This fall, the Office of Spiritual Life and Office of Church Relations have come together in one building to merge into the Office of University Ministries. This office focuses on diversifying Union’s campus and encouraging spiritual leadership among faculty, staff and students.
Todd Brady, vice president for University Ministries, said this transition has been in the works since 2013 when Greg Thornbury, president of The King’s College in New York and former dean of the School of Theology and Missions, left for New York.
“This transition has placed our office in the middle of campus right where God has his hand at work,” Brady said. “We wanted to be here so we could be where God and students are most active in his kingdom on campus.”
The Office of University Ministries has three priorities that serve as values that support the university’s core values.
These priorities are as follows:
Biblical Formation: Formed by the particular Christian values of the university learning community and connected to the life of Christ’s body in local churches.
Servant Leadership: Committed to integrating faith and learning through tangible expressions of love for God and neighbor in our communities,
Global Engagement: Learning, living and serving God’s mission and being equipped to minister with gospel intentionality and cultural sensitivity for local, regional and international contexts.
Melanie Taylor, ministry coordinator of the Office of University Ministries and former enrollment counselor, said that the merger of the two offices has been a positive one and she is excited to work with them more closely and continue learning with them.
“The merger really makes sense, we’re all glad to have the opportunity to collaborate and centralize our efforts to serve students and the community,” Taylor said. “I’ve known Matthew, Taylor and Lee for about five years now [and] their passion for Jesus and love for students is incredible.”
Taylor said that her role as ministry coordinator was birthed from the merging of the two offices and her job is to work on different projects throughout the year so that the university ministries team can serve the Union community to the best of their abilities.
“My role is to provide logistical support to the team in event planning and programming and to our student leaders as they minister to their peers.”
Brady said he was excited to see Union’s campus become more unified and feels that God is doing great things at Union.
Every year, the office hosts four different on-campus activities: Life Groups, GO Week, Union’s annual three-day conference with particular themes and the Family Life Series each spring.
Faith in Practice will be held Oct. 1-3 during chapel hours.
The Office of University Ministries is located in the Student Union Building in what was formerly known as the Office of Spiritual Life.
