We want the church to know what we are doing to fulfill our mission to nurture transforming leaders for the church's future. In this time of Advent preparation we look toward the God who brings a hope equal to the world's troubles, and we seek to be a small part of that hope, for the church and for the world.

Please especially note the article below about the HELM Leadership Fellows program, and how you can help us by encouraging high school seniors you know to apply, or telling us about particularly promising young people in your congregation.

May your Christmas be joyous, peaceful and hope-filled.

How Christians talk about our faith and work together despite our differences was the center of the 10th HELM Leadership Fellows conference, held the first weekend in November. Twenty-two students from across the country who have shown leadership skills and want to help lead the church gathered in Colorado Springs to meditate on their faith and then find the right combination of words to express it.

A member of the student planning team that helped select a theme and bring it to life, Lundblad explained the conference’s roots in her own struggles.

“I went into the planning meeting after a couple of really discouraging conversations in which I was disappointed in the ability of myself and other really intelligent, passionate Christians to articulate our faith well,” said Lundblad, a junior at Oberlin College from Asheville, N.C.

Lundblad isn’t alone in finding the assignment challenging. In these times when opinion is misrepresented as fact and there is little room for disagreement, the ability to state our beliefs clearly without offending others is a lost art. This year’s conference aimed to help students practice these conversations in a safe environment with the hope they would be able to start similar productive conversations back on their campuses and eventually in the communities where they will lead.

The conference’s theme closely resembled another HELM project, the Disciples Leadership Institute. When the student planning team suggested the theme of “reclaiming faith,” three DLI veterans were asked to lead students through the process:

• Joe Blosser, an associate professor of religion and ethics at DePaul University and a member of the first Leadership Fellow class;

• Chesla Nickelson, an M.Div. student at Christian Theological Seminary; and

• Sara Steenhouse, associate pastor at Lafayette Christian Church and at InsideOUT, a new church start, both in the San Francisco Bay area.

Students and organizers expected a challenging, exhausting weekend

“This conference demanded more of the Fellows than we had ever asked before,” said HELM Dennis Landon. “They spent a good part of the weekend in disciplined conversation about their faith and their lives. The conference also demanded even more of our resource people. Chesla, Sara, and Joe engaged the students and guided their conversations not just in the series of individual workshops but throughout the entire weekend. I’m proud of how hard everybody worked.”

Leadership Fellows shared a great appreciation for the experience.

“Articulating your faith in a thoughtful and meaningful sense is important. After spending a weekend focusing on doing this in a supportive and challenging environment, my belief in the importance of this has only grown,” said Virginia White, a sophomore at Rice University from Austin, Texas. “I have appreciated the time to practice this process, to be questioned, and to reflect. Through the weekend my hope for the future of the church as a body that can work compassionately together, even through differences, has been restored.”

While college students can often create a loose community during conferences like these, a deeper connection was noted by several students, including Sarah Cheon, a senior at the University of California from Claremont, Calif..

“I really enjoyed getting to know my peers on a deeper level and to be able to appreciate the diversity of ideas and backgrounds found in each individual,” Cheon said. “It not only helped me to articulate my own thoughts but also view my beliefs through a fresh perspective.”

Worship at Leadership Fellows conferences are planned and led by the student steering team, which provides opportunities for a variety of worship styles. This year’s conference borrowed from children’s worship styles and the monastic Taize tradition of silence and meditation.

“During Saturday night’s worship, we were given a long moment of silence allowing us to pray in a number of different ways. I was able to actually feel God’s presence,” said Paige Westerhausen, a freshman at Culver-Stockton College from Girard, Ill. “It was a very powerful and emotional experience for me. I felt a connection with God that I haven’t felt for a while.”

The Disciples Leadership Institute, HELM’s program that brings leaders of all ethnicities and from new and established congregations across the country will return in 2012 thanks in part to a grant from Reconciliation Ministry, a new partner in the program.

DLI helps congregational leaders transcend traditional divisions and understand the multiplicities of worship, faith experience, and theological expression brought by participants. Testimony, small groups, spiritual practices, and unique worship frame a week packed with discussion, sharing, and prayer.

DLI’s first three years were underwritten by grants from the Oreon E. Scott Foundation and the Shumaker Family Foundation. The addition of Reconciliation Ministry, the Disciples’ ministry to break down racial barriers in the church and beyond, breathes new life into a program that both HELM and DLI participants believe has the potential to shape the way Disciples view diversity in the denomination.

The first two DLI conferences were held in 2006 and 2007 in suburban San Francisco, with St. Louis hosting a third conference in 2008. Almost 40 participants have participated in the program so far.

Reconciliation Ministry has approved an initial grant to underwrite a planning process in 2011 that will undergird the restart of DLI and develops a plan to train leaders to replicate the DLI experience across the church.

We anticipate gathering a renewed planning team in next summer to prepare for a 2012 national DLI Conference and regional conferences in several locations in North America.

“The HELM Board of Directors recognized the danger when Christians with different theological and cultural roots can’t understand each other,” says HELM President Dennis Landon. “The first three DLI conferences demonstrated this understanding was not only possible but crucial. DLI gives us great hope for the future, and our partnership with Reconciliation Ministry gives DLI a new lease on life.”

In our September newsletter, HELM announced a partnership with Church Extension and Disciples Home Missions centering on congregational renewal.

That partnership now has a name: The Hope Partnership for Missional Transformation. The Hope Partnership is one of many places where congregational leaders are focusing on transformation, emergent Christianity, and becoming missional church.

In early November, seven regions, each represented by their regional ministers and a pair of pastors from congregations that had gone through significant transformation, gathered to continue to build a network focused on congregational transformation.

Over and over, becoming a missional church emerges as the crucial ingredient in renewing a dying church.

Training for pastors is key element of the program. Participants planned a pair of intense, week-long training courses, to be taken within three months of each other.

Coaching and self-reliant peer networking will provide opportunities for ongoing dialogue; these elements be piloted in the next year. In addition, the 2011 General Assembly in Nashville will offer a six-hour learning track on a Leadership Focus for Transformational Pastors.

It’s not just a pastor’s job to lead the church through tough changes, says Church Extension’s Rick Morse.

“We need to be working around with core team lay members to help propel congregational transformation. What we’re talking about is deeply adaptive, more than a “punching up a program” approach. These congregations are going to be different than they are today.”

Keep up with the Hope Partnership and other congregational transformation programs through The Intersection and HELM’s web site, www.helmdisciples.org.

In our last newsletter, we told you about HELM’s acquisition of The Intersection, a web site and social network created for members of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and a larger ecumenical community. So far, the early results are good.

Blogs on sustainability, both environmentally and financially, from Church Extension’s John Davidson; reflections on balance as a leader from Nebraska’s Doug Pfeiffer; California pastor Maria Tafoya’s weekly “Tuesday’s Child” blog; and more.

If you haven’t signed up for The Intersection, what are you waiting for? Go to www.disciplesintersection.org and click “Sign up” in the right column. It only takes a few minutes. Feel free to join in a conversation or start your own.

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Steve Mason, a 2004 graduate of the HELM Leadership Fellows Program and a 2010 graduate of the Disciples Divinity House at Vanderbilt was ordained September 18 at First Christian Church in Lincoln, Neb. He and his wife, Caitlin, live in Kansas City, Mo., where he currently serves as a pastoral resident at Country Club Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

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Campus news

Chapman University adds affiliation with United Church of Christ; Christian Theological Seminary receives a $1.1 million Lilly Endowment grant; Disciples Seminary Foundation tabs a new president; TCU students combat hunger and engage in community activism; and Eureka College plans to invest $11 million in new and refurbished residence halls. Keep up with what's happening at Disciples institutions of higher education.

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Students tell their stories
HELM has asked college students from across the country to write about their faith during college. The variety of responses is tremendous. Join our Facebook group or subscribe to our Twitter feed (helmdisciples) to make sure you don't miss new stories. Here are our most recent student stories:

Christina Hunt: Uncomfort zone Christina Hunt got off to a rough start at the University of Tennessee. Back home in Memphis, she had her inner circle of trustworthy friends and a community that knew who she was. At the other end of the Volunteer State, Christina was a nobody. She became a different person, at times angry and resentful. A visit from her father, and some wise advice to trust in God, helped Christina change her attitude, and that's made all the difference as her first semester comes to a close.
Caroline Hamilton: New things Advent — the time of year for eager but patient waiting for something new — is bringing its share of new things to Caroline Hamilton. Applying for graduate school, looking ahead to a final semester, and getting engaged have her looking forward. She shares that call for new things in an Advent song in which the world's humble and overlooked hope for something simple, something better. Their hope, and their expectation that their hopes will come to pass, is rooted in their faith in our beautiful God.
Alexis Westerhausen: Avoiding the unavoidable The fear of offending someone is so overwhelming in today's politically and religiously charged world that keeping your opinion to yourself makes life so much easier. But that's not an effective way to lead. Alexis Westerhausen joined other HELM Leadership Fellows last month in practicing civil conversation — and yes, it takes practice. The experience of sharing of her opinions, while listening to opinions different from hers, has open Alexis' mind to new ways to address and solve problems, a lesson we could all use from time to time.
Luke Ehrhardt: A life of faith At an age when many college students distance themselves from their families and churches, Luke Ehrhardt holds those connections close. His brother's cheerful spirit during recovery from a liver transplant, the leadership and kindness exemplified by his parents, and his congregation's unquestioned love and support, helps Luke recognize others who need help. Together, these have helped Luke create a strong relationship with God, too.
Sarah Cheon: A time for growing up College is all about learning, but not all learning takes place in the classroom. As Sarah Cheon's senior year begins, she looks back at how college has helped her mature from a "selfish, immature" freshman to a graduate with a wider perspective on the world. Seeing how that change has made her a better person helps ease her anxiety about the next change, heading out into the working world.
Virginia White: What does my routine say about me? If actions speak louder than words, Virginia White believes routines speak loudest of all. And that bothers her. As a collegian with a routine centered study and campus engagement, Virginia realizes growing her faith isn't a priority. She sees education as part of a journey to a life that includes a faithful focus and living out Jesus' call to serve others, but balancing that call with the short-term necessities of college life is a nagging concern she can't shake.
Kiersten Hawes: The power of affirmations Inner peace. Guidance. Healing. Prosperity. These four affirmations are changing the way Kiersten Hawes views each day. Overwhelmed by classes and extracurricular activities, Kiersten's grandmother sent her a book that taught her some simple ways to change her routine, focus on God from the moment she awoke, and provided hope at the end of long days. She believes mediation and prayer are the source of my strength this semester.
Dave Stonebraker: To think like God Dave Stonebraker recognizes the need to find another place when he needs to be close to God, be it a church or a park or a pond. David has also come to learn that prayer takes us to a new place and shows us a new way of thinking — God's thinking. When we strive to think like God, our worldly concerns fall away, our minds are transformed, and we can see and feel the renewal all around us.
Tom Calvert-Rosenberger: Always on the move Tom Calvert-Rosenberger can't explain why he decided to move from Indiana to Texas for college, or why he chose to study this semester in Italy when he'd taken five years of Spanish. In his faith, he sees Jesus, the wandering prophet always on the move, as a kindred spirit. Tom believes life and love and God are in the constant change, and that the most important constant in life is embracing life as it is.
Courtney Waters: Cluelessness to definition and back again As she enters her senior year in college, Courtney Waters is reflecting on her experiences as she changed from a confused freshman to a sophomore beginning to discern her vocational calling, and then more confusion as she tried to figure out how to make that calling a reality. While it's easy to label college students as "aimless" when they change majors as often as they change clothes, Courtney sees God at work in the chaos.
Seth Rash: Welcome to college For freshman Seth Rash, college in the Metroplex is a lot different than high school in a small Missouri town. Aside from all the distraction around the TCU campus, Seth has been careful about how he uses his free time, something he didn't have as an overcommitted high schooler. He's being careful about saving time for himself, and that includes concentrating on his relationship with God.