Students and chaplain attend national campus ministry conference

July 25, 2005

Lyon College students Watson Neal and Ben Thielemier, along with Lyon Chaplain Nancy McSpadden, recently attended the PEER 1 Campus Ministries Conference in Louisville, Kentucky.

Held June 15-19 on the campus of the University of Louisville, the event was sponsored by the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the Presbyterian Association for Collegiate and Higher Education Ministries. The PEER 1 conference was a training event for undergraduate student-leaders at Presbyterian-affiliated colleges or who participate in a local church or on-campus ministry. Also included in the conference were campus chaplains and ministers who work with college ministries in local churches.

Students and adults participated in workshops, discussion groups, Bible studies, worship development, a service project and more -- all focused on the skills needed to be a leader in campus ministries. Participants in the conference came from all over the United States as well as from small colleges and large universities — from Lyon (500 students) to the University of Michigan (50,000 students).

Each student and adult spent one day of the conference at a mission site. The Lyon group, along with students from the Westminster House at the University of Memphis, painted the community room of Central Presbyterian, a multi-cultural mission church in downtown Louisville. Before leaving for the work site, the entire conference group worshipped together at the Presbyterian Headquarters with the denominational staff.

During the conference, Ben Thielemier was elected to a three-year term on the national Presbyterian Student Strategy Team, and will help plan the next event, scheduled for June 2006 in Birmingham, Alabama. Watson Neal will be part of a committee preparing a guideline handbook for campus ministry leadership.