I have been asked to elaborate more on Appendix B of my book College Ministry 101, which speaks directly to church-based leaders who are working in a college town where campus ministries are present. This issue can be a major tension for church-based leaders. Do I go on campus? Surely the answer is yes. But unfortunately there does seem to be a sense (for lack of better terms) of competition – or to some degree an ora of “what are you doing here, this is where I’m working.” At least that’s been the majority of my experience as a church-based leader – and many others I’ve worked with. There are however, of course, campus ministers that are not only “open” to church-based pastors coming onto campus, but actually initiate and help cultivate that. I think this relationship needs to be cultivated much more and I will likely write a book on how this can happen at a later date.
That said, I’ve been asked (via twitter request) to elaborate on that specific Appendix and so I will do so (if you have not read it, click here). I will attempt to give some perspective on campus ministry from a somewhat outside point of view. I have certainly been a part of campus ministry, served in numerous and worked alongside dozens and dozens of others. I have, however, never led one personally. So, hopefully an outside opinion will be taken, not as a critique, but as helpful insights into some potential areas (much of which I’m sure people have already thought through and are implementing).
The specific request was for me to give some more insights into how a campus ministry can be more discipleship focused and how assimilation can work – rather than give programmatic insights. I’m thankful, as I’m not into giving those – as you know if you’ve read my book. So, let me begin this series of blogs by issuing one thought regarding the assimilation side. I’m trusting many of you (church-based and campus-based leaders) will jump in and give your thoughts…
Thought #1 for campus leaders: Clarifying the goal of your ministry. You may make a broad statement like, “Make disciples,” “to glorify God,” or something to this affect. Certainly not bad goals and we all have broader, more general statements like that. I would however issue you another, hopefully helpful and very specific goal as a campus minister (that by the way, would accomplish both of the above broader statements): to connect college students to the beauty of being a part of a local church. Why? Well, ultimately they will leave your ministry. People will need to connect to a local body if they are going to continue to mature and campus ministries have a crucial role in this. So getting people to come to or be a part of a campus ministry surely cannot be THE goal. I don’t think anyone would admit that this is the goal (or at least I hope not), but our actions often prove differently. More on that in a minute.
We have to prepare these students for a life of being a disciple and campus ministry can play a vital, yet small, part in the life long discipleship of an individual. So, naturally, if connection to a local church is the goal then EVERYTHING we do in our ministry ought to work toward this end. This is true in any organization.
I will say this: I think the heart of many campus ministers is to prepare their students for a life of being a disciple of Christ. I will also however say: many of the methodologies of campus ministries are undermining what they say they desire to do. How? Well, first off, I think it shows in that a ton of time/energy/resources are put into attracting people to the events and gatherings of the campus ministry itself – especially in comparison to connecting students to the local church. So, maybe not in words, but at least in action there are ways in which our methodology can actually undermine what we’re saying.
I will say that having methodologies that often undermine our words is not a “campus ministry” issue, it’s more of an overall leadership issue we all face.
There is (in general) a lack of intentionality from both ends – campus ministries and church based – building ongoing relationships with each other. I know some hairs are standing up right now and I’m sure some people will say, “Hey! We are doing that!!!” I agree, I’m just saying there needs to be much more initiation on both ends – church-based and campus-based leaders – on initiating this connection. If we can’t be in relationship, truly like-minded, unselfish, and completely Kingdom minded we’re robbing the life-long discipleship process of our students. I will also take this a a step further and say that the relational connection needs to be the focal point of everything we do.
Working toward this can be intentional, but I would say it cannot be “programmed.” In short, I think you can take all the advice I gave in Appendix B to a church-based leader and flip it around to be written to a campus ministry leader.
So, to guide discussion let me ask the following: Church-based leaders, what are the road blocks, tension points, fears, you have engaging campus leaders? And, for campus leaders: What do you think about the goal I’m suggesting for your ministry? And, what are your thoughts on my concerns regarding methodology?
Well, I think that “opens enough cans” for now, this discussion should be fun…
For training in the trenches of college ministry click here.
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Chuck Bomar is pastor of Colossae Church in Portland, Oregon and founder of CollegeLeader (
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I’m a new campus minister. Actually my first day “on the job” was yesterday. That being said, I’ve been involved with collegiate ministry in one way or another the last several years. SO, keeping that in mind, here are my initial thoughts. I think that the primary goal of any ministry (whether church or campus ministry) is to bring glory to God by BEING the Church. I feel like the students that I’m working with should have a growing understanding of what it means to be part of the Body of Christ and what it means to be an active part of that Body … and I think it is possible for this to take place outside the walls of the “local church.”
That being said, I know that the ministry that I have just become part of has a huge amount of support from the local churches in the area surrounding our university, and for that I am thankful. This is a positive relationship for both our ministry and for the local church. The church involvement gives the students a good idea about churches in the area, and vice-versa gives the local churches a greater understanding of what is happening on our campus … which I fear is often full of misconceptions.
This is the first time I have ever been to this site, but the topic couldn’t be any more relevant to what I have been thinking lately. Our goal moving forward in our ministry, as I come to lead it, is to move from the “attractional” model of ministry to a more intentional missional approach to ministry and discipleship.
Thanks for the thoughts, look forward to reading more.
Eric – good thoughts. thankful for your ministry, whichever campus that is on. i’ll be interested to hear your thoughts on future posts as I’ll talk more about missional approaches as well as discipleship approaches – and how they interact.
I’m thankful for this discussion because I, as a church-based college minister, have worked hard at both being on campus, and developing significant relationships with campus ministries. This truly “collegiate” spirit is, I think, vital to continued success and longevity of all college ministries. That being said, there is something that I have observed with most campus ministries, and I know I speak in generalities here. Campus ministries have well-honed philosophies of ministry and do a good job with this, but are quite weak on ecclesiology; that is, they just don’t seem to have a solid theology of the church. Lip service is often paid to the church, but the philosophy of ministry practiced never truly engages how it fits into the church of Jesus Christ. So, this seems to be where the tension comes in, because many church ministries I have known have not adequately thought through their philosophy of ministry to students even though they may be square on the doctrine of the church. It seems to me that we can learn and benefit from each other here, if we are brave enough to have these kinds of conversations with both the church and campus leaders around us. What I am saying is that our theological foundations are critical to ministry.
Timotheos’s observations bear out across the country. Both campus-based and church-based ministers would largely agree with Chuck’s post. But it’s how that ecclesiology plays out that differs – AND how each camp thinks the other should be playing it out… AND what each camp thinks the other camp believes about it. It has been fascinating to interview hundreds from both camps, coming from a (hopefully) objective perspective, and realize how much we’re missing each other here. Timotheos is also right about one big similarity between the camps – few ministers from either campus-based or church-based groups have a solid, working theology of collegiate church involvement.
I know that most parachurch, denominational, and church-based ministers would agree with the statement: “One of our major goals is to help students connect with local churches, both now and for a lifetime.” But the theology differs on what that “connection” should look like. And lest we think the issue is easier than it is, remember that any true RULES we make for this area have to apply to all other humans – missionaries, military members, older adults who work in parachurch ministries, and so on. Tricky, tricky stuff.
Hopefully I haven’t just retreaded what I wrote at Lutz’s blog, and hopefully everybody has already seen his recent post on Ecclesiology. He’s got good thoughts and there are some good comments: http://stevelutz.wordpress.com/2009/07/15/the-5-big-issues-in-campus-ministry-today-3-ecclesiology/
Theoretically campus/church based should complement each other and it’s easy to talk how they should philosophically, missionally, and visionally. However, Practically speaking, the reality is that both campus/church ministries are programmatic, even assimilation driven ministries. For example,I meet weekly discipling students, however, that is one hour of opportunity cost I have taken away from their involvement in church. Is is not true that vision and even assimilation will eventually manifest itself in a program in some form or fashion. conflicting programs are what cause this church-campus tension. I feel like a healthy collegiate experience is to be involved with both campus and church-based ministry conducively. This tension is a reality regardless of how healthy church/campus relationships are. The on-going question that must be answered is “How their programs can be complementary toward the same goal, vision, philosophy etc?…”
Thought #1 Connecting students to the local church should be a fundamental goal of the campus-based ministry, but should it be the only goal of the campus-based ministry? It would be great to say that once collegians are plugged into the church, the campus based ministries have done their job. The reality is that campus-based ministries need a strong leadership base of students who are involved in church in order to continue pointing students toward the local church and making disciples. Plugging them into the local church is A GOAL, not THE GOAL. Campus-based ministries are a missional entity of the local church on-campus and should function as an advocate for all local churches to the campus. Many churches who are seeing results in church/based ministry often overlook the campus ministries and fight over the same students who are great leaders. Consequently, college students are only represented in the churches who have collegiate ministers. meanwhile, many of These churches often create a college ministry that looks like a youth ministry of age-specific activities which fails in becoming intergenerational in corporate church life. Consequently, many church-based college ministries aren’t biblically church-based at all. Some look exactly like a campus ministry that meets at a church. Maybe I could end with this question and Benson Hines may have a good answer because of his travels.
“What college town has the healthiest relationship b/t church/campus ministries and what does that look like?”
What does that healthy experience look like from the perspective of a college student?
Lots of meaty stuff in your comment, “Campus-based Minister” – you’ve stated several of the tensions / issues in this area. This is certainly NOT cut-and-dry; those who treat it that way probably haven’t had solid discussions with too many in the opposite “camp.”
You asked about college towns and healthy relationships. What I’ve found is that the degree of cooperation is often highest in the true college towns. (“College Town” only properly applies to settings where a town is pretty dependent on the campus; it doesn’t actually mean “a town that has a big college.” Dallas – for example – is certainly not a college town, though it has far more college students than any college town does.)
Anyway, it seems like in some of those true college town settings, there are enough students and there is enough of an emphasis from churches on reaching the campus that campus-based and church-based groups have learned to “get along.” I don’t know how they got to that point, but it does seem to be the reality. (When people value college ministry enough, problems get worked out – and college towns are possibly the only places in America where college ministry is valued enough by lots of churches.)
But beyond those settings, no clear settings spring to mind. There are some places where ALL (or most) of the college ministries – from whatever branch of ministry – cooperate better.
But I think you’re really wanting examples of churches and campus-based ministries working hand-in-hand, and THOSE examples are very rare. As I pointed to in my book, Park Street Church in Boston, Capitol Hill Baptist in D.C., and Blackhawk Church in Madison have a history of doing that. Chapel on the Campus in Baton Rouge, Watermark Church in Dallas, and Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas have, too. (Not all of those continue to do that in the same way as they have, by the way. Also, I’m sure I’m forgetting some – those spring to mind.) I would also add that some campus-based ministries that serve denominationally (or in denomination-like associations) are supported by a single church. So those would work out much like we’re saying here.
I’m sad that more churches (and campus-based ministries) haven’t formed strategic partnerships; it’s certainly not the right move for everybody, but I would hypothesize that it would be the right move for lots more than presently do it. Certainly, those involved in Collegiate Church Planting offer a model that tries to circumvent the problem (but there are other difficulties that arise with that model, of course). And for many churches (right now), the approach to college ministry is all-or-nothing – they can’t fathom that partnership might be the best way to approach reaching the campus tribes… while doing just that with overseas missions.
Hope that helps this discussion.
I agree that camps like Jeason ma have circumvented the problems and began college churches. There are ecclesiological concerns there. Forgive my ignorance of the models of church/campus based cooperation you have listed above Benson. Could you better define the roles of the church/campus in order to create a cunducive strategic partnership? thx for ur input
I’m not exactly sure what you’re asking, but I do know that those partnerships can vary. Sometimes, it’s sharing a major portion of the ministry (like the large group meeting), while keeping other aspects separate. Other times, a ministry might serve to complement other ministry taking place, instead of creating a full-fledged college ministry. Sometimes a church might point its students (officially or informally) to a campus-based ministry.
Or a church-based ministry and campus-based ministry might be truly one-and-the-same: when the ministry shares a leader and activities but has oversight / responsibilities on both ends. Although that can happen in individual settings, it’s also basically what happens in some Coalition for Christian Outreach ministries and in some Campus Outreach ministries.
I don’t wanna co-op Chuck’s blog, but feel free to contact me for more discussion! This is great stuff! All my contact info is at my blog: http://www.exploringcollegeministry.com
I have the luxury of being on both sides of the fence. I obtain funding through my local church for both church ministry as well as campus ministry. It’s an awesome thing to be a part of discipleship (church) and campus ministry (what I see as evangelism). I use my campus ministry to introduce people to who God is, without having it too ‘churchy’. The direction that we are going is bringing in other speakers/worship bands to give students a different taste and to hopefully build the ‘Kindgom of God’ rather than the ‘War of Denominations’. I have initiated most of things progress, but have been surprisingly well received by all of the churches I have contacted. I am still sticking to what I would consider ‘biblical’ churches, as I think there is certain criteria we should all fall under. However, I am bringing in Methodist, Lutheran, Baptist and the Christian churches. I think that this is extremely healthy for people to see that there is still ‘unity in the faith’. We need to be a church full of ‘lovers’ and not ‘hypocrites’. If we profess to love a certain way, shouldn’t our love for the church be an exact representation of that? Bringing these churches together under a campus ministry also gives students the awareness of what churches in the area are doing and how they can be a part of that! Is it not irresponsible of us as leaders to think that our church is the only church doing the work of our Lord? Surely the Lord is moving in other churches and other people! Allow them the opportunity to meet these students! I couldn’t minister to all of them on my own anyways!
I disagree with the notion of Campus=evangelism and church=discipleship on a fundamental theological concern. 1. I honestly don’t see a biblical distinction b/t the two. Maybe I have completely overlooked the scriptures that support the distinction. Holistic Salvation involves discipleship. My guess is that protestant systematic theology on soteriology has supported the distinction more than scripture itself; ie. “justification by faith alone=evangelism, sanctification=discipleship, etc.”..Most churches find the distinction b/t evangelism, discipleship, and even missions in their idea of “5 purposes of the church”etc….
Evangelism w/o discipleship falls tragically short of the Biblical mandate of “making disciples” Without discipleship, there will certainly be haphazard believers (or so-called believers) that will lose the glow of the Christian experience and drift away. We see this happening too often as it is. To assume that churches are discipling collegians may also be false. It’s certainly a false assumption that our churches who focus on collegians are intergenerational.
Evangelism naturally happens when authentic discipleship takes place. Or at least, I see this as the biblical model, not out of a fabricated evangelistic marketed strategy(of which many attempt to do the job rather than the power of the Holy Spirit).. Not to say the Holy Spirit can’t work in a marketable strategy. It merely concerns me when we trust more in the “strategy itself” than the Holy Spirit or mandate to “Go”
Christian disciples are sent men and women. Measuring the success of ministry is not merely adding up new followers, but rather, measuring the faithfulness with which our converts go. Evangelism an discipleship should be ONE> I know there are many that disagree with me on this notion and have many thoughtful reasons for it.