Greetings,

At the Wesley Foundations May is a time of change. It is a time to be proud of the accomplishments of students and a time to say goodbye. Each year some students graduate and move on to other communities. They have been blessings to the Wesley Foundations and we know they will do great things in their new communities. 


University of Northern Iowa-Block Party 

We've started the school year with a Block Party for several years. Area UMC's bring food and provide the "celebrity" grillers. We invite all of the United Methodist students we have information on, plus all of our returning students, plus friends, plus the neighbors. We close off 25th St for the evening and have a lot of fun. We usually serve between 150 and 200 people.

 

For the second time, this year we concluded the year with a Block Party, albeit on a smaller scale. We did the grilling ourselves and provided a simpler menu. We still invited the same folks as the fall. This year we also had the popular CF band Lick It Ticket playing, we had Salsa Dancing, we had many "new to Wesley" folks (even on the weekend before Finals). It was a grand celebration.

 

On that Friday afternoon, we had a 16-gallon keg of 1919 Root beer, but nothing to keep it cold in. Let's check with the Kappa Sigma fraternity next door to see if they have any advice on keeping the keg cold, we thought. (Yes that's the same fraternity that one Iowa UM Clergy blogged he would rather have his son involved in than the Wesley Foundation.) When we went to talk to some of them, their first thought was we were going to complain about cars parked on the street. After explaining that, no, we wanted to invite them to the Block Party and see if they had any ideas on chilling the root beer keg. First they suggested the bathtub. Creative, but not practical. Then "miraculously" they discovered an official keg cooler! 15 minutes later they had washed it out, carried it over to our place, loaded it with ice and got the keg set up. Later, at the Block Party most of the same guys were there, many with dates and enjoying themselves along with many others.

 

Before the storm brought us together, the street between their frat house and our Wesley Foundation building was very wide and suspicious (once a resident over there shot bb's through a Wesley window).

 

It was a grand night to cap off a wonderful year. Our worship attendance was consistently higher than it's been in years (30+ most weeks). Nearly everyone who visited came back and got involved further. New leaders emerged. New groups are using the building and returning. The Rebuilding and Renovating is paying off nicely.

 

Thank you for your support.

 

University of Iowa-Becoming a Candidate for Ministry 
Heather Streicher graduates from the University of Iowa this May with majors in theatre and psychology as well as a minor in religious studies. Heather also leaves the University of Iowa with the endorsement of the UI Wesley Foundation for her ministry candidacy process in the United Methodist Church. It's not unusual for candidates to discern a call while they are active in campus ministry, but this is a first- since the Discipline changed in 2008-that Wesley Foundations as well as local churches recommend candidates to the District Committee on Ordained Ministry. Heather's first day at the University included the Wesley Foundation campus ministry. UI Wesley has served as her worship community and spiritual home for four years. She came to the University feeling God was calling her to be a pastor. Her call has deepened and grown as a student and through campus ministry. Next year she begins studies at Garrett Theological Seminary in Evanston.  


Iowa State University-Wesley Foundation Alumni  

(Class of '61) 

The Wesley Foundation at Iowa State University just had an Alumni Reunion. The class of '61 at Iowa State University celebrated their 50 year reunion with events planned all weekend. One of those events was a special gathering at the Wesley Foundation.  

 

Twenty-one Wesley Foundation Alumni participated in this event which was organized by a member from the class of '61 and Wesley Foundation staff. Many fond memories were shared and the Wesley Foundation kept being referred to as a "home away from home." This is where many studied, made friends, built the firm foundations of their faith, and met their spouses. There was a presentation about the current activities at the Wesley Foundation, a time of worship led by Rev. Jim Shirbroun, a tour, and a time of fellowship. Those present shared wonderful memories and the joy of all the friends they met at the Wesley Foundation. Many of them still keep in touch with each other but don't always get the opportunity to be in the same room. They were so excited to see others that they hadn't seen in 50 years.  

 

They also shared some of the many ways they continue to serve God. Since graduation they have been active in their local churches, served on many boards (including Wesley Foundation Boards), served as Sunday School teachers, were in the Peace Corp, and some became pastors. The Wesley Foundation helped them to become the people that they are today and they are very thankful and appreciative of the time they spent at Wesley.

 

Wesleyan ministry is perfect for colleges

Jan. 31, 2011

Cody Nielsen and his wife, Erin, will move to Minnesota this summer.

Starting new churches has been a new, exciting endeavor for the Minnesota Annual Conference. We learn much every day.

 

And now we're doing yet another new thing! We are starting a new campus ministry . . . that is, we are restarting a campus ministry.

 

Recently I announced that I was appointing Rev. J. Cody Nielsen, a provisional member of the Iowa Annual Conference, to the newly forming Wesley Foundation at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities campus, starting July 1.

 

You may know that there was a Wesley Foundation at the University of Minnesota in the past. Almost 100 years ago, James C. Baker, a pastor in Champaign/Urbana, Ill., identified that college students need their own space for personal and spiritual formation in a Wesleyan community as well as an opportunity to discern vocation and develop leadership skills. He developed what became the Wesley Foundation campus ministry movement in 1913 at the University of Illinois.

 

In 1923, a Wesley Foundation formed at the University of Minnesota and for decades the ministry provided a place for Methodist identity and spiritual formation as well as exploration of social justice from a Wesleyan perspective, particularly in the civil rights and anti-war movements of past decades. Don Shockley, former associate general secretary of the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry, poetically described campus ministry as "the church beyond itself" in his 1989 book by that name (published by Westminster John Knox).

 

I don't know what happened to the Wesley Foundation ministry at the U. I do know that many active laypeople and (now mostly retired) clergy were significantly shaped by its ministry. The church, mostly through the annual conference connection, began to distance itself from these campus ministries across the country and that distancing-now several decades old-has resulted in what many people now realize to be a distancing of young adults from the church and fewer young adults who have had the context in which to discern their vocation within the church or beyond.

 

Cody has had a passion for ministry on the University of Minnesota's campus for several years. He comes from a faith forged in campus ministry. He has relentlessly shared his vision, connecting and networking throughout the Minnesota Annual Conference in order to make what was a dream in his heart and mind into a budding, vulnerable but vital new ministry. He's helped us reorganize for better campus ministry overall and has already put together a board for this new ministry on the U of M campus.

 

We have other United Methodist presence on campus ministries in Minnesota: at Winona State (Rev. Justin Halbersma), Fargo-Moorhead (Rev. Theta Miller), Mankato State (Rev. Fred Vanderwerf), and Hamline (Rev. Nancy Victorin-Vangerud). In all of these ministries we need to reach out to students, faculty, and administration to be a presence in their lives as they engage in life-forming and life-transforming endeavors.

 

We need campus ministries where students can explore what it means to be a person of faith and a scientist, or to learn spiritual practices that are essential in coping with a stressful academic program, or to be part of a faith community where students can ask questions relevant to their academic life and focus and more.

 

While this campus ministry will be ecumenical and open to all people, it will have a distinctively Wesleyan perspective. Several church consultants (many of whom are not United Methodist) believe that our Wesleyan theology and traditions are ripe for attracting young people who want to balance the personal and social holiness that the gospel calls forth in us. Cooperation with other denominations and faiths on campus are important, but we have a unique gift to offer students and this is an opportunity to present it!

Why the U? Why not the U? The University of Minnesota is the third largest school in the nation, and reportedly the most racially and ethnically diverse. It's the largest urban campus in the United States and it's rated third highest in research in the world. There are 67,364 students system-wide this year with 51,659 students in the Twin Cities. If there was a city in Minnesota with over 67,000 people in it without a United Methodist church, we'd be starting one there!

 

We need to support all the new ministries we share as an annual conference, but this one is special in that it potentially benefits many of us, for many of our churches will send students to the U. I hope that you will inquire of Cody about this new ministry over the next few months and see how you might be able to support it as an individual or a local church-especially if you attended the U, sent one or more of your children there, participated in any of its programs or research projects, benefited from its community outreach, ate a Honeycrisp apple developed there, rooted for the Gophers . . . you get my point!

Contact Cody at j.cody.nielsen@gmail.com and he will be delighted to talk with you. Watch out, because his passion for this ministry is invigorating and contagious. He just might get you to invite him to your church to talk to one of your groups or even on a Sunday morning, after he arrives in Minnesota around annual conference time. You can offer a financial gift by visiting www.gopherwesley.com and using PayPal to give either a one-time pledge or to sign up for scheduled giving. Or you may send checks to the Prospect Park United Methodist Church (22 Orlin Ave SE, Minneapolis, MN 55414) and write "Wesley Foundation" on the memo line.

 

Many clergy-especially our younger clergy-and lay people are already helping to start this ministry. It feels like waiting for a new baby to be born in the family. Like starting a new church or any new ministry, it takes an annual conference (of churches and people) to raise  

it!

 

 

Bishop Sally Dyck

  

Copyright © 2011 Minnesota Annual Conference