Students told to cast
nets, catch disciples

 

350 attend May 25-28
leadership gathering at
Michigan college

United Methodist News Service
ADRIAN, Mich.—To be true disciples of Christ, college students must allow Jesus to use “your boat and your car and your mind and your body and your strength to advance the kingdom of God.”
Bishop Jonathan D. Keaton, Michigan Episcopal Area, provided that advice to more than 350 United Methodist students at UM-related Adrian College May 25-28.
They were attending the opening worship of Student Forum 2006. Theme of the student-organized gathering—”True Disciples: Learning to Fish”—comes from Luke 5:1-11. Jesus tells Simon Peter to cast his nets “into the deep water.” After the nets are full of fish, Jesus tells Simon Peter, “From now on you will be catching people.”
Keaton talked about who could be true disciples. Bible study leader Jan Rivero told students where to cast their nets.
The Rev. Ken Bedell, a staff member of the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry—which sponsored the gathering—summed up the lessons by telling the students what God wanted from true disciples.
After Simon Peter cast his nets and beheld the miracle of the full catch, he had to look at Jesus in a different way, Keaton said.
“That may be what this forum is about,” the bishop said. “Simon, because of this miracle, had to think that this is God. Because they found a way to do what Jesus asked them to do, God helped them find a way.
“When you go home from Student Forum, will people be convinced that you are converted?”
Keaton invited any students who felt God had called them to think seriously about the ministry to come down to the front. About 25 did so. Keaton told them he wanted to look in their faces so that “we can pray that you go where God is leading.”
Students at the leadership-development event attended workshops, worshiped and approved six resolutions. They:
> Called for “freedom from an unjust war in Iraq” and nonviolent intervention to end genocide in Sudan.
> Criticized Judicial Council Decision 1032, which upheld the right of a pastor to determine who could join the congregation he or she was serving.
> Urged the Judicial Council to reverse Decision 1032 and the Council of Bishops to move to create an inclusive church.
Christine Seymour, a student at Minnesota State University-Mankato and the new chairwoman of the United Methodist Student Movement Steering Committee, said she thought Student Forum 2006 lived up to the goal of being totally student-run.
The United Methodist Student Movement organizes the annual Student Forum.
Resolutions allow students to have a voice in the church, she added.
The 2007 Student Forum is to be at UM-related University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Wash.