Campus Ministries

It is easy for anyone to get stuck living in the ‘bubble’ of a college community and not bother to realize what they are missing out on outside the campus. Campus Ministries can be life lines to the outside for the students of AU. Campus Ministries relationships are fostered through: developing spiritual discipline; modeling peace, love, justice and reconciliation locally as well as globally; the pursuit of thoughtful and informed faith; committing to a lifestyle of service; and engaging in a local community of believers. 

During the 2010-11 school year 327 students volunteered with Campus Ministries totaling 3,340 hours of service. When including other service groups on campus outside of the Campus Ministries such as TRI-S and Operation Foundation, there were 1,339 AU students who served their greater community last year a total of 13,325 hours of service.         

The Director of Campus Ministries, Stuart Erny, says that each ministry is led by a student coordinator that has a special passion for their ministry. Senior Rachael Huddy, student coordinator of Advocacy and Awareness said, “I came to college in hopes of learning and growing scholastically but also mentally and emotionally. I was challenged intellectually through A+A as well as provoked to look inside myself and see where I stood on significant moral and ethical issues. It was comforting to know that this group of people, regardless of age, was experiencing the same thing.” Huddy goes on to say, “This world is much smaller and interconnected than we realize, and building community with your neighbor may lead you to the position of doing that across the world as well. Jesus speaks about loving the widows and the orphans and lifting up the oppressed; that is what our ministry, along with the other campus ministries, intends to do.”

Junior Raleigh Bronte, student coordinator of Christian Center Rescue Mission says, “If I am honest, I originally went into the ministry with the terrible mindset that it was my responsibility to care for these people because they obviously needed my help. Our relationship was almost a ‘you need me because I have things you don't have’ in my eyes.  Thankfully, that is no longer the case.  I have genuine friendships with the men of the center and my original mentality has been completely shattered.  Instead, I see myself as walking along beside them in the pursuit of a loving God.”

The following are 12 ways that students can become involved with Campus Ministries. For more information students should contact the student coordinator of the ministry in which they are interested.

Advocacy and Awareness

Advocacy and Awareness exists to sound a call for justice and compassion in a world of injustice and suffering. "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

–Martin Luther King, Jr.

(Rachael Huddy, Student Coordinator)

AU- East Africa

AU's response to the global AIDS pandemic, AUEA exists to establish and grow relationships of mutual support between AU and communities in East Africa. It includes the AUEA Ambassador program and the AUEA Underclassmen Leadership Trip as well as several other initiatives. More info at www.anderson.edu/au-eastafrica.

(Hannah Monroe, Student Coordinator)

Christian Center Rescue Mission

Encounter Christ as you serve among the homeless in Anderson.

(Raleigh Bronte, Student Coordinator)

Generation to Generation

Visit residents of Anderson nursing homes and help end the isolation and loneliness that the elderly often feel.

(Ricci Warwick, Student Coordinator)

Lunch Buddies

Share lunch with an at-risk child at a local elementary school each week. Make a new friend and bring encouragement and support along the way.

(Bryan Burkle, Student Coordinator)

Neighbors

Bridge the gap between the campus and the city of Anderson by developing relationships with those living in neighborhoods adjacent to our campus through conversation, service and prayer.

(Chris Stepp, Student Coordinator)

Park Place Community Center

This outreach (led by Park Place Church of God) works alongside individuals in neighborhoods adjacent to campus to provide a holistic, relational-based community center that includes an “After-School Fun” program for children, a food pantry, and a host of other community-empowerment resources.

(Daniel Kelsey, Student Coordinator)

Prayer Ministry

The prayer ministry offers a chance to experience the reality and power of prayer with other students through workshops and prayer groups. The prayer ministry also oversees the Prayer Room, located in the Morrison House basement, which is open to all.

(Claire Brown, Student Coordinator)

Prison Ministry

Share an hour a week with juvenile inmates at local detention centers, building relationships of mutual challenge and encouragement.

(Ben Herrick and Meredith Tarplee, Student Coordinators)

Study Buddies

Be a friend and academic tutor to children at local shelters and after school programs.

(Carmen Oswalt, Student Coordinator)

*Pictured below are the 2011-12 Student Coordinators
and Stuart Erny, Director of Campus Ministries
(front row in yellow shirt)

Vision Revision

Vision Revision brings to campus artists, workshops, concerts, art shows and a week of chapels that will encourage the imagination and the arts as avenues through which to see life, faith and God from new perspectives.

(Katie Price, Student Coordinator)

Work Projects

Spend part of a Saturday meeting real needs through projects like building a wheelchair ramp, cleaning an inner-city mission, or fixing a house in need of repair.

(Kierstin Schalliol, Student Coordinator)

-Article by Kristyn Rhynard, Senior Mass Communications Major at Anderson University