College Union

By: Steve Moore

Dr. Steve Moore: Most people would know about your tenure as Dean of the Chapel at Duke. What interest and involvement did you have in campus ministry before that?

Bishop Will Willimon: None. I never wanted to be a campus minister, but I got called to be one. I never much cared for what I saw of campus ministry. However, I was wrong. I loved doing ministry on a university campus. The University is mostly organized to resist the Gospel, and I found that the Gospel does quite well in such hostile environments!

Moore: What did you experiences at Duke teach you about campus ministry at a church related school?

Willimon: Duke is not very church related. I think one of the things I learned is that Jesus Christ is quite up to any intellectual resistance or challenge the modern academic establishment can put His way.

Moore: How does what people in the local church understand campus ministry contrast with what is really happening from your experience?

Willimon: We still have a few people who think campus ministry is looking after sweet, well formed United Methodist youth who are at college. Campus ministry is that, but it is so much more than that: it is resistance, revolution, and subversion of the present order.

Moore: What would you hope to see emerge from the Summit that would help United Methodist campus ministry take it to the next level?

Willimon: I guess I would hope that they would see that we are indeed “resident aliens” on campus and that’s a good place to be.

Moore: Are there unique contributions that you think United Methodist Campus Ministry could make to higher education today.

Willimon: I think we can help higher education think with a broader, deeper rationality, otherwise known as the Gospel. I think we can help expose the limitations and the idolatries of American higher education. I think we can give people something better to do with their lives than merely to be successful as this culture defines success.

Moore: If you could design a curriculum for United Methodist Campus Ministers, what would it include?

Willimon: All my books? Just kidding.

Moore: Who and what has most shaped your understanding of campus ministry? Feel free to add one of your own creation!

Willimon: I think my interaction with the students most shaped my understanding. They graciously introduced me to a new generation and gave me a front row seat on some of the really wonderful and strange things that Jesus is doing among them.

Moore: Dr. Willimon, thanks for your thoughts and for being with us at the Summit!

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