College Students Gather
“At The Crossroads” In Mississippi

by Tom Cheatham
Associate Executive for Campus Ministry,
Presbytery of St. Andrew

At the end of the film “Cast Away,” Tom Hanks stands in the center of a crossroads, looking this way and that. A young woman in a pickup truck comes along, and offers some directions, then drives on. Hanks is left to make up his mind which way to go. His life took an unexpected turn years before, and now he must make new choices for the future.

College students and their leaders from every ministry in Mississippi and from the University of Memphis also found themselves “at the crossroads” during their annual retreat, February 27-29 at Camp Hopewell, outside Oxford. There, in the light of Matthew 6:25-34, they reflected on life choices, much like Hanks’ character.

Keynote speaker for the event was the Rev. Shawn Coons, Associate Pastor for Youth and Young Adults at University Presbyterian Church in Rochester Hills, Michigan. Shawn invited the group to consider how their choices are shaped by, made in, and accountable to their community of faith. Involvement in the church and the larger world is vitally important, he said; “we are not Christians on our own.”

Shawn made his point with TV and movie clips, questions, and small group reflection on Scripture. The insights in the group I was part of were diverse and truly amazing. College students are fabulous theologians!

There were two other speakers for the weekend. The Rev. Vernon Hunter encouraged students to consider a call to pastoral ministry. The Rev. Wil Howie told about what would be happening at Clean Water U., being built at Hopewell as part of the synod’s Living Waters for the World project.

Part of the group who remained on Sunday.

Another highlight of the weekend was worship. MSU student Jon Wagner was the song-leader, assisted by drummer Raymond Brown from Memphis. The closing service on Sunday was planned and led by students, who had learned that today’s worship is to be experiential, participatory, image-rich, and connected. So, a praise song was accompanied by sign-language movement. The confession of sin was done as a call-and-response “street litany.” A collage of images representing contemporary culture in chaos was overlaid in the form of a cross by stickynote messages of commitment to mission. The Eucharistic prayer was full of word pictures, and the vessels and linens were richly-patterned. Even the communion wafers were stamped with religious symbols!

Asked for an opinion of the event, one college student said: “It was all great!” Amen to that!