College by Nathan D Wilson

College Life: Learning to Think and to Love


When that happens ... college ministry will be a place where we have the courage and freedom to ask the biggest questions and imagine the existence of those beyond our own tribe (so that we) complement cogito ergo sum with amo ergo sum, challenging us to love as well as think.

By Nathan D. Wilson

In her May 30 Newsweek column (“Life of the Closed Mind”), Anna Quindlen stated that since 9/11/2001, the United States has become a country that has effectively taught its young people "the terrible example of closed minds.” She focused especially on those young people in the midst of university commencements – most of whom began their university careers in September 2001.

Quindlen quoted Lee Bollinger, Columbia University president, to wit: “To learn to ask: ‘Is that true? Maybe there's something to what she just said. Let me think about it. That's interesting. Maybe I should change my mind. I changed my mind’.” Then asked Quindlen with passion: “When is the last time you can honestly remember a public dialogue, or even a private conversation, that followed that useful course?”

Probably not recently; no, these days, life both in and outside the academy appears increasingly defined by the development of like-minded enclaves within which academics isolate themselves from other truth claims and insulate themselves from others who might challenge their fundamentals. These enclaves exist in conservative safe harbors just as they do in liberal ivory towers as cozy havens for those convinced of their own beliefs to the point of berating the beliefs of others.

And yet, if there is any setting where new ideas should be tried on for size and otherness should be encountered, it is the college setting. The college years should be full of learning everything possible, figuring out how to save the world, working hard and playing harder.

Enter the important role and responsibility of college ministry. In the midst of an academic community, university ministers are ideally positioned to prod others to deeper engagement of issues that matter; they can, and should, encourage, even challenge, others to ask more honestly how we should respond to the world in which we live. Rather than tell students, faculty and staff what to think, university ministers can challenge others to consider how (that is, by what standards and methods) they make sense of the relationship of self, world and faith.

When that happens, college ministry will fill this important gap of which Quindlen wrote because university ministry will be a place where we have the courage and freedom to ask the biggest questions and imagine the existence of those beyond our own tribe. This courage, freedom and imagination might just give rise to compassion, which might, in turn, help us complement cogito ergo sum with amo ergo sum, challenging us to love as well as think.

At its best, college ministry is about helping students form their beliefs while learning from the truths in other beliefs. At its best, college ministry is open-minded and opening minds.


The Reverend Nathan D. Wilson is a minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) denomination. He can be emailed at cmwpew@aol.com

college ministry

Cutting Edge Issues for Religious Leaders:
Why University Ministry is Important

By The Reverend Nathan D. Wilson



[TRANSCRIPT PRODUCED FROM TAPE RECORDINGS]

Thank you for inviting me to join this dialogue about cutting edge issues for religious leaders.

First, a brief housekeeping matter. To have honest interfaith dialogue, each participant needs to identify the faith or ideological perspective from which he or she speaks. I speak as a Christian, ordained in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), theologically ecumenical, evangelical and progressive, engaged in interfaith dialogue and practice, in love with learning, and committed in action to issues of peace, justice and equality. My hope and prayer is that the words I say will resonate even with those who do not share my language and loyalties.

As some of you know, I frequently talk about three characteristics that communities of faith should embody: true community, deep spirituality and a passion for justice. Now I know that this dialogue is about university ministry, but these three characteristics have become my mantra, and, more importantly, they add to this conversation – so allow me to briefly recap them.

Communities of faith must be about forming and exhibiting true community; that is, we must be about providing opportunities to discuss, deliberate and debate, to explore, engage and empower, to hope, heal and even ask for help – and these opportunities must be in safe spaces where participants are both candid and considerate.

Communities of faith must be about deep spirituality. There are many patterns of spiritual formation and exploration, and for today I’m not planning to review them or advocate for one. (I do have formative models and disciplines to suggest that I’m happy to discuss afterward, especially if, say, you treated me to a cup of coffee …) Today I am simply going to say that deep spirituality includes both reflection about one’s faith and attention to how one’s life is being lived. This includes asking who we are, who God is, how we can be shaped by our faith, and how we can put our faith into practice. Spirituality leads to healing and wholeness of oneself, of one’s community, of God’s world.

Communities of faith must be passionate about justice. Similar perhaps to spirituality, we could spend much time defining justice according to various religious, philosophic and legal traditions. My own definition is rooted in the scriptures of the Abrahamic faiths, which is to say, in brief, that justice has both personal and social components. Justice is both about what we do to ourselves and each other and it is about what the systems in which we live and operate do to us all. Rather than spend time defining justice (though, again, a cup of java or one of those nice looking éclairs might persuade me later), the point for us now is that communities of faith are to teach, sensitize, motivate and challenge their members to engage contemporary realities in acts of service and witness.

That is my summary of the three aspects that communities of faith should exemplify. Besides being like a politician who sticks to his message points regardless of the question asked (or a windup doll maybe), I went through that summary because the aspects give shape to how we do effective university ministry. So now I’ll change directions a bit and address the importance of ministry during one of the typically most influential and formative periods of life.

During the college years, there is a distinct openness to new ideas, and to the exploration of faith. This openness, especially when combined with the influence universities have on society’s values, makes the task of serving as university minister simultaneously daunting and exciting.

First, university ministers should soothe some and stir up others searching to connect their spiritual hunger, social commitments and academic pursuits. Sincere and systematic engagement of the moral challenges surrounding one’s chosen field is often absent from higher education. In the college setting, many choices and challenges are raised – be they moral, spiritual, physical, intellectual, economic or other – which should be held in dialogical tension to create a healthy and whole person.
Second, university ministry should provide the tools to live a faithful and informed life. It is unfair for university ministers to create false security, a sheltered environment where every question is answered, and all needs are met. The more appropriate approach is to invite students and staff to be honest with questions about faith, to take a critical look at their inherited faith, and then begin the task of clarifying what is helpful and what is not. There may be periods when the ground of one’s faith is shaky; into that uncertainty, however, can come recognition that life is uncertain, and that faith is grounded in a reality that embraces such times and tells us the truth about those times. What seems to be endless wilderness may be an opportunity to go farther and deeper with one’s faith.
Third, university ministers have important opportunities to exercise the roles of minister as pastor and priest. In times of crisis, whether personal, institutional, national or worldwide, university ministers should bring words of hope and peace. University ministers are blessed with opportunities for pastoral counseling: the great privilege of being invited into the sanctuary of someone else’s soul.

Fourth, university ministers have important opportunities as prophets. In the midst of an academic community, university ministers can prod others to deeper engagement of issues that matter; they can encourage, even challenge, others to ask more honestly how we should respond to the world in which we live. University ministers should always complement cogito ergo sum with amo ergo sum, challenging the community to love as well as think.

Fifth, when done well, university worship informs and inspires. What is worship that is done well? It is worship that is genuinely ecumenical; emphasizing that God’s grace is wide enough to receive us all. It is worship that allows room for the Holy Spirit to affirm our gifts, challenge our frailties, and enlarge our perceptions. It is worship that reminds us that the strength of love reaches us wherever we are and brings us together. It is worship with order and flow, but is not stale or stiff. It is worship filled with songs and images from all over the world, with prayers and proclamation, with drama and dance, with art and flowers. Most of all, it is worship filled with the gifts of the gathered community.

Finally for now, university ministry can simply be fun! It should be. The university years should be challenging; they should be formative; they should be a bit confusing, at least from time to time. Amidst all that, college should be this exhilarating time of trying on ideas and perspectives, learning everything possible, figuring out how to save the world, playing hard and working hard.

Any metabolizing minister could not but love to be in that mix.

So, jump in with your questions or comments. Thanks for your time.

Nathan D. Wilson is the minister of a Disciples congregation in central Kentucky with a growing young adult program. We came to know Nathan in West Virginia when we were Vista volunteers and he was the youngest director of any state council of churches in the nation, led some awesome efforts to “promote the common good above personal gain” (a phrase he used in every interview!), and would bike the big loop in Kanawha with us every other Saturday. Nathan can be contacted at nathandaywilson@aol.com and his web log is www.nathandaywilson.blogspot.com

Martin Luther King on Peace

I've been reading a lot about and from Martin Luther King, Jr., these days. Below is a reflection I wrote after reading his sermon titled, "Chrismas Sermon on Peace." -- Nathan

I, like many people, love King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. I enjoy reading the transcription of it; I enjoy hearing its original delivery; I usually even enjoy when someone tries to recite it from memory (though I’ve heard some pretty awful renderings by black politicians). I like that speech and am glad to know it.

However, I think that in addition to hearing “I Have a Dream” each January, we should also hear this sermon. I say that because in this sermon King talks about how and when the dream King expressed in his “I Have a Dream” speech turned to a nightmare. I don’t want to come across as a downer, but the sermon and the presence of violent racism need to be held before people unless we believe somehow that King’s dream came true. It did not yet come true.

King writes that the first time he witnessed the dream turn to a nightmare was when white racists bombed the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama during Sunday school on September 15, 1963. This was less than one month after the “I Have a Dream” speech. Four black children were killed that morning. Astonishingly, not one member of Birmingham's white community attended the funeral services.

King watched the dream turn into a nightmare as he saw African Americans in northern ghettos “perishing on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity,” (257) while the nation did nothing to rescue them. Moreover, King said he watched the dream turn to a nightmare as he watched his people “in the midst of anger and understandable outrage, in the midst of their hurt, in the midst of their disappointment, turn to misguided riots to try to solve that problem” (257). Finally, King saw his dream turn to a nightmare as he watched the escalation of the war in Vietnam, where the war on poverty was shot down on every battlefield.

King was increasingly troubled to figure out how to remain faithful to God's call in the face of the myriad ways that his dream for America and the world became a nightmare. One of the ways was to hang onto to the essence of life, which for King was life’s interrelatedness. “It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied to a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. We are made to live together because of the interrelated structure of reality” (254). King then illustrates this point with a beautiful sequence detailing how our common morning process means using materials from throughout the world. South Americans provide our coffee; French provide our soap; English provide our toast; West Africans our cocoa, and so on. Ultimately we will not have peace until “we recognize this basic fact of the interrelated structure of all reality” (254).

A second key to remaining faithful, as it was a key to realizing peace on earth, was embracing “the nonviolent affirmation that ends and means must cohere” (254). Here King presses the case for nonviolent action leading to peace and violent action not. King speaks about the contradictions of dropping bombs in the name of peace. Means are the seed and the end is the tree, so one cannot hope to receive a good end with a bad means. Peace is not merely the end goal; it is also the means by which peace is achieved. To find peaceful ends, we must pursue it by peaceful means. King concludes this section by writing, “All of this is saying that, in the final analysis, means and ends must cohere because the end is preexistent in the means, and ultimately destructive means cannot bring about constructive ends” (255).

One of the mind expanding concepts in this sermon is introduced when King says that he has “seen too much hate to want to hate” (256). King names some on whose faces he has seen hate, and states that each times he sees hate he realizes more and more the weight hate is to carry around. Here King weaves his Gandhian philosophy when he encourages his audience to stand up before our most bitter opponents and say: We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will and we will still love you. (256).

This is an amazing concept not least because it runs counter to our instincts. Even if we do not seek to harm others, our basic instinct for survival is to protect ourselves and those we love.

King weaves the influence of Thoreau on his thinking when he states that “ We cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws and abide by the unjust system, because noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good, and so throw us in jail and we will still love you” (256). As I have suggested elsewhere, this, stated another way, suggests that for me to be silent in the face of any oppression, mine or another’s, is as bad as causing the oppression. Oppressing others runs contrary to my belief of Jesus as liberator. So, finally, my silence jeopardizes my Christianity. The truth of this concept bothers me because there are issues now about which I am being silent or at least barely audible. They may not be as plain as was American racial segregation in King’s day, but that does not make them any less important, nor does excuse my silence.

On second thought, maybe this sermon should not be read every January. It might bother us too much.

Nathan D. Wilson

We Are Family

Below is my most recent newsletter column for the congregation I serve.


I’m no authority on movies, but a new one worth seeing is “Elizabethtown.” So named for Elizabethtown, KY, this movie is about a man named Drew. Drew spent virtually all his time, energy and efforts the last few years designing a shoe so bad his company will lose nearly a billion dollars. He poured himself into this company only to be rejected once the shoe design flopped. About when Drew was on the edge of doom, he learned his father died, and he suddenly needed to go to Elizabethtown to make arrangements to bring his father’s remains back to Oregon.

Over time, Drew realized why he is so lonely and lost. He realized, for instance, that his drive for materialism and a big name at the company led him nowhere.
Drew also realized that he cut himself off from his family. To his surprise, though, his new extended family and new found friends won’t let him stay lost. They adopt Drew trying to point him in a direction that leads to life. It doesn’t matter that he is from California (he’s actually from Oregon, but the joke is that for them it’s all California). What they know is that here is one who needs help.

The children and youth selected “We are Family” as their theme for Youth Sunday, November 6, because that is the essence of what we are at Clintonville Christian: a family who knows that we all need help and direction.

Our children and youth may show us lessons we have forgotten. I hope you will be here November 6 for Youth Sunday.

See you at the family place -- Nathan

Nathan D Wilson

Ministry Teamwork

Below is my most recent newsletter column for the congregation I serve, the Clintonville Christian Church in Kentucky.

Essential for the Adventure: Teamwork

My good friend and college roommate, Jed, and I recently competed in Asbury College’s annual adventure race. The race is so named because it consists of 3 miles of running, 5 miles of mountain biking, 2 miles of canoeing, two high ropes climbing events, and one low ropes balance and agility event. The race is structured for two person teams and both teammates must complete all the events. Everything is outdoors and it is nonstop – nonstop, that is, until you finish the race or the race finishes you. (Yes, comedians, we finished the race!)

In such a race, it does not take long to realize how important teamwork is. Of course, teamwork is unavoidable for the canoeing and ropes events: it is against the rules (as well as physically impossible) to complete the ropes events without your teammate and you would have a hard time completing the canoeing (in sixteen foot, two person canoes) without a teammate. But even beyond those events, teamwork is vital to doing well in the race.

Why is teamwork so vital, you ask, in what seems like mainly individual events? Well, thanks for asking. You see, when you work as a team you can challenge each other to push harder. When you work as a team you can encourage each other to keep going. When you work as a team you know that there is someone else there to excel or at least endure the race with you.

One key to effective teamwork is knowing each other’s strengths. At some points in the race, I challenged or encouraged Jed; at other points, he challenged or encouraged me. A second key is realizing that every member of the team is important.

It’s the same for us at Clintonville Christian. Teamwork is essential. It provides healthy challenge and healthy encouragement. Clintonville Christian is a great team when we blend our God-given talents, gifts and graces in service and ministry.

See you at the place where all team members are important, and new ones want to be asked to join the team -- Nathan

Nathan D. Wilson

College students and religion

African-American students are more likely than other students to believe in God or to attend religious services on a regular basis, according to the results of a survey of college freshmen conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute.

According to the study, 95 percent of African-American students believe in God; 84 percent of Latino; 78 percent of white; and, 65 percent of Asian-American students. Attending religious services regularly follows a similar trajectory: 53 percent of African-American, 42 percent of white, 39 percent of Latino, and 35 percent of Asian-American students attend religious services regularly.

Women are more likely than men to be involved in charitable activities of some kind, while men are more likely to be religious skeptics. Women are also more likely than men to pray.

Additional results indicate that while most freshmen believe in God, fewer than half follow religious teachings in their daily lives. Not surprisingly, the study found that most students were interested in grappling with big questions like the meaning of life.

Nathan D Wilson
www.nathandaywilson.blogspot.com

campus ministry for religious leaders

Cutting Edge Issues for Religious Leaders: Why University Ministry is Important
By The Reverend Nathan D. Wilson

Thank you for inviting me to join this dialogue about cutting edge issues for religious leaders.
First, a brief housekeeping matter. To have honest interfaith dialogue, each participant needs to identify the faith or ideological perspective from which he or she speaks. I speak as a Christian, ordained in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), theologically ecumenical, evangelical and progressive, engaged in interfaith dialogue and practice, in love with learning, and committed in action to issues of peace, justice and equality. My hope and prayer is that the words I say will resonate even with those who do not share my language and loyalties.

As some of you know, I frequently talk about three characteristics that communities of faith should embody: true community, deep spirituality and a passion for justice. Now I know that this dialogue is about university ministry, but these three characteristics have become my mantra, and, more importantly, they add to this conversation – so allow me to briefly recap them.

Communities of faith must be about forming and exhibiting true community; that is, we must be about providing opportunities to discuss, deliberate and debate, to explore, engage and empower, to hope, heal and even ask for help – and these opportunities must be in safe spaces where participants are both candid and considerate.

Communities of faith must be about deep spirituality. There are many patterns of spiritual formation and exploration, and for today I’m not planning to review them or advocate for one. (I do have formative models and disciplines to suggest that I’m happy to discuss afterward, especially if, say, you treated me to a cup of coffee …) Today I am simply going to say that deep spirituality includes both reflection about one’s faith and attention to how one’s life is being lived. This includes asking who we are, who God is, how we can be shaped by our faith, and how we can put our faith into practice. Spirituality leads to healing and wholeness of oneself, of one’s community, of God’s world.

Communities of faith must be passionate about justice. Similar perhaps to spirituality, we could spend much time defining justice according to various religious, philosophic and legal traditions. My own definition is rooted in the scriptures of the Abrahamic faiths, which is to say, in brief, that justice has both personal and social components. Justice is both about what we do to ourselves and each other and it is about what the systems in which we live and operate do to us all. Rather than spend time defining justice (though, again, a cup of java or one of those nice looking éclairs might persuade me later), the point for us now is that communities of faith are to teach, sensitize, motivate and challenge their members to engage contemporary realities in acts of service and witness.

That is my summary of the three aspects that communities of faith should exemplify. Besides being like a politician who sticks to his message points regardless of the question asked (or a windup doll maybe), I went through that summary because the aspects give shape to how we do effective university ministry. So now I’ll change directions a bit and address the importance of ministry during one of the typically most influential and formative periods of life.

During the college years, there is a distinct openness to new ideas, and to the exploration of faith. This openness, especially when combined with the influence universities have on society’s values, makes the task of serving as university minister simultaneously daunting and exciting.

First, university ministers should soothe some and stir up others searching to connect their spiritual hunger, social commitments and academic pursuits. Sincere and systematic engagement of the moral challenges surrounding one’s chosen field is often absent from higher education. In the college setting, many choices and challenges are raised – be they moral, spiritual, physical, intellectual, economic or other – which should be held in dialogical tension to create a healthy and whole person.

Second, university ministry should provide the tools to live a faithful and informed life. It is unfair for university ministers to create false security, a sheltered environment where every question is answered, and all needs are met. The more appropriate approach is to invite students and staff to be honest with questions about faith, to take a critical look at their inherited faith, and then begin the task of clarifying what is helpful and what is not. There may be periods when the ground of one’s faith is shaky; into that uncertainty, however, can come recognition that life is uncertain, and that faith is grounded in a reality that embraces such times and tells us the truth about those times. What seems to be endless wilderness may be an opportunity to go farther and deeper with one’s faith.

Third, university ministers have important opportunities to exercise the roles of minister as pastor and priest. In times of crisis, whether personal, institutional, national or worldwide, university ministers should bring words of hope and peace. University ministers are blessed with opportunities for pastoral counseling: the great privilege of being invited into the sanctuary of someone else’s soul.

Fourth, university ministers have important opportunities as prophets. In the midst of an academic community, university ministers can prod others to deeper engagement of issues that matter; they can encourage, even challenge, others to ask more honestly how we should respond to the world in which we live. University ministers should always complement cogito ergo sum with amo ergo sum, challenging the community to love as well as think.

Fifth, when done well, university worship informs and inspires. What is worship that is done well? It is worship that is genuinely ecumenical; emphasizing that God’s grace is wide enough to receive us all. It is worship that allows room for the Holy Spirit to affirm our gifts, challenge our frailties, and enlarge our perceptions. It is worship that reminds us that the strength of love reaches us wherever we are and brings us together. It is worship with order and flow, but is not stale or stiff. It is worship filled with songs and images from all over the world, with prayers and proclamation, with drama and dance, with art and flowers. Most of all, it is worship filled with the gifts of the gathered community.

Finally for now, university ministry can simply be fun! It should be. The university years should be challenging; they should be formative; they should be a bit confusing, at least from time to time. Amidst all that, college should be this exhilirating time of trying on ideas and perspectives, learning everything possible, figuring out how to save the world, playing hard and working hard.
Any metabolizing minister could not but love to be in that mix.

Nathan D. Wilson is the minister of a Disciples congregation in central Kentucky.

The Mirror: Views and Voices of Young Progressives

Where is God When Disaster Strikes?

My column in today's Jessamine Journal newspaper:

http://www.jessaminejournal.com/PageDisplayer.cfm?Mode=SearchResults&ArticleID=969830F6-BDA9-4FB3-BB5E-B45A8CBE9DF8

Nathan

Chuck Currie posted a piece I wrote (and spoke) at http://chuckcurrie.blogs.com/chuck_currie/2005/02/the_rev_nathan_.html

Nathan

In Kentucky and throughout the south, pharmaceutical prices force many to choose between medicines and food. The situation for many elderly is at a crisis point.

Then comes along a study, such as this one in the Journal of the American Medical Association, where medical students were found to receive at least one gift or attend at least one activity sponsored by a pharmaceutical company every week! Many medical residents consider these gifts inappropriate but accept them anyhow. And in case you didn't figure it out, the study points out that this frequent interaction between medical students and pharmaceutical representatives increases the likelihood that physicians will prescribe the sponsor's products, regardless of price differences.

Nathan D. Wilson

The cost (to you) of doing medical business

So, according to this study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, medical students receive at least one gift or attend at least one activity sponsored by a pharmaceutical company every week! Many medical residents consider these gifts inappropriate but accept them anyhow. And in case you didn't figure it out, the study points out that this frequent interaction between medical students and pharmaceutical representatives increases the likelihood that physicians will prescribe the sponsor's products.

Nathan Wilson

NathanDayWilson

NathanDayWilson

Campus and University Ministry

Cutting Edge Issues for Religious Leaders:
Why University Ministry is Important

By The Reverend Nathan D. Wilson


[TRANSCRIPT PRODUCED FROM TAPE RECORDINGS]

Thank you for inviting me to join this dialogue about cutting edge issues for religious leaders.

First, a brief housekeeping matter. To have honest interfaith dialogue, each participant needs to identify the faith or ideological perspective from which he or she speaks. I speak as a Christian, ordained in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), theologically ecumenical, evangelical and progressive, engaged in interfaith dialogue and practice, in love with learning, and committed in action to issues of peace, justice and equality. My hope and prayer is that the words I say will resonate even with those who do not share my language and loyalties.

As some of you know, I frequently talk about three characteristics that communities of faith should embody: true community, deep spirituality and a passion for justice. Now I know that this dialogue is about university ministry, but these three characteristics have become my mantra, and, more importantly, they add to this conversation – so allow me to briefly recap them.

Communities of faith must be about forming and exhibiting true community; that is, we must be about providing opportunities to discuss, deliberate and debate, to explore, engage and empower, to hope, heal and even ask for help – and these opportunities must be in safe spaces where participants are both candid and considerate.

Communities of faith must be about deep spirituality. There are many patterns of spiritual formation and exploration, and for today I’m not planning to review them or advocate for one. (I do have formative models and disciplines to suggest that I’m happy to discuss afterward, especially if, say, you treated me to a cup of coffee …) Today I am simply going to say that deep spirituality includes both reflection about one’s faith and attention to how one’s life is being lived. This includes asking who we are, who God is, how we can be shaped by our faith, and how we can put our faith into practice. Spirituality leads to healing and wholeness of oneself, of one’s community, of God’s world.

Communities of faith must be passionate about justice. Similar perhaps to spirituality, we could spend much time defining justice according to various religious, philosophic and legal traditions. My own definition is rooted in the scriptures of the Abrahamic faiths, which is to say, in brief, that justice has both personal and social components. Justice is both about what we do to ourselves and each other and it is about what the systems in which we live and operate do to us all. Rather than spend time defining justice (though, again, a cup of java or one of those nice looking éclairs might persuade me later), the point for us now is that communities of faith are to teach, sensitize, motivate and challenge their members to engage contemporary realities in acts of service and witness.

That is my summary of the three aspects that communities of faith should exemplify. Besides being like a politician who sticks to his message points regardless of the question asked (or a windup doll maybe), I went through that summary because the aspects give shape to how we do effective university ministry. So now I’ll change directions a bit and address the importance of ministry during one of the typically most influential and formative periods of life.

During the college years, there is a distinct openness to new ideas, and to the exploration of faith. This openness, especially when combined with the influence universities have on society’s values, makes the task of serving as university minister simultaneously daunting and exciting.

First, university ministers should soothe some and stir up others searching to connect their spiritual hunger, social commitments and academic pursuits. Sincere and systematic engagement of the moral challenges surrounding one’s chosen field is often absent from higher education. In the college setting, many choices and challenges are raised – be they moral, spiritual, physical, intellectual, economic or other – which should be held in dialogical tension to create a healthy and whole person.
Second, university ministry should provide the tools to live a faithful and informed life. It is unfair for university ministers to create false security, a sheltered environment where every question is answered, and all needs are met. The more appropriate approach is to invite students and staff to be honest with questions about faith, to take a critical look at their inherited faith, and then begin the task of clarifying what is helpful and what is not. There may be periods when the ground of one’s faith is shaky; into that uncertainty, however, can come recognition that life is uncertain, and that faith is grounded in a reality that embraces such times and tells us the truth about those times. What seems to be endless wilderness may be an opportunity to go farther and deeper with one’s faith.
Third, university ministers have important opportunities to exercise the roles of minister as pastor and priest. In times of crisis, whether personal, institutional, national or worldwide, university ministers should bring words of hope and peace. University ministers are blessed with opportunities for pastoral counseling: the great privilege of being invited into the sanctuary of someone else’s soul.

Fourth, university ministers have important opportunities as prophets. In the midst of an academic community, university ministers can prod others to deeper engagement of issues that matter; they can encourage, even challenge, others to ask more honestly how we should respond to the world in which we live. University ministers should always complement cogito ergo sum with amo ergo sum, challenging the community to love as well as think.

Fifth, when done well, university worship informs and inspires. What is worship that is done well? It is worship that is genuinely ecumenical; emphasizing that God’s grace is wide enough to receive us all. It is worship that allows room for the Holy Spirit to affirm our gifts, challenge our frailties, and enlarge our perceptions. It is worship that reminds us that the strength of love reaches us wherever we are and brings us together. It is worship with order and flow, but is not stale or stiff. It is worship filled with songs and images from all over the world, with prayers and proclamation, with drama and dance, with art and flowers. Most of all, it is worship filled with the gifts of the gathered community.

Finally for now, university ministry can simply be fun! It should be. The university years should be challenging; they should be formative; they should be a bit confusing, at least from time to time. Amidst all that, college should be this exhilarating time of trying on ideas and perspectives, learning everything possible, figuring out how to save the world, playing hard and working hard.

Any metabolizing minister could not but love to be in that mix.

So, jump in with your questions or comments. Thanks for your time.