During one recent Friday lunch hour, a group of about a dozen male students, faculty and staff gathered around tables in 草莓社区鈥檚 dining hall and broached the question, 鈥淲hat makes men men?鈥� Is it careers, athletic ability, attitude, even facial hair?
A vigorous discussion followed, and the office hopes that many more follow鈥攑art of a new effort to create a men鈥檚 ministry on campus.
EMU senior Wesley Wilder, a student pastoral assistant in Campus Ministries, says the idea began through conversations in an off-campus apartment. Some upperclassmen were talking about possibilities to become better engaged and connected and began to brainstorm.
鈥淲e recognized a need to revamp what we had been doing,鈥� Wilder says. 鈥淲e saw a need or desire for men on campus to talk about man-like things.鈥�
That prompted Wilder to make such a ministry a focus of his work. In addition to regular Friday lunch discussions, the men鈥檚 ministry has also offered monthly Saturday morning hikes with faculty leader Ron Stoltzfus and held a Spiritual Life Week retreat at Lake Anna on the theme 鈥淢an Makes Myth Makes Man.鈥�
While past efforts at men鈥檚 groups have often focused solely on topical concerns, such as sexual assault education, the new effort is broadly oriented toward faith, open sharing and personal connections.
鈥淭he hope is that this continues to be a space where however many people show up can get together and have conversation and intentionally build relationships with people they might not have connected with,鈥� Wilder says. 鈥淎lready several faculty and staff members have come that I had never met before.鈥�
student and Campus Ministries intern Micah Hurst says much of his identity growing up revolved around being a baseball player, until a back injury altered that path. He started questioning who he was, and what it meant to be a man. If Christians don鈥檛 take time to reflect on what masculinity means, Hurst says, then 鈥渨e give up that authority to our culture.鈥�
鈥淢asculinity takes on a whole different meaning depending on our generation and all our different cultural experiences,鈥� Hurst says. 鈥淲e want to get a more holistic understanding.鈥�
Hurst says he and Wilder noticed that many men on campus didn鈥檛 come to the Bible studies or other Campus Ministries activities that were already being offered. The new approach aims to provide 鈥渙pportunities to have quality conversation at places people already are or want to go,鈥� Hurst says.
鈥淭he EMU says we鈥檙e a campus that intentionally builds community with one another,鈥� Hurst says. 鈥淭his is a great opportunity to do that, 10 men at a time. We hope that people come into this space and create this conversation in other spaces, too.鈥�