Biola’s Student Missionary Union is in a restructuring phase after the addition of impact teams, a media coordinator position and a partnership with Christian Formation and Ministry. After a three-year discussion, university administration decided that all ministries will be overseen by CFM, according to Roddy Garcia, SMU president.

As of last spring semester, each ministry outside of the classroom will be under the umbrella of CFM, said Barbara Miller, director of CFM.

Internal development 

“They [CFM] have the training and the experience and the resources needed to facilitate ministry development,” Garcia said.

The reason for this decision is to ensure a level of uniformity within all ministries, said Cody Storm, SMU president-elect.

The decision to require all ministries to be established through CFM leaves SMU in a process of working through what the implications are for the organization, Miller said.  

“Our end goal is still the same, but how we’re attempting to achieve it … we’re trying to differentiate ourselves from other departments so we’re not competing with what anyone else is doing,” he said.

Throughout the year the development of the marketing and communications department has been a focus of SMU to determine how to make the organization better known, Storm said.

By creating a new media coordinator position — fulfilled by junior cinema and media arts major Anna Grace Hodge — SMU has been able to have a stronger social media voice and promote Missions Conference in a different way, according to Garcia.

The new impact teams are a result of Garcia’s vision to give attention to local missions. These impact teams aim to connect Biola students to the local church, Garcia said. The leaders of these teams are already involved in their churches and will strive to integrate their team members into ministries within their churches. He sees this ministry as fulfilling the great commision through discipleship.

The impact team ministry is currently in its pilot form, and SMU aims to have the program fully developed and functional by next semester, Garcia said.

Expanding exposure of SMU

As Storm prepares for his new position as next year’s SMU president, he is considering how to reasonably advertise SMU more.

“I don’t want to oversaturate the student body or steal people from other ministries,” Storm said.

A goal of SMU this year has been getting students involved outside of Missions Conference and short-term missions trips, Garcia said.

Traditionally, intercultural studies majors are the students involved with SMU; however, this year’s staff is purposely very diverse, Garcia said.

In addition to Missions Conference, the impact teams will hopefully become the third active outlet for students to become involved with SMU, Garcia said.