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.
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.
In 2007 Mike Amiot, the Minnesota District XA Director approached me about re-starting XA at Winona State University (WSU). At the same time, Roger Stacy, of the Minnesota AG Church Planting Network, was recruiting my husband Chuck to be a church planter. We went to visit Winona just to “get them off our backs” but were surprised when we felt a strong pull to the area—myself to the college and Chuck to the community. We left a very established position at a larger church a few months later so I could start XA and Chuck could plant a church. Because I did not know one student at the college and Chuck did not know one person in town this made starting two ministries a huge challenge—not to mention our kids were young. Reid was 13, Ellie was 6 and Calvin was 4. However, we felt God calling us to go even though each of us starting separate ministries was quite unprecedented.
Both the XA ministry and the Church began meeting in the former church building XA owns right across from the WSU campus. This is the same building in the early 1970s that Jim Bradford (former undergraduate student at WSU) with his mentor picked the lock to access the old empty church building to pray for revival to hit the campus. They met in the empty building numerous times to pray. Those prayers, and the hard work of the founding WSU XA pastor Dave Babler and then intern Mike Amiot, built a strong foundation so the group would thrive today.
I saw hundreds of students come to Christ at XA services. Fourteen years later God has brought over 2000 to saving faith in Him. XA has trained nearly 500 students to lead small groups. These are disciples that make disciples! Many students have been baptized in the Holy Spirit and in water.
It may look like a church but it is the Chi Alpha Student Center serving Winona State University students.
Although many have heard the Winona miracles and success stories, there have been many challenges. In the 2017-2018 we had a major exodus of leaders; my knee fell apart and put me on crutches and in a wheelchair and ultimately had to be replaced. The XA house had a fire that caused it to close for months. In 2019 the college newspaper published a very biased destructive article attacking the ministry. In 2020, the challenges to the campus ministry due to the pandemic faded in comparison to the attack my family had launched against us which is still ongoing to this day. A news station from Minneapolis was outside the building this fall as our students walked into service. They were trying to cause more chaos and division, but even fellow campus ministries in Winona were praying that the “enemy’s camp would be confused.” God did exactly that! They ended up leaving empty-handed and nothing has hit the news. We continue to pray it will stay that way.
But even in the midst of those things, we soldier on! I know I have been called to not just lead students to Christ that are disciples that make disciples but to raise front-line warriors on the most intense battlefields. One way we are doing that is by becoming a Campus Missionary-in-Training location in 2020 (yes- during a pandemic). We are entering into some of the most challenging yet rewarding days of campus ministry and I am confident God is walking us through these many struggles as a way to educate me and my staff on how to train strong resilient warriors for Christ. We look forward to what’s ahead!
Check out Winona State U XA story when they first started in 2008.
When Steph Peterson held her first XA planning meeting at Winona State University (WSU) a decade ago, the group numbered 10 students —barely enough to qualify as a campus club. Her daunting task focused on restarting the WSU XA chapter, one that had included as many as 200 students on the Minnesota campus of 9,000 in the 1990s and early 2000s. But after the departure of previous leadership, membership had dwindled to a solitary student. Steph began her time on campus by connecting with one football player, and day by day she introduced herself to more students. The small group began meeting in October 2008 with 18 students and grew to over 50 by the end of the first year. check out:
