Forum helps students connect, hear calling
Jun. 15, 2007
NOTE: Photographs are available at http://umns.umc.org.
By Vicki Brown*
TACOMA, Wash. (UMNS) - For Khou Lee, participating in a Student Forum was an opportunity to see the world - and discover the possibility of furthering her education and seeking ordination in The United Methodist Church.
"In the Hmong culture, women are labeled as low, almost nothing," said the Merced (Calif.) College student, who served on the United Methodist Student Movement Steering Committee this year.
The committee, with staff assistance and financial support from the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry, organizes Student Forum, the only annual leadership event for United Methodist college students. This year's event was held May 24-27 at the University of Puget Sound.
"It's had a huge impact on my life," said Lee, the daughter of Hmong immigrants from Laos. "I wasn't a churchgoer until I was 18. I really got involved in the church through the Wesley Foundation, and that really strengthened my faith. Then, Student Forum helped affirm that I wanted to respond to the call I feel to ministry."
The Rev. Luther Felder, the executive in the board's Campus Ministry Section, said he has seen many Student Forum participants take leadership roles in the church and the world. He mentioned Kenia Guimaraes, a staff member of the Division on Ministries with Young People at the United Methodist Board of Discipleship; Motoe Yamada, a pastor in the California-Nevada Annual Conference; and Glen Sears, legislative assistant and deputy communications director to U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore, D-Kansas.
"Student Forum is a leadership training event where the great tapestry of God's creation is viewed and engaged around issues that are significant to The United Methodist Church and the larger society," Felder said. The experience enriches the lives and leadership gifts of those who attend, he added.
Jumping on a bus
The event helped Christine Seymour stay connected to The United Methodist Church, since Minnesota State University has no Wesley Foundation or United Methodist campus ministry. Seymour, who chaired the United Methodist Student Movement Steering Committee, attends an Evangelical Lutheran Church of America campus ministry and learned about Student Forum almost by accident.
"I heard a five-minute presentation at Youth 2003 and jumped on a bus with three total strangers to go to Student Forum," Seymour said. "It's really important that United Methodists realize Student Forum exists and that the church doesn't forget about you in college."
Seymour believes her work on the steering committee has helped her develop consensus-building skills.
"I've had to learn that although we are all United Methodists, it's not a narrowly defined church. How do you play to the middle so you include the most people in what you are doing?" Seymour asked.
On a nuts-and-bolts level, she's learned a great deal about long-term planning and also that "you can have differences of opinions with other people but still love the heck out of them."
Seeking ordination
Several steering committee members said attendance and their work at Student Forum helped them decide to seek ordination.
Jonathan Fell, a University of Iowa graduate, starts seminary at United Methodist-related Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ill., this fall.
"Forum has given me an experience working with other individuals who are just as caring and committed Christians as I am, but who have very different views," he said. "It's easy for me at home to be in a leadership position because our Wesley Foundation is pretty like-minded. ... And it's easy to be in community with one another. But when you get on a national committee, you have to open yourself up and be in community with folks who have different views.
"I've learned there is a story and a reason why we all believe what we believe and have the convictions we do," Fell said.
Rachel Birkhahn-Rommelfanger, a student at American University, Washington, said the Student Forum inspired her to get her campus ministry connected with others in the Washington area.
"We had a retreat with three other campus ministries in D.C., and we are trying to work with other campus ministries on some social justice programming," she said. She plans to attend seminary, but said she is more interested in social justice than local church ministry.
Birkhahn-Rommelfanger worked on putting together the hunger banquet for the forum, including an information packet with facts on hunger and steps everyone can take to fight hunger. "I had never put that kind of information together," she said.
She is taking what she learned back home.
"I can share that with the people in my own church community. In fact, I preached on why it's important to fund campus ministries," she said.
Connecting young people
Will Green, a student at Hendrix College in Conway, Ark., said he is working on events in his own conference that are modeled on the forum and that will stress the importance of helping young United Methodists connect to one another.
"Student Forum really speaks to the 18- to 24-year-olds in the church," Green said. "We need something that makes us see who we are, what we are, the reason we are Methodists."
Forum participant Simone Furtado, a graduate of Rust College in Holly Springs, Miss., agrees with Fell that one of the major benefits of the forum is learning how to work with different people.
"It's a place where you learn to renew our relationships with the church, an open place where we as United Methodist students can speak our mind and be in contact with the church as a whole," she said.
Details on leadership opportunities for young people in The United Methodist Church are available at www.umsm.org, www.umsm.org/studentforum and www.ExploreCalling.org.
*Brown is an associate editor and writer in the Office of Interpretation, United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry.
News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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United Methodist News Service Photos and stories also available at: http://umns.umc.org
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