From: Phil deHaan (dehp@calvin.edu)
Date: Tue Dec 17 2002 - 15:56:26 EST
December 18, 2002 == FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
A new program at Calvin College will help students decide if they're called to
work in Christian ministry.
The Jubilee Fellows program has selected 12 Calvin students who over the next
two years will get both instruction and hands-on experience that, it is hoped,
will kindle and fan a flame for ministry that is just beginning to burn.
The Jubilee Fellows Program will help combat a serious shortage of Christian
ministry workers across almost all Christian religions. Locally estimates are
that one in eight Christian Reformed churches doesn't have a pastor, while the
ministerial vacancy rate in the Reformed Church of America is 20 percent.
Shirley Roels, who directs the Lilly Vocation Project (of which the Jubilee
Fellows is a part) says that while Calvin's Reformed tradition affirms God's
call to people in all occupations, Christian communities need ministers in order
to continue growing in the faith. "If you don't nourish the roots of the tree,
eventually the branches will look a little weak," she says, "and the leaves will
be pretty sickly."
So the Jubilee Fellows program hopes to address the problem early on with some
interesting initiatives.
In the spring 2003 semester the newly selected Jubilee Fellows - Nathan Brink,
Joy DeYong, Sarah DeYoung, Ben Fox, Emily Huck, Anna Hunsberger, Dean Kladder,
Dorothy Lee, Kristin Kuzera, Nathan Sytsma, Patricia Sully and Jeremy Vecchi -
will take a seminar style class taught by Chaplain Dale Cooper and Cindy Holtrop
of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship. There they will learn about the
nature of Christian ministry by reading Scripture, studying church history, and
examining the lives and works of great Christian leaders. In addition, each
Fellow will do an in-depth study of a particular pastor and present his or her
findings to the class at the end of the semester.
Then in the summer of 2003 each Fellow will intern for 10 weeks at a church
somewhere in the U.S. or possibly in another country. Living situations for the
student will vary, but Calvin will pay for transportation to and from the
internship site and will contribute up to $1,000 towards living expenses. At the
end of their internships all Fellows will receive a $4,000 stipend.
Finally the Fellows will reconvene at an August 2003 retreat where they will
lay out plans for the following school year, plans that will include such things
as a ministry related service project as well as one-on-one work with Cooper,
Holtrop and others to make decisions about attending seminary or following God's
call in other ways.
The Fellows will have plenty of informal education as well, regularly meeting
for meals and more with pastors to discuss and learn from their experiences as
hospital chaplains, urban ministry leaders, youth pastors and more.
For more see http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2002_03/jubilee_fellows.htm
Contact Shirley Roels at 616-957-6557
~with reporting by media relations student writer Abe Huyser-Honig
-end-
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