wfn.org | Student Forum goes to historically black college for first time

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

March 17, 2000 News media contact: Linda Green·(615)742-5470·Nashville,
Tenn.  10-31-71B{149}

NOTE: This report is accompanied by a sidebar, UMNS story #150.

By Kathy Gilbert*

The United Methodist Church's annual leadership development conference for
college students will be held for the first time at a historically black
school.

Twenty international students, the Africa University Choir, and more than
400 other students and campus ministers will gather at Clark Atlanta
University May 25-28 to participate in Student Forum 2000. The event, held
for the United Methodist Student Movement, is sponsored by the United
Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry in Nashville, Tenn.

This year's event will be the first held on the campus of a historically
black university since the conferences began in 1989. Clark Atlanta
University is one of the 11 historically black colleges and universities
related to the United Methodist Church. Africa University, in Mutare,
Zimbabwe, is the only United Methodist-related university in Africa.

This year, for the first time, registration is open to all students, campus
ministers and pastors. Registration is limited only by the space available
at the conference site.

"Our main goal this year was to be all-inclusive and to provide fulfillment
and rejuvenation for all students, no matter where their faith journey may
lie or how they choose to worship," said Jen Dale, chairperson of the
Student Forum's steering committee. "I'm really excited to see the myriad of
activities that will offer something for everyone," said Dale, a senior at
Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo.  

"My hope for Student Forum is that everyone who comes will be touched by the
fire of Christ and will feel excited and rejuvenated when they leave. I also
pray that we are effective in training student leaders, and that Student
Forum will be an experience they can take with them and remember in the
future," she said.

Student Forum 2000 offers a choice of 25 workshop topics, along with small
group gatherings, worship services and community work opportunities in the
Atlanta area. 

Students have responded so positively to the leadership development and
spiritual formation aspects of the Student Forum that the sponsors agreed to
open the registration once every four years, according to the Rev. Hal
Hartley, a director in the campus ministry section of the Board of Higher
Education and Ministry.
 
"This first, (combined) with the first time to have a significantly
international student presence, the first time to hold the event at an
historically-black university and the first time to have a post-event
sponsored by the General Board of Global Ministries, makes this an historic
Student Forum that should further develop the United Methodist Student
Movement to new levels of participation and service," he said.
 
A grant from the Women's Division of the United Methodist Board of Global
Ministries is being used to sponsor 20 international student delegates
representing Methodist-related student movements in the denomination's
central conferences and other Methodist-related churches around the globe.

The theme for Student Forum 2000 is "Peace: Obey Your Thirst." Participants
will explore how faith in Christ can help them quench their thirst for a
global community in a world torn by violence, mistrust and misunderstanding.
The study topic for gathering is Jubilee 2000. Participants will learn about
the global campaign to eliminate international debt in developing countries.

Speakers for the event include: the Rev. Kathy Bannister, pastor of Rush
County Parish United Methodist Church in Bison, Kan.; the Rev. Grace
Imathiu, scholar in residence at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore,
Ky.; and the Rev. Steven Moore, vice president of student life at Baylor
University in Waco, Texas.

Two options also are available after Student Forum concludes for those
students who can stay in Atlanta through May 29. Those activities, with the
theme of "God's Call, Our Mission: Volunteer Service and Mission
Opportunities for Students and Campus Ministers," will be designed for
students interested in learning more about Christian mission in the context
of a campus ministry. 

The Student Forum registration deadline is April 28. 

For more information, write to studentforum@gbhem.org; visit
www.umsm.org/studentforum on the World Wide Web; or contact Hal Hartley or
Gerlinda Baldwin, Campus Ministry Section, General Board of Higher Education
and Ministry, P.O. Box 340007, Nashville, TN  37203-0007; telephone: (615)
340-7415.  
# # #
*Gilbert is a staff member in the Office of Interpretation at the United
Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry in Nashville, Tenn.

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
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