Often times, when walking across campus, you can expect to be approached by members of different religious groups who are promoting their organization and handing out fliers; however, you won’t find StuMo recruiting for members in that way.
StuMo (short for student mobilization) is an interdenominational student group whose mission statement is to raise up laborers for Christ from the college campuses of the world and eventually mold these laborers into future leaders. Started at The University of Arkansas, StuMo is a relatively new organization that has been growing rapidly since its establishment in 1986 and can now be found on most campuses in the southern United States.
This organization is especially new to the UT scene and is only in its fourth year on campus. Despite the fact that StuMo is in its infancy here at UT, it has already established a large, very dedicated following. Many members attended their Christian conference, SMC, over winter break where they attended various workshops designed to foster spiritual growth and listened to speakers give sermons and share their testimonies. StuMo even has a nine week program in the summer called Kaleo that focuses on discipleship, character development, and leadership training.
StuMo is different from other religious organizations on campus in that its leaders take the time to get to know each individual member on a personal level. Representatives are assigned different Greek and athletic organizations to reach out to, and from there, they seek people out so as to build relationships with the members of that fraternity, sorority, or team. Although they do target specific organizations, this is merely an easy way for the representatives to get connected on campus. Its membership is by no means limited to the people they initially seek out and StuMo is definitely open to people of all backgrounds and affiliations. Most of the StuMo experience is spent by having one on one meetings with the StuMo representatives. These meetings are very laid back and the representatives are very personable and easy to get along with. It is very apparent that the leaders genuinely care about getting to know their members and while they do desire to cultivate leadership skills and spiritual growth, most of their focus is set on being a friend and mentor. Once a month, StuMo hosts “late nights” at the All Saints Episcopal Church, in which students are invited to worship together and listen to a speaker give a sermon on different life lessons and teachings from the bible. This month, however, there will be a second late night on January 28th, followed by a 4 week bible study entitled “Rooted.”The “Rooted” bible study will be focused on diving deeper into a relationship with Christ. It will teach students how to walk consistently with God and equip them to seek out a relationship on their own. This is a campus-wide bible study that will be held every Wednesday night in February and anyone is welcome to attend.
