Greenville College Annual Report 2000-2001

Campus Profiles

Inner-City Classroom Strengthens Student Learning

The town of Greenville, population 6,000 or so, is nestled snugly in the rolling woods of rural southwestern Illinois. Greenville is touched by big city issues and circumstances only sporadically, even though the St. Louis Metro area is a short 45-minute drive away.

Thus, Greenville College students and faculty have to venture into St. Louis in order to experience broader facets of life in America as part of the Christian liberal arts experience. And such inner-city ministries benefit not only the urban residents, but also the GC participants.

“The Greenville Student Outreach program (GS0) facilitates several forays into the inner-city, including Urban Plunge, a weekend urban experience designed to heighten our awareness of the inner-city while at the same time developing an appreciation of the people of the city, said Lori Gaffner, chaplain and director of spiritual formation at GC, who oversees Urban Plunge.

“We also hope that some will feel a calling to pursue a longer term ministry to the city [as a result of Urban Plunge],” she added.

While on Urban Plunge, students spend most of their time working for charitable organizations, doing such tasks as cleaning, painting, sorting and whatever else is needed.

“But we recognize that we are the ones who benefit the most because of the experience of being in the city,” said Gaffner. “What little work we perform is helpful, but it is the change in us that is most profound.”

Urban Plunge is usually organized once each semester. For each one, Gaffner and the GSO vice president choose directors, who in turn select their own staff. These staff members manage transportation, food, contacts in the city, advertising on campus and training of other leaders. The staff meets several times before the event. Gaffner serves as advisor throughout the planning process, and attends the event herself.

During the most recent Urban Plunge at the end of October, the students worked at five different sites. The event was organized by student Co-directors Jesse Dart and Matt Snyder.

“We chose well-established ministries/organizations in the city and worked alongside them, doing whatever they needed at the time,” said Gaffner.
Urban Plunge was an incredible experience that took me out of my comfort zone, widened my world view perspective, and helped me recognize the many blessings in my life,” said Angela Hoppe, one of almost 60 students who participated in the event. “The weekend helped me acknowledge and become grateful for things I have taken advantage of in the past.”

Said Snyder, “Urban Plunge reminded us of the obligation we have to service Christians and the joy that service brings. Hopefully we provided encouragement to the organizations and improved their physical facilities also.”

According to student Rebecca Maxwell, “Urban Plunge is not only a great experience in ministry and service, but it also built community among the college students who attended.”

“I really feel like people were able to get closer,” said student Dan Strickland. “Working together like that really made us feel more like a community.”

Bonnie Abel summed up the sentiments of most students: “At the end of the day, I had the feeling that I hadn’t changed the world, but I knew that I’d helped. On top of everything else, I got to know some really great GC students a lot better. It was an awesome, God-filled, work-oriented experience, and I’m certainly going back next semester!”

In addition to GSO activities such as Urban Plunge, GC students and faculty engage the inner-city at the Lighthouse Free Methodist Church and the Lighthouse Community Outreach Center ministries in St. Louis.

The ministry began about 100 years ago in the Forest Park Southeast neighborhood as the Lighthouse Mission, which later identified with the Free Methodist denomination and became a local church, according to Joe Culumber, interim pastor of the church and director of GCs Leadership and Ministry Program (LAMP).

The Lighthouse Community Outreach Center partners with the church and utilizes the churchs facilities.

“We have a core of faithful [GC] students who go to Lighthouse every Sunday to work with children and lend support to the ministry there,” said Culumber, who also teaches part-time in the GC religion department.

The church continues to serve the Forest Park Southeast community by providing a worshipping community and a vital spiritual and social presence in a needy neighborhood undergoing transition.

Last updated: January 16, 2002