Chapter Planting at William Penn University - Ministry Exchange (MX)

This document is part of a larger cluster of articles about InterVarsity
chapter planting at https://www.intervarsity.org/mx/page/chapterplanting

William Penn University By Jon Hietbrink

The Campus

William Penn University in Oskaloosa, Iowa is a four-year liberal arts
university founded by Quaker pioneers in 1873, with an ongoing Quaker
tradition today. Most of the students end up on campus because of athletic
scholarships. The campus seems to be made up of two main groups. There are
students from the immediate geographic area (who are almost entirely
white). There are also students from urban centers around the country
(predominantly black). The campus has a very heavy male population, with a
ratio of about 7:1 (nope, I’m not joking!). The campus is not particularly
healthy as an institution, and has struggled with retention and general
recruitment. At present, there are only about 800 undergrad students, and
about half of those live off campus, leaving a small on-campus population
of only about 400-500.

The Challenges

There has been little Christian witness or ministry on campus for years, so
there is minimal association or awareness of what we are doing. In general,
it seems that the school struggles with creating connections among its
students, and the same has proven true for us, although we have had some
good success recently.

On a practical level, one of the real difficulties was how to contact
students. Few students use email and are generally bad at returning phone
calls, so we were left without a real means of communication. We were
depending on posters and just hoping to run into people when we’re on
campus.

Since then, we have started using Facebook, and this has really helped.
Since most of our students don’t check or respond to their emails, Facebook
has been helpful for actually setting up contact times. In addition, it’s a
far less intimidating way to make contact with new or “fringe” contacts as
opposed to phoning their room, for example, so it feels “safe” for the
students.

Campus Contacts

We have a great relationship built with the chaplain. He’s new to campus
this year as well and has been facing some of the same issues we have. We
are really different (not theologically, but methodologically) and do
things differently, but cooperate on what we can and end up sharing quite a
few of the students we have.

There is a strong base of support among the faculty for what we are doing.
We have relationships with five or so who are actively involved in campus
spiritual life. We also have a good relationship with the college
administration and recently had dinner at the president’s house. He and his
wife are very supportive of something happening related to Christian
spirituality on campus.

The best contacts in place are students. We currently have three student
leaders, one senior and two freshmen, but we’re in the process of expanding
that team to include a total of about ten students. We now have six
students who are involved in some form of “peer leadership” through
leading/co-leading small groups in their dorm rooms. Of all the things we
have done this year, this is without doubt the best part. I believe that,
as we look ahead, we have a solid foundation upon which to build.

What We’re Doing

We had been hosting a large-group meeting each week which was drawing
between 10-20 students per week, but momentum for that study was starting
to wane, so we scrapped it in favor of a small-group-based structure. This
has (at least thus far!) been a good move and has led to growth. Currently,
we have two small groups preparing to start (which may involve up to 20
students), and one that is running for 10-15 students. This has proven to
be highly effective, both at involving new people in our ministry and in
developing some core members and leaders.

We have been able to give our current student leaders a truly exceptional
leadership experience, and so they are really pumped about what’s going on,
which makes for a lot of positive momentum.

The Vision

Two of my best leaders are freshmen, so that is very encouraging for the
future. Also, having solid student leaders makes all the difference! We
asked a lot of our leaders and we promised them a lot, and they have
responded in very positive ways. I’m very hopeful that the expansion of our
leadership team will lead to more and more students involved, and more and
more leaders being raised up. In many ways, we have chosen to base our
strategy on the model provided by the Chapter Building Task Force, and I
think it has proven effective so far.

God is Working

God has been at work in many ways. I feel like we are finally starting to
reap some fruit from the work that we did first semester. Last semester we
went fairly wide, but not very deep. This semester, we are going deep with
a few, which is actually enabling us to go wider (if that makes sense). I
believe that a viable group has now been established at William Penn, due
in part to our labor, but only enabled by the Lord bringing students our
way.

In addition to the usual rewards of campus ministry, chapter planting has
been a deeply growing experience for me as a staff, teaching me the
importance of perspective. As a student (and as a young staff), I rarely
thought beyond the current semester, and certainly not beyond the current
year. This produced an urgent and immediate faith in me, but I didn’t have
much perseverance or vision for steadfastness. So, part of what the Lord
has been forming in me through this experience is a perspective grounded in
years and generations of students rather than this-or-that study or this-or-
that week.

Help Needed

I would benefit by seeing what other people have done in planting
situations because, for most of the year, I’ve had no idea what to do, but
the ministry is going well anyway.

Chapter_Planting_4yr_Sm_William_Penn_U.doc