The results from last year’s Spiritual Formation Program survey are in. Campus minister Brad Wallace and his team of advisors have been looking through the results.
The survey showed areas of spiritual growth that the college was doing well in and areas in which the college could improve.
The survey was designed to target students and find what matters to them when involving spiritual growth. It also showed how spiritually mature students are in their faith.
“The area that students feel Milligan is doing the best is with faculty and staff,” Wallace said. “Students feel that faculty and staff model and reflect Christian values.”
For senior business administration student Sam Bratton, this was a big part of him choosing to come to Milligan.
“One reason I chose Milligan was for the professors to help guide me in my spiritual journey,” Bratton said.
Over 500 students from Milligan and Emmanuel responded to the survey. This was a 59 percent response rate.
“We were really happy with the response rate,” Wallace said. “Normally a survey like this has a 20-30 percent response rate.”
Wallace is looking to improve two areas based on the survey.
“The survey said that students value dealing with doubts and prayer time,” Wallace said.
The survey could not narrow down in what ways students want to deal with doubts or prayer time.
Wallace has started to take on the issue of doubt by having the faculty sermon series focus on that subject.
Junior economics major Jonathan Russell thinks the faculty series on doubt is a great way for the campus ministry to help students.
“The faculty show their character to the students,” Russell said. “The series combines what Milligan is good at with something Milligan needs to improve.”
Russell wants to help campus ministry in helping students increase their faith.
“The more I know about my faith,” Russell said, “the more I can influence others.”
For Russell it is showing transparency to others to encourage them to start conversations about faith.
Other students, such as sophomore economics major Seth Nicol, see ministry clubs like Vespers playing a bigger role on campus. Nicol, who is a part of Vespers, has encouraged other Vesper team members to approach students about their faith.
“Vespers is much more than a series on Sundays,” Nicol said. “We are here for others too.”
For Nicol, ministry at Milligan extends beyond campus events.
“It takes a long time for an event to get planned,” he said. “Things do not have to be under campus ministry for them to happen.”
Nicol recalled several student-led prayer events that happened in the past.
As Wallace and the spiritual community continue to look over the results from last year’s survey, Wallace looks to this year and hopes to do a different survey, one that is more specific.
Wallace encourages students with suggestions on how to improve campus ministry to talk with him.
“The big thing,” he said, “is making sure the core of what we do is what students want to do.”