Collegiate Ministry as Vanguard

Collegiate ministries are the R&D of the denomination and the cutting edge of higher education’s student affairs. The issues with which CM are engaged in the present are an indication of some of the things the denomination and institutions will be dealing with in the future.


Here are a few examples. In the past, international students had no support systems on campus, so chaplains and campus ministers arranged for host families, especially during holiday breaks. Then congregations and institutions became involved. Now institutions have offices with professional staff concerned about the quality of life of international students. Campus Ministries reacted to Spring Break excesses by developing alternative spring breaks for their constituents. Now most institutions support and initiate alternative spring breaks. Racial equality. Social Justice. GLBT issues. All incubated in campus ministry and then made official parts of the institution or denomination.

So what might be some of the denomination’s issues in the future?

The recent Montreat College Conference, currently the largest annual gathering of Presbyterian collegians, provides some indications.

Interfaith / Multifaith issues. How are Presbyterians to relate to and with other denominations and religious traditions? One of the key speakers, Eboo Patel, was a Muslim, involved in building bridges between faiths.

Thoughtful, challenging Bible Study and Theology. No ready-made check list of answers or beliefs, no simplistic reading of Scripture. Another of the speakers, Cindy Rigby, and the Conference Preacher, Anna Carter-Florence, embodied this.

Sex and Relationships. Moving beyond the simplistic no-no of junior high, how do we equip emerging adults with the skills and the theological underpinning to have healthy interpersonal relationships and not have them reject the institutional church because it ignores the complexity of their relationships after high school? The conference attendees were organized into self-selected focus groups. The largest groups were centered around intimacy, friendship, and sexuality.

What other issues are on the horizon? What is the cutting edge in your campus ministry communities?