Campolo Center & Palmer Seminary: Shaping Future Church Leaders Together

If you are someone with only a passing familiarity with Eastern University, there is a strong possibility that you have heard the names Tony and Peggy Campolo. In the spirit of and to honor the Campolos, the Campolo Center for Ministry (CCM) was created as a legacy initiative that seeks to equip future leaders for the Church. It seeks to nurture, cultivate, and innovate the next generation of pastors, recognizing that the Church is bigger than the pulpit. The Center does so through scholarships, weekly prayer and Bible study, and monthly fellowship gatherings and semester retreats. The CCM now has students from academic disciplines beyond professional ministry, such as counseling and business management, all engaged in community, discipleship, and study.

While the first CCM cohorts were exclusively composed of undergraduate students, through conversations with then-Seminary Dean Dr. David Bronkema, the CCM opened up to include seminarians as well. It welcomed James Williams as its first graduate fellow in 2017.  Robert Gauthier, Executive Director of Philanthropy for CCM, says that incorporating seminary students creates a certain dynamism that broadens the experience of both the seminarians and the undergrads.

Paulette Brown is a current Campolo fellow and will be graduating with her MDiv this May. She sees firsthand the fruit that the relationship between CCM and Palmer bears. “Being in relationship with undergrads through the Campolo Center has offered opportunities to mentor and to be mentored.” She describes it as a space that encourages students to live out their uniqueness for ministry. It has created new partnerships for service as well. At the invitation of Rev. Jane Filkin, the Director of Leadership Development and Spiritual Formation for CCM, the fellows helped the Daughters of the Mustard Seed, a ministry that Paulette serves with, make 600 dignity bags for every man incarcerated at a local Philadelphia prison.

This spring, the fellows went on a Civil Rights Pilgrimage through major landmarks of the Civil Rights movement from Montgomery to Selma to Birmingham to Atlanta. Jen Lisowski, also a May Palmer MDiv graduate and Campolo fellow, witnessed Palmer’s mission on display throughout the Pilgrimage. “When we choose to acknowledge our past and listen to the experiences of others that might be different from our own, we foster our growth as individuals and as a Church. This allows us to share the gospel from a place of self-awareness and sensitivity to others. Then we can share a gospel that truly brings freedom and wholeness to the world.”

Together, The Campolo Center for Ministry and Palmer Theological Seminary are co-laborers pressing into the future of ministry, and equipping the next era of Church and ministry leaders.