General Assembly

The General Assembly passed the resolution to re-establish a stand alone Office of Collegiate Ministries and to develop a higher education strategy to be presented at the 2012 GA. There was an outporing of support for Collegiate Ministries which was encouraging and affirming.

The committee discussed and debated the overture and its dilebration  turned out to be the the current state of collegiate ministry thought in microcosm. I wish it had been archived. It would have been a wonderful teaching tool.

The only really negative part was the attitude and action of some of the Louisville staff. They weren't interested in discussing the overture with the advocates, and made it clear that congregational ministries were important, and that they would sacrifice collegiate ministry in a heartbeat.

In 1998, the Lutherans conducted a big survey concerning Lutheran church-related schools. One of the big shockers of that study concerned the perceptions of different groups on the effectiveness of a church-related college experience. Guess which group undervalued church-related education the most? Church bureaucrats! More so than even non-churched adults. Perhaps by extension we might say that church officials would undervalue collegeiate ministry.

How can we change this? We have to find better ways to let the church know what collegiate ministry is doing. Perhaps a full-time staff member can help with that, but the collegiate ministry community has to be more PR proactive. How do we do that??

Collegiate Ministries Overture

Well done to the Campus Ministers and Chaplains of the Synod of Lakes and Prairies! At their meeting this fall they moved beyond complaining and took action. They developed an Overture to the 2010 General Assembly, and Heather Jones Libich, FPC Cedar Falls, brought it to her Presbytery.

At the March 2nd meeting, the Presbytery approved the Overture which:
1. Directs the General Assembly Mission Council to re-establish an Office of Collegiate Ministries.
2. Directs that Office to prepare a strategy for Mission in Higher Education.
3. Directs that the Office present the strategy to the 220th (2012) general Assembly.

I hope other collegiate ministry supports will get their presbyteries to concur with this Overture. The presbyteries will have to postmark their concurrence to the Office of the General Assembly by May 4, 2010. The more presbyteries that concur add weight to to the Overture.

If you've been concerned about the direction of the denomination's inaction concerning collegiate ministry, and if you complained about it, now is the time to take some action!! Get your presbytery on board!!!

Here is a full copy of the Overture. When is officially posted on the GA business site, I will update this link. But this will get you started!!!