Students Walk Humbly in Service...

Contact: John Kerr
(901) 843-3873
kerr@rhodes.edu

April 26, 2000

Rhodes Offers Pilot Project in Campus-Community Ministry Partnerships

(Memphis, TN)---According to Micah Chapter 6 in the Bible, the Lord requires us to "do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God." Rhodes College has launched a project to develop local partnerships between college students and congregations or faith-based organizations to address issues of justice, service and spiritual formation.

The project, called "Micah 6", is supported by a three-year grant from the Corella and Bertram F. Bonner Foundation and is in response to the Micah 6 efforts of the Economic Justice and Domestic Hunger Program of the National Council of Churches. NCC has identified 40 congregations around the country to commit to a process of discernment and action, combining ministries of justice, mercy and spiritual journey. The Rhodes project is the only one of its kind. The National Council of Churches and the Bonner Foundation hope that the Rhodes project will serve as a resource for replication at other schools, churches and campus ministries.

Rhodes has developed partnership teams of students with local congregations that are committed to a 2-year process of workshops, team planning, spiritual reflection and holistic ministry in the Memphis community.

The Rhodes Chaplain's Office will facilitate the process, and assist teams with:

(1) understanding the concept of holistic ministry described in Micah 6, re: justice, mercy and spiritual journey,

(2) discernment of community needs and a call to service,

(3) designing and implementing a Micah 6 action plan which combines ministries of justice, direct services and spiritual enrichment.

With support from the Bonner Foundation and participating congregations, mini-grants will be available to these teams to help fund their ministry. Each team begins as a small group, composed of Rhodes students and members of a local congregation or community ministry. Together, they study community needs, reflect on the Micah 6 concept, and coordinate an action plan for community ministry. The team recruits others, as needed, to carry out their action plan. Four Micah 6 teams are currently active.

Each Micah 6 team focuses on: (1) a particular concern for community justice, (2) engaging students and congregational members in direct service and (3) spiritual enrichment. In some cases, students and/or the congregation may have a community project already underway, and the Micah 6 team can help to build a stronger collaboration, refine or broaden the project, or take it to the next level. In other cases, Micah teams will need to reflect on unmet needs in their community and work to design an entirely new ministry.

The teams will meet each fall for workshops in order to report on their progress, pray and reflect with the larger group and renew their efforts. The Rhodes Chaplain's Office will continue to consult with the Bonner Foundation and NCC's Micah 6 planning team, and compile a progress report each summer, which may serve as a resource for other campus-congregation partnerships in community ministry.

Memphis churches and organizations participating in the Micah 6 project include: St. Mary's Catholic Church, First Presbyterian Church, Second Presbyterian Church, Holy Community United Methodist Church, New Hope Academy, Neighborhood Christian Center, Latino Memphis Conexion, the Boy and Girl Scouts and Holy Community Shalom Ministries.

For more information on the Rhodes College Micah 6 Project, contact Chaplain Billy Newton at (901) 843-3804.

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