The Call to Campus Ministry

Tammy Lee

Tammy Lee provided the following information for the rector and the search committee during the discernment process for the campus ministry clergy position.

I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in all. Ephesians 4:1-6

Paul beseeches his hearers to lead a life worthy of the calling to which they have been called. Indeed his statement is a clarion cry to discernment for every believer who seeks to serve Christ. As the Church, it also beckons us to search diligently where once many presumed only individuals should search. I find myself standing in a unique position, between promised lands as it were, with two different yet one community in mind-that one body and one spirit of campus and parish ministry. The structure of campus ministry at the Chapel of the Cross is unusual and, as staff and clergy in this place, we have shared investment in the work God has given us to do. While we have all held different positions, our investment in the whole cannot be separated by job description alone.

I arrived at the Chapel of the Cross as a transitional deacon in late August of 1993 as certain as I ever have been about where God was asking me to serve. It has been a fruitful, challenging, sometimes painful ministry, but one filled with copious grace. I have had the opportunity to work with every age group from cradle to grave, each generation offering their own perspective on life with God. Prior to accepting the position here, friends and family made the assumption that, because I was going to Chapel Hill, I was going to work on the university campus. Given my love for the academy I suppose they thought that Chapel Hill was an obvious choice. I carefully explained even to the faculty at Seabury-Western that this was a parish ministry job. They always responded; "Oh but you would be so good as a university chaplain." In retrospect, I wonder if they thought I would be a disaster as parish priest; or perhaps they knew something that I did not.

I have been very fulfilled by my work as a parish priest. This was a huge surprise to me since my original plan was to finish a Doctorate of Ministry and a Ph.D. in psychology and then teach in a seminary. I had examined the ultimate questions of condition and existence while working in Holocaust studies at Yale, going so far as to meet with Elie Wiesel and responding to his request for a graduate student to work in this area. I never expected to be here more than three years, having had no interest in the Benedictine vow of stability. I was going to honor my three year commitment to the Chapel of the Cross and be on my way rejoicing. God, however, kept redirecting my attention to the richness of the church and to the lessons to be learned, personally and professionally, about these very questions. Thankfully, I paid attention. I looked annually at other opportunities from Hawaii to Maine. Of late I still keep my ears and heart open if for no other reason than ten years in one place can often lead to complacency, laziness, and boredom. The Chapel of the Cross's size and identity mitigates against the tedium; but one can become, I think, too comfortable and lose the edge that risking new venues often keeps sharp.

In these past ten years as I have thought and prayed about how I might use the gifts, talents, and limitations God has given and transformed in me, campus ministry has come to mind. I often confessed to colleagues the sin of coveting Stephen Stanley's job. In the course of my ministry, students have sought me out about personal and pastoral issues. Sometimes they had been in our youth program and moved on to college at UNC. Others I came to know through their volunteering in our youth program as EYC leaders. I also worked with them as post-graduates and in preparation for their marriages. I continue to marvel at that wonderful and sacred juncture of young adulthood-the deep desire of wanting to grow into the person God had called one to be and the need to make a difference in this world that is governed by the powers and principalities that the kingdom of heaven has battled with for years.

Eighteen to twenty five was for me the most significant period of religious formation. I was fortunate enough to have at Florida State University the best chaplain one could imagine in a context almost identical to that of the Chapel of the Cross. He was the primary figure in my spiritual development, helping me bridge a gap between biblical literalism and intellectual inquiry. His presence was his gift; and when I think about how I burdened him with, shall we say, less-than-real concerns on a daily basis (like not having a date to the sorority formal or a C on a test) his steadfastness and encouragement enabled a growth that would not have otherwise been possible. He was the one that first suggested seminary when there was not a woman priest to be found. He was the one who pointed out to me after an encounter with Campus Crusade that, "Christ died to take away your sins not your mind." I continue contact with him after almost twenty five years. Each time the position of chaplain at FSU came open Bernie called to let me know about it. It was always a less than subtle hint but one I took seriously each time. Each time I felt God was asking me to continue at the Chapel of the Cross.

Now, more than ever, I sense the call to abide with God at the Chapel of the Cross but to direct my energy and effort into developing a call that may have been present all along. I want to help students make the transition into a fuller stature in Christ. Knowing this community as I do will enable possibilities that might not otherwise happen. I believe in blurring the edges between University and Church, making the boundaries more fluid so that we might be challenged by the academy and the academy challenged by us. We have talked about how the demographics of the Chapel of the Cross have changed and that we are less of a university church now than twenty years ago. We have told ourselves that this is ok. I'm not sure it is ok. We are in a prime position to "go forth in the name of Christ," not to convert the campus but, to borrow a Quaker phrase, to "hold it in the light" so that those who are seeking God will be able to find their way to him.

Later in the passage from Ephesians, Paul states that some "...would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people's trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, [is] joined and knit together…." I want to be a part of joining and knitting together. While it is the work of all God's people, for the university community who call themselves Episcopalians and Christians, whether student, faculty, or administrator, it is their ultimate mission and the Chapel of the Cross's responsibility.