Happy Thanksgiving from
the Wesley Foundations in Iowa
Greetings,

Thanksgiving is rapidly approaching and some students will be home for the holidays.  This is the time of the semester where projects are due and a lot of exams and papers are in the near future.  If you can, talk to your college students about Campus Ministry, set up a time to visit them on campus at the beginning of next semester, and be sure to get their email address so you or a member of your congregation can write notes of encouragement to them as they approach this stressful time in the semester.  Students really appreciate having your support!
Iowa State University
FaithspringEach Thursday evening at least four students join Campus Ministry Associate Chris Hockley, music director Jason Janssen and Campus Pastor Jim Shirbroun to evaluate and plan faithspring worship.  "Born" nine years ago, faithspring is the alternative worship experience at Collegiate United Methodist Church/Wesley Foundation in Ames.  faithspring happens each Sunday evening (when classes are held the next day) at 5:30.  Students have at least three other opportunities for worship each week at Collegiate/Wesley (8:30 and 11 a.m. Sundays and "midweek chapel" in the Memorial Union Chapel Wednesdays at 11:15 a.m.).
 
The schedule for the faithspring planning team meetings typically goes like this...Each person is invited to respond to John Wesley's classic question (asked at gatherings of the Holy Club which John and brother Charles started while students at Oxford), "How is it with your soul".  Following a prayer, the group discusses the worship experience of the previous Sunday.  Everything, from the quality of the popcorn (available free throughout worship at the faithspring cafĂ©), to the light level in the room, to the song selection to the videos used in the sermon, to the sermon itself is "fair game" for evaluation.
 
Next, the group turns its attention to the upcoming Sunday.  The topic for the sermon is reviewed along with scriptures, songs, ambience (room set up and direction).  Final plans for slides which accompany announcements, call to worship, songs, sermon, etc. are discussed.  Finally, details for worship in the weeks farther along are shared.
 
The faithspring team has produced three sermon series so far this semester with one to go.
 
"God As Seen on TV"  looked at the way is sometimes portrayed on television, focusing on four areas: God in the Everyday/Secular, God and Relationships ,  God and Vocation, God and Science
 
"G'ology" (Godology) dealt with the study of God through lenses of academic subjects we encounter on campus...topics included Geology, Music, Math and Fisheries and Wildlife Biology.
 
"Conversations" covered conversations with ourselves ("The Inner Dialogue"), conversations with others (Interfaith Dialogues) and conversations with God ("Prayer").  The final worship experience in this series featured 9 members and friends of Collegiate/Wesley, varying in age from 11 to 85, sharing their responses to questions such as "When/where/how do you pray?", "Who taught you to pray?" and "How have your prayers 'matured' through the years?".
 
Our final series of the semester is entitled "Conspiring Toward Christmas".  It will feature sermons by each of the three pastors (Scott Grotewold, Linda Butler and Jim Shirbroun) sharing ways we might better prepare ourselves to once again receive Christ into our lives and world.
 
The faithspring planning team enjoys using technology in creative ways as well.  In addition to lyrics, images and video clips, the 3 large screens in the worship space have, just this Fall semester, displayed robots reading scripture and "Person on the Street" interviews featuring some rather interesting characters (go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ2mw86D3UY and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3hfxMjEy1A to see what we're talking about).
 
The team has some exciting plans for Spring semester.  We love hosting youth groups, confirmation classes, prospective students and more at faithspring so please join us some Sunday night.  But remember...if there's no class the next day, faithspring typically doesn't happen.  Call ahead to check!
College Student Blogs about Life and Theology at the Wesley Foundation at the University of Iowa

Alicia Maxwell, a University
of Iowa student from Dubuque, regularly blogs on issues of theology and life.  Her work adds to the conversation of faith at the Wesley Foundation and gives other students around the university an opportunity to read and to respond to thoughts they might be having as well.  So far this semester, Alicia has discussed prayer, values, and defining truth.  Important issues that even the most studied theologian treads with care.  Alicia handles these issues with insight and thoughtfulness.

Her blog can be found at our web-site:  www.iowawesley.com.

In her own words, Alicia says this about her blog:

Welcome to the Wesley blog!  For those of you who don't know me, my name is Alicia; I am a Physics, Astronomy, and Mathematics major at the University of Iowa and also a Peer Minister at the Wesley center.  I will be posting every so often for all of first semester (and possibly longer).  Anyone who wants to comment on, expand on, contradict, ask questions about, otherwise respond to this blog is welcome to do so, as long as all posts remain respectful.  This blog is meant to be an opportunity to discuss theological/meaningful issues in a forum that does not require a set time or place to meet.  I will be writing about all kinds of things that somehow relate to faith.  Sometimes it might be Scripture, other times a song or a book I have read, still others a situation I have encountered.  My blogs will hopefully be coherent thoughts, but they will not be the final answer on the meaning of life, the universe, and everything.  They will be, instead, a record of my evolving understanding of issues in faith. 
A sense of belonging: Creating community on campus
by Mary Jacobs

When Eddie Crise saw the mismatched chairs and couches, he knew he was home. 

Then a freshman at the University of Iowa, Mr. Crise was checking out the Wesley Foundation's worship space for the first time. The furnishings reminded him of the youth center at his hometown church in Wisconsin. 

He's been "at home" ever since, active as a peer minister and organizer of a free lunch program for the needy in nearby Iowa City. Now, he's considering seminary. 

"I feel that God is calling me to work in the church; I'm just not sure where yet," said Mr. Crise, a junior elementary-education major. 

But many United Methodists say that too few students are connecting to the denomination's campus ministries as Mr. Crise did-and that's hurting the church. 

"Overall, the state of campus ministry in the United Methodist Church is pitiable," said the Rev. Vance Rains, pastor of the Wesley Foundation at Florida State University. "Annual conferences are cutting funding, and as a result we're terribly ineffective in too many places. 

"We are bemoaning our lack of young people and young clergy, and yet we're cutting back on the one, established way of reaching them."
 
It's difficult to assess the denomination's campus ministries because each is funded and administered through an annual conference, according to Bridgette Young, who recently stepped into the role of assistant general secretary for campus ministry at the denomination's General Board of Higher Education and Ministry (GBHEM). 

Currently, the denomination has 545 campus ministry units and 554 campus ministers or chaplains. Campus ministries take a variety of forms: standalone Wesley Foundations, local-church administered programs, chaplaincies and participation in ecumenical campus outreach programs. 

Ms. Young admits she sees room for improvement: "We have a wonderful story in campus ministry, and we're not getting it out as broadly as we should." 

Part of the problem, says the Rev. Paul Shultz, executive director of the Wesley Foundation at the University of Iowa, is that campus ministries are a "high-ticket item." 

"It costs a lot to put staff on a college campus," he said. "But it's important for the future of the church and, more importantly, for the future of these young adults." 

To bring more attention to United Methodist campus programs, a network of campus ministers called College Union recently organized a "40 Days of Prayer" event. The group invited lay and clergy who had received a call to ministry while in college to join a Facebook group. Over 1,400 people joined, and more than 2,500 visitors from 64 countries visited College Union's Web site during the 40-day period. 

"We as a denomination are poised to make some big, positive decisions regarding campus ministries," said Ashlee Alley, a College Union leader and director of campus ministry at Southwestern College, a UM-affiliated institution in Winfield, Kan. "We have an opportunity to really connect with a population that is passionate and actively searching about what God wants to do with them in their life." 

Mr. Rains says Florida State's program receives sufficient support from its annual conference, which helps explain why it's growing. Recently, Sunday morning worship attracted over 400 students-marking the achievement of a goal to reach 1 percent of the campus' student population of 40,000. 

While celebrating that milestone, Mr. Rains said he also thinks of the untapped potential elsewhere. 

"There are a million college students in the State of Florida," he said. "If we could reach just 1 percent of them, that would be 100,000 students. But that requires resources." 

Jason Molitor, director of campus ministries at Arkansas Tech, takes a long-term approach to his involvement with students. "A Wesley Foundation does pull in a lot of resources," he said, "but it's more of an investment for the future than something that has an immediate impact." Currently, 11 of the 400 or so students who participate there are exploring their calls to ministry.

Pivotal period

The college years represent a pivotal period for young adults, one that is likely to dictate their church participation for years to come. According to a 2006 Barna Group study, many people disengage from active participation in the Christian faith during their young-adult years. 

"Most of them pull away from participation and engagement in Christian churches, particularly during the college years," the study reported. "The most potent data regarding disengagement is that a majority of twentysomethings-61 percent of today's young adults-had been churched at one point during their teen years but they are now spiritually disengaged (i.e., not actively attending church, reading the Bible, or praying). Only one-fifth of twentysomethings have maintained a level of spiritual activity consistent with their high school experiences." 

But for young people who do connect with a campus ministry, there's hope for deeper engagement. 

"Campus ministry is the place where young adults become intentional about their life choices," said Mr. Shultz. "It's the time when their Sunday school faith can turn into a deep faith based on both heart and theology." 

Campus ministries also contribute a voice that might otherwise go unspoken in the dialogue of the academy. "We offer a rational Christian witness," Mr. Shultz said. "The president's office calls on us in significant times, when tragedy strikes." He helped craft a public liturgy, for example, following a shooting on the campus almost eight years ago. 

To reach college students today, campus ministers say, programs must give young people a sense of community and a chance to serve. 

"Many students come expecting to find opportunities to serve," said Ms. Alley. "It's an easy way to get students in the door." 

"We made a very conscious decision several years ago, that this would not be a place that you attend, but a community you are a part of," Mr. Rains said. "Once you're here, you have a place and you are valued. All of our programs are about fostering community." 

That longing for home is echoed in the testimonies of active students. 

"Wesley gives me a church to call 'home' while I am away from home," said Alicia Maxwell, a peer minister and a third-year physics, astronomy and mathematics major at the University of Iowa. 

"Of all the things I have learned from the fellowship, the importance of Christian community has stood out the most," said Kelsey Seale, a junior English and French major who's active in Auburn University's Wesley Foundation. 

"The family I have there and the relationships I have formed are solid and Christ-centered, and I couldn't ask for more than that."