Florida Faculty Conference
by Kathy Tuan-MacLean
As a new empty nester, I’ve discovered the joy of traveling with my husband for his work—and who would argue with a trip to Orlando after the grueling work of moving? Then Bobby reminded me that while in Florida I should connect with Kim Koi, Florida Undergraduate and Faculty Ministry (UFM) Regional Director and Sandy Shugart, president of Valencia College, the 2nd largest community college in Florida with over 70K students and five campuses.
I wrote to Kim and she immediately wrote back to tell me not only was their faculty conference the very weekend I was coming, but that Sandy Shugart had just agreed to speak! You may ask, how did an undergraduate region come to sponsor a faculty conference? An unintended consequence of our UFM movement pressing into planting on community colleges has been faculty attending InterVarsity events since many community colleges require faculty advisors to accompany their student groups. When the Florida Region noticed 5-6 “grown-ups” hanging around their regional student conference, they seized the moment and planned a mini-faculty conference so these faculty would have something to do. Gary Cameron (our GFM Area Director in Florida) assisted with the conference, which was a great opportunity for GFM/UFM partnership.
This year, 27 faculty and university administrators attended the Florida student conference and were challenged by Sandy Shugart to engage the people, ideas and structures of the campus. During the conference I shared the faculty ministry vision, had lunch with about a dozen faculty and held a focus group. Because many of the unreached campuses in the 2030 calling are community colleges and no one knows how to sustain community college ministry, our UFM colleagues pray that faculty and university administrators may be the secret. Therefore, learning how to begin and support faculty ministry on community colleges will be a key piece for Faculty Ministry.
Praise God for “God-incidences,” for GFM/UFM partnership, for Sandy Shugart and his legacy of godly leadership, and for faculty work that’s springing up in InterVarsity’s undergrad movement!
Faculty Partnership Fuels Growth
by Jamie Noyd
"Tell me your dreams for growing the ministry." After sharing stories of graduate students and faculty who are actively living out their faith at the University of Cincinnati (UC), Tim Johnson, PhD, of Johnson Investment Counsel and faculty at UC, asked what we would need to realize the vision of building vibrant communities witnessing to Christ at the intersections of campus and church on every campus throughout Greater Cincinnati. Based on a plan developed over the past year, I outlined the staff positions we would need along with some enhanced programming. Since that visit this past spring we have been cultivating a growing partnership between Dr. Johnson and Graduate and Faculty Ministries in Greater Cincinnati.
With his encouragement, we submitted a grant proposal to the Covenant Foundation to provide seed money for five new ministry positions, enhanced programming, and scholarships. The grant was accepted. The funds that this grant will provide over the next three years are a true blessing. However, this partnership is about more than money. For one thing, Dr. Johnson has and will continue to provide thoughtful counsel during our discussions about what it will take to plant these new communities. In addition, a month ago he spoke to two student groups on campus, sharing his faith journey as an academic and business owner—offering them a new way to think about living out the Gospel. I don’t know exactly how this partnership will develop, but as we build it based on love forJesus and love for the campus I trust new fruit will grow in the coming months.
Faculty Ministry in Boston
by Susan Park
Jeff Barneson and I were privileged this summer to attend InterVarsity’s national planting area accelerator program, designed to help area teams plant three groups over three years. Our particular focus is to plant three faculty prayer groups in Boston, using the new planting material to guide us. We have only been at this for about four months, so there is so much more to learn. Here are a few things we have learned so far:
First, our role as InterVarsity staff is to facilitate faculty’s participation with God’s work in the University. Over the summer, we struggled with how to frame our request – how do we word our invitation to faculty to use precious time and energy to try this faculty prayer group experiment on campus? This felt like a huge request. But Shawn, our coach, helped us think about it differently. Our role as staff is to help faculty see the University as a place where God is working and to facilitate God inviting them into His mission. Now we see “the ask” as simply a time where we encourage faculty to open themselves up to hear God speak.
And that leads us to the second thing we have begun to dabble with: how to apply the 4E’s planting pillars to faculty ministry. The 4E's of Chapter Planting are: 1) helping the faculty person (or student) Encounter God, 2) Explore their networks for what God is doing around them, 3) Empowering their leadership and helping them 4) Establish a situationally-appropriate structure. For the last four months, Jeff and I have been trying to contextualize the Encounter and Explore pillars. During our faculty overnight retreat in January, we plan to include manuscript Bible study (encounter) and network mapping as a listening prayer exercise (explore). Pray with us that faculty will catch a vision to participate in God’s mission on campus through campus prayer groups.
God Opens Doors to New GFM Plant
by Scott Filkin
Boise State has always been in the back of my mind as a possible planting opportunity, but I’d never formed a concrete plan. I suppose I figured we would get to it eventually—after our “high priority” institutions were fully established and advanced so to speak. Then with the rollout of the 2030 Calling, I felt a tinge of conviction about my plans. What if the universities on my list were not in line with what the Lord was doing? I determined to be open to something new.
A couple of months ago, Larry from Boise called. He said he’d been interested in starting a Bible study with BSU faculty and thought that perhaps something with grad students would make sense as well. I started poking around—making calls, doing some research on the city and University. Turns out both are growing fast and the university is specifically committed to bolstering its graduate school. I called a friend in Idaho and asked who I should talk to about establishing a GFM presence in Boise. To my surprise she said, “Well for starters, you should talk to me! My husband and I are moving to Boise this fall.” With that and a handful of additional leads, I decided it was time to take a trip. Again to my surprise, I found pastors, faculty, and friends primed to start something new at Boise State. And just today, I received the final component of my friend’s application to serve full-time with GFM at BSU. There is still a lot that will need to fall into place before we start planting at Boise State but I am hopeful that we are following the Lord’s lead as we move in this new and exciting direction. Every Corner of Every Campus, even in Idaho.
Boise State Image Credit Courtesy of Charlie Lyons-Pardue on flickr.
