Chapter Planting with BCM at Youngstown State U - 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 YOUNGSTOWN STATE UNIVERSITY

By Katie Schneider

The Campus

Youngstown State University is an urban commuter campus of 13,000 students
in Youngstown, Ohio, a small city with many big-city urban issues. About
2,000 students live on campus, but there is very little community spirit,
even in the dorms. Although the school has some excellent programs, the
overall perception is that YSU, with a large number of remedial classes and
students from under-funded city high schools, is not a particularly great
university. The school has about a 14 percent minority enrollment, mostly
African American.

The Challenges

Because the school is largely commuter and most of the students work as
well as go to school, there is a lack of student involvement in any area,
including ministry. When I arrived last August, there were about 40 or 50
students involved in the three major campus ministries. No African American
students were involved with ministry. The commuter schedule of a “10-2”
campus makes it difficult to schedule meetings since students tend to leave
as soon as they are done with classes. The first semester I had 12 or so
students come to meetings at different points, but I could not get more
than four together at one time!

Campus Contacts

Currently, I am working with two groups of students, a multi-ethnic group
and a Black Campus Ministry group. There are seven committed student
leaders in the BCM group, and a few others who come to meetings. There is a
strong sense of momentum and affiliation with InterVarsity. Seven students
make up the multi-ethnic group (three whites, two Blacks, an African, and a
Pilipino-American) but I have not had as much success in establishing the
mentality that they are part of InterVarsity. So far, it’s just something
that they come to once a week.

I have a wonderful, helpful faculty advisor who has been involved with
InterVarsity for thirty years and has been advisor to InterVarsity whenever
a chapter was active at YSU.

I have had good contacts with a number of administrators, especially in
minority student affairs. I have been able to form good relationships with
the other people who work in campus ministry, including the Protestant
campus minister, the only other full-time ministry staff at YSU.

What We’re Doing

We identified the need for ministry among Black students very early on.
After the Atlanta ’05 conference I sat down with my student president, who
is Black, and asked him about the needs on the campus. We decided that
while there is need for a multi-ethnic ministry, the more immediate need
was for ministry among the Black students, and that it would allow us in
the future to bring a larger number of Black students into discussion on
racial reconciliation. Black Campus Ministries is now about ten strong,
with seven committed leaders. Four students have been to an IV conference.
Eight or nine usually come for a weekly Bible study. There is a BCM group
on Facebook. We are doing our first evangelistic outreach the week before
Easter.

The multi-ethnic students are growing in terms of their commitment to
coming to Bible study and they are developing really good Bible study
skills. We meet once a week to study Mark together, but socializing and
other activities have not really been successful yet. One of those students
went to an InterVarsity conference and a weekend in the inner city, and a
few are considering Chapter FOCUS Week.

The Vision

My vision is for BCM to be a witnessing community on campus that loves each
other, provides needed spiritual, academic and community support on campus,
and reaches out to Black students with the invitation to follow Jesus in
college and for the rest of their lives. The students and I desire to see
people consistently growing in the Word, with regular student leadership,
training, and discipleship. We long to see BCM become a visible pillar to
the African-Americans and all the other ethnic groups on campus.

We also desire to see this group be a facilitator for racial healing and
understanding on a campus with deep racial divisions. I am hopeful that
this will happen because I believe this is why God has given InterVarsity a
long and fruitful history of ministry on college campuses and why he has
placed me and certain students at YSU. This is God’s heart for the world
and for the university.

I am also inspired by large needs-there’s so much to do! I don’t have to
work hard to develop a niche or think of what need I am filling. And I am
more likely to give God full credit for the work when I know that I am in
over my head. It’s humbling.

God is Working

Whenever I think about the process of chapter planting, I am acutely aware
that I am solely dependent upon God. And God has provided. My favorite
story of this happened in the middle of September when I set up an
information table on campus. I do this regularly and usually host it by
myself, which is not my favorite activity. One day I was supposed to have a
table from 12:00- 1:30, but no one could be found to get one for me. It was
2:40 before I had a table. Since the student union clears out for the 1:00
classes, I felt that setting up at all was probably a waste of my time, and
seriously contemplated taking a relaxed lunch instead. But I had committed
to doing this, and I told the Lord grudgingly that I wasn’t going to back
out.

Earlier that morning a student named Rodney ran into some old friends and
they were telling him that he should get involved in campus ministry at
YSU. He acknowledged that he probably should, but complained that he hadn’t
heard of any Christian groups. He walked past my table in the student union
that afternoon and then, remembering his conversation, decided to come back
and talk to me. We had a great conversation about ministry and
opportunities to get involved. We chatted as I wrote out directions to that
evening’s gathering and I discovered that I was writing with a pen from his
home church in Cleveland. The Lord continued to provide ways for us to
connect, and Rodney later became the InterVarsity president and helped me
decide to launch an official BCM group.

Help Needed

I am not sure what to do about the multi-ethnic group. Most of my attention
and energy has been devoted to the BCM group because I feel it is the more
immediate need. God seems to be confirming this through the success that we
have had in just this first year. And my multi-ethnic group is a lot slower
to “get it!” I have lots of questions:

. How do I convey the vision of a multi-ethnic chapter to them and help them commit to it? I think I know why this is so much harder than the BCM group, but how do I overcome those obstacles? . Is it wise to grow two chapters side by side when I am the only staff at YSU? . How can I care well for students of every race and ethnicity at YSU? . What key ministry steps do I need to take to help Black students grow and be nurtured? . How do I knit my chapter together while we are reaching out and growing? What does a leadership team look like in these rudimentary stages? Should I even have one?

I need broad vision but also some specific details of what things have
worked well and what hasn’t. And then I need the encouragement to return in
the fall and actually do it.

Chapter_Planting_ME_BCM_YSU.doc