and receive help with their homework. Service projects and presentations by local leaders enable students to explore the community.
The Rev. Chip Nielsen, pastor of Arlington Hills United Methodist Church in Maplewood, Minn., says housing one of Hamline’s after-school programs has helped the church become better connected with the university and also gotten members involved in hands-on work instead of just writing a check.
“Coming in to tutor the children and mentor families has helped church members see the world from a different standpoint,” Mr. Nielsen said.
Ties between church and the academy had loosened, he said, even though the church paid an apportionment through the Minnesota Conference that went to the college. “Now that we are involved in the McVay program, our ties have grown closer,” Mr. Nielsen said. The church recently hosted a performance of the college’s a cappella choir, and served dinner for the students afterward.
The Rev. Mary Noble Parrish, church relations director at Martin Methodist College in Pulaski, Tenn., said college president Ted Brown has been “really intentional about forming and nurturing relationships with churches because he sees the value of the United Methodist heritage and education.”
Martin, which is the only United Methodist-related college in the Tennessee Conference, gets about $500,000 in apportionment dollars from the conference. “We believe we have something to offer the church, too, and we work to make it a two-way street,” she said.
Ms. Parrish works in the Cal Turner Jr. Center for Church Leadership, a partnership between the college and the Tennessee Conference that is a model of how academic institutions and denominational entities can share knowledge, deepen faith and support the work of ministry.
One Martin program that helps achieve those goals is the Ben Alford Church Leadership Scholarship, which provides full room and board and tuition to two high school seniors who are active in their church. The college also has Martin representatives in most of the churches in the conference.
“They help spread the word about the college,” Ms. Parrish said. “Some put items in the Sunday bulletin, others will have Martin moments in the service or even arrange a Martin Sunday with a speaker from the college.”
Any United Methodist attending Martin gets a $2,000 scholarship, but if a church becomes a partner, its students get an additional $3,000. The church agrees to endow a $10,000 scholarship over time to fund that amount, and the church gets to choose who gets the scholarship. The church can also designate another recipient.
Melody Patterson, director of Institutional Advancement and church relations at historically black Wiley College in Marshall, Texas, makes direct connections with churches and conferences.
She arranges for the choir to perform and staff to speak at United Methodist churches, where donations are often taken for Wiley. Six United Methodist conferences support Wiley, and Ms. Patterson tries to attend at least four of those conference gatherings each year.
She also works on recruitment and programs that bring United Methodists to the campus, such as a harvest festival in the fall and a Friends of the Library Evening of Poetry.
Stephen R. McGrew, the first full-time coordinator of church relations in 25 years at West Virginia Wesleyan College in Buckhannon, W.Va., was hired in 2007 to address a growing need.
He works with United Methodist students who are interested in attending West Virginia Wesleyan, traveling to churches and church-related youth programs, and providing information on college funding.
“The ties between the church and academy are incredibly beneficial to both the church and the academy,” Mr. McGrew said. “The church is living out its mission through developing people into strong leaders and contributors in the church and society, and the academy is celebrating its Wesleyan roots by infusing social justice and issues of service into a strong academic curriculum.”
Ms. Brown is associate editor and writer in the Office of Interpretation, General Board of Higher Education and Ministry.
PHOTO COURTESY OF WILEY COLLEGE
The Rev. Chip Nielsen, pastor of Arlington Hills United Methodist Church in Maplewood, Minn., says housing one of Hamline’s after-school programs has helped the church become better connected with the university and also gotten members involved in hands-on work instead of just writing a check. 
