Church, schools need to work together to train pastoral leaders

A UMNS photo by Hendrik Pieterse Board of Higher Education and Ministry Panelists at the "Tending The Flame" event discuss the need to forge a stronger partnership between the local church and institutions of higher education.

By Kathy L. Gilbert*

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS)—In order for the United Methodist Church to survive, the church needs to get intentional about training young people for pastoral and lay leadership, participants at the Institute of Higher Education were told.

A study commissioned by the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry, sponsors of the June 13-15 event, indicates that students entering higher education institutions are “more religiously engaged than in recent years, suggesting that a religious revival may be occurring among today’s young adults.”

“Many students experience a call while in college,” said John Ewing Jr., president of United Methodist-related Mount Union College, Alliance, Ohio. “Are we giving them an opportunity to respond to God’s call on their lives?”

Ewing was part of a panel discussion on “Tending the Flame,” along with Bishop Timothy W. Whitaker, Florida Area; the Rev. Dan Morris, First United Methodist Church, Millbrook, Ala.; and the Rev. Samuel Johnson, Boston University School of Theology. They addressed the need to forge a stronger partnership between the local church and institutions of higher education.

“Our church is in serious trouble if we don’t find new pastoral leadership,” Ewing said. “Students are finding spiritual fulfillment outside of the United Methodist Church.”

Whitaker pointed out that bishops and college presidents have been in conversation for years about ways United Methodist institutions of higher education can support the church.

“Often we do not connect in the connection,” he said, mentioning a trend among some churches toward “congregationalism” instead of thinking of the church as a connectional body. “We need to get the attention of local church members.”

Morris believes that “teaching our young people to love God with their minds” is a way to rekindle the flame. In the United Methodist view of sanctification and going on to perfection, he said, “the natural progression is to educate your mind to the highest level so that you can serve Christ in the world.”

Johnson said he had his conversion experience under the guidance of a campus minister at church-related DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind.

“We need to encourage colleges to invite seminarians to their campus to see who we are, to see what it means to be United Methodist,” he said. “The tradition of United Methodist culture is worth holding up and holding on to.”

Ewing said a church and college partnership could start with the campus minister or chaplain and the pastor of the local church that serves the campus.

He suggested bishops and college presidents work together to appoint campus ministers or local pastors with a passion for pastoral leadership to United Methodist-related institutions. “The church has to make a serious attempt to connect young people in colleges with dynamic pastors and campus ministers.”

John Wesley charged the church to “education for the common good.” As a result, more than 100 colleges were established side-by-side with United Methodist churches.

“Early in our history, the only way for higher education institutions to survive was from church support,” said Ewing. “The opposite is true today. The only way the United Methodist Church is going to survive is if higher education institutions support the church.”

*Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer.

News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

Audio Interviews John Ewing Jr.: "We transform students' lives." The Rev. Dan Morris: "This is what God would have you do."

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