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JOIN OUR LIST
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MARK YOUR CALENDARS!
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Free
Hog Roast Sept. 21
We hope you will
join us. Please bring high school Juniors and Seniors and meet your
college students to Collegiate UMC/Wesley Foundation for faithspring
worship* on Sunday night, Sept. 21.
You'll hear a powerful sermon by guest preacher
Janet Wolfe, then enjoy a fantastic HOG ROAST (with vegetarian options, of
course).
Just drop your college students a note (via mail or
email) and tell them you'll meet them here.
An easy meeting place is our new Student Lounge which faces Lincoln Way (2nd
floor, main building @ 2622 W.
Lincoln Way).
We'll have greeters to show you to faithspring. We want to be sure there's enough food, so
please let us know if you're coming and how many will be joining you, if at all
possible (and as early as possible) but feel free
to simply show up or add guests at the last minute!
Worship starts @ 5:30 in our Annex @ 130 S. Sheldon. The hog roast is on
our new Terrace (patio in front of our main building facing Lincoln Way) beginning @ 6:30.
Of course, we'd like to see you ANY
Sunday night for faithspring & supper! It's a great
experience for Confirmation or Sunday School classes, Youth Groups and others!
* faithspring is our alternative worship experience,
planned with, by and for students, which meets most every Sunday night and
features a live band, 3 big screens (for lyrics, graphics and movie clips), VERY
casual seating (around tables or on couches) and a café (for refreshments
during worship).
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Greetings!
In this issue of the Wesley Foundation Update, you
will be able to learn about what the Wesley Foundations will be doing this fall.
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Drake University
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Drake classes begin August 25th
and the Wesley House plans to welcome new students at the annual Activities
Fair on the 27th. Plans for the fall semester include a continuation
our Sunday evening meal and working to establish opportunities for collaboration
among the various campus ministries at Drake. We are also in the early planning
phase of creating a weekly chapel service devoted to peace. The details of
these ventures will follow once the students get settled and begin to shape
this ministry. Many thanks for your support and prayers.
Ted Lyddon Hatten,
Director.
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University of Iowa
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UI WESLEY FOUNDATION PREPARES FOR FALL 2008
Outreach and Welcoming Students
The
University of Iowa Wesley Foundation works to help students invite
students. Student to student evangelism and outreach is the most
effective way to connect students to our ministry. (Photo is of the
2008-2009 UI Wesley Peer Ministers: Sara, Eddie, Alicia). We provide a
number
of opportunities for students to invite students, including a FREE ICE
CREAM PARTY, August 23, from 3-5 pm.
-WEDNESDAY
WORSHIP at 9pm is the venue where most students get introduced to our
ministry. This central event shapes our community as well as our
spirits. We utilize traditional worship elements: prayer, hymns,
Scripture, readings from the Christian spiritual giants and theologians
and relevant preaching. We do so in an informal setting that invites
students to offer their reflections as well.
-EMMAUS
SPIRITUAL RETREAT from Oct 3-5, 2008, gives students an opportunity to
get away to Picture Rocks United Methodist Camp and share their
spiritual journeys together. The retreat setting forms long-lasting
friendships as well as deepens the conversation of faith in our
community.
-COOKIES
are taken to all students who visit the Wesley Center for the first
time. Local churches bake cookies for us and we freeze them. When a
student visits, a peer minister responds within a day or so with a
note, a brochure and a dozen homemade cookies. This form of outreach
has increased the number of students who return and stay connected to
our ministry.
Flood Response 2008
The
2008 flood has devastated the University of Iowa Campus. As a result,
the Wesley Center will be hosting aspects of the School of Music's
programs. We are preparing our building to host these students and
consider this outreach as a part of our mission to serving the
University of Iowa. We
will also be doing bi-weekly service groups to do flood recovery work.
We have already hosted some flood recovery volunteer groups in our
building.
What Churches Can Do to Help us in Outreach
- Know where they are and stay in contact with them through letters and packages
- Visit
them and introduce them to the Wesley Foundation director over coffee
or lunch (relation-ships began with an introduction makes a difference)
- Call the Wesley Foundation director and let them know about your student: who they are, where they live and what interests them
- Celebrate United Methodist Student Day, receive the Special offering and invite a student to address the church
- Listen
to students as they talk about the reality and challenges of their
lives and their hopes and dreams for how they can make a difference
- Help
fund a student to attend a spiritual retreat or a trip. Contact the
Wesley Foundation director about what special events are coming up.Let them be adults when they visit home
- Ask them about their faith and what they are doing to grow in faith and listen to their answer
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Iowa State University
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As Jim Wallis, president and executive director of
Sojourners (www.sojo.net), said "God is not a republican
or a democrat," but as you watch the current election both parties might have
you think otherwise. In this election
more than ever people of faith are being courted by both political parties
making it all the more important that people of faith are actively asking the
question how are faith and politics connected?
Every Tuesday Night at 7pm a
group of ISU students meets at Collegiate
United Methodist
Church in its new student
lounge to explore exactly these questions.
The group, called Think, Pray,
Vote is put on by the Wesley Foundation and is designed to help students
explore the tricky relationship that exists between faith and politics. Over the next several weeks until Election
Day they will be exploring questions such as; how should a person of faith be
involved in the political system? How does our vote effect other's lives? How
can we disagree on political issues but still love one another?
Groups like Think, Pray, Vote provide people of
faith the opportunity to explore ways to be a part of the political process
without checking their faith at the door.
The more people of faith can explore how to be in relationship with the
political system, the more prepared they will be to find their path to the
voting booth and a more faithful interaction with the political system.
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University of Northern Iowa
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We eat well
at Wesley! Whether it's gathering around a table downstairs, or in a group in
the lobby or sitting out on the front area, people have shared meals together
here from the beginning. Many
connections have been made, friendships deepened and lives changed in this
process of gathering around the table. This summer we have been spending a lot
of time and money on our kitchen area.
It is the last major area to be remodeled as part of our several year
"Wake up the facilities" project. (To
our surprise, we have noticed a clear relationship between attractive
facilities, participation and overall feeling of the ministry.) This year we will be emphasizing breaking
bread together in a number of different ways.
For the last couple of years, we've gathered
regularly for a different kind of nourishing meal, Holy Communion. This academic year we will gather each
Wednesday for worship, including Holy Communion. The students who regularly participate look
forward to that part of their week and notice it when it is missing. This weekly communion has become part of our
healthy diet.
In a recent article found in the journal
"Insights" from Austin Seminary, there was a comparison of two meals. "[Holy
Communion] is a meal that is celebrated wherever the Gospel is proclaimed. The patterns of this meal reveal many
assumptions about food and others. We
assume, for example, that there is always room for one more person at the
table, no matter how small the loaf of bread and cup of wine. When celebrated again and again, these
patterns of the Lord's Table-abundant giving, hosting, hungering, remembering,
making room for others-become contagious, taking shape in our lives as we rise
from the table."
Contrast that healthy meal and orientation
to life and ministry with this observation.
"Our culture has also bequeathed a meal for the world's consumption, a
meal that gorges a larger number of bellies every year: the Big Mac,
fries, and Coke. This meal also embodies distinct practices:
of burgers packaged in individual containers that resist sharing, of a
maddening rush to the counter, of empty calories rather than food that
sustains, of convenience rather than hospitality, of intricate global
supply
chains ensuring that beef from Brazil arrives in Asia on time, of
homogenous
tastes rather than regional adaptation, of scarcity that breeds
over-consumption from super-sized portions rather than sharing that
begets
moderation. Such meals, in the end, enable us to devour all we can
quickly
without bothering to interact with those hosting the meal. When
ingested again and again, this meal,
too, inculcates patterns: consumption, scarcity, and minimal
interchange with
others."
Thinking about the context in which
we are doing ministry, it is pretty tempting to offer ministry that is more
like the McMeal style; attractive, easy to serve, cheap and sadly not very
healthy. For years, the Wesley
Foundation ministry has attempted to offer a much more healthy, inviting, and
holy meal style ministry.
All are welcome. Come see us when you are in town.
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Article Headline
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Making
the Transition to College
As high school seniors
transition into college, one of the greatest gifts their youth ministers can
give them is a way to become active in a United Methodist campus ministry or
Wesley Foundation as they begin college. While exciting and full of many new
opportunities, starting at a new school can be an extremely stressful time for
many students. Having a faith community with students and campus ministers who
understand what new students experience can help make their transition much
smoother.
Here are ten things you can do to help your students'
transition to college:
1) Find
out who the United Methodist campus minister or chaplain is at their
college and send that person your students' names and e-mail addresses.
The General Board of Higher Education and Ministry has a database where
you can search
by college or university to find out who the campus minister is
for that institution (http://umc.gbhem.org/asp/campusMin.asp). 2) Visit
the university's website to look for student organization listings. Some
list the religious organizations separately. 3) During
orientation encourage students to ask about the campus ministry
organizations. If a United Methodist campus ministry or Wesley Foundation
is not active on that campus, encourage your student to go with a group of
friends to visit UM churches that are close by the campus. 4) Encourage
students to find out about chapel services that are held on campus and to
attend when possible. 5) Sponsor
a "Transitions" night in your local church for graduating seniors. Include
information for parents and students about local United Methodist churches
near their new college. Also include resources for getting involved in
campus ministry or a Wesley Foundation. 6) Share
information about the e-zine, Orientation, that provides new students with
hints for making a smooth transition (http://umc.gbhem.org/orientation/).
7) Remind
students of scholarships and loans that are available for United Methodist
students through the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry
(www.gbhem.org). Scholarships and loans are available for all UM students,
whether they attend a UM institution or not. 8) Connect
students to the United Methodist Student Movement (www.umsm.org). UMSM
sponsors an event each Memorial Day week-end called Student Forum for
college students from around the country. It's a great place for students
to develop networks, receive leadership development training, and be
involved in worship and Bible study with students from across the United States.
9) Remind
your local church to stay in touch with students during the year - via
e-mail, cards, letters and care packages. Oftentimes there is a committee
or group in the church who will enjoy preparing and sending care packages
to students. 10) Work
with your annual conference to develop a way to share names of graduating
seniors with colleges in your area. © 2008 General Board of Higher Education & Ministry
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