How has your church been in ministry with higher education? Bishop Ward encourages our churches to reach out to students in our communities in this video.
Grace and peace to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I’m wearing a t-shirt as I speak to you in honor of the 225th anniversary of Louisburg College. We give thanks for our ministry in higher education.
At Annual Conference, we celebrated Louisburg College and Methodist University and North Carolina Wesleyan College, giving thanks for the ministries we share. We also engaged in a wonderful picnic, complete with BBQ and chicken and ice cream, engaging with students who were present with us.
We need not limit out vision to campuses where we have campus ministers salaried through the Annual Conference. Our church is scattered all across the expanse of eastern North Carolina and are close to community colleges and colleges and universities. These colleges and universities and community colleges are public and private and wherever we are near a campus, the call of God is beckoning us to be engaged with students.
I urge you to use your creativity to reach out to students who are in your community, in your area. The churches in Wilmington have felt a nudging of God to be more directly engaged in ministry on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and we’ve appointed a campus minister to create a new faith community on that campus. The churches in Wilmington will together work with this new campus ministry to build a new community of worshiping and serving students.
This can happen in many, many places. Thank you for praying about this and for your creativity in reaching out to those near you who are engaged in higher education. May God be with you as you do so.