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New campus ministry review process to be tested in Kentucky

Dec. 5, 2005

NOTE: Photographs are available at http://umns.umc.org.

By Vicki Brown*

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - A new process for reviewing campus ministries
will be tested in Kentucky next March, said the Rev. Luther Felder,
staff executive in the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and
Ministry's section on campus ministry.

"This will be a test of how well the instrument works," Felder said.

The Kentucky Annual (regional) Conference, wanting to strengthen its
campus ministries, had requested help with the review. A team of agency
staff and others, including someone from the annual conference and other
campus ministers, will perform the review, which will cover finances,
management and annual conference relations.

"This process will help annual conferences determine that the ministry
is viable, that the work of Christ is being accomplished, and that the
resources the church has invested are being used in a way that is
consistent with the church's intent," Felder said.

The board has also been asked to help review of Nebraska campus
ministries. That process is being planned.

The review process that will be used in Kentucky is not a pass or fail
model but is aimed at increasing accountability and assessing the
ministries in an effort to improve how they function. When conference
leaders asked for advice on how to improve campus ministries, Felder
asked if they would be willing to test the process.

Annual conferences have had responsibility for campus ministries for
about 25 years, Felder said. Three years in the making, the new review
process is based on the one used by the denomination's University Senate
in reviewing colleges. The conferences can tailor the process to meet
their needs, and any action afterward is up to the individual
conference.

The board and the United Methodist Campus Ministers Association
overwhelmingly approved both the review process for campus ministries
and standards for credentialing campus ministers, Felder said.

But that does not mean campus ministers can start getting credentialed
immediately, according to Felder and the Rev. Bill Campbell, who is
co-chairman of the coordinating committee of the campus ministers
association.

"At this point, we're still looking at refining some of that process,"
said Campbell, the United Methodist campus minister at Middle Tennessee
State University in Murfreesboro. "This is a ministry that requires
special skills and abilities. Not just anyone can do campus ministry."

Felder said campus ministries must complete the review process and be
certified as meeting standards of institutional integrity, program
quality, sound financial health and management and good relations with
their annual conference before the minister can seek to be credentialed.

"We're not quite ready for someone to enroll and start the credentialing
process," Campbell said.

Staff members in the Campus Ministry Section are working with the
board's Division of Ordained Ministry on refining the credentialing
process, but that is complicated by the fact that not every campus
minister is ordained. "Some campus ministers have Christian education
degrees," he said.

The aim, though, is to ensure that campus ministers have the skills and
training they need to do a good job.

"Most pastors are educated in how to pastor a local church," Campbell
said. "But a campus ministry is like starting a new church every four
years. You are always dealing with a moving congregation. Most of the
funding comes from outside the ministry."

And, Campbell said, a campus minister must understand the higher
education environment.

The credentialing process sets forth standards that ministers must meet.
Those include having an understanding of higher education and how to run
a nonprofit organization. Also, the minister must demonstrate that he or
she is using the campus ministry to develop Christian leaders and guide
them in vocational discernment, whether they go into clergy or lay work.

Once the review process is refined, Campbell said legislation could be
proposed for General Conference, the denomination's top lawmaking body.

"At this point, there is no mandate to even recommend to annual
conferences that they use the review document or the credentialing
process," he said.

*Brown is an associate editor and writer in the Office of
Interpretation, United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry.

News media contact: Linda Green, (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

********************

United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org

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