Rev. James Lo Share

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Rev­erend Doc­tor James ​“Umfun­disi” Lo is of Chi­nese descent, but was born in New York City. He resided in var­i­ous parts of the world as a mis­sion­ary includ­ing in Africa and South­east Asia before mov­ing to Mar­i­on, Indi­ana in the mid-1990s. Indi­ana Wes­leyan Uni­ver­si­ty had reached out to him then in need of help in start­ing a mis­sion out­reach pro­gram. He has ever since been with IWU, and cur­rent­ly serves as Pro­fes­sor of Inter­cul­tur­al Stud­ies and Cam­pus Pas­tor-Inter­ces­sor. (“Umfun­disi” means ​“men­tor” in the Zulu language).

Beyond his work scope, Dr. Lo is active in the com­mu­ni­ty in a pow­er­ful way through spir­i­tu­al advis­ing and dri­ving efforts to raise funds for vital orga­ni­za­tions in Mar­i­on. He has served on the Grant Coun­ty Res­cue Mis­sion Board of Direc­tors includ­ing as Pres­i­dent. He has helped IWU stu­dents get involved in the com­mu­ni­ty through serv­ing meals, par­tic­i­pat­ing in cleanup & improve­ment projects, and con­tribut­ing finan­cial­ly to local char­i­ties. When he was Dean of the Chapel at IWU, he led the stu­dent body in rais­ing over $30,000 for var­i­ous orga­ni­za­tions includ­ing the Res­cue Mis­sion, the Grant Coun­ty Senior Cen­ter, and St. Martin’s Com­mu­ni­ty Center.

Lo orga­nizes and leads prayer walks and gath­er­ings in the Mar­i­on com­mu­ni­ty, and is always encour­ag­ing prayer in the community.

A huge vol­un­teer com­mit­ment is his ser­vant lead­er­ship through the Cross­roads Dis­trict of the Wes­leyan Church, which includes over 100 church­es with­in the State of Indi­ana. Cur­rent­ly, he is work­ing with a church in Chester­field fol­low­ing the death of its long­time pas­tor. Also, through the Cross­roads Dis­trict, he coor­di­nates for prayer min­istries, help­ing men and women to become pastors.

Dr. Lo is always chal­leng­ing stu­dents and oth­er indi­vid­u­als to break through their ​‘bub­ble’ by being involved in the Mar­i­on com­mu­ni­ty because they are part of the com­mu­ni­ty. He advo­cates that Indi­ana Wes­leyan Uni­ver­si­ty is part of Mar­i­on, which is a great place to be.