new theology review february 2009 Angela Senander

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1 new theology review february 2009 Call, Collaboration, and Campus Ministry Angela Senander Campus ministers, youth ministers, and young adult ministers share the role of supporting young people in their responses to God s call in their lives. With an orientation of collaboration, campus ministers will be able to benefit from systemic collaborative efforts to support young people as they transition from parish to campus to parish. Some within the Catholic Church speak of a vocation crisis. It is certainly the case that there has been a decline in the number of men responding to a call to ordained priesthood and a decline in the number of women and men responding to a call to vowed religious life in the Catholic Church in the United States during the past half century. At times the institutional focus on reversing this trend suggests a narrowed understanding of vocation, in which vocation is identified with two particular vocations priesthood and religious life. This, however, is in stark contrast to the understanding of vocation, or call, articulated by the bishops at the Second Vatican Council in Gaudium et Spes. In this document the bishops emphasize the basic dynamic of God s call, a human being s response, and the role of the church in assisting one in hearing and responding to God (see part one of Gaudium et Spes). Angela Senander is assistant professor and chair of the Systematic and Moral Theology Department at Washington Theological Union, collaborator with national ministerial associations in the development of the Eye on the Horizon Institute at Washington Theological Union, and chaplain in residence for the Office of Campus Ministry at Georgetown University. This article includes research supported by the Lilly Theological Scholars Grant Program of the Association of Theological Schools. 16A

2 The church on college campuses has unique opportunities for assisting young adults in hearing and responding to God. Young adults are searching for meaningful ways to live their lives, as Sharon Daloz Parks reminds us. Campus ministers have the opportunity to hear their stories of call, collaborate with collegians as they discern responses, as well as collaborate with campus ministers and other ministers to provide sustained support for young people responding to God s call in their lives. While the last opportunity might be the most challenging for campus ministers to embrace, working together with youth ministers, high school campus ministers, other college campus ministers, and young adult ministers offers more comprehensive, communal support for collegians engaged in discernment in a mobile society. Call and Campus Ministry The Christian community invites members to allow their imaginations to be shaped by stories of call and response. Scripture is filled with such stories those of Abraham, Moses, Samuel, Jeremiah, Mary, Peter, John, Mary of Magdala, and Paul, to name a few. These stories speak to the activity of God in the lives of collegians today. Stories of Call One young man was born into a poor family that was subject not only to poverty but also to discrimination and violence, so his family facilitated his adoption by a wealthy and powerful family. He grew up in a privileged environment, but as a young man he tried to fight the repression that people like his birth family experienced. Not belonging entirely to the world of his birth family or to the world of his adoptive family, he traveled far from both and started a new life. Yet, he heard God calling him to return and enter into solidarity with the oppressed and speak on their behalf. He feared that the people would not accept him, and he felt inadequate to respond to God s call because he was not a gifted speaker. It was only with the assistance of a peer that he was able to respond to this call. Another young man was born into a religious family. His birth was the answer to his mother s prayers, and she wanted his life to be a gift back to God. She introduced him to a religious leader and a life of religious service. That religious leader was instrumental in assisting the young man to recognize the voice of God in his life. A young woman was born into a traditional family and expected that her life would be like that of her mother. Responding to God s call in her life meant a break with that life plan. This threatened her relationships with her potential spouse, her family, and her religious community. She responded to God s call with both trust and courage. call, collaboration, and campus ministry 17

3 Another young woman grieved the loss of Jesus presence in her life. In the midst of this mourning she had difficulty recognizing Christ reaching out to her. Then she heard him call her by name. This experience empowered her to make his presence known to others. Another young person was working in his family s business. This allowed him to spend time with his father and support himself. Through a personal encounter with Jesus Christ, he felt the invitation to leave the security of this lifestyle and follow Christ, not knowing where that would lead. These biblical stories of call illuminate contemporary experiences of call. The stories of Moses, Samuel, and Mary shed light on the different roles of family and community in hearing and responding to the call of God. The stories of Mary of Magdala and John highlight the relationship between personal encounter with Jesus Christ and the call to discipleship and evangelization. Hearing Stories of Call as Campus Ministers One of the privileges of being a campus minister is hearing stories like these, whether after service activities, on retreat, during spiritual direction, or at World Youth Day. Ministers know from Scripture that God s call might be heard and resisted, that God s voice and that of a religious leader might be confused, and that an encounter with Christ might lead one to leave everything and follow or not, because of the high cost of discipleship. Ministers know that families and peers can provide invaluable support as one responds to God s call or discourage one from responding to God s call. Ministers know that individuals might feel inadequate to respond to God s call, might fear rejection if they do respond to God s call, or might feel threatened by the way in which God s call might affect their life plans. The biblical stories of call mentioned above resonate with and shed light upon the stories of collegians today. Elements of these stories might be shared during reflection on service activities, on retreat, during spiritual direction, or in informal conversation. Reflection on service experiences provides opportunities for students to recognize ways in which God is calling them to enter into greater solidarity with those on the margins. Through this reflection with peers, they may discover new gifts they have to share. They may ask questions about why there is a need for the service they provided and discover unjust structures in the process. Some who are involved in service activities might resist taking time for reflection because they would prefer to be serving people or changing unjust structures. Reflection, though, provides an opportunity to consider the relationship between their service activity and their life of faith or spirituality. As they come to recognize their service activity as part of a response to a call from God that is focused not simply on outcomes but first on a call to relationship, they might recognize a call to collaboration in their lives, a call to work with God (guided by God) to make God s reign more 18A

4 present. While some students resist the contemplative moment, others actively seek it, particularly on retreats. Retreats are often a unique moment of quiet and reflectivity in the midst of a busy life a time for collegians to slow down enough to be attentive and listen to the call of God in their lives. Often these retreats provide students with an opportunity to engage a question that underlies mission, that of their identity as a child of God. Like Jesus hearing that he is a beloved child of God, collegians too might experience this. Retreats may be an opportunity for students to move from an intellectual knowledge of God s love for all creation to an experiential knowledge of God s love for them as unique individuals. They might recognize ways in which God has been active in their lives as well as practices they engaged in to nurture their relationships with God. They might note changes in these practices that accompanied a transition from high school to college or fear such changes as they transition from a campus ministry community to a parish. Christ calls his Retreats are also a time when collegians might have a powerful experience of Christ in their lives and respond to the call to discipleship in a new way. Discipleship is the fundamental call for the Christian, as Scripture scholar then moral theologian Fritz Tillmann noted so well more than seven decades ago in Der Meister Ruft [The Master Calls]. In a task-oriented collegiate culture in which teachers give students assignments to do, some might think of responding to Christ s call in terms manifest in the of performing tasks that God needs to have done. This, however, is to miss the call to relationship world today. that Christ extends and the invitation to work together for God s reign. Christ calls his disciples friends and invites his friends to share in the work of making God s reign manifest in the world today. What this will look like concretely varies from student to student, and spiritual direction and informal conversations are often important opportunities for collegians to discern how God is operating through their desires, inviting them to develop gifts to share in response to the needs of the world. A desire to sing or play an instrument might lead one to join a chapel choir. It might only be through conversation that the student comes to see God s activity in this event and the dynamic of call and response. A desire to work with people in need might lead a student to debate whether to major in nursing or social work. Through spiritual direction the student might learn to discern how God is inviting her to use particular gifts for the sake of the world. disciples friends and invites his friends to share in the work of making God s reign call, collaboration, and campus ministry 19

5 For some collegians, World Youth Day is a significant moment in their stories of being called by God. At World Youth Day many youth and young adults have their fundamental vocation of discipleship affirmed by an international faith community of peers. Young men discerning a vocation to the priesthood speak of an experience of support at World Youth Day. In fact, the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate has found that 20 percent of newly ordained priests participated in World Youth Day, and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has been attentive to World Youth Day as an occasion to foster vocations to ordained ministry and religious life (Gautier, 2). While the fundamental vocation of discipleship and the particular vocations of ordained ministry, religious life, and married life are emphasized, less attention is given to vocations that do not involve vowed commitment, such as lay ecclesial ministry. One of the challenges facing the life of the church is this need for more theological reflection on the vocation of lay ecclesial ministry, as identified in Co-workers in the Vineyard of the Lord (no. 67). As a young man at World Youth Day described his story of call during an informal conversation, he highlighted both his desire to marry and his desire to serve the church. Having experienced the power of God in his own life through the work of a youth minister, he desires to work with teenagers in a similar way. He was attentive to two vocations in his life but unaware of important ways to develop his gifts for youth ministry as a lay ecclesial minister, including graduate theological education. Hearing this collegian s story of call the campus minister has an opportunity to explore ways he might develop his gifts in response to God s call in his life. Listening to collegians stories of call is an opportunity for campus ministers to collaborate with them as they discern how God is calling them to collaborate in making God s reign present. This listening is one moment of collaboration in a ministry that, at its best, is characterized by many forms of collaboration that assist students in hearing and responding to God in their lives. Collaboration and Campus Ministry J esus practice of sending his disciples in pairs as laborers to proclaim God s reign (Luke 10:1-11) invites campus ministers to an orientation of collaboration, or working together, in spreading the Good News of God s love. Attentive to the way the Spirit works among us, an orientation of collaboration respects the freedom and contributions of partners. At the same time it evaluates those contributions in relationship to their compatibility with God s reign. Collaboration is an essential, yet at times challenging, dimension of campus ministry. Potential partners for collaboration are found both on campus and beyond. In a mobile society particular attention needs to be paid to helping collegians navigate the transition from their parish to the church on campus and then the 20A

6 transition from a campus ministry community to a parish again. Because the college years are normally a time of transition from youth to young adult, collaboration with youth ministers, high school campus ministers, and young adult ministers can help provide continuity from the faith community as young people respond to God s call in their lives. Collaboration on Campus The characteristics of both a particular campus and a particular campus minister shape the opportunities for (and challenges to) collaboration. The composition of a school s student body (in terms of age, residential status, religious diversity, ethnic diversity, and career goals), the composition of its faculty and staff, an institution s size and sponsorship, and the size and structure of a campus ministry department all affect the potential forms that collaboration might take. A campus minister s vision and practices of collaboration also affect the possibility of forming partnerships. Potential on-campus partners include students (both those involved in campus facing the life of ministry and other students on campus); other campus ministers; faculty; and staff from other the church is this departments, such as residence life, centers for social justice, international student programs, and need for more health and counseling services. Opportunities to collaborate with students abound. Recognizing a particular student s gifts and the needs of the community, a campus minister might invite a student to share a gift in a particular way. Students with a deep love of Scripture might be invited to share their insights in a Bible study, and those with an awareness of their own spiritual journeys might be asked to share with their peers on a retreat. For service trips, students can be empowered to take leadership roles. An important role for campus ministers is to support collegians as they grow in their knowledge and appreciation of their gifts, their confidence and courage to share these gifts, and their awareness of the communities they serve. Sharing the wisdom of commentaries with the student who loves Scripture, listening to a witness talk before a student shares it on a retreat, and leading a formation retreat for service trip leaders are all ways that a campus minister might empower leaders within the campus ministry community. For many collegians, their knowledge of their faith tradition is not comparable to their knowledge in other fields of study. As they come to realize this, they might desire to know more. As students identify areas in which they would like to grow, One of the challenges theological reflection on the vocation of lay ecclesial ministry. call, collaboration, and campus ministry 21

7 campus ministers need to discern whether the students seek a catechesis that was lacking in their formation, desire to build on their catechetical formation by learning about their faiths intellectual traditions, or need both. The desire to learn a faith s intellectual tradition provides an opportunity to collaborate with faculty who could respond to this need. Questions might arise regarding the content and methods of interpreting sacred texts, the meaning of a community s worship practices, the relevance of particular beliefs for the contemporary world, the reasons for a faith tradition s moral teachings, developments within the thinking and practices of a faith tradition, and the religious meaning in works of literature, art, and music. Partnering with faculty members who embody faith seeking understanding (whether the professor s department is theology, religious studies, history, English, philosophy, music, or art history, for example) could be a valuable way to deepen students knowledge of their faith traditions. Attentiveness to student initiative that expresses desires, creativity, and interests can lead to activities that a campus minister might not have imagined possible. For example, a first-year student who desires a morning prayer group appears to be dreaming the impossible dream. Collaboration with such a student, however, resulted in a weekly prayer group at 7:45 a.m., a time when few campus ministers on a residential campus would think of scheduling an activity. Collaboration with students holds the promise of empowering students for leadership in the campus ministry community, the larger academic community, and society more generally, as recognized in Empowered by the Spirit (no. 93). At larger colleges and universities, supporting students in their response to God s call is, at its best, a collaborative activity of campus ministers. The larger and more complex a campus ministry department becomes, the greater the need for practices that support collaboration. Division of labor according to specialization can lead to a silo effect in which there is a lack of interaction among areas. With this in mind, effective means of planning and scheduling events as well as communicating with other campus ministers are essential to sustaining a common sense of mission. Collaboration beyond Campus Supporting students as they respond to God s call invites collaboration beyond campus. A campus minister might form partnerships with local worshiping communities of different religious traditions, social service agencies, and departments of campus ministry at other colleges and universities so as to provide collegians with the opportunity to respond to God s call during the college years. Collegians stories of call remind campus ministers that God s call takes one beyond campus not only geographically but also temporally. God s activity in the lives of students predates their arrival on campus and continues after graduation. The responses at each point along the journey vary from individual to individual. Building bridges among youth ministry, campus ministry, and young adult ministry is important 22A

8 for offering continuity to young people as they respond to God s call in their lives, whatever that call might be. Campus ministry in collaboration with youth ministry and young adult ministry has the opportunity to foster young people s leadership skills not only for the present needs of the church and world but also for the future. The need of the church for professional pastoral leaders, both ordained and lay, will continue given the increased size of the Catholic population in the United States and the proportion of current pastoral leaders who are of the pre Vatican II and Vatican II generations, to use the language of sociologists like James Davidson (D Antonio et al., 7). The pathway to ministry for the post Vatican II generation and Millennials is marked by a different experience of both the U.S. Catholic Church and U.S. society during their formative years. It is in and through these experiences that the Holy Spirit has worked and continues to work, such that one cannot assume that ecclesial structures and support systems that nurtured vocations in the past will necessarily fit the new reality. Attentive to the need to create an ecclesial landscape that supports those whom the Spirit is calling to pastoral leadership, the Catholic Campus Ministry Association, the National Association of Diocesan Directors of Campus Ministry, the National Catholic Young Adult Ministry Association, the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry, the National Catholic Student Coalition, and Washington Theological Union collaborated in the development of a summer institute for diocesan leaders of youth ministry, campus ministry, and young adult ministry. Teams from thirteen dioceses participated in the Eye on the Horizon Institute, which examined the internal and external landscape of call to pastoral leadership, provided sociological context, and invited evaluation of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in developing intentional pathways to ministry in a particular diocese. Best practices of collaboration among ministries assisting young people with the transitions from parish to campus or campus to parish were shared, and diocesan teams developed their own collaborative plans. As a result of this process and the yearlong mentoring that followed, campus ministers can participate in a similar process with the resources presented at the 2008 CCMA breakfast meeting for bishops and made available on the Pathways2Ministry website: pathways2ministry.org/faithcomm/. As campus ministers begin to think more about collaborating with youth ministers and young adult ministers to assist collegians in responding to God s call in their lives, the best practices resource will provide campus ministers with new ideas to pursue. Widening the Circle of Partners Listening to collegians stories of call, campus ministers draw attention to God s activity in students lives. For the Christian, the call to discipleship takes call, collaboration, and campus ministry 23

9 different forms and invites different concrete responses, and the campus minister assists students engaged in the discernment process. Campus ministers not only collaborate with students seeking to collaborate with God but they also collaborate with others on campus to build a community that assists students in responding to God s call. Widening the circle of partners for collaboration to include youth ministers and young adult ministers will better support students in their journeys of living their lives as a response to God s call. References D Antonio, William V., James D. Davidson, Dean R. Hoge, and Mary L. Gautier. American Catholics Today: New Realities of Their Faith and Their Church. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., Gautier, Mary L., and Mary E. Bendyna. The Class of 2007: Survey of Ordinands to the Priesthood A Report to the Secretariat for Vocations and Priestly Formation, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, Georgetown University, National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB). Empowered by the Spirit: Campus Ministry Faces the Future. Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference, Parks, Sharon Daloz. Big Questions, Worthy Dreams: Mentoring Young Adults in Their Search for Meaning, Purpose and Faith. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, Second Vatican Council. Gaudium et Spes. In David J. O Brien and Thomas A. Shannon, eds., Catholic Social Thought: The Documentary Heritage. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1992, Tillmann, Fritz. The Master Calls: A Handbook of Morals for the Layman. Trans. Gregory J. Roettger. Baltimore, MD: Helicon Press, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Co-Workers in the Vineyard of the Lord: A Resource for Guiding the Development of Lay Ecclesial Ministry. Washington, DC: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, A