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Students
in Greenville's LAMP Program Learn Servant Leadership
by Christy Grimes
Greenville College Record, Spring 2004,
Used by permission
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J-term
LAMP students with Dr. Joseph Culumber, far right.
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On a typical Wednesday night, the doors of the Fellowship
Hall of the Free Methodist Church in Midwest City, OK, open at 4
p.m. for their food bank ministry. People who are emotionally and
spiritually broken come to have their bodies fed and their souls
nourished.
The elderly who feel forgotten, children abandoned
by absentee fathers, women who hoped they found a loving partner,
only to suffer physical abuse, schizophrenics, alcoholics, drug
addicts and the severely emotionally disabled — all come thinking
they will be able to slip inside the back doors and get their food
before anyone notices them. The staff, however, has different plans
as each individual encounters the loving hands of a pastor, dedicated
to pray with them.
"People who are in need of a Savior and in need of a brother
and sister, (need) to know that they are loved," said Pastor
Denise Abston, who developed the program. "We care for them
holistically. If you meet their physical needs first, they are more
open."
Abston, a student of Greenville College's Leadership
and Ministry Program (LAMP), designed the ministry after Jesus'
sermon about ministering to the least of these. "We want to
be Matthew 25 leaders," Abston said about her relational leadership
style. "In order to preach the good news, certain things need
to be cared for."
In six months, the food bank has served 1,100 people.
To fulfill the practicum requirements of the LAMP program, Abston
plans to develop a food bank ministry that can then be taught and
passed on to other churches.
Ideal for those currently in ministry or going into
ministry as a second career, LAMP seeks to prepare ministers for
effective service in the Body of Christ. Greenville College added
the program in August of 1998, due to a perceived vacuum in graduate
level education in the Free Methodist Church. Students meet for
two weeks in August and two weeks in January each year and on average
it takes students three years to complete the program.
The program requires applicants to have a bachelor's
degree in any field. "We built the program on an adult learning
model for people with life experience," said program director
Dr. Joe Culumber.
Greenville College developed LAMP as an alternative
to traditional seminary, which often forces people already established
to relocate, interrupting their ministry.
"I can't stop life to go to seminary," said
David Tomb, associate pastor at Belleview Heights, an American Baptist
Church in Sun City, AZ. "LAMP is complimentary to life experiences."
"This is the perfect format for a Salvation Army
officer couple," said Jorge Diaz, director of operations for
the Salvation Army in Philadelphia. "Salvation Army officers
may be moved at any time. This is more practical than going to seminary
in Philadelphia. With Greenville, it doesn't matter where I move."
The program attracts a broad range of students both
geographically and theologically. "It is a safe place to share
and process ideas," said current LAMP student Erin Swank, who
graduated from GC's youth ministries undergraduate program. "You
realize you aren't alone in ministry."
The program's community approach grew spontaneously
and remains a key component. "We began with the philosophy
of an organism," said Culumber. "We are all members of
the same body. We lay aside our titles and know each other on a
first name basis. Our classroom setting is built on dialogue."
Culumber adds Greenville's model for Christian workers is distinctly
different. "We teach servant leadership."
An equal number of men and women add to the community.
LAMP administrators have intentionally sought women from the beginning
and the Wesleyan heritage has historically ordained women. "We
see women not just as a window dressing but an untapped resource
in the church," said Culumber.
Abston, the first woman on the ordination track in the Mid America
Conference of the Free Methodist Church in the last 80 years, encourages
and mentors the women in her church. "Women have learned to
count the cost, but too often they don't believe they have what
it takes," she said.
Abston believes it is impossible to dismiss a calling
from God. "Who am I to fight with God?" she asks. "We
need to relate to the poor and emotionally broken. LAMP is down
in the ditches where the people are."
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