When the letter came in the mail I was ecstatic, and I jumped up and down and started screaming. I had been awarded a HELM fellowship. Mostly it was the money I was excited about and the free trips. This scholarship program sounded like a good deal. I'm a little embarrassed to admit all that now. I hope Dennis is not too upset with me and will refrain from holding this admission over my head.

I came to HELM an enthusiastic freshman, who had been active in youth group but was unsure of how to get plugged in at college. I made up my mind long ago that Texas Christian University was where I wanted to attend school, largely because it was a Disciples college. But when it was time for school to start, I felt a little intimidated. At Frog Camp the week before classes began, one of the first people I met was Casey Abney another HELM Leadership Fellow. She sought me out, introduced herself, and answered my questions both about TCU and HELM. After meeting her, I was reassured about many of my fears and more excited about being a Leadership Fellow.

To me being a Leadership Fellow is mainly about the relationships I've formed over the past three years. Getting a chance to be in communion with other disciples students who care deeply for the church has been invaluable. At each conference I've stayed up into the early hours of the morning having deep conversations about God and spirituality with students who I believe will be prominent in the future of our church. My soul is fed by being around so many great young people with so many wonderful ideas, hopes, and dreams. I've also been privileged to meet many great leaders and thinkers in our denomination at our conferences, and I have appreciated their willingness to share their time and wisdom with us.

Another important part of this program is the covenant that each fellow creates outlining a ministry project they design that they will take leadership of during the academic year. Through these covenants HELM fellows have done everything from organizing youth retreats to leading Bible studies. These covenants represent our commitment to our church and its continued mission.

I am not sure of the course my college life would have taken had I not been a Leadership Fellow, but I know that it has enriched my undergraduate experience in countless ways. HELM's mission is about growing transforming church leaders and through this program I have been challenged to think seriously about my own call. I believe that God is calling me to a life of ministry and I am so thankful for the staff at HELM and my peer Leadership Fellows for being with me on the journey as we have tried to discern our roles in the church together.

This summer, through HELM, I got the unique opportunity to work as a ministry intern at St. Andrew Christian Church in Olathe, Kansas. This has been far more than just a summer job to me. I've learned so much about what ministry is and how to do it effectively from an extremely vibrant and active community. I have been mentored by a wonderful staff, especially senior minister, Rev. Holly McKissick. I've spent my summer learning about everything from the business side of running a church to planning VBS and youth mission trips to how to be a good pastoral care giver. I am grateful for the time I have gotten to spend there, and I thank HELM for giving me the opportunity to learn from and be engaged in a great community.

I owe a lot to the staff at HELM and the people who support this ministry.

So I stand before you today in my final year of what has been a transforming journey, glad to have the tuition assistance, but full of the realization that this program is so much more than that. I enter my fourth year with the knowledge that my graduation from this program is more of a beginning than an ending. It may sound trite, but being a HELM Leadership Fellow has been a life-altering experience, and I feel privileged and honored to be part of this program.

I want to thank Dennis and Brad and Linda for their work in putting together this great banquet and for offering me the chance to say a few words about my experiences in Disciples higher education. Now it has been a few years since I first met Dennis. I don't remember too much about our first interaction, but I do remember that it was during my junior year at Texas Christian University, and I do remember a golden pocket-watch swinging back and forth, and anytime I hear someone snap their fingers, I remember Dennis saying - "You will only live in Disciples Divinity Houses - You will only live in Disciples Divinity Houses." A few months after meeting Dennis I became the youth minister at University Christian Church and moved into the UCC Disciples House next to the TCU campus. Then just over a year after meeting Dennis, I moved into the Disciples Divinity House at Vanderbilt University where I lived for three years while earning my M.Div. Then just about a month ago I moved into the Disciples Divinity House at the University of Chicago where I will live while I pursue a Ph.D. in theological ethics. Then after having accumulated about a decade of communal Disciples House living, I think I'll write a book about all the bickering in the early Christian communities!

But truly I have been honored with great opportunities by the Disciples of Christ to receive an impeccable education and find myself woven in a web of Disciples leaders. This is the power of HELM - this is its ministry. There was a time when I think everyone figured that if we just got the next generation good educations at good Disciples schools that they would know how to be church leaders. But in the mean time the church forgot about these young people - or at least did nothing other than complain when they weren't at church. I mean how many times have we heard, have I had to answer the question, "why don't more young people come to church?" We as a church are realizing that we can't just ship people off to get educated then expect them to come back and be the leaders we expected. This recognition is reflected in the name change from the Division of Higher Education (constructed to oversee the shipping off and educating of young people) to Higher Education and Leadership Ministries (that charts a new course of mentoring young people into their gifts for ministry through quality education and deepened church relationships). It is the difference between on the one hand educating ministers and ordaining ministers and shipping ministers off to remote churches where they lead congregations by themselves and burn out in 5-7 years, and on the other hand, nurturing a possible minister, that's me, as young as my high school years to explore a wide-range of ministry possibilities, connecting me with other committed Disciples in my college years, offering me a scholarship opportunity that connects me to my future ministry peers across the nation and to a local ministry site that mentors me and develops my leadership skills, and then encouraging me through seminary and further connecting me by way of Seminarians Conferences and General Assemblies to other seminarians so that by the time of my ordination, by the time of this assembly, by the time I finish my Ph.D and begin my professional ministry - I will be deeply enmeshed in a vast web of my peers in ministry. This is a web of people who have helped me discern my particular leadership skills and my particular gifts in the spirit so that when I give in, burn out, bog down, or dry up they will know just how to bring the living water back into my life. This is the power of communal life - this is the power of a mentoring church - this is power of HELM.

I know I've gloated a bit about how great HELM is and how much Disciples higher education has meant to me, and I was going to say here that I promise you they aren't paying me to say nice things, but then I starting thinking about the Leadership Fellows and Brown scholarships I've received from HELM, and then of course their was that Disciples-related money that paid for my TCU education, and that Disciples-affiliated money that paid for my Vanderbilt education, and then there were those scholarships and rent subsidies from both the Nashville and Chicago Disciples Divinity Houses - not to mention scholarships, salaries, and donations made by local congregations. So maybe this is a bit of a "paid" advertisement, I tend to think it was money well spent, and besides just because they paid George Foreman to advertise that little grill thing doesn't mean it's not any good - in fact I love mine - I've cooked with it in every Disciples Divinity House.

Beau:
The Student Ecumenical Partnership - STEP - is the joint college ministry of our denomination and the United Church of Christ. The last word in our name, partnership, is the most important word in that title. Our role, as partners, is to connect to, communicate with, and advocate for the thousands of college students in our two denominations.

Jonathan:
In March, the Leadership Team had a meeting in St. Louis at the HELM office. Two extremely important things came out of this meeting. First, STEP's mission was redefined. We feel this is encompassed by our mission statement: We are ecumenical college students called by the Gospel of Jesus Christ to oppose injustice and transform dialogue into action. It is our hope that we can make a real difference by speaking out in those situations calling for a voice, but also through turning positive discussion into meaningful action, demonstrating the passion college students have for the issues that affect all of God's creation.

Natalee:
We are living out this mission here at General Assembly by connecting with college students and talking about the issues that students are passionate about. We are also doing this by providing a forum for students to discuss these matters, our online list serv. We are serving as advocates, raising awareness and speaking out when needed to make sure our voice is heard.

Leslie:
Yet none of this is possible, none of these things can happen, if we don't use our partnerships. The second important change resulting from the March meetings was the reaffirmation of the commitment to STEP by the two denominations and the institutions that support us. By necessity and with purpose, we interact with college students, chaplains, professors, and administrators. Our ecumenical element provides us with many advantages and diverse perspectives. It also requires us to partner with local congregations, regional and conference ministers, and general church officials while talking through theological and administrative differences. We are a network of partnerships, and these partnerships provide us with support and strength needed to continue our mission.

Katie:
We were all honored and excited to be asked to speak tonight. Everyone at HELM has been so incredibly supportive and encouraging. They have challenged us to push farther and wider than we ever could have hoped, continuing with us as we go forward. And forward is exactly the direction we're headed. Through the next few months and over the course of the next few years, all of you will see a different, more proactive and involved STEP.

Beau: Our new mission, coupled with the resources our partnerships provide us, will allow us to engage in a more effective ministry by focusing more on what college students need and then working diligently to meet those needs. We are excited, energetic, and hopeful. We appreciate your time tonight and ask that you join us in partnership, ensuring our words never ring empty and our mission runs deep. Thank you.

After my first Leadership Fellows Conference in St. Louis, I found myself taking more initiative around campus and in the classroom. Soon after I began putting the qualities I learned meeting with the other Leadership Fellows into action, I found myself participating with the campus television station, which led to my own sketch comedy show. I became the public address announcer at all the games, and other events in the Dover, Delaware community. HELM helped to boost my confidence in my goals and more importantly helped me to do more for my church.

Mentoring to the guys at boy talk was a very humbling experience. P.J., Malcolm, Shea and a few others completed our small circle. The guys looked up to me in a way, and that took some time getting used to. Ms. Sheila McDowell, the youth Minister, was always so happy to see me. She always reminded me of how much the guys loved boy talk and how they looked forward to it each Friday. At that point I felt like a leader because this was something I brought to Ms. McDowell as an idea and I was beginning to smell the success. If I was unable to attend a boy talk because I was taping a television show on campus, they would ask "where were you Mr. Ralph?" It made me feel good to hear that.

At first, I really didn't feel they cared who I was or what I was doing there, but I realized that just being there had a small impact on the lives of these kids......then I really started to think about boys whose father's abandon them ...how much of a difference it would make if they would just be there for their child. Now, my father is a man of few words, but he is the type to lead by example (and I slowly start to see myself turning into him, which is starting to scare me) but that's what I tried to do at boy talk: show them different ways of giving respect to women, their elders and each other. Teaching these qualities might not seem important to my peers, but it goes a long way in the mind of 11 or 12 year-old boys. I am grateful for this opportunity to grow as a man and a mentor and to have an effect on the lives of these boys.

Kris Culp:
Remarks for "The Great Leadership Quiz" HELM GA dinner, Portland, Oregon 7/26/05 Kris CulpRumor has it that I'm actually pinch-hitting for current Ph.D. students who have received scholarships from HELM. I'm honored to do so. I know that many of them are preparing for their vocations of leadership, teaching, and scholarship even as we meet.

One of my first connections with the Division of Higher Education, now HELM, was as one of those scholarship recipients. When I was a Ph.D. student and Disciples Divinity House Scholar at the University of Chicago, I was a recipient of the Ann E. Dickerson Scholarship.

The Dickerson Scholarship is worthy of its own quiz-don't worry I'll give you this answer:Who was Ann Dickerson and why does a scholarship bear her name? She was a physician and faculty member at Meharry Medical School, an historically Black institution. An African-American Disciples leader, she was a member of the Board of Directors of DHE at the time of her early death in the mid1970s. The scholarship was established to honor her-and to do something else: to encourage Disciples women to pursue Ph.D.s in religion. At the time of her death, there were virtually none. The scholarship would help equip them to become professors and scholars, perhaps even deans.

Now there's a vision. To cast such visions and to strengthen Disciples related higher and theological education remains at the heart of HELM's work.

In the early 1980s, when I received the Dickerson Scholarship, there were only a few Disciples women with Ph.D.s or in Ph.D. programs. At the annual breakfast for Disciples scholars-sponsored by DHE at the AAR/SBL meeting-we gathered eagerly-all around a single table: Rita Nakashima Brock, Mary Donovan Turner, Nadia Lahutsky, Claudia Camp, Bonnie Miller-McLemore, and another one or two.

Today HELM still sponsors that breakfast-along with CBP-and we women faculty and Ph.D. students are well-represented among the breakfast tables, though women of color, like Ann Dickerson herself, and persons of color in general, are still underrepresented around those tables. Visions yet to work toward.

I've been at lots of tables sponsored or staffed by HELM over the last 25 years: AAR/SBL breakfasts, meetings of Disciples seminary presidents and deans, HELM Board of Director meetings, annual meetings of the Association of Disciples for Theological Discussion.

These are tables of connection; tables where the work of preparing and equipping leaders for a future church is shared. They are places where vocations are nurtured and where visions are glimpsed of a future that we can sometimes only barely imagine.

At those tables, like these tonight, I know I'll find one or more of that agile and wiry HELM staff-Dennis Landon, Linda Plengemeier, Brad Lyons, Elnora Hinson. And, like tonight, there are probably also food and festivity at those tables.

[Now] we have a word from our leader, the agile and wiry Dennis Landon — who has led DHE & HELM with great generosity of vision, faithfulness, astuteness, and festivity for 8 years.

In the midst of the fun and games I hope we have reminded you of a serious, but exciting, reality. The church's leaders are everywhere and all around us-in the great cloud of witnesses watching from our past, in those who right now are helping us find our way into a faithful future, and particularly in those who have not yet heard God's call to lead. Wherever each of you serves God-in your congregations, in educational institutions, in regional and general ministries-we hope have opened your eyes and ears to the gifts of leadership wherever you see them. More importantly, we hope your mouths are open and your tongues employed to invite those men and women-young or not-so-young-to listen with their minds and hearts for God's call.

We want HELM to be part of a leadership renewal in this church. We want to increase the number of lay and clergy persons who feel called to move the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) from institutional maintenance and crisis management toward more faithful service to the God who transforms human life and the human world. We believe that God is already turning us toward an open and abundant future and away from our preoccupations with survival, structures, and procedures, and we see the signs of that turning all around us.

With all the other stuff on your tables-blinky lights, and brochures and other information about HELM's ministries-I hope you will also notice this little response card and envelope. We would like to keep you up to date on what we are doing, but these days we can't afford to send mail to everyone, so if you would let us have you names and addresses, as people who have a special interest in this ministry, we can be in touch with you from time to time. There are some other options you can check on that card, and, yes, gifts from individuals are an increasingly important way of supporting our work. We appreciate the opportunity to be in touch with all Disciples who share our commitment to nurturing leaders.