Campus Ministry – Page 4 – Blessings on the Journey

Balance, Campus Ministry, Children, Jesus, Mommy, new normal, Pastor, Working Parents

Mommy or Pastor?

Posted on September 1, 2011 by narciejeter

Our sweet precious rambunctious and wild children went back to preschool today and many prayers and blessings on the Episcopal Day School! They have done wonders for our children and we appreciate them so much – especially this time of year when we are more than excited that the kids are back in school!

I got to spend a “Mommy Day” with the kids on Tuesday and we cleaned up and sorted their rooms and moved toys from downstairs and upstairs and got things ready for school. Then we closed out the afternoon driving to Columbia to go to the zoo and see Grammy and MacMac. It was an amazing day! I wish we could do that every day although I realize going to the zoo and cleaning up everything can’t happen every day – but you get my drift.

It was a great day also because the day before a wonderful clergy colleague of mine posted to facebook the question about what other clergy couples do about childcare on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights? It’s a good question and it seemed to strike a chord with a lot of folks. It’s hard. Many talked about awesome and wonderful people in congregations that help out, give snacks, and offer grace. Many also talked about how hard it is to be both Mommy or Daddy or Parent and Pastor at the same time.

For me although I love for my kids to be at Wesley and I love for my Wesley students to be at my home, I love it because there’s no set “thing” that I have to do. If I’m preaching or leading a small group or having a board meeting or there’s some reason for me to suddenly turn into Pastor with my cape and everything, it’s hard for me to balance those two sides of my brain. When the kids were really young they did come with me to Wesley, and they do now sometimes during the day when Mike has meetings and the students are just in and out and there’s no set program. And it is obvious when they have been here – finger paint on the coffee table, game pieces everywhere, the candy basket decimated.

I love being their mom and as Mike said to me the other day, they know that I love them. I never understood my grandmother telling us that “she could eat us up with a spoon.” (Oh Southern colloquialisms) But I love them that much! Not really literally of course but adorably. And I love being a campus minister. I really do love it. Not just kidding, but seriously choosing to do this and feeling called to do it.

The rub comes when those worlds collide and I feel guilty for ditching out on the Freshman Small Group because I want to put the kids to bed or my mind is elsewhere because I’ve been up all night with a sick child and I can’t really be present with that student over breakfast at all in my right mind. Or the opposite – when I wonder what in the world my kids think about this whole Jesus thing or if they’re going to think of “church” or “work” as bad words because that’s what takes Mommy away. It’s such a tension between the two. And I’m not even going to mention when you need time to not be Mommy or Pastor – because that’s a whole different ball game.

So what do y’all do to keep balance? What are some working mom tips? Or ministry mom tips? Or you know, sometimes it’s not even tips, but it’s just that we’re not alone out there trying to juggle. I’m not talking about “Don’t Know How She Does It” with Sarah Jessica Parker because who knows how that will turn out, but how do we feel good about being both Parent and Working Person and okay with the sacrifices and compromises made both ways?

Enoch’s funniest thing about God lately is his very serious questions about Jesus in his heart and how can a person be in his heart and did he shrink and is he just hanging out in there and is he going to get hurt squished in there? Priceless.

Campus Ministry, Christian, Mission, Questions, united methodist, Young Adults

Maybe They Just Don’t Know???

Posted on August 31, 2011 by narciejeter

Yesterday at our weekly free pasta lunch that’s open to the whole community – “no strings attached” – get it, we had a really interesting conversation. Our intern, Erica was hosting the pasta lunch and there was a guy that came for the first time. He grew up Baptist but doesn’t attend the Baptist campus ministry here. She said he had a ton of questions. He asked what being “Methodist” meant? Did we believe in one God? What does it mean to join? All sorts of questions.

Do we believe in the one true God? Now that’s one I didn’t see coming. As we were eating lunch today having a mini-staff meeting of course, she and the other two Wesley students that had been sitting there were talking to me about the questions and how they answered them as best they could. Several things hit me as we were talking. You would make the assumption, or at least I would, that in the South most people know about the “Methodist” church. I would assume that most would think at least something about the flavors of Protestantism like Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Episcopalian….you know? Guess that assumption would be wrong. He didn’t have any idea what we believed. Or if we were even Christian.

Last year, a similar conversation happened with one of our students that lived at The Wesley House but didn’t come to Wesley. She was from a Holiness tradition and as she was visiting one night for dinner, she asked us if we believed in Jesus at Wesley. We have crosses everywhere and don’t worry I say “In Jesus’ Name” at the end of my prayers, but somehow she still hesitantly asked if we believed in Jesus.

There’s part of me that is really befuddled by all of this and I want to say – Duh! Of course we believe in Jesus. We believe in One God. Duh. We’re United Methodist – we’re not just a bunch of heathens – whatever that word means. Sure we welcome all sorts of people here – all sizes and shapes and colors and belief systems and struggles – but we do that as the body of Christ. Sure we have a female campus minister that isn’t really looked favorably upon with every Protestant tradition, but it is what it is. Sure we balance personal piety and Scripture and justice and Bible study and fellowship and fun and everything in between, but you can be as serious as you want to be and follow Christ and as crazy fun as you want to be and follow Christ too.

There’s another part of me that thinks it’s really telling that some people seriously don’t have any idea who we are, what we stand for, or what we believe. They genuinely don’t know and want to find out. Are we legit or not? Who is serving them this free pasta? What is this place?

If college students don’t know who we are, what makes us think that their parents do? What does the outside world think of when they hear the word “church”? What do they know about the greater Christian church not just the one they grew up in?

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want our faith to be a secret code just revealed to some. I don’t want this to be something that only a few know about and the rest question and wonder. How do we invite in those that are questioning or pondering? How do we engage in the honest and authentic dialogue while not being defensive or creating an unrealistic polished picture?

What is funny is that the three Wesley leaders that were talking to this guy were one who grew up Baptist, one who is Nazarene, and another whose from a United Methodist church in Maryland. I would LOVE to have been a fly on the wall.

But that’s what the world is hungry for I think. They want something real and authentic and it’s not enough for some to just come and eat pasta, but they want to question and discern and engage. And that’s a neat thing. Maybe people just don’t know what Methodist means or Presbyterian. Heck, maybe our people don’t even know what those mean sometimes. My hope is that whatever people know or not about our denominations or stucture, that they’ll know for sure and certain that there’s a whole host of churches out there trying to live out the Gospel of Jesus and to really love God and love neighbor.

So bring on the questions. Bring on the dialogue. Bring on the honest reflections.

Campus Ministry, Centering, Evangelism, God, Rest, Spirituality

Rest in God and Get Ready

Posted on August 24, 2011 by narciejeter

Published previously on the Faith on Campus blog on August 2nd – http://faithoncampus.com/ready-and-clinging-to-god/

This past week I gathered with a group of young clergy and as we were checking in with each other and I began to describe this time of year in the life of a campus minister I compared it to Advent or to an extended Holy Week in terms of the demand on one’s time and mental, physical, spiritual and emotional resources. We’ve heard the research about how critical and crucial the first few weeks are in terms of plugging students in and getting into their habit of the semester. There’s so much that goes into these first few weeks and it often feels like if you miss this first boat, you’re going to be stranded on the island with a few students that may have been hiding in the bushes, but you could be looking through the binoculars seeing what some of the other boats are doing and think wow, where did all the students go? Are we lost for the rest of the year? Do we measure up to “x” campus ministry? Should we have put more thought and planning into this? Is there any way we still have a chance to pull it all together?

We have to get out there and meet students and connect and invite and have those real, authentic interactions. You’ve got to take every opportunity (or at least send a student leader). If there’s a student org fair, you need to be there. If there’s a welcome cook out, you need to be there. If there’s a chance for you to reach out and connect students to your community through food or worship or playing corn hole (is that just in the South?) or tailgating at a football game or through a day of service or a mission project or whatever it may be – you need to be there. Ready. And with a smile. Not the creepy, too over eager kind, but the one that says I really want to get to know you and your story and here’s how you can feel plugged in here.

Going into my seventh year in campus ministry, you would think that maybe by now I would have figured out some sort of secret method to lure in students. It’s not so much a secret, but the planning and intentionality as well as the authentic and genuine interest is key because no one likes to see someone running around unprepared and frantic. Sure there are those times when things come together on the fly and the Spirit of God moves in powerful ways for it to look and feel seamless. Praise God for those moments. But there’s also a bar of excellence and quality that we have to have as professionals in campus ministry. It’s hard to take someone seriously when they have a bunch of great ideas, but those ideas never seem to come to fruition because you’re being pulled in so many directions.

I don’t know about you, but for me, where I am spiritually has a great deal to do with how I approach the beginning of the year. Where I am in my walk with God has a significant impact on how I or this ministry seem to fare in the gauntlet that is the beginning of the school year and whether it seems smooth or frantic. If I’m feeling exhausted, worn ragged and torn between family and campus ministry and preaching on Sundays and how we’re going to pay for all the beginning of the year hoopla – I can’t fully engage with new students or any students for that matter. There are so many missed opportunities and regrets and frustration when the “stuff” gets in the way of the heart of why we’re here and why we do what we do.

So, rest. Rest in God. Catch up on your sleep. Rest in the hope that you have made the preparations, that you have students and leaders and board members that are ready to help and that this is God’s. I have a post it note on my desk. As we have faced changes and challenges, it helps center me. As it gets lost in the piles that sometimes grow on my desk, I know that it’s time for me to shape up and get focused again. The post it says, “God has done this.” God has done this. God is doing this.

Often I feel like I get in the way of that. At other times I feel blessed beyond measure and in awe of how much God is in the midst. I didn’t write this to say that I have this giant cop out or loophole where I can not do any planning, preparation, or prayerful visioning and blame it all on God. Nope. But I can remind myself that it’s not all on my strength, personality, or how nice or smart or hipster or cool or attractive or funny I am. It’s not based on whether I’m a mac or a pc. It’s based on us going into these seasons of introductions, newness or renewal of relationships with the grace and passion and groundedness of the One who has called us to what we are to do in this time and in this place and who will be with us through the events that go super well and those that totally bomb and we vow never to do again.

My challenge to myself during this time is to yes, do the work. Get ready. Be prepared to hit the ground running during that beginning of the year crunch time. But also know and trust and feel that the Spirit of God is at work not only in our ministries but within each of us. God seeks to move in mighty and transformative ways on our campuses. God has done this and God is doing this and amazingly, we get to be a part of it!

Campus Ministry, Community, Faith, Journey, Mission, Story

Nicaragua Mission Trip

Posted on August 24, 2011 by narciejeter

For some reason – this didn’t post when we were in Nicaragua a few weeks ago….oh the internet. But here it is a bit late. If you want to check out more postings from Nicaragua from me and the students, check out http://www.wuwesley.wordpress.com!

Winthrop Wesley is in Nicaragua for the week working at the Center for Development in Central America with the Jubilee House Community. Although I’m not someone who loves plane flights or the actual travel side of the equation, this is one of my favorite places in the world. I love the people and the countryside and being here with a group of students discovering and learning and growing.

When we arrived one of the JHC folks, Kathy, asked me what I was most looking forward to, and I didn’t have an answer. It’s hard to say. I enjoy the touring stuff we do like the laguna and seeing Pedro through amazingly beautiful pottery and hearing about Managua in the midst of earthquakes and hurricanes and the Contra war. But one of my favorite things is just being here in the midst of this intentional community where very different people seek to live in community, in fellowship, in life with one another. It’s an amazing thing to witness their commitment with the poor and the ways they help make things that seem impossible, happen.

Mike (my husband) told Mike (member of JHC) that he thought he was full of it when he said they were going to create the first ever fair trade organic cotton production line from the ground to the gin to the spinning plant to the sewing cooperative. Fair trade made up cooperatives and organic. And they’ve done it. It’s just very cool to see the work of JHC.

We may all be a little hot, a little dirty, and a little worse for wear at times, but it’s a gift to see the students step up and come together in this place. Watching them learn and grow and be challenged and enjoy this trip is such a beautiful thing.

So this week I may or may not be writing on this blog very much but we’re trying to post daily on the Winthrop Wesley blog – wuwesley.wordpress.com.

As always with these trips I know that I’m going to get much more out of this than I’ll ever be able to give back, but there’s no amount of money or clothes or things that I could give or receive that would ever outweigh the treasure of meeting people, knowing people, dialoguing with people, growing as a community across boundaries. These are holy moments.

If you want to read more about the work of JHC, go here www.jhc-cdca.org/.

assumptions, Campus Ministry, Community, Faith, Gossip, Jesus, Romans, Students

Mind Your Own Plate

Posted on August 24, 2011 by narciejeter

You know those people who think they need to comment on everything and that they’re obviously the most brilliant people in the world and you just MUST know their opinion because it will change your universe? Maybe it’s one of your parents, maybe the little old lady at church, maybe your next door neighbor that loves to comment on your gardening, or maybe it’s even your pastor that thinks they have it all figured out and that you must be brainless or oblivious.

I know some of these folks are sincerely trying to be helpful. Some are doing it out of love. Some are doing it because they genuinely care what happens to you and they want you to have the happiest life possible.

Others are being nit-picky, patronizing, and annoying.

We used to tell my not very quiet grandmother – “Mind your own plate.” You may think to yourself, who would talk to their grandmother that way? True statement. But we’re a mouthy family and Lord knows that if any outside observer saw all of us interacting they would think we’re nuts or a real life crazy reality show unscripted. It’s not that we didn’t want her love or care or concern, but we could do without the constant commentary and opinion. Constant. Love her and miss her but I find myself wanting to give people “Mind your own plate” checks all over the place. We actually kidded with her that we were going to cross-stitch it and hang it in her kitchen.

You see, there’s a balance to offering one’s opinion to someone or giving advice or making random commentary about someone’s life choices or even day-to-day living. You need to do it in love and you need to give that person a little respect. If you think they’re a moron and you’re giving the advice or the telling what to do from a place of arrogance or superiority or just bossy-ness, than shush. Don’t even say anything. People can see through that stuff. And no one likes to be talked down to. No one wants to be that “dumb” person that doesn’t get it. And who do you think you are to think that you have all the answers to the questions of the universe?

Did Jesus give all the answers? Did he walk up to each of the disciples and dissect their every problem and shortcoming and say here you go, fix it? Did he go around criticizing everything around him? Nope. He did speak a prophetic word when people needed it. He did speak the truth in love. He did have a deep enough relationship with people that he could do that with sincerity and not come off like a jerk.

Maybe this is a bit of a rant but particularly at the start of a semester when people are sizing one another up and making judgments, maybe we should think twice about the assumptions we’re making. We all have our stuff that we deal with and if we’re to be community in the world, than we share with each other and want to get to know one another better. So let’s give a little grace. Not frowns or unwarranted disapproval. But treating each other in love.

One of the Wesley interns posted Romans 12:9-10 the other day on facebook and I think it sums up what I’m trying to say, “Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. 10 Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other.” Honor each other. Don’t cut each other down. Don’t make those comments under your breath that don’t build anyone up. Don’t make assumptions. Give one another the benefit of the doubt and ask yourself – in all seriousness – what would Jesus do?

Campus Ministry

Faith ON Campus Back-to-School Blogathon

Posted on August 2, 2011August 2, 2011 by narciejeter

If you are in campus ministry and you’re looking for some great resources and good conversation about campus ministry, check out the Faith ON Campus blog by Guy Chmieleski. It’s always a great place to stop by and get some ideas, encouragement and some feedback that will challenge you. Right now they’re hosting a Back-to-School Blogathon and I was honored to write one of the blogs for it. You can find it by following this link:

http://faithoncampus.com/ready-and-clinging-to-god/

Happy reading and getting ready for the school year!!

Campus Ministry, Faith, fun, Jesus, Life, Party, Random, Thankful

Tonight, Tonight – Sometimes You’ve Just Got to Jam

Posted on July 15, 2011 by narciejeter

It’s a dreary gray day here in South Carolina. We need the rain and I’m loving the cooler weather. I’d probably be down with the gray skies too except it’s doing more pouting and looking gloomy than actually raining. Let’s get it going clouds!

It’s funny to me how much the weather can affect our moods. Every Wednesday when I would write the Wesley Weekly email to the students I finally realized I talk about the weather all the time. My desk faces some big windows so you see where mind is.

Right now I’m closing out our Summer newsletter getting ready for a conference and doing various crazy things that are on the never-ending to do list. But I’m reminded how easy it is to get derailed. You can get some bad news or read something on facebook or email or hear about a meeting where your name came up or remember something that can send your day in a spiral. Or you could in general not be feeling well or be in the midst of something that has you just feeling blah. Sometimes I’ll find myself not in the greatest of moods and I’ll have I try to remember – when did I start feeling this way? Is this just a general “funk” or did something prompt this?

We all have different triggers. Some of those are questions about the future or if we’re really living our vocation or what we’re called to do or money concerns or health concerns or family worries or whatever. There’s all sorts of anxieties and fears out there and it’s almost like the lie in wait for us in the shadows ready to jump is or being to creep in.

I have this funny suspicion that Jesus doesn’t want us to live a life of burdensome worries and mopey-ness. I’m not saying Jesus wants you to be sunshine and rainbows all the time and I totally believe he walks with us in the most mopey of mopeys, but I also think there are some days when we’ve just go to jam.

The song, “Tonight, Tonight” by Hot Chelle Rae keeps popping up on my radio and I keep playing it on my youtube at work. Don’t worry I haven’t watched all 5 million times that it says it’s been viewed. Do you ever just jam in your car when you hear a song that is just fun and funny and you just start dancing and digging it? Or have you ever done that with a group of friends or on a retreat or whatever? I distinctly have some of those memories with Faith Hill’s This Kiss and Macy Gray and the Dixie Chicks.

I’ve been playing this song, one to keep me moving and awake on this dreary day, but also because it’s fun to jam sometimes. Can you picture Jesus jamming along with you? A stretch? Maybe not. But I can totally feel like sometimes we just have to let go and get moving. Sometimes that means regrouping. Sometimes that means some new inspiration. Can you hear Jesus being the one that says, “Come on?” or “We can get crazy, let it all out.” Now I’m so not saying that this was the intent of this wonderful Hot Chelle Rae. Probably far from it.

But I am thankful for this sort of fun music that make you feel like you’re joining a live, active, vibrant party. It’s not always a party day, but I’d like to think that Jesus invites us to the dance and seeks to give us that abundant rockin’ life!

So if you come by office today, be prepared – you could see a very silly and terribly dancing Narcie. Join in. Dance. Have some fun. Even on a rainy day. Even the uncoordinated kids. Even the serious and grouchy among us. Even the ones that certainly don’t have time for this.

Join the dance.

And may that energy and passion and fun and levity and release and liberating feeling bleed over into our faith. Yep, life can be challenging at times, but it’s also awesome and amazing and so much to be thankful for! This isn’t a prosperity Gospel but it is join in on the freedom and contagious fun of life in Christ!

affliction, Campus Ministry, Community, Hope, Life, perseverance, Promise, Sermons, Story

Four letter word – Hope

Posted on June 24, 2011 by narciejeter

Hope is one of those words that evokes….hope, promise, possibility, trusting something to completion, believing against all odds.

Sometimes hope is something that you grasp hold off in the darkest or most challenging of times. Sometimes hope is what you cling to when you know something may not work out. Sometimes hope is that thing that keeps you moving forward and putting one foot in front of the other.

A friend and colleague emailed me a few weeks ago and said that he was glad that I was hopeful about our Church because we need that. He said he just wasn’t there anymore and had no idea where his calling/ministry was going.

A student and I talked this week about a relationship where things aren’t quite working out and whether one should be hopeful that things might change or if after time and time again of things not changing, it was better to move on.

Another student and I talked about how it totally sucks sometimes to be single and whether God had someone out there for her or if she would every meet someone. Should she hope?

I look at all of the freshman coming through Orientation and their hope and fear and wonder about what the next step in college is going to be.

I look at people facing health concerns whether personally waiting for the next checkup to see if tumors or cancer has returned, those facing the health concerns of family members, or those facing the loss of a loved one and I wonder about hope.

A four letter word. Unlike the others. Hope.

One of my favorite lines in the Matrix movies was said by the Architect to Neo in the second movie (yes the first one is probably the best, but I really liked this quote) – “Humph. Hope, it is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness.”

Now I’m not saying in the case of the relationship that we live into Albert Einstein’s quote of Insanity – “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” I agree that sometimes our hope may be misplaced or that we’re trying to see the silver lining when there’s not one. We have to be wise and discerning and honest with ourselves in that.

But I do think we rest in the hope of God and let that four letter word shape our story. I think of the words from Lamentations 3, beginning with verse 19, “I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassion never fails. They are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him;”

The thing about hope to me is that it’s an active thing. You don’t just hope to win publisher’s clearing house or the lottery or to strike gold or to find a big pile of money in a brief case outside your house and expect it to happen just by hoping for it. You have to actually enter to win publisher’s clearing house or buy the lottery ticket or rob the bank to find the briefcase full of money or work hard as heck on “Gold Strike Alaska” on the Discovery channel. Not really encouraging any of these things but you get my drift. You discern where the Spirit is leading you. You don’t sit passively and hide out, but you grasp hold of your life with two strong hands and engage and grow and keep pushing forward. You rest in the hope of God. Giving God the chance to move and breathe and blow all over your life and your plans and your hopes and dreams.

If you really want a more solid devotional life, be intentional in making that happen. Set aside time to pray, journal, sit in silence and listen, subscribe to the Upper Room email every morning, check out Alive Now, ask God to lead you to the people and resources that would best speak to you. If you want joy at work or you want to do that thing that you’ve always dreamed of but that doesn’t fit with the “plan” in your head – ask God to show you the way. Actually explore the possibilities and open yourself to making changes and making it happen. There are many “what if” dreams that we have or moments or seasons of dissatisfaction or frustration, but in some ways we just comfortably stay in our safe little ruts because actually doing something about these things are scary as heck. And we don’t know if it will work. Or we’re scared that we’ll try and it won’t work and then we’ll have failed or lost that dream.

Swinging for the fence, hoping when it seems like it’s fruitless – you’ve got to actively and sincerely and intentionally do it and put your time and actions and heart where your mouth is.

What are your hopes?

In your personal life?

In your professional life?

In your vocational journey?

In your spiritual journey?

For your family?

For your friends?

For our Church?

For our world?

Hope.

Not a “Christian” song but I do think it talks about grasping hold of your life and not making excuses or complaining when we feel hopeless or frustrated or afraid. Live your story with hope, actively engaging, and knowing that the crud will come, but there is One who gives us hope each step of the way.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. — Hebrews 11:1

Campus Ministry, Christian, Faith, Students

Duck, No Eye Contact, Run, Run Away

Posted on June 23, 2011 by narciejeter

It’s that time of year in campus ministry world when we’re enjoying Orientation. What that means at Winthrop is that we as all of the campus ministries (WCCM – Winthrop Cooperative Campus Ministries) come together and greet people at one table and provide brochures and info about all the groups. We also let students know about the campus ministry open house and worship service for freshmen that we do right after they move in. Good times. A great way for people to get connected and meet other people of faith.

What is always amusing to me is the interactions with the students. As soon as they read the sign on the placard behind me that says “Campus Ministries” some quickly look away and move quickly to the Greek Life table or the Study Abroad table or the DSU (Campus Entertainment/Activities/Awesomeness) table. As parents read the sign though it’s funny to watch them often nudge their child and say, “Look campus ministries. We should go over there.” And the students that then pull them in another direction or say Mo-om or Da-ad, in that lovely two syllable exasperated way many of us Southerners have. I can tell you that 9 times out of 10, that when a parent walks up to our table and signs their student up and the student is no where to be found or the student is standing impatiently behind the parent or grandparent hoping that they’ll just sign them up and be done with it – we’ll never see that student. Sometimes it happens. Rarely. But that’s the thing about college – it’s on the student/young adult/person making their way on their own.

Two things happened today that were thought-provoking for me. The first was a lady who stopped and got a card. Her child wasn’t with her but she said that she wanted her to be involved with campus ministry. She said that her daughter had never been involved in church and hadn’t ever really been inside one except for funerals and she really wished she would get involved. She then said that the girl was dating a nice Christian boy that goes to church and she was hoping that maybe she would start going.

The other was a guy who walked up to the table and I smiled at home and he’s reaching his hand out to shake mine and I’m about to give him a WCCM card that has our website info with all of the campus ministries listed, and he reads the placard above my head that says “Campus Ministries” and then quickly jerks his hand back and says that’s okay. I don’t need one of those cards. Ouch, dude.

It’s just really funny dynamics. Some are super excited to hear about campus ministry on campus and this new church experience. Some of our strongest leaders at Wesley are people I met at Orientation or at the beginning of the year Open House. But I do wonder about all of the ones that cringe and walk away.

I ate lunch in the student center yesterday with the Dean of Students who is also our Board Chairperson. She stopped to talk to some of the Orientation Assistants and I joined her. At the end of the conversation she introduced me as the United Methodist Campus Minister. As we were walking away afterwards, she asked if I had noticed how they blinked and paused. She’s a campus minister? Who knows what they were thinking? I had seen a few of them before but didn’t know any of them.

There’s so much rich ground to cover here – what is the perception of the Church today? What do these young adults think of when they hear campus ministry? I have the feeling that some of them think I’m going to make them walk over to the West Center and jump in the pool so I can baptize them right there. The mixed bag of looks from relief and joy and hope at finding a community to apprehension, mistrust and all sorts of things. It’s interesting.

I’m curious whether more or less students would stop at religious affiliated tables in different parts of the country. It’s always fun to see which denominational affiliation stops by or the increase in how many people check non-denominational.

My primary question today though, in the midst of the news covering Koran burnings, church trials, and the like – what does this new class think of when they hear the word “Christian”? What do they think of in the importance of finding a community of faith while in college? Are they going to stay connected to their churches back home and just take a break for awhile? What does it mean to be Church? What are the differences and similarities in how we would define that?

Campus Ministry, Developing World, Faith, Justice, Mission, Music, Questions, Suffering, Theodicy

Such a Different Perspective

Posted on June 22, 2011June 22, 2011 by narciejeter

I’ve been contemplating and playing over a blog post in my mind for a bit about two of the songs from The Book of Mormon Musical on Broadway. I know, I know…one day I will have run out of songs to talk about. The first song is called, “Sal Tlay Ka Siti” or in other words Salt Lake City. Nikki James sings a beautiful song that is endemic of the entire musical – it’s such a funny, both mocking and serious look at faith and harsh reality and the conflict that is of the somewhat prosperity gospel that is sometimes preached and how that is seen and viewed in the various lenses of most of the world.

It’s an interesting tension. And for me it really is a tension. I’ve spent most of the day working going over the budget and expenditures for this year at Wesley and budgeting for the year ahead. As some of you know, this past year our Annual Conference stopped providing program or building support for our campus ministries, but is still covering our salaries and benefits (which we’re really thankful for). As scary as that was, people stepped up in huge ways this year. And we have tried to use that money wisely – from mission trips to educational and missional opportunities on campus to small groups to worship to training up leaders and people going into ministry and everything in between. It’s exciting to look at. We couldn’t have taken students to training events without you. We couldn’t be in ministry with the poor and hungry here in York County, in our state and around the world without you. So I’m thankful for that. Hugely. Especially as we start visioning for a new year.

This afternoon, actually right now, I’m on a conference call with some folks working on getting equipment for the Women’s Spinning Plant, a cooperative of the CDCA (Center for Development in Central America) to be working and functional. We have worked with these women making concrete blocks, pouring concrete in the floors of the building, and tying rubar. We’ve protested the company that mislead them. We look forward to visiting again in August and continuing to work alongside these faithful, resilient, strong and powerful women and men who have withstood and determinedly marched on in the midst of all sorts of adversity.

See that’s the rub. When I think about what so many around the world are facing in terms of World Refugee Day that we celebrated earlier this week, those in the midst of war zones, atrocities that we can’t imagine, it really puts things in perspective.

We are beyond so blessed here. And to me blessed isn’t even the right word in some ways because to me that implies that God has blessed us and not someone else just because they were born in a different place to a different family in a different set of circumstances.

It just seems like a lot of time we throw our own “stuff” around and we’re selling people this line that may not be ours to sell and sometimes it even seems cheap and cliched somehow. One of the last numbers in the musical is the two lovely white guy mormons singing, “I Am Africa.” It’s very a la “We are the World” or something along those lines. And I’m not trying to hate on we are the world or Live Aid or the other benefit concerts or celebrity commercials out there. I’m really not. That raises money. And if it raises money and the money gets to the right people who will put their money out there and not just fund overhead and all of the work getting into a country, that’s a great thing. There are so many good folks like the CDCA, UMCOR, Church World Service, International Justice Mission, Imagine No Malaria that are doing work on the ground with people in-country who speak the language of the people and are being as least patronizing and colonializing as possible. And these folks aren’t doing the bait and switch and they’re not peddling mink coats.

Don’t have any huge answers today, but I just wanted to name the tension between our problems (check out those tweets #firstworldproblems by the way) and the things that are facing much of the world.

Still a big believer in the tremendous groups working on the ground and who live it out every day. Still a big believer in hope and love and humanity. But wrestling with all that these songs evoke in my mind. Which is what I think the writers did in a beautifully comedic and amazing way. To take something so funny and sarcastic and ironic and put so much real life and struggle in it – powerful stuff.

When it all boils down – what is the Gospel? How do we speak that clearly to the person next door, down the street, in the next state over, on the other side of the world? How do we share our faith in real language in the face of real problems?

Check out the words for Sal Tlay Ka Siti below.

My mother once told me of a place with waterfalls and unicorns flying

Where there was no suffering, no pain, where there was laughter instead of dying
I always thought she’d made it up to comfort me in times of pain
But now I know that place is real, now I know its name

Sal Tlay Ka Siti: not just a story mama told
But a village in Ooh-tah, where the roofs are thatched with gold
If I could let myself believe, I know just where I’d be
Right on the next bus to paradise: Sal Tlay Ka Siti

I can imagine what it must be like…this perfect, happy place
I’ll bet the goat meat there is plentiful, and they have vitamin injections by the case
The warlords there are friendly, they help you cross the street
And there’s a Red Cross on every corner with all the flour you can eat!

Sal Tlay Ka Siti: the most perfect place on Earth
Where flies don’t bite your eyeballs and human life has worth
It isn’t a place of fairy tales, it’s as real as it can be
A land where evil doesn’t exist: Sal Tlay Ka Siti

And I’ll bet the people are open-minded and don’t care who you’ve been
And all I hope is that when I find it, I’m able to fit in
Will I fit in?

Sal Tlay Ka Siti: a land of hope and joy
And if I want to get there, I just have to follow that white boy
You were right, mama, you didn’t lie
The place is real, and I’m gonna fly!

I’m on way…soon life won’t be so shitty
Now salvation has a name: Sal Tlay Ka Siti

Video for Sal Tlay Ka Siti

We have this poster framed on one of our tables in Wesley. I’ve always liked it because a lot of what we do with CROP Walk or Stop Hunger Now or Imagine No Malaria focuses on not just spreading a message of faith to folks but also feeding the hungry and providing basic needs. But singing “We Are Africa” in my head over and over because it won’t get out, part of me think this can be patronizing in some ways as well, because the continent of Africa is not the only region that faces these concerns. Again, things to think about.