Friends and Family,
It's been a fantastic start to the semester here with RUF at the University of Tennessee. It's been encouraging to see many new (and familiar) faces in Large Group as well as our small groups. I'm also encouraged to see my relationships with students continue to grow and deepen. I look forward to sharing many more details from this semester with you in my next newsletter, but more immediately, I have some important news to share with you, my friends and supporters:
After much prayer and counsel, I have decided to stay in Knoxville and continue my internship with RUF for a third and final year. I believe this is where God has been leading me, and my discussions with others as well as recent circumstances have only further affirmed this decision. I would love to discuss this opportunity with you more in the months to come, but for now, I'll try to sum up the main factors driving my decision.
1. Experience gained as a third-year intern will be invaluable: I have learned so much during this internship...about God, ministry, other people, and myself. However, one of the main things I've learned in my time at UT is just how much I have left to learn. It is still my intent and desire, Lord willing, to attend seminary when I finish the internship. However, I've been told that the practical lessons about people and ministry from the internship will be extremely valuable and will only enhance my future theological education. Coming back for a third year, with two years of experience, I will have the opportunity to hit the ground running in the fall and continue directly applying the lessons I'm learning now. With the added experience will also come additional responsibilities. I will have more opportunities for Bible study leadership, preaching in Large Group, and involvement in planning and vision for the ministry. I will also have the opportunity to pursue avenues of ministry here on campus that I'm only now discovering and seeing the need for.
2. Others involved have affirmed a third-year as a good decision for me personally: While a third year would be a good continued learning experience in general (and a number of other interns in my class are making the same decision), there are other people in my life affirming that it'd be a good experience for me in particular. My campus minister, Brent Harriman, who functions for me as a boss, pastor, mentor, and friend, believes that I would greatly benefit from the experience of a third year. While it seems clear that God's will is for me to go to seminary, Brent believes that an additional year would allow me to continue testing my gifts and discerning more what my call to ministry looks like. He also agrees that another year of practical ministry experience would be very valuable for me before going to seminary. Other trusted mentors have also affirmed this decision.
3. Tennessee RUF will be getting a new campus minister next year: After eight years as RUF campus minister at UT-Knoxville, Brent Harriman has accepted a new position as RUF Area Coordinator for the states of Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana. His new job will involve pastoring the campus ministers, families, and interns within his area, as well as greater involvement in direction and vision-casting for RUF as a whole. While we are sad to be losing Brent as campus minister, we're thankful that he and his family will be able to remain in Knoxville, and we're also excited about this new ministry opportunity that God has given him. He has been an awesome influence in my life over the past year and a half, I have learned so much from him, and I will miss serving with him on a daily basis here at UT.
The process is already underway to find a new campus minister for next year. Whoever he is, he will already have ministry experience, likely with RUF. However, as he adjusts to a new campus and a large group of new students, I will be able to help him with the transition and provide some consistency. While RUF approved of my doing a third year before, with this recent development, RUF has asked me to stay on for a third year to help with the transition to a new campus minister.
While I felt God leading me to do a third year before, this coming change in leadership and opportunity to help with the transition have only confirmed my decision to stay. I am very excited about the opportunities that a third year will bring, excited to see the relationships I've started with students continue to grow and deepen, and excited to spend one more year in the city and on the campus that I've grown to love.
I have greatly appreciated all your prayers and generous support over the past year and a half. I could not be here serving the students of UT without you. I look forward to discussing these new developments and opportunities with many of you over the next few months, and I would love to hear from you. I continue to ask for your prayers as we finish out this year. Please especially be in prayer for Brent and his family as he wraps up this year and looks ahead to his new position. Also pray for RUF as they search for the the new campus minister that God has already called to UT-Knoxville, and pray for him and his family as they begin this transition to Tennessee.
My spring prayer letter will be in the mail soon. I hope you are all having a great month, and as they say here in East Tennessee... Go Vols.
Resting in His Promises,
Stephen
