UMR Communications is offering the latest headlines in the RSS format.
Features
Wesleyan influence: No matter what they’re called, campus ministries nurture students Mallory McCall, Jul 30, 2010
COURTESY PHOTOS
Through the Wesley Foundation at Southern Methodist University, students learn to love God, love people and follow Jesus.
By Mallory McCall Staff Writer
Katie Newsome was on her way to the student center at Southern Methodist University when she came across a display table for the Wesley Foundation. She stopped to visit and was invited to a back-to-school cookout later that week.
Now a junior, she is the president of SMU’s Wesley Foundation, sings in the worship band, serves on the discipleship division of the leadership team and leads a women’s small group.
“I was open to being a part of any Christian campus ministry, but I was especially drawn to the Wesley Foundation because it had the same affiliation as my home church,” she said.
But for Ms. Newsome to stumble across a group of students wearing Wesley Foundation shirts at a United Methodist-affiliated school like SMU is a bit of an anomaly. The idea behind the Wesley Foundation ministry was to offer the church’s presence on a secular college or university campus.
While most United Methodist-affiliated institutions offer a Wesleyan influence through chapel programs and classes, some United Methodists might think that in an increasingly secular age, even denominationally owned schools should have a Wesley Foundation of their own.
And some grassroots efforts, while they may not be official Wesley Foundations, have indeed helped provide a stronger spiritual support for students at United Methodist colleges and universities.
Wesleyan ministries
Technically, the Wesley Foundation at SMU is called “United Methodist Campus Ministry at SMU,” said the Rev. Andy Roberts, the director of SMU Wesley. “Several years ago, they started calling it the Wesley Foundation because they thought the name might be more recognizable to other students,” he added.
The same is true at Wesleyan College in Macon, Ga., another United Methodist-affiliated school that has a Wesley Foundation.
Eight years ago, the Rev. Michael McCord, now director of campus ministry resources and training for the denomination’s General Board of Higher Education and Ministry, started the Wesley Foundation of Macon to serve three schools: Wesleyan College (an all-women’s college), Mercer College (a Baptist-affiliated school) and Macon State College (a predominantly commuter college).
Wesleyan College already had a Wesleyan Christian Fellowship, and United Methodist students didn’t want to confuse anyone by naming their ministry Wesley Fellowship. To distinguish between the two ministries they created a Wesley Foundation.
Bishop James C. Baker founded the first Wesley Foundation at the University of Illinois in 1913 as a place for worship, a school for religious education, a home away from home, a laboratory for training lay leaders in church activities, and a recruiting station for the ministry, including missionary work at home and abroad.
The name Wesley Foundation honors John Wesley, the founder of Methodism and the first campus minister at Oxford University, and represents an open movement—an ecumenical movement available to all students.
“The heart of campus ministry is to raise up leaders and to provide an opportunity for students to encounter Christ’s transformational power,” says Mr. McCord. “But how that looks and feels on a campus is very different from campus to campus.”
Similar ministries
At Hendrix College, a United Methodist-affiliated school in Conway, Ark., students won’t find a Wesley Foundation or any specific United Methodist campus ministry.
While a Wesley Foundation represents the voice of United Methodist students on a secular campus, at a United Methodist institution, the school itself is the voice of the church, said the Rev. Wayne Clark, chaplain at Hendrix College. The programs that the chaplain’s office offers to nurture religious life on campus are similar to—if not more than—the things a Wesley Foundation does, he added.
“Wesley Foundation is such a brand name,” said Mr. Clark. “We may not have the name, but we certainly have all the components that make up a Wesley Foundation.”
Hendrix’s Miller Center for Vocation, Ethics and Calling and the chaplain’s office organize, fund and oversee retreats, worship services, mission trips, service projects and discussion groups that help shape students theologically.
And while there is no specific United Methodist campus ministry at Hendrix, there is an active group of United Methodist students.
The United Methodist Youth Fellowship (UMYF) Leadership Scholars is a select group of about 50 students who provide significant leadership in local church, district and conference youth ministries of the United Methodist Church, and who demonstrate Christian leadership on the Hendrix campus.
UMYF student teams visit United Methodist churches in Arkansas to lead Sunday worship, perform dramatic presentations, share Christian music and host special programs for children and youth.
Where’d they go?
“There is a trend, I think, of many conferences realizing the need to be present on campuses, but that’s matched with the struggle of funding,” says Mr. McCord. “How do you birth those things in the budget crisis we have?”
American University, another United Methodist-affiliated school in Washington, D.C., used to have both a university chaplain and a United Methodist chaplain on its payroll. The Rev. Mark Schaefer, campus minister, said there was no need for a Wesley Foundation because a United Methodist chaplain offered students a Wesleyan perspective.
But in the late 1970s to early ’80s, budget cuts eliminated the United Methodist chaplain’s position at AU, leaving the campus ministry in the hands of the university chaplain and a pastoral intern from the neighboring Wesley Seminary.
With the chaplain busy managing the university’s overall religious life and the intern only working part-time, the United Methodist ministry fell through the cracks.
Dr. Schaefer speculates this trend was happening at other institutions as well. Some even began to question if denominational ministries on campus were necessary, since church-affiliated institutions had active university chaplains and neighboring churches, he said.
At AU, however, Dr. Schaefer took matters into his own hands. As the pastoral intern in the chaplain’s office, he was concerned that there had not been a full-time United Methodist presence at AU for over 30 years. With the help and support of the university chaplain, he lobbied the Baltimore-Washington Conference. In 2002, the conference created a campus ministry at AU and appointed Dr. Schaefer to it.
“We were basically able to shame the church into putting one [a UM ministry] here,” he said. “We argued that if we [the United Methodist Church] are paying for one in Maryland at a state school, why shouldn’t we have one at AU?”
Ecumenical partnerships
The Protestant campus ministry, headed by rotating part-time pastors, was renamed the United Methodist Protestant Community. Attendance at the full-time campus ministry has now doubled, and the leadership team has tripled in size.
“I think we’ve also helped reassert the affiliation of the school,” Dr. Schaefer said. “I think far more students know AU is United Methodist, largely because of our presence and us reminding them every opportunity we could.”
At Syracuse University in New York, the United Methodist campus ministry is wrapped into the Protestant Campus Ministry—an ecumenical organization that includes United Methodist, American Baptist, United Church of Christ and Presbyterian affiliates.
But most of its funding comes from the United Methodist Church, says the Rev. Tiffany Steinwert, the dean of Hendricks Chapel at the university. The Protestant Campus Ministry is the only United Methodist campus ministry in the state, she says.
“A lot of times folks just think we are MYF [United Methodist Youth Fellowship] for college kids, and we are so very much more than that,” said Dr. Schaefer.
“We are creating real, intentional community with these students and then handing them out to the broader church. Then it becomes the church’s responsibility to actually allow them to lead and serve.”
COURTESY PHOTOS
The same is true at Wesleyan College in Macon, Ga., another United Methodist-affiliated school that has a Wesley Foundation.
“Wesley Foundation is such a brand name,” said Mr. Clark. “We may not have the name, but we certainly have all the components that make up a Wesley Foundation.”
At AU, however, Dr. Schaefer took matters into his own hands. As the pastoral intern in the chaplain’s office, he was concerned that there had not been a full-time United Methodist presence at AU for over 30 years. With the help and support of the university chaplain, he lobbied the Baltimore-Washington Conference. In 2002, the conference created a campus ministry at AU and appointed Dr. Schaefer to it.
