Campus Ministry Notes

Dear Waldorf Alumni,

I am honored to be writing to you today, and share how the Spirit is moving students in this uncertain time of COVID. One big way in which Campus Ministry is moving is through our new scholarship students, representing Waldorf’s best and brightest in our community.

Our scholarship students are called “Peer Ministers” and to me, this means our students are not interns but instead they are ministers to their community. They have responsibilities, but they also have distinctive gifts they bring to the table to help lift each other up. My job in working with these students is to help lift up their gifts even more, so we can send them into the world ready to give those gifts toward serving humanity.

My intent toward the scholarship students is the same toward Waldorf students as a whole: to find their own voices. In the tradition of Waldorf, Campus Ministry seeks to shape our students into a Vocation of Excellence, where students don’t just come in weekly to do their assigned job, but instead to do their best to help people and pass on the blessing of lifting each other up. Whether I’m holding a weekly check-in meeting with Peer Ministers, hearing student discussions in our Sunday night Like Fire meetings, or watching their reactions to our weekly chapel, my intent remains the same. I hope to inspire students to do ministry their way, not my way; and Peer Ministers give me a chance to do that directly through one-on-one meetings, setting learning goals, and allowing students to do events they think the community needs. This intent is for all Waldorf students, which is why we have hired non-Christians multiple times to help us carry out this mission. In short: I want Peer Ministers to be the best person they can be in their vocations, and become helpers in all they say and they do.

The need for scholarships is so widely recognized, that we have multiple partners who help us make it happen! First, we are honored to partner with Forest City’s own Immanuel Lutheran Church in providing three scholarships to students each semester to assist with Like Fire, the Lutheran group on campus that I direct, which is open to all students. The students from Immanuel are tasked with helping Like Fire and Campus Ministry, both through implementing their own ideas as individuals and working together as a team to lift each other up. Second, I am honored to have funding for other Peer Ministers through the Waldorf Foundation, for projects including weekly Chapel and working with the Foundation itself. This is where your donations towards Campus Ministry go, and for that, I am very grateful! Funds from alumni go toward having new students contribute to our Campus Ministry, adding their distinctiveness to ours, and making the Waldorf community all the better for it!

Third, we have Pillars Scholarships available to work specifically with Campus Ministry! While students can be a Pillars scholar for academic departments like Education & Psychology, and extracurricular programs like Residence Life and Student Activities, Campus Ministry allows for a more intentional focus on what ministry means in a student’s life. I am honored to share the supervision of Pillars students with my colleague, friend, and fellow Union Seminary alum, Dr. David Greder. This is especially helpful since I represent the more pastoral side of ministry, while he represents the more academic, which are the two major concentrations in the world of seminary and religion. These two balanced perspectives help students figure out what they want to do in Ministry, along with a diversity of perspectives they might use to be a Minister in their lives, whatever that means to them.

When it comes to the students’ duties, some are in charge of Logistics, Team Leadership, Worship Coordination, Outreach, and Volunteer Coordination. These positions allow us to function more efficiently, but also to build relationships across campus with student organizations like Athletics and the World Students’ Association, while also building service relationships with local organizations.

Thanks to your generous contributions, I have the pleasure of helping guide these students, and working with them in partnership to make Campus Ministry the best it can be! I am grateful for that opportunity every day, and hope to continue doing that in this job.

May you always know that your generosity makes a difference!

Sincerely,

Eric Adamcik, Campus Ministry Coordinator

LIKE FIRE & CAMPUS MINISTRY Recap

Another honor I have is running the Like Fire and Campus Ministry programs to ensure everybody has what they need. I continue to publicize worship opportunities with The Bridge Baptist ministries and the Catholic ministry on campus, while also holding my own Sunday night Like Fire meetings in Gatsby’s, with a generous helping of pop, pizza, and of course, dessert!

At Like Fire, we have continued regular meetings after the start of COVID. While our numbers are not as high as they were pre-COVID, and we can no longer do live music, we are building a wonderful community in those smaller numbers. Gathering around a meal is always great, but is especially sacred in our time of COVID, because students can be honest about what they’re going through right now.

Because of Waldorf’s diversity and commitment to scholarship of the Bible, we have a variety of students come to our group, including international students, Muslims, and Hindus, as well as Christians. We hope to give everyone who walks through those doors a community and chance to speak. All students at Like Fire are encouraged to share what’s on their heart knowing that someone is thinking about them and praying for them, and will support them through anything. Rather than an event where one person is the center of attention, Like Fire allows people to find their own voices through the small act of weekly sharing.

Because of this, I always draw up a handout that includes scripture and questions that encourage students to find their own voice. Yet I don’t always stick to these handouts, because sometimes, students need to talk about something that’s more urgent such as how stressed out they are with COVID or schoolwork-related anxiety. When the Spirit calls us to a stance of listening to the community’s concerns, I find those conversations are just as sacred as discussing the Bible.

Most of the time, even when we do diverge from the handout, we end up answering the questions entirely by accident! Those joyful moments are how I know the Spirit is among us, and encouraging us to do the work of community.

CHAPEL Recap

Similarly to Like Fire, Chapel has given us a chance to rebuild. We are blessed to hold weekly chapel services in the Recital Hall, where the whole Waldorf community is invited to sit for 20 minutes and “Just Be”; whether you are a student, faculty, or staff, we try to have something for everyone who walks through those doors. We have seen our attendance at Chapel start to climb this semester which is a blessing!

Campus Ministry is especially blessed to have first-year student, Iris Almonte, as a Peer Minister for Worship Coordination and Logistics, as she is consistently enthusiastic, dedicated, and inviting others to attend Chapel. Watching her step up and take on more responsibilities has been an especially big blessing to me. For example, at the start of the year, she was reading Bible verses for Chapel every week and at our most recent chapel she still read the Bible verse but also introduced the topic at hand, and shared her hopes to go in to ministry with the attendees’ right before the service! I look forward to seeing Iris’ leadership continue to grow over the semester, along with our new Peer Ministers.

We have many exciting upcoming chapels planned for this semester. For Black History Month in February, we will have Amnesty International sharing international issues central to Black History; Ash Wednesday; and a chapel led by the newly revived Black Student Union. We also plan to highlight Women’s History month during our chapels held in March and April. I am so excited for these students to find their voices as they step up to lead these chapels!