Lauren Bailey, resident director of SWEP residence halls and new coordinator of the Campus Ministry Assistants program, shared her vision for student development. She also spoke on how rewarding the room adjacent to the security office has panned out this year.

“It’s been a blessing to have a space where students can come and just be in community with each other and the Lord and also learn about how to get involved in the Christian community on campus,” she said. “It’s been a really amazing tool to spread information about what we’re doing in campus ministry. I have met a lot of students through them just popping in and saying hi, and that’s been really cool.”

The chosen location in the Stover Campus Center was an impactful representation of core university values, said Josh Sumpter, assistant chaplain.

“The Stover campus center is a location that students go to because of Student Services, the beehive and different offices,” Sumpter said. “I think it gets back to the mission of our university, which is to help students grow in faith, service and their academics. And now you have faith and service in the first floor of the student center, physical locations, showing what the university’s values are.”

There hasn’t always been a centralized location for interacting with ministry staff on campus, Sumpter said.

“We’ve loosely used the nickname “The Hub” and I think it really has been a hub for people to get connected, for worship opportunities, Bible studies and to connect with campus ministry staff, which really didn’t exist before,” he said. “You had to really hunt to find campus ministry staff here. That was the heartbeat behind the decision to create a space during the summer of 2018.”

The campus ministry lounge was crafted and designed to allow students to feel comfortable, have fellowship with one another, and be integrated into ministry on campus, Sumpter said.

“The goal is always relationships. The heartbeat of ministry is pointing students to Jesus and sharing life together.”

A major aspect of the lounge’s welcoming atmosphere is the presence of the campus ministry assistants. Their purpose, Bailey said, is to expand campus ministry by using their gifts, talents and strengths.

“The goal is to really equip CMAs so we’re not ‘Christians,’ and that’s the end of the story, but we’re continually growing to know the Lord more deeply and more fully,” Bailey said. “Walking with them and teaching them what it means to be Christian leaders on campus, you’re growing in your relationship with the Lord, how do you share that with other people? How do you walk in that every day and reflect who God is to the people around you?”

The goal is to remain inclusive by continually being mindful that this is a welcoming space, a resource space and not a club, Sumpter said.

“You always have a concern that spaces can become exclusive. I hope that any student that’s interested in campus ministry or wants to meet with an assistant or myself can come in and feel welcomed,” he said. “We don’t want certain people to feel like they can’t go in there or that it’s for a particular group of students.”

While some know the Campus Ministry Lounge as the campus ministry assistant lounge, it was not intended to be so, added Sumpter.

“This space and this center is not just for CMAs, some people call it the CMA lounge, but that’s not any part of why we designed it,” he said. “This is open to any student to come in, have conversations, and get resources as they grow in their faith.”

Applications for CMA positions are currently available on myconnect, March 26 is the deadline for applying.