Clarion 2006-09-14 Vol. 82 No. 02

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UNIVERSITY
Thursday, September 14, 2006
http://bethelnet.bethel.edu/clarion
Volume 82 • Number 2
New Dean of Campus Ministries is all about service
Spotlight on
year's first
Jim Lo uses humor to illustrate to students the need to make God the sole master in their lives in his message, "Priorities."
Q & A with Pastor Jim 'Umf' Lo
By Steffanie Lindgren
"What you are is God's gift
to you, but what you do is your
gift to God." With this advice
Jim Lo, Bethel's new campus
pastor and dean of Campus
Ministries, first became a pastor-
Keeping this in mind, the goal
of Campus Ministries is to build
sludents up spiritually so they
loo can serve.
Lo sat down last week with
a Clarion siaff writer to speak
about "Umf," his past years
in missions and his vision for
Bethel.
Q. You are called Jim "Umf
Lo. What does the "Umf' stand
for?
A. It stands for the Zulu
word "Umfundisi." It is what
they called me in Africa. "Fun-
da" is one who learns. "Fundisa"
is one who helps others to learn.
"Umfundisi" is the most important; it means one who wants to
become a part of others' lives.
Q. What kind of missions
work did you do in Cambodia,
Zimbabwe, South Africa, Swaziland and Mozambique? What
did you learn from the people of
those different cultures?
A. 1 started in Zimbabwe
with church planting, but soon
discovered lhat the best church
planters were native people.
"No matter how poor a person
is, they can still serve God." My
wife and 1 switched to leadership development and training
nationals lo lead ministry. You
don't need a degree to serve as
a pastor.
Q. Why do you think student missions are important?
A. "If they are done right,
it teaches us how to be learners
and servers at the same time."
Q. What should be the goal
of student missions and outreach?
A. "For us to serve out of a
position of humility and not out
of a position of power or even
a position of authority... The
American style of leadership is
in front, but as a missionary in
Africa we learned to lead from
behind. We need to be in the
back lifting up the national
church."
Q. As a pasior and a person
in a leadership role, what is the
most important message you
can teach?
A. "Helping people to realize that they need to depend
upon God for everything."
Q. What made you come to
Bethel'
A. My friend once said, "If
you have the opportunity to influence a larger number of people, don't stuff that off." Campus
Ministries is an opportunity to
work with the entire campus.
Q. What do you believe is
the role of Campus Ministries at
Bethel?
A. "The equipping of Chris
tians to be servants of Jesus
Christ."
Q. What is your vision for
Campus Ministries?
A. "My message is going to
be, really to try to encourage
students to become prayer partners." I will invite them lo "join
me in praying over the Greal
Hall before chapel begins."
Q, What programs do you
plan to add?
A. "I plan to begin developing [and leading]'... a weekend
retreat to learn and practice what
the spiritual disciplines are."
Q. What should Campus
Ministries look for in recruiting
speakers for chapel?
A. "Individuals that are living close to the heart of God...
Individuals that have prayed for
the students."
Q. What do you want stu-
Photo by Danica Myers
Jim Lo shares Scripture with audience during his first chapel address.
A'New Acts1 inVjetnamese Hmong
Professor Lewis
connects with
persecuted Christians on
Photo coutesy ofJim Lewis
Jim Lewis poses with Hmong villager while in orthern Vietnam
summer journey
By Cory Streeter
Jim Lewis logged onio his
office computer in order to pull
up phoios on file from his trip
to Vietnam this past June, and
confessed a secret.
"I'll tell you my password,"
he said. "It has been my password for I think ten years."
Lewis pointed to the large,
texiual map of Vietnam adorning his wall.
"It's one of those provinces,"
he said, "And every day when I
type in my password, I pray for
those Christians."
Lewis, professor of religious
studies, has been consumed by
the Hmong Chrislian movement in northern Vietnam—the
largest mass conversion in the
world in the pasi iwo decades,
according to Lewis.
He traveled this past June
with ihe Institute for Global En-
Hmong Continued on Page 6
dents and faculty to get out of
chapel?
A. "See ihe awesomeness of
God... I don't want them to see
people on a platform."
chapel
By Steffanie Lindgren
Jim Lo pointed to five students in the front rows of last
Wednesday's chapel and asked
them to come on stage, calling
one a criminal and the other
four horses. To illustrate that a
man can only be pulled in one
direction, the four "horses"
pulled the criminal in four different directions, suspending
him in the air.
"Dear ones," said Lo, "you
can only have one master."
Lo spoke about priorities
at the first chapel service of the
school year.
"Know what is important.
Seek whal is important," said
Lo. "If you and I are seeking for
the right things, we will be motivated for the right things."
The church cannot take the
stress of being pulled in different directions, he said.
"The decisions you make
show not only whal you are today, but what you become in the
future." It's about priorities, he
said.
Lo challenged students to
ask questions when seeking
guidance through life:
"Does it have eternal value?
Will it bring light? Does it cause
me to stumble? Is it based on
faith in God?"
Bethel to host
landmark journalism
conference
"Journalism Through the Eyes of Faith"
to feature renowned speakers
By Travis Grabow
Bethel's new journalism
major is set to receive a lot of
attention next week, when a
ihree-day conference, "Journalism Through the Eyes of Faith:
Negotiating Values, Fairnessand
Advocacy," kicks off on campus
on Sept. 20. The conference caters to anyone interested in the
relationships between faith and
professional journalism.
Despite being less than two
years old, Bethel's journalism
major is already growing rapidly. New faculty members have
been added this year to bring a
greater range of knowledge and
experience to the 25 students
who have declared journalism
majors.
Phyllis Alsdurf, assistant professor of English, who
played a large part in the conception and planning of the
conference, is excited about the
possibilities it brings. "I've had
a vision of this type of conference," she said. "1 wani Bethel
to be a place that's known for
its serious interaction around
the issues of religion and media
and how those intersect."
This conference full of renowned journalists is a rare
eveni at any college, much less
Bethel. Alsdurf hopes that it
will help bring national attention to the school and establish
Bethel as a leader in the discussion on matters of faith and the
media.
Naomi Schaefer Riley,
Wall Street Journal editor, will
be speaking on "Holding Up
a Mirror: Seeing the Faithful
as They See Themselves," the
evening of Sept. 20. Earlier this
year, she won an award for Best
In-Depth Reporting on Religion
from the American Academy of
Religion, and is also author of
"God on the Quad: How Religious Colleges and the Missionary Generation Are Changing
America."
Cathleen Falsani, religion
writer for the Chicago-Sun
Times, will be heading a plenary session, "Shipwrecked at
the Stable Door: Faith, Grace,
Folly, and the News in a Dangerous Time," the afternoon of
Sept. 21. She was winner of the
2005 Religion Writer of the Year
award and is also author of "The
God Factor: Inside the Spiritual
Lives of Public People."
Bill McKibben will be delivering the keynote address, "The
Signs of the Times," the evening
of Sept. 21. A passionate environmentalist and former staff
writer for The New Yorker, he
is the author oT several books,
including "Enough," and "The
End of Nature."
Krista Tippett will be
speaking at the closing luncheon, "Public Radio Gets Religion," the afternoon of Sept.
22. She will share her thoughts
and experiences as creator, producer, and host of the weekly
national radio show, "Speaking
of Faith."
Other presenters at the
conference include Manny Garcia, John Schmalzbauer, Nahid
Khan, Steve Scott, and John
Wilson.
For a complete list of
events and speakers, or to register for the Sept. 22 luncheon
with Krista Tippett, log on to
http://www.bethel.edu/speeial-
events/jtef/.
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