"EVANGELIZING MORE BOLDLY"

Lutheran Campus Ministry: Florida-Bahamas Synod in cooperation with:
Episcopal, United Church of Christ, United Methodist, Presbyterian and Disciples of Christ.
Gainesville * Jacksonville * Orlando * Tampa

We are the church, a people with a mission. The mission is to go into the world and be in the world, as Jesus was, to reveal a God who is present, who works in the world through active and practical ministry. We are called to be transformed into Christ's disciples and apostles. How do we answer God's call in the 21st century? In what ways do we, the people of God, translate mission into vocation? EVANGELISM

Campus Ministry Mission: We are BOLD to...

• ask God to work through us "to unite all things in Christ." [Eph 1:10]
• invite people into a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ and into communities which bear Christ's name
• create hospitable environments where people experience love and acceptance
• equip members to be an anchored and articulate people who proclaim God's absolutely amazing grace
• energize worship of the Triune God, permitting and encouraging awe and gratitude
• empower people to bring God's peace and healing to others...to serve one another as Christ Jesus serves

NEED: Florida's University system includes nine universities and twenty-eight community colleges with a student population of 191,148 and 1,014,396 respectively. Currently the only active ELCA campus ministry numbers fewer than 50 students.

RESPONSE: To expand Lutheran Campus Ministry [LCM] beyond Gainesville to the University of South Florida, University of Central Florida and University of North Florida and Jacksonville University with further expansion into south Florida and the Panhandle as soon as is feasible.

PLAN: To link identified campuses into a faith community and to develop an evangelism model:
INVITING, GATHERING, EMPOWERING AND SERVING
in the setting of campus ministry.

objectives are:

1)   Identify host congregations, on-site coordinators and peer ministers.

2)   Establish a "faith community" at each site.

3)   Train and prepare "teams" for ministry. [Mark 6:7] The primary operative model being peer ministry.

4)   Identify and enlist support.

5)   Provide a strong biblical framework for a five part implementation plan
      [proclamation, community, teaching, sevanthood, worship] grounded in Acts 2:42-47.

PHILOSOPHY: College campuses represent a mission field requiring that we be evangelists serving in a cultural climate set by the university. The mission begs for a plan as open-ended and transient as the community it serves. Thus, we must acknowledge the necessity to identify, enlist and train leaders at every level. A mission of evangelism to university students is a mission of the whole church that is by nature both ecumenical and unequivocally Lutheran. Such a unique ministry ought to be supported by the whole church through creative cooperation with institutions in the wider contextual community. Both implementation and funding is only as limited as the collective mind of the whole church inspired by the Triune God we serve.