“the Lord added to their number”
“…And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.”
— Acts 2:47
Second Sunday of Advent, 2019
Alumni, Friends, and Partners of The Wesley Foundation at Louisiana Tech,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I write to testify to the work God is doing at the Wesley Foundation and to invite you to participate in it. In this post, I’ll offer a glimpse of the impact individual givers have been having in the lives of college students on the campus of Louisiana Tech University over the past three and a half years. I’ll also tell you about some recent and anticipated changes to Wesley’s sources of funding that make it urgently necessary for us to grow the support we receive from our family of givers. Finally, I’ll tell you how you can help.
On the first night of every Louisiana Tech Freshman Orientation, for a few fleeting seconds, I get to stand on a stage, microphone in hand, and tell hundreds of brand-new students who and what the Wesley Foundation is. Here’s what I say: “We’re the Wesley. We want to know you, and we want you to know Jesus.” This simple description captures the basic pattern of evangelism at LA Tech Wesley. We are unashamedly in the business of bringing college students into a saving relationship with Jesus. We do so not just with our words but through embodied relational practices. We seek to know people — to welcome, befriend, and share life with them in such a way that they encounter Jesus and come to follow him.
When you give to the Wesley Foundation, you are directly contributing to the spread of the good news of Jesus throughout the world. LA Tech Wesley is a missionary community. In the words of the Apostle Paul in Acts 20, we are called “to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God,” and everything we do is for the sake of that ministry. Over the past three years, we have baptized eight college students into the Christian faith. In that same span of time, we have seen dozens of other students step fully into the calling of their baptisms for the first time by becoming devoted disciples of Jesus. In winter quarter of 2017, we launched a new annual teaching series called “Race Talks,” through which the Lord has pushed our community to do a better job of loving black and brown students. During Race Talks we learn to speak truthfully and biblically about the history and the contemporary experience of race and racism in American Christianity. As a direct result of Race Talks, every level of Wesley’s ministry today reflects a fuller picture of Christ’s body. This increased diversity makes our witness to the gospel — the good news of God’s love to all people — all the more vividly truthful.
At LA Tech Wesley, we take it for granted that students who follow Jesus must devote themselves not just to learning but to teaching others. At the core of our ministry is a dynamic team of student small group leaders who constantly pursue new students, teach bible studies, and cultivate practices of prayer and holiness. Likewise, while I may be Wesley’s “official” pastor, I am not its only preacher. In 2016, we added a second worship service to our weekly schedule called “Friday Morning Eucharist” where we hear preaching from a different student or intern each week. Because we make room for so many young voices, Wesley is becoming a school for preachers through which several students have begun to discover their calling. Relatedly, for decades the Internship Program has been both a distinctive source of vitality within LA Tech Wesley’s ministry as well as a crucial training ground for young pastors. Recently, we have developed the Internship Program in ways that even more effectively empower called persons to take their next bold steps. Over the past three years, we have sent eight people to pursue formal theological education at seminaries and divinity schools. During that same span of years, five former interns have become full-time pastors in United Methodist churches and ministries.
For decades LA Tech Wesley has exemplified just how impactful a network of committed alumni and friends can be, and we need your financial support now more than ever. Until recently campus ministries in Louisiana Conference have been able to rely on annual grants from the Board of Higher Education and Campus Ministry (BHECM). At present, the BHECM grant still funds $91,000 of LA Tech Wesley’s annual expenses. However, the amount all campus ministries receive from the BHECM has been trending downward. Every year campus ministries are warned to expect further cuts and even to prepare for the possibility that the BHECM grant will not last much longer.
Please consider making a year-end contribution or becoming a monthly giver to LA Tech Wesley. Whether you’re already one of our supporters or this is the first time you have considered becoming one, I thank you for reading our weekly newsletter. The task before us is urgent and serious, but it is also one for which we have cause for great hope. The generosity of persons like yourself gives us every reason to believe that Wesley’s missionary legacy will continue to flourish and grow.
May the Peace of Christ be with you.
Rev. W. Ryan Ford
Rev. W. Ryan Ford is alumni of LA Tech, and The Wesley. After completing his studies at Duke Divinity School, Ryan came back to his roots and is serving the students of Wesley as Director. Ryan is a prophet, with a passion for The Word of God, for trout fishing, and bowhunting. He and his wife, Holly, have two children, Elias and Margot.