Student Ecumenical Partnership
"Don't forget us."
Brandon Cook During a visit to Jordan with the World Student Christian Federation, Brandon Cook met with Arab Christians, an often overlooked and forgotten element in Middle Eastern culture. As Christians leave the area, those left behind are poor, their communities poorer for the skills that leave with the emigrants. The Christians who remain feel abandoned by their Christian brothers and sisters abroad, and they have one simple request: Remember.

Get involved
Patrick Moon-Rhoades As a commuter student, heading home after class could become an easy habit for Patrick Moon- Rhoades. He's made the decision, though, to get involved on campus through campus radio and his local community's food pantry. When you head to campus next fall and encounter the inevitable activities fair, don't just fill up on the free candy or stock up on pens. Find a cause, and get involved.

STEP Leadteam focuses on resource production, leadership development

A renewed focus producing resources for campus ministries and developing leadership for student ministry dominated the work of the Student Ecumenical Partnership Leadership Team at its October meeting in suburban Chicago. Working with the Thom Chu to reevaluate its goals, STEP reassessed its constituents:

  1. Campus ministries and students of UCC/DOC as well as undergraduates in general

  2. UCC/DOC ministers/chaplains, the Council for Ecumenical Student Christian Ministries and denominational panels on young adult ministries

  3. Graduate students, STEP alumni, ministries outside denominational lines, youth pastors, outdoor ministries, and alternative/divergent theologies.
In addition to defining its constituents, STEP worked to reaffirm its mission to encourage ecumenism, open doors to other faith traditions, and strive for social justice. Two programs, Campus Chaos and Resource Reviews, remain important tools for enriching campus ministries. Campus Chaos, the annual tournament of campus ministry ideas, is compiled into an easy-to-access booklet, and Resource Reviews can be prepared for the STEP web site by anybody with a few minutes to write a review. The website will also include flier templates, ideas for promotional materials, and a ministry-finder search engine.

STEP is also preparing to issue free CD-Rom's containing the website's material, so that STEP resources can be easily used and distributed.

Looking long-term, strengthening campus ministry is the goal of a student gathering being planned by the STEP Team.

Gathering student representatives from a large variety of campuses, the conference would be a week of community, learning, and sharing of ideas.

“Just as campus ministers and chaplains get together and compare notes, the best ideas for student ministry come when we get to hear what other students are doing,” said Meredith Jackson, a UCC representative from the University of California, Davis. “We’ll also have an opportunity to meet other student leaders and to learn about what our different ministries have in common.”

HELM is working to find funding for the conference and is already penciled in on the schedule at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas, for the summer of 2010.

Because organizing a conference of this size requires consistent leadership, STEP Leadership Team terms will be extended to three years beginning immediately.

Continuing the tradition of meeting with UCC and DOC campus ministries, STEP held its fall meeting at DOC affiliated Elmhurst College, with sleeping accommodations made possible thanks to the Christian Church of Villa Park.

Looking for something good
to read? (Or watch? Or listen to?)
 The vast supply of resources for socially oriented discussion groups can be overwhelming. STEP hopes to provide some quick help by creating reviews of socially oriented resources for college students. Check out our first resource reviews: More are on the way, but we need all the help we can get. If you have thoughts about a curriculum or want to suggest something to review, let us know!