Campus ministers share lunch with missionaries who were in Green Lake, Wisc., for the World Mission Conference at the same time as the ministers' annual gathering.

This year's annual gathering of the American Baptist Campus Ministries Association (ABCMA) was held during the World Mission Conference in Green Lake, Wisc., at the end of July. Resources from having both missionaries and International Ministries' staff members present were a boon to ABCMA participants.

Focusing on the theme "Come to the Well" — for renewal, connection and mission — the ministers stayed in a house together for their meeting sessions, while also getting a chance to attend larger events with the concurrent World Mission Conference.

Each year, campus ministers gather at different locations across the United States. Every other year, they meet the week before the American Baptist Churches USA Biennial, so they can attend that as well. Planning is already underway for the 2007 gathering in Washington, D.C., to be held prior to the Biennial that marks the centennial of American Baptist Churches USA.

"I want to encourage every ABC-related chaplain and campus minister to come!" said the Rev. Adrienne Berry-Burton, who serves on the University of Massachusetts campus in Boston and also on the Simmons and Boston College campuses. "Use your school's continuing education funds or denominational funds to support your work. As ministers, we seldom have an opportunity to slow down and consider our fears, take time to renew our partnership with God, or consider what the new call or direction may be from our loving God. I have a renewed energy for the journey and the work."

The Rev. Jackie Saxon, ABCMA treasurer and conference registrar is associate pastor at University Baptist Church in Austin, Texas, and has responsibilities in college ministry. Saxon said, "Campus Ministry is such a specialized ministry that many people don't have a clear understanding as to what we do. ... Ministers on campuses related to American Baptist Churches USA have come together since 1985 for fellowship and continuing education."

ABCMA Executive Committee member the Rev. Dave DeMott from the University of Illinois said campus ministry has its peculiar difficulties: "There is emotional strain that comes from a myriad of sources, like budget issues and accountability, not knowing who your student leaders will be from year to year, and re-inventing the ministry every year based on new participation."

DeMott continued, "While a great number of novices and upstarts are involved in this ministry, doing it well demands collaboration with others in the field. It's good to be in an environment where others can assist in bringing us to account; where theological issues, while important and often debatable, are not the defining issues."

Like DeMott, Berry-Burton emphasized sharing ideas and working as a team. "Each ministry is different. The solutions and initiatives at one school may just be the idea and solution needed at another," she said. If you're unable to attend, Berry-Burton suggests finding a ministry similar to your own and developing a relationship with that campus minister or chaplain.

Jeff Buscher, campus minister at William Jewell College in Liberty, Miss., said, "Attendees leave with a renewed spirit and a sense of partnership and camaraderie among American Baptist campus ministers. Tools were acquired via informal conversations with other campus ministers and formal sessions with serving missionaries. Tools included ideas for resources, methods, contacts for potential mission experiences, and how to start a campus ministry."

Buscher echoed others in stressing the need to create a "circle of peers" to have as resources and encouragers in similar fields of ministry.

Shawn Zambrows, from Purdue University, has attended the campus ministers' conference every year, except one, in the past twenty years. "I have never been disappointed. The faces have changed over the years, but the ethos of the group has not. I find this gathering is one of the safest places I know to bring whatever I am or have [to bring] each year — good or bad, pretty or ugly," she said.

"Being part of a team, even at a distance shortened by the Internet, is a good thing ... Partnerships and shared ideas make the work that much easier and worthwhile," Berry-Burton said. For this reason, conference attendees set up a listserve while in Green Lake and plan to keep in touch and share ideas throughout the year.

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