SECULAR CAMPUS MISSION VISITS IVY JUNGLE

Nazarene ministries from New York, Ohio, Tennessee, Missouri and Oklahoma participated in this year’s Ivy Jungle campus ministry conference held in Dallas last month, according to David Kyncl, mission strategy director for Nazarene Secular Campus Mission.

“The Ivy Jungle Conference is a great way to rally Nazarenes who are involved in this dynamic mission field,” Kyncl said. “We continue to see growing interest in reaching college and university students throughout the denomination.”

The Nazarene Secular Campus Mission Strategic Readiness Team also held its annual planning meeting during this time.

“The conference was an eye opener and Bronx Bethany Church of the Nazarene is anxious to begin figuring out what an urban version of this ministry could look like,” reported Vigla Clarke, a lay leader from the church who attended the conference. “The conference gave me time to reflect on my own life and to realize that the foundation for the path I am on, and so many of my friends, was built during our university years. As we were reminded, ‘what an important age group for us to capture.’”

“My eyes were opened to many new ideas and my heart was challenged by several of the speakers,” reported Jeff Stark, pastor of young adults at Clarksville (TN) First Church of the Nazarene. “I look forward to the day when we can have a denominational college conference with three to four hundred students and ministers who are challenged to reach campuses across the globe.”

Stark also is the founder and director of Radical Mission, a group established to reach and disciple students at Austin Peay State University. Three persons from his leadership team attended the conference.

“It was encouraging to finally get to meet some of the other campus ministry coordinators and see the progress,” related Ryan Brown, a senior at Trevecca Nazarene University and an intern with Radical Mission. “It made me more interested in continuing to do secular campus missions work.”

Steve Proffitt, director of The Potter’s House at Missouri State University, also expressed an interest in developing a national campus ministry conference for interested Nazarenes.

“Ivy Jungle provides a broad picture of campus ministry we don’t always get from our own campus,” said Proffitt. “We could use an Ivy Jungle style conference to rally Nazarenes interested in this mission field. We could use keynote speakers who are Nazarenes who were educated on secular campuses, and we could host several specific break out sessions too.”

Nazarene Secular Campus Mission now has 25 ministries registered on its website at www.nazscm.org. These include ministries in several states and the first ministry forming in Canada. For more information, e-mail David Kyncl at Kyncl@ounsc.org, or browse through the website at www.nazscm.org.