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Students and Ministry Faculty
Cornell students lead and oversee every area of the ministry. Student-led teams include Exec, Outreach, Vita Fidei (our weekly Leadership Lecture Series large group meeting), Worship, Seeking God, Social, and Communications.
If you'd like to help or volunteer in any of these areas, please email us.
Christian Union Ministry Faculty
In addition to the student leaders, Jim and Liz Thomforde serve CU Vita as Christian Union faculty. They help mentor CU Vita student leaders and lead several CU Vita Bible courses.
Jim Thomforde is the Christian Union Vita Ministry Director. Jim earned his B.A. in economics from Trinity College (CT), where he also played varsity baseball. After college, he was drafted by the New York Yankees as a starting pitcher and played for four years in minor leagues. He then worked on Wall Street for ten years in institutional equity research sales, completing two M.A. degrees along the way at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, one in Theology and the other in Church History.
He joined Christian Union as the Ministry Director at Cornell in 2012 after completing the first year of his Systematic Theology Ph.D. at the University of Edinburgh, which he completed in 2018. Jim also returned to work in the investment industry in 2018. Jim and his wife Liz have two children, JT and Ella, and a golden retriever named Beau.
Liz Thomforde is the Christian Union Vita Women's Ministry Fellow. She earned her B.A. in Geology from the College of Wooster, where she was an All-American diver, and a Masters degree in Secondary Science Education from the University of Virginia. In her free time, Liz enjoys the outdoors, hiking, cooking, dance, music, reading, and watching JT and Ella play golf and lacrosse.