GEORGIA WESLEY STUDENT MOVEMENT

The Georgia Wesley Student Movement was founded for the purpose of promoting Christian growth, fellowship, and ideals among college students in Georgia. It exists as a United Methodist-related organization, and acts as a unifying factor among individual Wesley Foundations and Wesley Fellowships in Georgia. It works within the framework of the Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church and falls under the Georgia United Methodist Commission on Higher Education and Campus Ministry. The Georgia Wesley Student Movement holds an annual retreat.

To find out more about the Georgia Wesley Student Movement Click here

Before the vote to create the UMSM, Don Shockley, Campus Ministry Section, explained how this movement has been forming over the past six years and reflected on the first Methodist Student Movement established in 1937. The Methodist Student Movement (MSM), was formed at a conference held in St. Louis in 1937, Shockley said. The last national conference was held in 1965 in Lincoln, Nebraska.

The Methodist Student Movement had a relatively short lifespan which was anchored by national student gatherings every four years. But the MSM was influential to an extraordinary degree, according to Shockley.

Opportunities for service were a significant part of what the church offered its students during the years of the MSM. "We do not know how many students were profoundly changed by their experience in the Methodist Student Movement, but we do know that we are talking about a great host of persons who went on to become recognized leaders in the church and in society, while countless others whose names are not generally known invested themselves in lives of witness and service," Shockley said. There was no national United Methodist student conference for more than twenty years. Under the leadership of Shockley's predecessor, Allan Burry, a national student conference was held in 1987 in St. Louis called the Jubilee Conference. Following the success of that conference a national leadership training event for students was held at Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi, in May of 1989. The Student Forum was successful from the beginning and has been held each year in May since that time.

To find out more about the  NATIONAL METHODIST STUDENT MOVEMENT!! Click here