In 2001, Tim and Melissa Kern traveled to Helena from Dillon Montana with Curtis Cole, campus minister at University of Montana–Western (UMW) to check out Carroll College. Curtis and Delyn Freeman Cole were their XA pastors and mentors who invested years in them as students at UM-W. Tim and Melissa were 26 years old and were toting around their daughter Hannah Kern who was 1 month old. That day, God birthed in them a calling to pioneer Chi Alpha at Carroll College, a private Catholic campus. Pastors Ken Ross, Norm Christofferson and Paul Feuerstein were incredible mentors and supportive of XA along with so many other pastors in Helena and Montana that helped them start XA. Levi Mielke was their first student who transferred to Carroll to help the Kerns pioneer the ministry. Emily Roehm was their first full time associate staff and Haylee Petrusha and Haley Feuerstein were their first students to “give a year” back to XA at Carroll. Keith Elder, district youth director for Montana, challenged and appointed the Kerns to establish XA at Carroll College.
Nick & Haylee Petrusha and their team took over the ministry at Carroll College. Tim and Melissa received national missionary appointment in 2013, to relocate to South Bend, Indiana to pioneer another private Catholic University, University of Notre Dame and they have! They also began ministry at the Indiana University at South Bend and St. Mary’s College.
Although he uttered a “sinner’s prayer” as a Baptist youth because he feared going to hell over unconfessed transgressions, Joshua Moran rarely attended church. Parties where he got drunk and swore a lot turned out to be more frequent gathering places. But soon after he began attending college, his life turned around.
“Chi Alpha found me at the University of Virginia (UVA),” Josh says. “I felt the Holy Spirit in a way I did not have the vocabulary for at the time.” His grandmother Wanda Sears bought him a leather-bound study Bible, he joined a Chi Alpha small group on the campus in Charlottesville, and he ceased imbibing and cursing.
The self-confident Josh had lofty goals. He wanted to become a lawyer, be elected senator, and then run the free world. His Chi Alpha involvement altered his goals to other means of persuasion. He switched his major to religious studies and graduated in 2007. He responded to the Chi Alpha student missions challenge to “give a year and pray about a lifetime. The following year, Josh and Katie
Summers became the first UVA Chi Alpha Campus Missionaries-in-Training (CMIT), the nationally recognized internship program. Josh and Katie married in 2009.
“During the Chi Alpha CMIT program, I grew in ways I could never have imagined,” says Josh, 36. “It was one of the most formative years of my life in learning as I was repeatedly challenged to be a disciple-maker. I knew I wanted to do Chi Alpha forever.”
The Morans, who are both ordained AG ministers and U.S. missionaries, started the ministry on campus in 2019 and shared responsibilities. The COVID-19 pandemic hit that first school year, forcing the Morans to be creative in their outreach efforts. Gatherings had to be held outside, with participants wearing masks and staying 10 feet apart.
Josh anticipates a time of growth at JMU’s Chi Alpha in 2021-22.
“This could be our first normal year,” he says. “We will have unrestricted social events for the first time. But small groups will still be the heartbeat of who we are.”
Katie grew up in the AG and always wanted to be a part of Chi Alpha. Josh says in their first two years at JMU she discipled the majority of the staff and led the bulk of the meetings. He says the Church shouldn’t lag behind the business world when it comes to promoting women leaders.
“For years, the Assemblies of God has said we are pro-women in ministry, but that is not always the reality,” Josh says. “The task is too great for half the population to remain on the sidelines. This is biblical; we need all hands on deck”
Since 2017, in addition to the campus, Josh has served as Chi Alpha director of the Potomac Ministry Network.
This article was written by John W. Kennedy titled “Lifetime Leaders” in the AG News and has been condensed for this website.
Scott Barnett just completed his 20th year on staff with Chi Alpha. In August 2001, Scott moved back to Missoula, MT to serve as a campus minister at the University of Montana while finishing up three classes he needed to complete a teaching certificate. He had just migrated from Milwaukee, where he had helped plant a church for the Assemblies of God in the suburb of Germantown. Scott only planned to work with Chi Alpha for one year, then he would probably go back into church ministry or perhaps teach high school history and coach basketball…but God had other plans for Scott’s life!
The first few months on Chi Alpha staff were a bit disorienting, as the values and strategies of Chi Alpha seemed quite different than his church ministry experience; especially the practice of weekly 1-1 discipleship with key leaders.
During that first year, two things about Chi Alpha really captured Scott’s heart. First, Scott met the Chi Alpha staff from around Montana. They had an incredible unity and comradery, lived simple, yet devoted, missional lives, and prayed passionately for each other needs.
Second, Scott discovered the incredible variety of university ministry: from teaching deep theological truths, to writing silly dorm skits about healthy relationships; from helping students encounter God’s power at a retreat, to organizing a Luau in the middle of the snow-covered campus in January. Half way through that first year, God led Scott to commit to working with Chi Alpha for “just a few more years.”
Scott became the UM Chi Alpha Director in July of 2002, led the Big Sky Missions Expeditions from 2008-2010, and in 2013, he was elected to be the MT District Director, overseeing the seven Chi Alpha campus ministries in Montana. Scott is married to Anna, who he met in Poland in 2005, while on a Chi Alpha missions trip.
They had their first child, Kuba, in 2014. Kuba was born twelve weeks pre-mature and weighed only 2.2lbs at birth. He had to stay in the NICU for seventy days before finally being able to come home. Their second child, Maya, was born in 2018.
Scott stepped down as UM Chi Alpha Director in July of 2018, in order to devote his time fully to the role of MT Chi Alpha District Director, providing training, strategic direction and personal ministry for the 30+ Chi Alpha Staff in Montana. In this role, Scott gets to now perpetuate the same ministry values that inspired him to serve with Chi Alpha two decades ago. Scott states, “I am amazed at God’s leading and provision over the past twenty years: thousands of students impacted for Christ, hundreds of students experiencing salvation and water baptism, and more than thirty students going into devoted ministry after graduation.” Scott hopes to continue to expand Chi Alpha ministry across Montana so that every four-year and two-year college in the state has a viable outreach, including the seven tribal colleges.
