Peer Ministry Program: "Empowering Students to Help Peers"

Concept Paper


Peer Ministry is a year long experience designed to build Christian Leadership skills and enhance personal and spiritual awareness in it’s members, in the context of the Wesley Foundations overall ministry. Through training and development, prayer and shared dialogue, student’s ministers are enabled to meet their own spiritual needs at the same time that they render service and witness to their peers.

The Wesley Foundation is a community centered in the mission of Jesus Christ where young men and women of diverse interests and abilities are encouraged to learn, to work together and to think for themselves. The Wesley Foundation strives to provide an environment that fosters the values of a commitment to excellence, a spirit of respect and compassion, personal integrity, and a willingness to serve others. The mission of Campus Ministry at the Wesley Foundation is to enable the members of the University community to experience, claim and celebrate the rich tradition and spirit of God. Campus Ministry provides a context within which persons have the opportunity to appropriate in a critical fashion their own religious traditions, values, and beliefs.

As the pastoral expression of the University's identity, we are called to invite the community to gather, to celebrate, and to be confronted by the gospel of the risen Christ.

To gather to become a center of hospitality

We choose to share our journeys, our hopes, our fears, our gifts, our dreams.
We choose to actively build a community of hospitality, understanding and compassion.
We choose to be enriched by interfaith dialogue that values the wisdom of all faith traditions.
We choose to reverence God's presence among us and within us.

We choose to support one another through prayer, retreats, meaningful discussions and fun activities.

We choose to value collaboration and welcome the diversity of the gifts present in the University community.

To celebrate as a community

We choose to rejoice in the good news of the gospel of Christ.
We choose to share the Bread of Life in the Eucharist.
We choose to celebrate our gifts by sharing them with those whose needs are the greatest.




To be a prophetic witness to the gospel of the risen Christ

We choose to embrace opportunities for volunteer service to the poor.
We choose to work to be responsible agents of peace and justice.
We choose to bring the message of the gospel to the moral and ethical challenges of our world.
We choose to be signs of hope and joy in our world.
We choose to discover and express our values in meaningful ways


What is Peer Ministry:
All programs are offered as volunteer opportunities for student participation. Most important, students demonstrate and experience the essence of Christian beliefs through their service to others.
• Peer Ministers works to promote, support, and enhance student life in the university community, with emphasis and attention to the individual. We welcome and invite all to share in our mission.

• Peer Ministry is an outreach program offered through the Wesley Foundation. It is a structured group which offers a variety of activities and opportunities for students.

• Peer Ministry will offer’s a variety of programs. Students may accept planning and leadership responsibilities

• Peer Ministry provides students an opportunities to meet new people.

• Peer Ministry emphasis self-exploration and community building. Involvement in peer ministry helps everyone step out of their "groups" and learn something new about themselves and others.

Training Opportunities

Peer Ministers will attend two training sessions in leadership, group facilitating, and listening and communication skills. The purpose of the training is to:

• encourage and facilitate opportunities for students to experience leadership by being of service to the university community, especially through the Peer Ministry Program. .

• enhance the student's ability to engage in liturgical celebrations with a cognitive understanding of sacramental celebration as well as prayer services and other celebrations throughout the year.






• consider strategies for fostering a consciousness of peer ministry for the university community as well as the community it serves.

• allow students to truly examine their stances of faith and postures of the heart so that the two may form a sound conscience for lives.

• appreciate the uniqueness and complexity of reflections upon issues of faith as well as incorporating faith in to the dialogue of social and cultural issues.

• examine and experience the concept of prayer leadership.

Duties of Peer Ministers:
Peer Ministers are students who have a desire to grow spiritually as ministers and witnesses, an openness to strengthen their relationships with others, and a willingness to commit to a life of Gospel-based spirituality. Peer Ministry is open to all who want to promote school spirit by helping their peers to adjust to the university environment and become active, responsible members of the Lincoln University community. Monthly meetings will be scheduled for discussion times and activities. Discussions encourage attitudes of honesty, integrity, and kindness. In addition to monthly meetings, Peer Ministers are asked to help plan and facilitate Wesley Foundation Program Activities.
Peer Ministers will:
• Help facilitate school-wide spiritual programs such as leading retreats and prayer/worship assemblies

• Develop their faith through leadership and organizational skills by planning and leading Liturgies and Prayer Services.

• Study the foundations of prayer, liturgy, and the formation of religious belief, as well as have multiple opportunities to contemplate their faith development.

• Continue their leadership role as veteran peer ministers serving the upcoming peer ministry classes as student mentors.









Proposed Programs

Campus Ministry Council: A group of committed students, who dream, listen, plan, evaluate and assist in the implementation of Campus Ministry activities. The group will meet once a month. Circle K
Soup & Scripture: During lunchtime (12:00-1:15 PM) on Thursday, all are welcomed to gather in the NU-Soul Café to share a meal and scripture reflection. The program begins in the Winter semester of 2004
Spirtitual Direction: The staff is available for spiritual guidence, pastoral counseling, and other sharing.
The Gathering in Faith (TGIF): Join Lincoln University Students on Tuesday evenings for food, fellowship, and faith sharing at the Wesley Foundation.
Peer Helpers Students are trained to provide support services to students entering the university for the first time. The formal training consists of skill development in the following areas: leadership, communication, understanding the nature of the helping relationship, conflict identification, anger management, adolescent issues, problem solving strategies, and interviewing strategies. These training sessions will be scheduled during lunch hours or evenings. Specific initiatives which the peer helpers are involved in planning and implementing are:
Peer Mediation Students in this program guide other students in conflict through the process of mediation. Students in this program are involved in an extensive training program. Formal skill develop is provided in various areas including the nature of conflict, the steps in mediation, conducting workshops about mediation, and developing programs for use in the general university population.