2010-2011 Application

Labor Day Retreat 2010

We are kicking off another school year with our annual retreat!!!

The Details…
when:
labor day weekend, september 3-6, 2010

who:
all college students (both undergrad and graduate)

what:
a weekend of fun, spiritual renewal, fellowship … not to mention time at the beach!

where:
San Diego, California (did I mention the beach?)

why:
it’s just too good to pass up…

the cost:
only $25! Not bad, eh?

What to Expect…
lodging…
We’ll be staying on the grounds of Foothills United Methodist Church in the San Diego, California area. Plan to sleep on the floor!

worship & discussion…
Saturday evening we’ll have a short devotion time, and Sunday morning we’ll join with other campus ministry programs from ASU, UofA, and NAU for shared worship.

fellowship and fun…
On Saturday, we’ll have the afternoon to enjoy the surf, followed by a beach bbq. We’ll have more free-time on Sunday afternoon, with the option of a service project, more time at the beach, a visit to Sea World, and more.

what Wesley expects from you…
We want you to come and have a good time. But this isn’t just a cheap road trip to San Diego. We expect that you’ll participate in worship and discussions, abstain from substance use/abuse, and have a good attitude…. mostly, we expect you to have fun.

Stuff you’ll need…
• clothes (remember how nice and cool San Diego can be!)
• a sleeping bag & air mattress (if you want one)
• pillow
• toiletries (the church does have showers)
• towels (for beach & showering)
• swim suit and other beach stuff (sorry, no room for surf boards in the church van!)
• sunscreen, sunscreen, sunscreen.
• camera & other extras, but please try to pack light!
• money (in addition to the $25, you’ll need about 3 meals on the road, as well as money for dinner in San Diego on Sunday night. Sunday afternoon options – like Sea World – are also your responsibility. We’ll make sure here’s a free option available… like the beach.)

If you’re not going only because of the cost, please see Rob. We expect folks to pay if they can, but we want everyone to come.

You can RSVP on the Facebook Event Page

Shane Claiborne, October 9-10, 2010

We are very excited to announce that author, activist, and speaker, Shane Claiborne is coming to speak at an event hosted by Valley Wesley on Saturday October 9, 2010!

Tickets are $15 for regular tickets (before September 10) and $5 for college students.  All proceeds will go to support The Simple Way.

Tickets for the event can be purchased online below or in person from the Tempe First UMC church office.

From his website:

Shane writes and travels extensively speaking about peacemaking, social justice, and Jesus. He is featured in the DVD series “Another World Is Possible” and is the author of the several books including The Irresistible Revolution, Jesus for President, and Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers. Shane speaks over 100 times a year in a dozen or so countries and nearly every state in the US. Shane has given academic seminars at Vanderbilt University, Duke University Pepperdine University, Wheaton College, Princeton University, Goshen College and Harvard University. Shane also speaks at various denominational gatherings, festivals, and conferences around the globe. Shane’s work has been featured in everything from Fox News and the Wall Street Journal to CNN and National Public Radio.

Lean more about Shane at http://www.thesimpleway.org/shane/

Out of respect for the environment we are encouraging folks to walk, bike, take public transportation, or carpool to the event. If that is difficult for you to do we hope that you would be able to pick another day where you go without oil for a day or participate in an individual or group project that benefits the environment. This could be as simple as carpooling to work or school, switching to energy efficient lighting or planting a tree. If you want to do something a little more technical, but really fun, Shane even suggests “converting your car to run off used veggie oil (http://awip.us).”

Shane will also be preaching at Crossroads UMC in Phoenix on October 10 at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. There is no cost or tickets required.

http://www.crossroadsphx.com/

If you have any questions, please contact Rev. Rob Rynders at rob@valleywesley.com

2009-2010 Annual Report

We had another exciting year of ministry with students from ASU and other Phoenix valley colleges.  We continue to make disciples of Jesus Christ and have exciting plans for the future!  To view or download our latest annual report, please click here.

Alternative Spring Break Mission Trip 2010 to Los Angeles

During ASU’s Spring Break, a number of students from the Wesley Foundation went on a mission trip to South Central Los Angeles through Sierra Service Project. We spent the week volunteering on a service project directly in the community and learning about local social justice issues. The work was hard, but extremely rewarding and the entire week was enlightening.

Our work focused on Rakestraw Community Center right in South Central where we finished up sanding, painting, and putting in fixtures for several bathrooms. Demolition was another project upstairs, a chance for the Wesley folk to punch some holes in walls with sledgehammers. The surrounding community was incredibly supportive, and friendly, with visits from local residents often to bring food for the crew. The eventual goal is for the community center to re-open for use by a charter school that would fund activities and programs at the center for kids and teens in need of a positive place to go in the neighborhood.

Venturing through LA, we participated in learning about various issues affecting the community. We took a “toxins tour” of Los Angeles, which comprised of visiting lower-income neighborhoods where manufacturing and industry surround their daily lives. There we held a discussion about environmental racism and justice. Immigration is also a key topic in LA, similar to what we see in Arizona. We participated in an open dialogue with members of the community about how, as United Methodists, we can change the lives and be a voice for our brothers and sisters. Additionally our group visited the local district building, the first completely sustainable government building and engaged with constituents about the progress being made locally on a variety of issues.

Overall, the week was an amazing way to spend Spring Break. Trips like these can be difficult, when faced with the struggles many people go through in life. However, the experience is invaluable and everyone who participates walks away with a sense of appreciation and more importantly, feeling empowered by God and the example of Jesus Christ to make a difference in their respective community and the world.

By Cara Coleman, Wesley Student/Intern and Freshman at ASU

Night at the Diamondbacks

Join us for our third annual Valley Wesley night at the Diamondbacks on Monday April 19th when the Dbacks take on the St. Louis Cardinals at Chase field.

Tickets are $15 for non-students and $8 for students elementary school-college age. $7 from the $15 tickets will go to support United Methodist Campus Ministry at Arizona State University and Phoenix Valley Colleges.

The church or individual who purchases the most tickets overall will get to select one person to watch batting practice for both teams on the field before the game. This is a great chance to see your favorite players up-close! The event picture is of Rev. Rob Rynders with Diamondbacks coach Matt Williams last year during batting practice. We can’t guarantee you will get to be this close to players but this could be your chance!

If you have any questions or would like to purchase tickets for yourself or your church please contact aaron@valleywesley.com or rob@valleywesley.com.

You can also download a ticket order form here.

Check-out our Facebook Event
We hope to see you there!

Online order form:

or
Pay by Credit Card

New Wesley Foundation Building and Residence Hall Proposal

During these past two and a half years serving as the campus minister at Valley Wesley, student involvement has grown significantly in our ministry.  A number of students attend worship each week, participate in small groups and bible study, in service opportunities and mission trips, and in a number of social activities.  Every day of the week you can find Wesley students in our student lounge studying, socializing, praying, or just taking a break from their day.  Much of this is programmed by myself and our student leadership team.  However, many of our programs have grown naturally or organically through students who have become part of our community of faith.  What I have witnessed year after year is that our students want to be in continual “intentional” community together.  They want to extend their Christian relationships beyond a worship service or bible study, they want to help encourage one another and hold each other accountable.  They want that same sense of belonging that they experience within the “programmed” elements of our ministry.  At the end of each year of ministry, various groups of Wesley students, who have become friends through our ministry, have decided to live together the next school year.

Imagine then, a facility that allows students to be in this “intentional community” beyond our programmed events.  Imagine a facility where students, not only live, but study, hold social events, participate in prayer and bible study, discussions, and service projects.  Imagine a facility where students live in a place dedicated an environment of learning, service, and spiritual formation.  Imagine a facility that encourages dialogue around issues of life and faith, offers leadership opportunities for students, and creates creative space for writing, art, poetry and music.  Imagine a student community drawn together around a covenant of loving God and loving neighbor.

On the night of February 10, 2010, Valley Wesley, Tempe First United Methodist Church, and a student housing corporation called Newchapter entered into an agreement to begin exploring the possibility of building a new Wesley Foundation building and student residence hall on the grounds of Tempe First UMC. This was an agreement that has been in the works since October, 2009. Around that time I was on the College Union website and heard an interview with some of the team from Newchapter and how they wanted to partner with campus ministries to build student housing, providing a place for intentional community and also to help provide an income stream to ministries. What made Newchapter unique was their business model. In most cases, if you want to build a building, you have to raise all the money up front and find the experts to help you build a facility you want. Well, Newchapter eliminates both of these issues. They bring the funding up-front, as well as the expertise in building and managing student housing. This was enough to send an e-mail to Newchapter and get more info. Before I knew it I was having multiple conversations with Ian Clark, their Director of Business Development. Soon we were forming a joint TFUMC and Wesley Foundation committee to explore a partnership with Newchapter. We worked on a number of drafts of a partnership agreement that would allow Newchapter to get to work. After being approved by various committees at all levels of the church the partnership was officially formed following approval by the TFUMC church conference.

A quick side note- Valley Wesley is NOT a ministry of Tempe First UMC, it is a ministry serving the Desert Southwest Annual Conference. TFUMC, however, has always hosted our facilities, including the Baker Center building which was built for The Wesley Foundation in the 1960′s. As the campus ministry declined over the years the Baker building began to be used for TFUMC programs. Wesley is currently housed in another building on the TFUMC campus. TFUMC is crucial Valley Wesley partner and has been a gracious host of our ministry for many years. The new Wesley facility would be built on TFUMC’s property, which ultimately means they must approve of this project along the way.

So what’s next? Members of the Newchapter team have already been meeting with city officials and potential architects. They will also be working on a conceptual design that will give us an idea of where and how big the building will be. That design will need to be approved by the building committee and the church before we will move into a preliminary design stage where it will be determined if the project is feasible or not for Wesley, TFUMC, and Newchapter. If feasibility is agreed upon we will begin the final design and then hopefully the construction stage! We don’t have a lot of details now but I hope to keep everyone updated through valleywesley.com and Facebook and Twitter updates.

One area of the project that is not covered by Newchapter upfront is furnishings and equipment for the facility. This is something Wesley will need to raise money for, a task we believe is very possible. We will cross that bridge though when we get to it.

I hope you will join us in our excitement for what is possible with this project. We don’t know 100% yet if we will actually build a building so keep us in prayer as we sort all of this out. We could not do this without your continued love and support!

Stay tuned….

Rob

Bishop John Shelby Spong, February 20, 2010

Valley Wesley is excited to announce that we will be co-hosting, along with Tempe First UMC, an event on February 20th, featuring author and speaker, Bishop John Shelby Spong. The event is being sponsored by the Arizona Foundation For Contemporary Theology. More details about the event coming soon!

From Bishop Spong’s website:

John Shelby Spong, whose books have sold more than a million copies, was bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark for 24 years before his retirement in 2001. His admirers acclaim him as a teaching bishop who makes contemporary theology accessible to the ordinary layperson — he’s considered the champion of an inclusive faith by many, both inside and outside the Christian church. In one of his recent books, The Sins of Scripture: Exposing the Bible’s Texts of Hate to Discover the God of Love (San Francisco: HarperOne, 2005), this visionary thinker seeks to introduce readers to a proper way to engage the holy book of the Judeo-Christian tradition.

A committed Christian who has spent a lifetime studying the Bible and whose life has been deeply shaped by it, Bishop Spong says he was not interested in Bible bashing. “I come to this interpretive task not as an enemy of Christianity,” he says. “I am not even a disillusioned former Christian, as some of my scholar-friends identify themselves. I am a believer who knows and loves the Bible deeply. But I also recognize that parts of it have been used to undergird prejudices and to mask violence.”

A visiting lecturer at Harvard and at universities and churches worldwide, Bishop Spong delivers more than 200 public lectures each year to standing-room-only crowds. His bestselling books include Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, A New Christianity for a New World, Why Christianity Must Change or Die, and Here I Stand.

Bishop Spong’s extensive media appearances include a profile segment on 60 Minutes as well as appearances on Good Morning America, Fox News Live, Politically Incorrect, Larry King Live, The O’Reilly Factor, William F. Buckley’s Firing Line, and Extra. Bishop Spong and his wife, Christine Mary Spong, have five children and six grandchildren. They live in New Jersey.

Alternative Spring Break

March 14-19, 2010

Valley Wesley will, once again, be taking a team of students to South Los Angeles to participate in service projects and to learn more about this urban setting. We will be led by the amazing staff of Sierra Service Project who will provide some great opportunities for us. The cost of the trip is $350, however, we will do lots of fundraising and scholarships will be available. Registration details coming soon!

Information from the Sierra Service Project website:

Sierra Service Project launched its Urban project in South Los Angeles in 2004. Since then, each summer has been bigger and more successful than the one before.

The Project Site. Our volunteers and staff are housed in the large Vermont Square United Methodist Church, located at 4410 Budlong Ave about one mile west of the Harbor Freeway. The church has a gated parking lot, large kitchen, bathrooms, showers, a gymnasium and several large rooms for sleeping. This is where we eat, sleep, do program and hang-out when we are not working or visiting sites in the City.

Learn More About South Los Angeles. Our South Los Angeles program site is based in the Vermont Square United Methodist Church. To learn more about the Vermont Square community, visit the Los Angeles Times’ very interesting “Mapping LA” website. This site contains a vast amount of information about the population, ethnicity, income and housing status of this neighborhood.

The work. Our projects are done on homes in the communities surrounding the church. Typical homeowners are elderly people who have lived in the area for decades. Projects include painting, building wheelchair ramps, installing hand rails and other projects that elderly people need. One of the things that volunteers always comment on is how gracious and friendly these homeowners are.

Learning about LA. A great deal of our non-working time is devoted to learning about Los Angeles and the people who live there. This starts with a bus tour of the city on Monday evening, where you will visit the Watts Towers, the downtown area, the area where the 1992 riots started, as well as other spots that serve as entry points into discussions of Los Angeles’ history and challenges. Rather than working on Wednesday, we devote the entire day to visiting social agencies which serve the needs of LA’s homeless and working poor. We finish Wednesday’s with an evening barbeque at the beach!

Is it safe? Yes. Our facility is very secure and South Los Angeles’ reputation for crime is greatly exaggerated. We have experienced no problems in the years we have worked in the area and expect none in the future.

Schedule:

Arizona State University’s Wesley Foundation

March 14 – 19, 2010

Spring Break Schedule

Sunday, March 14

Arrive and unpack

Snacks available

Welcome by Sierra Service Project staff

Time for showering and freshening up

Free time

Monday, March 15

7:30 Breakfast

8:00 Speaker Jennifer Gutierrez, Urban Ministries Director for Cal-Pac

9:00 Work day at Rakestraw Community Center

Lunch at Rakestraw

5:00 Return

6:00 Dinner

Evening speaker: local church leader or LAPD representative (tentative)

Tuesday, March 16

8:00 Breakfast

9:30 Depart

10:00 – 2:00 Toxic Tour

2:30 Lunch at Rakestraw

Work afternoon

4:00 depart for Pico Union Hispanic Shalom

5:00 – 7:30 Dialogue about Immigration at PUHSM

Dinner at PUHSM (SSP provide drink and cups)

Wednesday, March 17

7:30 Breakfast

8:00 Depart for Center

8:30 – 10:00 Meeting at District 9 Constituent Center

10:30 Work at Rakestraw rest of day

Lunch at Rakestraw

6:00 Return

7:00 Dinner

Evening open

Thursday, March 18

7:30 Breakfast

9:00 Work day at Rakestraw

Lunch at Rakestraw

4:00 Return

Barbeque dinner at the beach with LA District young adults

Sunset at 7PM

Closing Worship at church

Friday, March 19

7:30 Breakfast

Pack up and clean up facility

Toxic Tour: The tour begins at the CBE office at 10am with an introduction to Environmental Justice and Environmental Racism.  Then everyone will board the van your group will provide and will visit various locations in the area of Southeast Los Angeles County. This area is predominantly Spanish speaking and is one of the most polluted areas of the county due to the high industrial areas from manufacturing and food production in the county.  Here exists the major distribution centers from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and this includes rail yards.  The main focus here is cumulative impacts (the numerous sources of pollution), Schools and Toxics (schools near toxic sites and bad planning) past campaign areas and current problems. We may also get to visit the South Bay area, which include the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles and the Movements of Goods that come from Asia.  Cities that are part of the Southeast Los Angeles are Huntington Park, Vernon, Commerce, South Gate, Maywood, Bell Gardens, South LA and Unincorporated Los Angeles.

Dialogue about Immigration at Pico Union Hispanic Shalom: Sit-down with the parishioners from the Casa Shalom UM fellowship in Pico-Union, a small congregation of Oaxacan immigrants who will sit with us, relate their experiences as immigrants, answer questions and engage in a conversation.

Relevance X

Valley Wesley invites you on a trip to Las Vegas for a United Methodist Young Adult leadership conference at University UMC, across the street from UNLV.

There will be dynamic speakers, workshops, worship and live entertainment.

Wesley will be renting vans to drive to/from Vegas.

Just $25 will cover your transportation, meals in Vegas, and lodging!!!

Relevance X is the official young adult conference hosted by Relevance:Real.Relational.Revolutionary. In 2010 Young Adults will travel from across the US as leaders of their churches and communities in an effort to make new disciples!

Young Adults from across the West will be invited to take part in this first ever leadership conference and you are invited. Visit relevancex.com for more information. E-mail rob@valleywesley.com if you have any questions.

You can RSVP now on our Facebook Event Page.

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