The campus service committee recently met near Los Angeles this past January for our annual gathering. There were several topics on our agenda including the planning of this year’s U.S. ICMCs for both the East and the West. The body of what we discussed is summarized below.

Committee Membership

One of the topics of discussion during our meeting was how we would introduce new members to the committee to replace outgoing participants. We determined that there had to be three qualifications that needed to be met to be on the Campus Service Team.

  1. They had to either lead a campus ministry or train campus ministers as a regular and authentic part of their ministry role.
  2. They needed to be commended by the leadership of the region of which they represent.
  3. They needed to be commended by the members of the sitting campus service committee.

To that end we have introduced two new members of the service team. Both Jarrod Robinson (Gainesville) and Jesse Ghoman (Boston) are now on the committee. Jesse will take the vacant seat of Kevin Miller who after almost a decade of service on the committee has turned this particular role over to the next generation.

Members

The campus service is team is presently made up of U.S. and international representatives. Ten international brothers are partnering with the current U.S. committee to promote campus ministry, exchange ideas and work together to one day form their own continental and national campus committees.

International Team:

Central America/Carib – Josue Ortega

South America – John Hoyt

Africa – Emmanuel Emeh

Europe – Shawn Wooten

Eurasia – Shawn Wooten

India – Prem Jeba

Southeast Asia – We Kyoeng

China – Aaron Chow

Australia – Forest Versele

Asia Pacific – Ariel Lastrado

Middle East – Moufid Tohme

The current U.S. members of the committee are as follows:

Los Angeles – Steve Lounsbury

College Station – Marty Wilkinson

Seattle – Alex Whitaker

Boulder – Chris Clawson

Columbia – Vince Hawkins

Chicago – Chris Zillman

Boston – Jesse Ghoman

New York – Steve Stevenson

Portland – Glen Petruzzi

Atlanta – Tom Brown

State College – Jamison Malcolm

Gainesville – Jarrod Robinson

ICMC

The 2015 ICMC in the U.S. will be entitled “Change the World”. There are several other ICMCs outside the U.S. that will also be adopting this theme. This year we are hoping to emphasize a more global impact of discipleship and the mission upon our students. We are endeavoring to have more missionaries as key note speakers and teachers during the conference. In the U.S. the conferences will be taking place in New Jersey (East) and Arizona (West). Registration is up and running for both conferences and can be found at www.disciplestoday.org/campus.

Training Programs

We spent time exchanging ideas about our regional training programs for our college students. There are many differing approaches that are currently being employed. We will endeavor to create a general curriculum that will guide all these difference programs. The goal being that the U.S. campus ministries will all produce future ministry and lay leaders that are trained in the most important and significant skill sets we identify.

Furthermore, we discussed the need for continued training of all the campus ministry staff in the U.S. There are almost 200 campus ministers currently being employed and it is imperative that they continue to develop and grow and have an ongoing opportunity to be trained. The Schools of Missions in Boston and Chicago were highlighted in this discussion as one avenue to accomplish such a task. There is a general need for each region to gather their campus ministers together a couple times of year to this end.

Future Campus Ministry Plantings

We are very excited about some of the newest campus ministries being planted in 2015. We also discussed some of the campus ministries that have already begun such as the one begun by the church in Des Moine at Iowa State. This was an energized and invigorating discussion. Three of the biggest campus plantings to occur in 2015 are:

  • University of Oregon
  • Washington State
  • University of Oklahoma

We also anticipate that with the Warsaw, Poland church being re-planted this year that we will be welcoming a new international campus ministry there. Curt and Patty Simmons will be leading this work and they are some of our most storied campus ministers of our movement. We look forward to adding some of the universities in Poland to our growing list of campus ministries. We also spent some time listing some of the most prominent U.S. colleges where don’t yet have ministries. There are some in each of our regions and we discussed future possibilities and strategies for getting to these places.

 One Year Challenge

Last year the one year challenge saw 120 participants going to places all over the world, including 10 to China where they have had almost 100 participants in the last decade. We discussed the notion of having all participants fill out an exit survey so we can evaluate what is working and not working with our current program.

We are excited about some of the international sites that will be happening in 2015.

Here is that list as it stands now:

  • Milan, Italy
  • Birmingham, England
  • Berlin, Germany
  • China (several sites)
  • South Africa (several sites)

The process for applying to be both a host church or a participant are as follows:

7 Criteria for Being an OYC Approved Site

1. Must fill out the application on Disciples Adventures Website: http://www.discipleadventures.net/#!church_signup/c1h7c

2. Must be approved by an ICOC Delegate and have this delegate send an email to:

3. Must be lead by a full-time evangelist or be discipled/overseen by an evangelist

4. Must submit site proposal/promotion and training plan in writing send in PDF form to:

5. Must submit a promotional video (2-3 Minutes) that will be played during the conference and on your personal OYC Site Website page

6. Must contribute $100 yearly to Disciples Adventures/OYC Site through Disciples Today contact [email protected] for instructions on this.

7. Must be approved by the ICOC Campus Committee: In cooperation with the ICOC delegates and committees we want to support all OYC sites in their approval process. We desire to see the OYC sites be quality sites and send as many volunteers to each site as possible. By adhering to this criteria we believe your site will be blessed with many qualified workers.

Conclusion

The U.S. campus initiative is at an exciting crossroads. It is becoming apparent that our next generation of campus ministers in their mid to late twenties are ready to take on more responsibility. We anticipate many of them moving on to other ministry roles. Yet, there are many who will remain in their present capacity and there is a need to give them a greater stake in our work. It is likely that many of our service team members will soon be made up of a number these younger ministers very soon.

This summer we will cross the 4,000 membership mark for U.S. campus disciples and will be well on our way to 5,000. Our training and education of these students is imperative so that the future leadership of the church embraces and enhances the best aspects of our history and culture- the “go anywhere, do anything and give up everything” spirit we hope want to keep alive and well. It is perhaps summed up best in this year’s ICMC theme – “Change the World!”