Presbyterians in Collegiate Ministry

Worshiping Communities By the Numbers

2012-01-22T14:52:00.000-05:00

The cover story for the Jan/Feb 2012 issue of Presbyterians Today is about the challenge” from Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) leaders: … 1,001 new Presbyterian worshiping communities in 10 years.”

The distinction is made between “worshiping communities” and churches. The goal is to grow 1,001 worshiping communities (not necessarily churches) in the next 10 years. That’s good.

I wonder when campus ministries will be seen as worshiping communities? They are now communities which gather for worship, study, service, prayer, and fellowship. A number of campus ministry fellowship participants do not attend a church on Sunday, and will say that the weekly campus ministry fellowship meeting is their weekly “church.” When will the denomination see them as “worshiping communities” and value and celebrate them?

Some Presbyterian groups have responded to the “1001 in 10” challenge by pledging to start (in the case of Korean Presbyterian leaders) 100 new worshiping communities.

How about starting some of those 1001 new communities on college and university campuses?

As of 2009 – 2010 there are roughly:
17, 600 undergraduate colleges and universities
10, 560 PC(USA) congregations
18.5% of PC(USA) congregations are within one mile of a college or university.
Only 27% of congregations nearby a college or university reports that their congregations offer programs to students at such schools

Therefore:
1954 PCUSA congregations are within one mile of a college or university.
528 PCUSA congregations currently report having a college program.

Generously assuming that each congregation with a current campus ministry draws from two different institutions, the number of undergraduate institutions without a PC(USA) presence is about ( 17,600 – [528 X 2]) = 16, 544

Which means:
There’s an opportunity to develop some new “worshiping communities” on the 16,000 campuses where there is no identifiable PC(USA) presence!!
and
There are over 1,400 PC(USA) congregations who worship within a mile of a campus and have NO campus ministry!!

Who can challenge / encourage / nurture these congregations to act?
Who will? The same leaders who challenge / nurture / encourage us all to grow “1,001 in 10”??????

Sources:

Comparative Statistics 2010 , PCUSA Research ServicesCongregational Survey on Collegiate Ministries, Summer 2009, (PCUSA) Research Services
Fast Facts, U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2011)

Emerging Adults and Worship

2012-01-11T16:00:00.000-05:00

Emily Morgan, a third year student at Princeton Theological Seminary, an articulate blogger, and a Millennial, has has written a thoughtful article about Emerging Adults and Worship.

Forward it to the Pastor and Clerk of Session of the church closest to your campus, and follow up with a meeting with them.

Hungering Students

2012-01-06T09:00:00.000-05:00

After a few days of rich conversations with college ministry folks (over 53 at the Montreat College Conference) the image of hunger kept surfacing in two areas, one expected and one not.

Most Presbyterian campus ministries have at least one regularly scheduled meal as a part of their programming.This "ministry of meals" is almost a hallmark of PC(USA) collegiate ministries. (One ice-breaker poster where we were to illustrate our "typical student" participants had drawn a big heart and an even bigger stomach.) Perhaps a quarter of those feeding ministries had meals where students who might not necessarily be participants in the ministry could drop in, take a meal, and leave.

One of the dirty little secrets of college life is how many students don't get adequate food. They can't afford meal plans, and money for food is often an issue. Some ministers and students talked about students knowing which campus ministries fed on which days so that they could have a few days of good meals.

The other area where hunger kept cropping up was in discussions about students hungering for a welcoming place where they could bring their doubts and questions and be respected. This aspect of hospitality seems to be another one of the hallmarks of PC(USA) collegiate ministry.

How might the ministries with which you are connected be more intentional in responding to these hungers?

Remedial Programming

2011-12-08T11:41:00.000-05:00

Two books from this fall. You Lost Me and Lost in Transition, bluntly set out some broad areas which congregations have failed to address. Many of the Emerging Adults we see on campus have not been adequately prepared for college by their faith communities. So as a service to our students and to the Gospel (and to the Church), at least some of our attention should be on how we could be addressing these issues. Consider these a Check List for Remedial Christianity.

1. Equipping students to thoughtfully evaluate culture. Perhaps a quarter of the church-going teens arrive at college feeling that churches seem overprotective and that Christianity demonizes the culture outside the church. How can we help them see that the Holy Spirit is alive and well and infusing culture? Can they watch a movie or hear a song and sense the underlying theology? This goes hand-in-hand with some basic biblical literacy. Students have learned some of the stories, but they have never learned how the stories fit together.

2. De-mystifying Science. Thirty percent feel that churches are out of step with the scientific world we live in. Can we help them integrate science with faith in a sophisticated way? Can we foster conversations with scientists and students? Can we find ways to connect with science majors especially?

3. Addressing sexuality and meaning. Young Christians’ church experiences related to sexuality are often simplistic and judgmental. How can we have programs and conversations about a holistic and realistic ethic of emotional and physical intimacy? How can we be at least as specific about emotional relationships as the culture is about physical ones?

4. Nurturing Interfaith Literacy. Thirty percent report that they think churches are afraid of other faiths. They have grown up with tolerance and acceptance, but at the cost of ignoring real differences. Can we find ways to have them overhear substantive and respectful interfaith dialogue? Can we help them teach them how to listen without fear and to identify and acknowledge differences without the need for forces and premature closure?

5. Critiquing the Consumer Mentality and Lifestyle. The dark side of consumerism is reflected in alcohol and physical intimacy as well as career choices. Where can they get information and specific help in evaluating their economic choices?

The last two major areas are ones which most Presbyterian chaplaincies already have strong histories. How can we make them more accessible to our students?

6. Raising up and celebrating doubts. While some congregations like to think that they were open to doubts, the students felt as if the church treated their doubts as trivial.

7. Nurturing the broader and deeper notion of call. A quarter of the students who were involved as teens in church say that that “faith is not relevant to my career or interests.” Can we find ways to have students who are thinking about careers be in real conversations with older adults who are in those careers? Can we develop venues for students to talk about call without initially scaring them off with “religious” talk?

I hope you find ways to talk with congregational leaders about what topics they need to be covering, and to consider remedial Christianity as a recurring topic for your campus programming.

Book Review: Lost in Transition

2011-11-27T19:33:00.001-05:00

Lost in Transition: The Dark Side of Emerging Adulthood. Christian Smith, with Kari Christofferson, Hilary Davisdon, and Patricia Snell Herzog. Oxford University Press, New York. 2011

This is a disturbing book. On one hand, there is not much inside which a competent chaplain (or campus minister) hasn’t seen or had to pastorally address. It was written after Christian Smith’s Souls in Transition. The researchers found that there was much more than the religious lives of this cohort that needed to be illuminated. Lost in Transition was the result. The “dark side “in the title refers to both the darker side of emerging adult behaviors, but also that this is the underrepresented and publicized side in the media.

This book differs from his previous reports of the National Study of Youth and Religion. It espouses the “sociological Imagination,” which attempts to understand individual experiences and larger cultural trends by explaining each in terms of the other. As opposed to the other books, there is only one graph and few quantitative results. Transcribed comments from the interviewed emerging adults are used extensively. The book primarily uses data from the 230 in-depth interviews conducted in 2008 with the same group which has been followed since 2003 and interviewed in depth three times. The next round will be conducted in 2013 when they are 24-29. Thus this book concentrates on the younger (18-23) portion of emerging adults, and the ages in which we are primarily engaged.

The chapter titles succinctly convey aspects of the emerging adults’ experience.

Morality Adrift. Smith found widespread (60%) moral individualism and a sizable minority (30%) of moral relativists. Thirty-four percent did not know what makes anything morally right or wrong, and many had no tools and little experience in talking about how they knew what was right or wrong. This generation has grown up in an educational environment being taught tolerance and multi-cultural awareness while any serious discussion of differences or standards has been avoided. “American emerging adults are a people deprived, a generation that has been failed, when it comes to moral formation.” (p.69)

Captive to Consumerism. An underlying goal for many was “whatever wakes you happy.” Sixty-five percent responded that “buying gives me pleasure”, and 54% “would be happier if they could buy more things.” Most (over 90%) interviewees were uncritical towards mass consumerism. Smith frames our culture’s unquestioning consumerism as addictive behavior. This addictive behavior will also play out in intoxication and sexual relations.

Intoxication’s “Fake Feeling of Happiness.” Smith tries to understand why mood altering drugs are so pervasive and important to emerging adults. Twenty-seven percent are non-users, 25% occasional users, 22% partiers, 21% recovering partiers, and 8% addicts. Emerging adults describe alcohol as a way to alleviate boredom, and to give them novelty and excitement. The older adults have reared this generation in a culture which advertises that good times require alcohol and that college is a time to cut loose and party.

The Shadow Side of Sexual Liberation. “A lot, though not all, of emerging adults today are confused, hurting, and sometimes ashamed because of their sexual experiences played out in a culture that told them to simply go for it and feel good.….not far beneath the surface appearance of happy, liberated emerging adult sexual adventure and pleasure lies a world of hurt, insecurity, confusion, inequality, shame, and regret.” (p.193)

Civic and Political Disengagement. Smith and his researchers found 69% of their responders to be apolitical, 27% marginally political, and only 4 % with genuine interest and substantive knowledge. “ …whatever any popular cultural or political observers have had to say about the political interests of young adults, we – without joy – can set the record straight here: almost all emerging adults today are either apathetic, uninformed, distrustful, disempowered, or, at most only marginally interested when it comes to politics and public life. Both that fact itself and the reasons for it speak poorly of the condition of our larger culture and society.”(p.225) The interview results this area have been the most surprising to adults with whom I have shared these findings.

It should be clear by now that in Lost in Transition, Smith has shifted from reporter into full Prophet mode. Some of this is a result of using the “sociological imagination” methodology. Some of this is spill- over from his other recent book, What Is a Person?: Rethinking Humanity, Social Life, and the Moral Good from the Person Up.

Emerging Adults are reaping what the older adults have sown. In the Conclusion, Smith, with appropriate academic qualifications, includes some prophetic suggestions. These won’t be easy, he says, because they require cultural change. He doesn’t think that macro level social changes can be made before lower level changes are made. He addresses mid-level changes to politicians, alcohol and tobacco industries, secondary schools, and higher education. Then he addresses micro-level social changes to parents, families, neighborhoods religious congregations, and voluntary associations.

“Colleges and universities could…play a more proactive role in promoting and enforcing more responsible, healthy, and respectful lifestyles among their students.” (p.240)

Chapters in this book could be good discussion starters with student affairs professionals. They could also provide ideas for programs, series, and Bible studies.

The Best Books for Reading Over Christmas Break

2011-11-11T09:10:00.000-05:00

Christmas Break is a good time to do some reading for nurture and stimulation. A few good books have been published this fall which would be particularly useful. Perhaps one of these would be a good way to spend some of your book allowance*.

You Lost Me: Why Young Christians are Leaving the Church...and Rethinking Faith. David Kinnaman, The Barna Group, Baker Books. Emerging adults who are not involved in church, but who were active when they were 15, were surveyed. This should be required reading for every pastor, youth group leader, or college minister.

Worlds Apart: Understanding the Mindset and Values of 18-25 Year Olds. Chuck Bomar. Youth Specialties. Written to help parents, grandparents, and church leaders understand this generation.

Lost in Transition: The Dark Side of Emerging Adulthood. Christian Smith, Kari Christoffersen, Hilary Davidson and Patricia Snell Herzog. Oxford University Press. Smith and company look at the data which Souls in Transition pulled out for religion, and find that the culture of consumerism Emerging Adults have grown up in has repercussions in college behaviors.

College Ministry in a Post-Christian Culture. Stephen Lutz. The House Studio. Challenges evangelical campus ministries to be more missional, and along the way provides an introductory workbook for college ministers.

* Every collegiate ministry board or supervisory committee needs to be reminded that those doing ministry in an academic environment need to have continuing education, including some funds for professional books. (Even if those funds are meager and symbolic.)

Worlds Apart

2011-11-09T12:02:00.000-05:00

Worlds Apart: Understanding the Mindset and Values of 18-25 Year Olds is the latest book from college ministry leader and thinker Chuck Bomar . It is an easy read. Bomar is able to clearly synthesize data and combine it with an obvious passion and love for emerging adults to make a handbook for parents, grandparents, ministry leaders, and others who want to better understand 18-25 year olds.

He provides insights into some characteristics of this generation while highlighting some generational differences as well as common ground. He calls the 18-25 year olds the “Generation Higher Ed.” This new stage of life, which has never existed before, developed as the percentage of Americans having some college education exploded (from 9% in 1950 to 76% in 2209) and the length of time to complete a bachelor’s degree lengthened to six years for approximately 57% of them.

Bomar builds on the identity stage development of James Marcia and forms his own five stage search for identity stage. This is perhaps the weakest part of the book. For his stages, Bomar says that Generation Higher Ed is always in multiple stages, shifting within each day. These are perhaps more illustrative of different ways emerging adults make meaning, rather than a stage.

There are appendices with practical notes for church leaders and for parents. These are broad brush thoughts, short on specifics. A better source for specifics might be in his College Ministry from Scratch.

The necessity for intergenerational relationships is a foundational concept for Bomar’s vision of ministry. In this volume he uses healthy relations to build bridges between the generations, and says that these relationships must be done with humility. For the older participant That includes listening, suspending judgment, and developing a reciprocal relationship. This means that the older adult also needs to ask of the younger, “How am I doing?”, “Where, in my life, do you see areas for growth?”, etc. Bomar acknowledges that this could be scary, but it takes the notion of relationships seriously.Such “learning with humility” may even strengthen your faith.

This is a good book to share with someone who needs to better understand college age people, but who would not be ready for the study required to read Jeffrey Arnett or Christian Smith. It is orientated toward the parent or ministry leader wanting to better understand the 18-25 year-olds in their life.

Worlds Apart: Understanding the Mindset and Values of 18-25 Year Olds. Church Bomar. Zondervan (Youth Specialties). Grand Rapids, MI. 2011

You Lost Me

2011-10-27T15:02:00.001-05:00

David Kinnaman is President of the Barna Group research company . His 2007 book, unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity ... And Why It Matters, was written to describe how emerging adults who are outside the church, think about Christians and Christianity. That was a useful book in thinking about how others on campus view campus ministry groups.

Now Kinnamen has followed that up with You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving Church...and Rethinking Faith, a book which describes what Christian emerging adults think about the church and Christianity. The book is a result of a five-year project incorporating eight national studies, and was recently published by Baker Books.

It is a sobering, but helpful assessment. Sobering because he makes his case from data, and the results are not good. Helpful because not only are the areas which cause Christians to drop out or wander away are described, but also because some over-arching ideas about how the current church needs to change in order to respond to this generation are given.

The last section of the book puts this into practice by giving 50 ideas to connect written by 50 different responders, including well-known evangelical Francis Chan, Collegiate Ministry author and blogger Chuck Bomar, Kenda Creasy Dean from Princeton Seminary, and recent college grads.

The book’s website includes two study guides; one for leaders/ pastors and one for parents/ grandparents.

Kinnaman sees the current generation attitudes heavily influenced by their elder’s attitudes and Christian education hits and misses. In many ways, this means that college ministry to these Mosiacs starts with a disadvantage. (The Barna Group has been referring to Millennials /emerging adults as “Mosaics”, because of their mosaic approach to life, and the spectrum of attitudes and characteristics they exhibit.) It does, however, point to some areas which would be helpful for campus ministry programming: Creating a safe space for doubting and challenging their faith; clearly addressing scientific culture and methodology; honestly addressing sexuality and sexual issues (and not just GLBTQ issues); and addressing the exclusiveness and openness of Christianity.

Read this book. Encourage any youth minister or Christian Educator you know who is good to read it. It’s that important.

RESOURCES

You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving Church...and Rethinking Faith. David Kinnaman . Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 201.1

“The Six Reasons Young Christians Leave Church” is a short article giving the highlights of the project’s findings.

The book’s website has a downloadable chapter and additional articles, as well as the study guides mentioned above.

unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity ... And Why It Matters, by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2007

The Sixth Week Sabbatical

2011-10-10T07:04:00.000-05:00

The beginning of the school year has a couple of collegiate ministry markers.
Three Days - First year students will have initially sorted the cohort they will associate with. (Will it be campus ministry -orientated?)
Two Weeks - the rhythm of the semester for most students has been settled. (If Tuesday night hasn't been set aside for your campus fellowship meeting, chances are they won't be coming.)
Six Weeks - Student and faculty have been going full speed and need a (fall or spring) break. The trajectory of student academic involvement has been set, and unless there is significant impetus to change, will continue as currently developed.

College ministers have been going full speed probably since two weeks before the First Years arrived. So the sixth week mark is time for a Sabbath, and not just a day off. (Many college ministers don't take a day off for the first six weeks!)

It's time for collegiate ministers to take two days off as a mini-sabbatical. Planning or conducting a fall break retreat or service project does not count!!! A two day get-a-way for rest and replenishment.

Your students will thank you for it!

A Validated Ministry?

2011-09-29T08:06:00.000-05:00

I know a Teaching Elder who pastors a worshiping community of 50. This community has an outreach which connects with another 100. Some of these participate in the community's worship, education, or service each week. The community routinely witnesses to the world and shares the Gospel with an intensity which is the envy of the Presbytery's Evangelism Committee. Or would be the envy if the Evangelism Committee recognized their existence.

But this worshiping community is not recognized by their presbytery. Their Teaching Elder is not recognized as a Pastor by the Presbytery. In fact, she has to fill out forms so that the Presbytery can VALIDATE her ministrations for the next year. The Presbytery annually reviews the administration of the worshiping communities they call "local congregations", while they ignore the active, faithful, worshiping community on campus.

This current generation of college students is much more interested in koinonia and experiencing the grandeur and Grace of God than in denominational posturing. This generation is more interested in doing than joining, so traditional notions of church membership don't seem appealing.

Is it too much to hope that the Presbyteries will see that they have some responsibility as well as investment in students within the bounds of the Presbytery as adult members who no longer worship with their congregations of origin?

The recent idea of the denomination starting "1001 new worshiping communities in the next ten years" is a start, because it recognizes that "church" (white clapboard, steeple, and well-scrubbed Waltons) is not reflective of this century, and "worshiping communities" are really what the denomination wants to encourage and grow.

So how about encouraging the formation of new and the supporting of existing worshiping communities on our campuses?

The Locus of College Chaplaincy

2011-08-26T11:10:00.000-05:00

In my last entry, I wrote about Chaplains being in a unique position because their ministry had two foci. They don't belong solely to either The Church or The Academy, but occupy an overlapping area, as this Venn diagram illustrates.

Besides CHURCH and ACADEMY, this area could also illustrate the Chaplain's area between SPECIFIC DENOMINATION and MULTIFAITH, PASTOR and MISSIONARY, FACULTY and ADMINISTRATION.

Fish or fowl, Athens or Jerusalem, this area is inhabited by few on campus. No wonder that chaplains feel lonely and need communities of chaplains for koinonia and support!

How Chaplains and Campus Ministers Differ from Congregational Pastors

2011-08-14T14:13:00.002-05:00

Much of the difference in ministry between chaplains and campus ministers and the ministry of congregations can be explained by the locus of their ministries.

Let us label the focus or ground of congregations as "The Church." I am using The Church as a descriptive axis mundi, and that it is comprised of the faith community, the Gospel message, the Christian faith and tradition, denominations, as well as specific worshiping communities.The Church sends members out into the culture with the expectation that they will bring new people into the Christian faith or The Church. The Church encounters The Culture, and changes its vocabulary and approach in order that as the Gospel message is sent out, it might connect with the Culture and help new people to come into The Church. The those persons reach out to The Culture in service and in hopes of bringing new people into The Church.

"The Academy" is the descriptive axis mundi of higher education institutions, the academic life, and the intellectual life of the liberal arts. The Academy encounters the Culture, and changes its vocabulary and approach in order that new persons may be brought into the Academy, and then sent out to transform The Culture and to bring new persons into the The Academy.

So there are two different institutional areas which have similarities in their life-cycle. I recognize that this sounds a little theoretical and convoluted, but it will help in understanding chaplains and campus ministers.

The Church sees The Academy as just one part of The Culture. It has no privileged position. Churches may see college campuses as specific places where potential converts / new members/ attendees reside. Their outreach to them is similar to outreach to a nearby housing project or retirement community. What goes on inside The Academy is not of particular interest, except as it impacts the evangelism/ mission / outreach of The Church. For example, a congregation with a college ministry is not interested in residence hall regulations or college class policies, but only in the students. As the students' lives are impacted, or as the lives of congregants who are college employes are impacted, the congregation is interested. But otherwise, The Academy is just a segment of The Culture.

In a like way, The Academy sees The Church as just one part of the culture. Church-related colleges may see The Church as a source of students and development funds, but church politics and pronouncements have little impact within The Academy. The Academy is interested in retaining its students, so it may make some accommodation for limited student involvement with The Church.

Chaplains live and work out of both The Church and The Academy. Life within The Academy is not part of The Culture, it is one of the two centers out of which ministry occurs. The chaplain is interested and involved in campus politics and policies. They don't come on campus to do ministry, they are on campus doing ministry. The image of church ministers is off campus, coming onto the campus to encounter students to lead them off campus. The image of chaplains is on campus, moving through the campus, to lead students both more deeply into The Academy as well as more deeply into The Church.

Para-church organizations illustrate this distinction. For example, I have attended many CRU meetings, a few staff meetings, and have known a number of staff members over the years. ( Since July 22, Campus Crusade of Christ is now CRU, having taken just ten years to be forced to realize that their vocabulary - "crusade" - needed to be changed.) In all of those meetings, the focus was on personal commitment to Jesus Christ. I never heard one talk on why commitment to Jesus would mean being a better student, or why education could make one a better Christian, or that loving commuter students might translate into supporting their request for adequate on-campus storage and study space. I did hear encouragement to embrace the behavior of The Church - no drinking, swearing, or sex- but never to embrace the behavior of The Academy. The para-church lives and works out of The Church.

Chaplains have difficulty in talking with The Church about their work. That they have relationships with non-Christians in which they are encouraging, for example, Hindus to be better Hindus and not encouraging them to become Christians, the Chaplains are speaking out of their position within The Academy. When they encourage students to go to seminary or to connect with a local worshiping community whose worship style and hospitableness might seem more appealing, the chaplains are speaking out of their position within The Church.

Depending on the campus ministries and the campus ministers, they may be located primarily within The Church, and spend varying time within The Academy. Congregationally based college ministries almost always operate with The Church.

How does this resonate with your experience?

The Role of Collegiate Ministers

2011-07-25T11:37:00.000-05:00

A colleague and I were discussing roles of collegiate ministers in the lives of students. One metaphor meaningful to her was the African tribal elder who can point out to younger travelers the signs, footprints, and stories of the animals and plants that have left their mark in the veld around them. These signs point to a larger, richer world.

That reminded me of John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, and two places which correspond to collegiate ministry; the House of The Interpreter and the shepherds of the Delectable Mountains. During his journey, Christian comes to the House of The Interpreter. There he sees images with the Interpreter which help him understand his journey. Christian then leaves the Interpreter's House and continues on his way. Eventually he comes to the Delectable Mountains. There they meet the shepherds Knowledge, Experience, Watchful, and Sincere, and are given a "perspective glass" so that they can see the Celestial City from the top of Mount Clear.

In both of these encounters, Christian is shown images and helped to understand how they make sense and direction for his journey of faith. During the college years, when most students encounter critical thinking along with the greater diversity of of the world, collegiate ministers help them interpret the images and experiences they are encountering through the lens of Christ. The students are assisted in their meaning-making and reframing of their personal stories in light of their educational banquet at college. In college they are shown the signs which point to a larger, richer world. Collegiate ministry helps interpret them.

This is evangelism, the sharing of the Good News of God in Christ Jesus. It is not quite the same sharing that Evangelist does during Pilgrim's Progress. Evangelist directs Christian to the "Wicket Gate," where the straight and narrow highway begins.

There are some college ministries which have as their primary goal the making of Christian converts, getting students on the King's Highway. For Presbyterian ministers in Validated Ministries (such as campus ministers and chaplains) the encouragement and discipleship of students is possible, but their baptism and profession of faith must occur within a congregation. Because of our Presbyterian emphasis on "loving God with our minds," the primary service we do for the Church is in interpretation and encouraging students while we encounter them on their journey.

The Leading Edge

2011-07-06T13:36:00.000-05:00

At the recent Big Tent event, I realized the next step in Collegiate Ministry as R&D. We are also the leading edge. The leading edge is that part of a wing or sail which first comes in contact with the wind. By extension, it is used to describe the vanguard of an organization.

The P.C. (U.S.A.) is just beginning to realize that the emerging adult generation differs from their predecessors in that their disassociation from the church is more significant and lasting. There is currently a little hand wringing and little action. If only the denomination could think to use the experience and expertise of the Academy and its ministers.

In the late 1990s, colleges realized that different strategies were necessary to recruit, teach, and retain the Millennial Generation. That generation expected more choices and individual accommodation (think self-designed majors, learning centers, residences instead of dorms). They valued authenticity over dogma. They were also more team orientated. They liked to explore choices, but were reluctant to make commitments.

Colleges and college ministries revised their methods of contacting, welcoming, and encouraging students. Would it dawn on the church's leadership to ask for help from those who have been living in this new, millennial, reality for over a decade and have had some success? (Frequent feedback, voice, and input are also characteristics of these emerging adults.)

A Few Resources from the Academy
Emerging Adults: Learning and Development
Millennials Go To College, an executive summary
A Resource on Emerging Adults from Minnesota State University's Counseling Center

The Church's R and D

2011-06-23T07:12:00.000-05:00

Collegiate Ministry often acts as the Research and Development Department of the Church. Before an issue blossoms into denominational awareness – and usually a concern because it is newness and change – it took root on campuses and college ministries addressed it. So there is a history of ways to address issues which denominations have available to them. Unfortunately, because collegiate ministry usually doesn’t get much attention, this history is ignored.

A recent Christian Century article discuss a recent trend of church membership. It seems that a growing number of folks don’t want to “join” a congregation, or to have “membership” in it. Campus ministries have seen this for fifteen years. Students would come to events, participate, and even have leadership, but wouldn’t be “members” of the group. Sometimes you’d ask someone to step up to some leadership position and they would be reluctant to do that. Then they would reveal for the first time that they were Roman Catholic or Jewish or agnostic and assume that would somehow make them unfit. Or some student would say that they were a member of your fellowship group when they had only attended a time or two. Many campus ministries know their impact is wider and deeper than the numbers which denominations and governing boards seem to love.

How can we in collegiate ministry help the church see that our emphasis on hospitality, mirroring God's gracious hospitality, welcomes and allows seekers to find their home in Jesus?

Job Requirements

2011-05-31T19:08:00.000-05:00

Today I received a job description for a Program Coordinator of Spiritual Life / Chaplain which contained a paragraph of "Typical Physical Demands." They included, " Requires sitting, standing, bending, and reaching."

Whoa.

I flashed on the perceptiveness of the HR person who unknowingly filled out this institutional standard form.

College ministry requires sitting: sitting with students in their joys and sorrows, sitting with faculty and staff, sitting through long official functions and dinners, and sitting in prayer and reflection.

College ministry requires standing: standing for something, taking stands, standing around.

College ministry requires bending. Oh yeah. If you can't be flexible, you won't last long in this profession.

And reaching. College ministry includes the prophetic dimension, calling students, administration, and the institution itself to aim higher and deeper.

There was more.

"Requires normal range of hearing and vision." The HR person got this section very wrong. College Ministry requires abnormal hearing and vision in order to pick up the flutterings of the Spirit. To be able to hear what is really being said and what actions really mean.

What is your real job description?

A Substitute for a Chaplain?

2011-05-18T11:02:00.001-05:00

A disturbing trend in PC(USA) –related colleges and universities has been to replace a chaplain with a coordinator of religious activities or a confederation of local pastors. While the ostensible reason for this is stated in financial terms, I believe that the underlying reasons are more philosophical.

The stated thought-process goes like this: (1) our student body is too diverse and a chaplain couldn’t minister to them; (2) we are a serious academic institution and therefore have no need of religious superstition; and (3) we are more tolerant than earlier generations of administrators and faculty, the position of chaplain is no longer necessary.

Since we need to cut expenses, the functions of the chaplain can be easily assumed by (A) an existing staff person do religious programming and (B) local clergy give prayers or chapel services when needed.

Let me reflect on each of those statements.

(1) “The student body is too religiously diverse for a chaplain from one tradition.” This concern usually comes from a generation where student bodies were more homogenous, and white protestant Christianity was the norm. Most higher education institutions today are religiously diverse. Flagship Ivy League universities maintain a chaplain and a staff to address multifaith concerns. The smaller the enrollment, the more concentrated those multifaith activities become in the person and office of a lone chaplain. For smaller institutions, a trend has been to acknowledge the increasing religious diversity of students by combining titles in the same position. Some PC(U.S.A.) examples are “Chaplain and Director of Spiritual Life”, “Chaplain and Director of Interfaith Campus Ministries”, and “Dean of Religious and Spiritual Life”.

The particularity of a chaplain’s religious tradition is a necessary asset on a diverse campus. The chaplain is not a local, denominational pastor. The chaplain’s congregation is primarily non-religious, anti-religious, and Whatever. The chaplain serves the institution in helping the entire student body in its individual members’ spiritual journey. That means that the Presbyterian chaplain is also the voice on campus encouraging the Baptists, Buddhists, Wiccans, as well as the Atheists. (Not in the skill-set of most local parish clergy) The Presbyterian characteristics of hospitality, humility, and Otherness of God provide a good foundation for chaplains.

A student life staff member with responsibility for religious organizations cannot provide this. Nor can local clergy.

(2) “Religion has no place in the academic enterprise.” This comment is sometimes heard from faculty fearful of the anti-intellectualism of their stereotyped Christianity. Presbyterians are the ones who take to heart the commandment to “worship God with all your mind.” The prevalence of this thinking (residual Enlightenment rationalism) on PC(U.S.A.) church-related institutions is an indication that we have done a poor job of communicating our Presbyterian academic ethos to new hires.

The chaplain embodies the unity of academic study and religious faith on campus. Many chaplains have some academic involvement and teach courses. Thirty five percent have advanced degrees and almost thirty percent have faculty rank. Chaplains are immersed in the academic culture. This environment of rigorous critical thinking subject to public critique colors the way chaplains do their job. Sermons, workshops, and classes given by chaplains – in general – tend to have a higher academic rigor than those given other clergy.

(3) “We are tolerant.” This remark indicates the confusion between toleration and hospitality. Toleration is a post-modern virtue, and allows for passive non-involvement with The Other. Hospitality is a biblical virtue which actively welcomes and involves The Other.

The chaplain nurtures the spiritual dimension of the institution. This nurture is accomplished directly through public worship and communication, and privately, in pastoral conversations with presidents, trustees, faculty, staff, and students. This spiritual nurture of students increasingly encompasses alumni. Most mission statements speak of educating “the whole person.” The Chaplain is the person on campus who continually raises the “whole person” issue.

The unique position of the chaplain allows her or him to be aware of the institution’s telos in a deep and special way. Only the college’s president shares this vantage point. The Chaplain sees the institution as a community, and recognizes in a deep, spiritual way how the individual parts of the community are connected.

(A) “An existing staff person can coordinate religious activities.” This may be true, but a healthy institution needs more than programming. A program coordinator is focused on present student need and is reactionary in its responsiveness. A chaplain is focused on the entire institution and is prophetic and visionary, as well as responsive to current student needs.

The chaplain acts as an identifiable focal point for the Transcendent on campus. This is broader and deeper than program coordination. This is a conduit for all areas of the institution to address the spiritual life of students. Recent scholarship confirms that attentiveness to the spiritual dimension of students result in better retention, grades, satisfaction. Those students also become more active alumni. Rev. Donna Schaper calls the “the transcendent role of chaplains.”

(B) “Local clergy can do the chaplain’s job.” Local clergy have gifts and callings appropriate to the local church. While students and faculty need a local worshipping community, there are … Congregations are self-selecting around theological and sociological foci. A campus community is incredibly more diverse in every aspect. Ministering in this diversity requires skills different from those needed in a traditional congregation in a local setting.

The chaplain is the institution’s tangible connection to the denomination. Over a quarter of PC(USA) chaplains act as the church relations officer. In the three types of church-relatedness used by the denomination since 1994, a specific chaplaincy is one of the marks of two of them. Only “historically” related colleges omit mention of chaplains. The Synod of the Covenant ‘s standard covenant with a college has a “funded chaplaincy” as one of the ways the institution shows its church-relatedness. Even when additional personnel are designated as Church Relations Officers, the denomination frequently uses the chaplains as connecting points.

I am well aware that the characterizations I have made do not describe every institution, chaplain, or chaplain substitute, and that institutions have vibrant programs. Nonetheless, an institution with a designated and supported chaplain has a better chance of developing those characteristics which define a church-related college or university. The position the institutional position of Chaplain is more helpful to a church-related institution than a Coordinator of Religious Programs.

Thoughts?

Suggested Readings
Astin, Alexander W. et al. Cultivating the Spirit: How College Can EnhanceStudent’s Inner Lives. Jossey-Bass. 2010
Mohr, Jim. “To Be a Chaplain”, in Branching Out: The Journal of the Presbyterian College Chaplains Association, Spring 2011.
PC(U.S.A.) General Assembly “On Being Faithful: The Continuing Mission of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in Higher Education” Adopted by the 206th General Assembly (1994)
Schachter, Ron. “The Changing Chaplaincy: The role of religious leaders oncampus as the spiritual needs of students evolve.” In University Business (UniversityBusiness.com), October 2008
Schaper, Donna. “The Transcendent Role of Chaplains”, in The Chronicle of Higher Education, November 12, 2004

Can They Find You?

2011-04-20T07:52:00.000-05:00

Can folks who are looking for your ministry find you?
Off-Campus: Prospective students and their parents looking for Presbyterian support at, say, Mission Field University look for you in a couple of ways. They Google "Presbyterian Campus Ministry Mission Field". They search Facebook for "Mission Field Presbyterian" and they look at Mission Field's Website listing of Student Organizations. They might search the PC(USA)'s Campus Ministry Locator if they are seriously Presby-geek and persistent. If your ministry is known on campus by some other name (Westminster House, K-House, The Abby, The Bridge, The Inn, FOCUS, FLAME, etc.) you will need to be thoughtful in your media usage.

Web site metatags are what help search engines list what information appears on the search results page. Use them!

If you are a congregation hoping that some nearby college students will attend your church, your web site had better have something which specifically says "college students". They won't be attending without first looking you up for directions, times, and to see if you look like a church where they would be welcome.

A Facebook PAGE is good for your external visitors because it will appear on search engine results. The PAGE's title should not be the on-campus name. Save that for the INFO. A Facebook GROUP for your internal (on-campus) organization should have the title by which your students would know you.

You should also check that the PC(USA) Campus Ministry Locator has up-to-date information. The procedure to submit changes can be found on the Locator front page. If you are a congregation near a campus hoping to attract college students and you are already in the Locator data base, you MUST have a website!!!

A Recommended exercise: Go to the library. Pick an institution similar to yours in another state. Imagine that you are first a parent and then a perspective student. Use a computer there to search for a Presbyterian campus ministry at that institution. Did you feel as if you got a good sense of what faith support there might be there? Then repeat the exercise for your own campus. (Don't use your own computer, it may skew your results)

If you have any comments or suggestions about being visible, please share them!

A Missionary Endeavor

2011-04-09T09:28:00.000-05:00

Maybe one of the reasons the Presbyterian Church has high regard in the abstract and low regard in the tangible for collegiate ministry is because of the way the denomination views college ministry.

Most congregational-based campus ministries have a staff person (ordained or lay) responsible for the ministry and the finances and accountability structures are similar to that of the congregation's youth ministry. This structure unconsciously casts college ministry as an older youth ministry.

A better model would be to see the congregation's campus ministry at the nearby university in the same way it views its ministry to an overseas elementary school. The congregation supports the overseas school by raising and giving money to the school. They don't expect anything back from the school except occasional reports, thanks, updates, and photographs.They realize that the school enriches and impacts their congregation not by having any of the students participate in the life of the congregation, but solely for what the outreach ministry does for the congregation itself. The congregation might send a few of its members on site do some some work for the school. Often those "mission trips" involve physical plant support or intensive education events. The congregation is proud of its support for the school and places pictures of the school and its students on bulletin boards. Members who have been on "mission trips" to the school report back to the congregation.

Organized, stand alone Presbyterian and Ecumenical Campus Ministries also need to been seen as missionary outposts by supporting congregations. There should be no expectation that the students involved in campus ministry will attend, participate, or contribute to the supporting congregation.

Chaplaincy programs are frequently overlooked by congregations. They think that because the Chaplaincy programs are part of the college there is no need for the congregation's funds, prayers, or physical "mission trip" presence. These campus Religious Life Programs are missional.

When will we take seriously the notion that ministry on campus to college students is a missionary endeavor? When will we start treating campus ministers and chaplains as missionaries and colleges as a mission field? Campus Ministry is not just an older youth group, able to provide nursery workers, Sunday School teachers, and perhaps a choir member. Campus Ministry is a missionary outreach to a different culture. Members of that different culture have their own society, rules, and language. A few (15%) may be able to speak the congregation's religious and social language, but the overwhelming majority do not. (Even when the ministry on campus is vibrant and students are having their faith deepened, those campus ministry students will probably not be visible at the 11 o'clock worship.)

Missionaries get some training from the denomination before they report to their site. They receive public recognition and commissioning as they begin. The denomination actively supports them with publicity and communication. Periodically the missionaries are brought back home for rest, replenishment, and time to spend with the congregations which support them.

Notice, please, that while local congregations financially undergird the missionaries, a numerically strong denominational staff supports and coordinates them.
(I count about 125 Mission workers on the PCUSA website with 45 denominational staff.[Young Adult Volunteers and staff not encluded.] I estimate about 300 organizational campus ministers, 450 congregational based staff, and 80 chaplains supported, coordinated, and publicized with one denominational staff person.)

Cultivating the Spirit

2011-03-15T13:30:00.001-05:00

I just finished perhaps the most important recent book for those concerned about the spiritual life of college students, Cultivating the Spirit: How College Can Enhance Student’s Inner Lives, by Alexander A. Astin, Helen S. Astin, and Jennifer A. Lindholm, published by Jossey-Bass this fall.

Despite the liberal arts’ penchant for educating the “whole person” and students’ desire that their campus encourage personal expression of spirituality, provide for their emotional development, and enhance their self-understanding; many institutions try to distance themselves from overtly spiritual or religious descriptions or activities. This book may help in stimulating discussions about college’s role in cultivating the inner life of students.

The book reports the findings of “the first national longitudinal study of undergraduates’ spiritual growth,” a ten year study funded by the Templeton Foundation and conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles.

A survey was administered to about 3,700college freshmen in 2003, and those results were used to develop measures of spiritual and religious qualities. Over 112,000 first year students from 236 institutions were surveyed in 2004. Three years later they did a follow up survey of 14,527 students from 136 institutions. They conducted interviews and focus groups and interviewed faculty at selected institutions. Since one of the study’s goals was to investigate what college experiences were most likely to promote students’ spiritual development, additional faculty input was desired. In 2005, 65,000 faculty from over 400 institutions were surveyed.

As a result of the initial survey, they developed measures to be able to separate and assess spirituality as well as religiousness. “Whereas religion is characterized by group activity that involves specific behavioral, social, doctrinal, and denominational characteristics, spirituality is commonly conceived as personal, transcendent, and characterized by qualities of relatedness.” (p. 5) Making this distinction allowed for more fruitful engagement with academe. Colleges are engaged in students’ hopes, dreams, character and values development, even when they shy away from “religion.”

Here’s how the Study organized their analysis:

The Five measures of Spiritual Life:
“... an active quest for answers to life’s “big questions” (Spiritual Quest), a global worldview that transcends ethnocentrism and egocentrism (Ecumenical Worldview), a sense of caring and compassion for others (Ethic of Caring) coupled with a lifestyle that includes service to others (Charitable Involvement), and a capacity to maintain one’s sense of calm and centeredness, especially in times of stress (Equanimity).” (Key Findings, p. 2)

The Five measures of Religious life:
the extent to which beliefs play a central role in their life (Religious Commitment); religious behaviors such as praying and attending religious services ( Religious Engagement); questioning the notion of life after death, or that the universe arose by chance (Religious Skepticism); feeling unsettled about religious matters, questions beliefs , or disagreeing with family about religious matters (Religious Struggle); and their position on such issues as abortion, casual sex, atheism, and proselytizing (Religious/Social Conservatism) .

A few of the findings:

Student’s level of Religious Commitment changes very little during college. Religious Engagement, particularly in attendance at religious services, shows a sharp decline. Most spiritual qualities appear to be enhanced by the college experience. (p99)

Students who score high on Religious Skepticism tend to be nonreligious, while those engaged in Religious Struggle are often highly religious. (p. 113)

“One of the surest ways to enhance the spiritual development of undergraduate students is to encourage them to engage in almost any form of charitable or altruistic activity.” (p.147)

Students who professors encourage them to explore questions of meaning and purpose show larger than average increases in Spiritual Questing, although most students (62%) report that their professors “never” encourage discussions of religious / spiritual matters. (p. 37)

Faculty who encourage and involve students in conversations about matters of meaning and purpose in life, and who engage them in discussions of religion and spirituality play a critical role in student’s growth in the Ethic of Caring and Ecumenical Worldview measures. (p. 75)

And So:

On one hand, there are few surprises here for those of us engaged in the religious and spiritual questing of our students. There is substantial quantitative support for increasing the education of faculty and student affairs administrators on the positive impact increased spiritual and religious life has on both the academic enterprise as well as the campus community.

The importance of faculty in student’s spiritual development is greater than the faculty’s perception.

How can college “enhance student’s inner lives”, that is “cultivating the spirit”?
First, by continuing those activities and experiences which have such a positive effect on student’s academic life, leadership development, and satisfaction with college: study abroad, interdisciplinary courses, service with a reflective component, and having professors who encourage students to explore questions of meaning and purpose.
Second, by finding ways to help students spend time in contemplation, meditation, and self-reflection.

Read more about it at the book’s website, and the very helpful and informative Key Findings brochure.

Implications for Higher Education From the Presbyterian Heritage

2011-03-02T09:59:00.000-05:00

Since I was asked, here's an attempt to lay out some implications in one page. Comments? Feedback?

There are common values shared by higher education institutions which reflect the Judeo-Christian foundation of our culture. Some of these common values are honesty, respect, and fairness. Our college has an additional core of values because of its relation with the Presbyterian Church. Church - relatedness means that the college and the church share some of the same values.

The Presbyterian tradition is one of the Christian denominations arising out of the Reformed section of the Protestant division of the catholic (the word means “universal”) Christian church. The American Presbyterian family theology tree starts with ancient Israel through Jesus, Paul, Augustine, Martin Luther, to John Calvin in Geneva, John Knox in Scotland, to the Puritans and Scotch-Irish in the colonies.

The Reformed section includes The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) (With which the college is officially related), four small off-shoot denominations,( The Presbyterian Church in America, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, The Reformed Presbyterian Church, and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church) The Christian Reformed Church, the Reformed Church in America, the United Church of Christ, and over 160 different denominations worldwide, most notably The Church of Scotland, the Huguenot Church, the Presbyterian Church of Korea, and the Presbyterian Church of the Congo.

Presbyterians have always valued education, and have emphasized that human beings are called to “love God with all our minds (Matt 22:37)” Higher Education in the U.S. has been significantly influenced by the Presbyterian / Reformed emphasis, both in the number of institutions founded or led by Presbyterians, and in the North American liberal arts tradition.

In 1994, the PC(USA)’s General Assembly said that “to be [church] related or connected means…that the college attempts in its corporate life to be faithful to the Reformed heritage, its values, and its guiding beliefs. Among those values and beliefs are the sovereignty of God over all of life, the goodness of the created word, the value and limitations of reason, a commitment to the moral life, and a call to service.” On Being Faithful: The Continuing Mission of the Presbyterian Church in Higher Education, p.32)

Some principles of education from the Presbyterian Heritage

The purpose of the college is beyond itself.
The purpose of education is for the transformation of individuals within a life-giving community. It is personal, but not private. We have responsibilities to one another.
Learning and teaching are not just occupations, but sacred callings.
The universe is orderly and rational. Outcomes can be anticipated.
We have been given minds to discover how the universe has been created and sustained.
All responsible study, no matter what the subject or implication, glorifies God.
Faith is not threatened by any advancement in human knowledge.
Diversity is expected and welcomed.
Learning is always accompanied by humility. No human has complete knowledge, so others may be able to provide additional information. This requires an openness and hospitality to diversity.
The thoughtful conscience of the individual trumps church doctrine or dogma.
There is a unity of knowledge (and faith), such that wisdom is integrated knowledge. There may be concentrations in a major, but they are disciplines within the wholeness of a broad and integrative whole.

Most of these principles would be affirmed by secular American educators, who would not know their source.

The Presbyterian understanding of education is not proselytizing, nor is it afraid of any legitimate investigation. Its understanding is that the Christian faith can confidently participate and contribute to the academic enterprise without any dilution of intellectual rigor.

Mental activity is, at its heart, holy and worshipful. Since God is God of all, there is no field of inquiry which is inappropriate for intellectual investigation. The concept of academic freedom arose out of this conviction. Anyone who is responsibly engaged in the discovery of truth is worshiping God, whether or not she or he even realizes it or even believes in God.

The Higher Education Presbyterian Ethos

2011-01-31T12:20:00.000-05:00

I recently visited a PC(USA)-related college who is thinking about its church-relatedness in terms of developing a statement about faith and learning on campus.There seemed to be some concern by faculty and staff that such a statement would be constrictive and make them into one of the Christian colleges who require ascription to some common statement of belief.

I don't think that campus is unusual. I don't think we have done a good job in articulating and publicizing what it means for a campus community to be influenced by the Presbyterian ethos. Many corporations, especially those in the service industry, have an orientation program where the company ethos is presented and discussed. The PC(USA) has ordination requirements which help provide an immersion into the Presbyterian ethos. (Can much of the denomination's debates over ordination standards, presbyteries and synods, connectionalism, etc., be an indication that we are not doing a good job in this area either?)

Colleges and Universities should have some part of their orientation for new faculty and staff and students about what it means - as well as what it does not mean - for their institution to be in relationship with the Presbyterian church. The Chaplain would be the natural person to present this. A one-page take home sheet might be helpful to reinforce the campus ethos.

Campus Ministries might also find such a handout useful for those students and parents who wonder how the Presbyterian campus ministry differs from other Christian groups on campus.

The Spirituality of Emerging Adults

2011-01-13T11:54:00.001-05:00

Christian Smith's Souls in Transition should be must reading for anyone engaged in college ministry.
In addition, a few recent articles have expanded and helped provide insights into our ministry with emerging adults. Here are a few to stimulate your thinking when you're snowed in!

The New York Times had an excellent article by Robin Marantz Henig in it's August 18,2010 Magazine, "What Is It About 20-Somethings? Why are So Many People in Their 20s Taking So Long to Grow Up?"

The Los Angeles Times recently ran an article on "Spirituality Finds a Home at College," using data from UCLA's Spirituality in Higher Education report.

Albert Mohler, the President of Southern Baptist Seminary, reviewed Souls in Transition on his blog, and encouraged evangelicals to read the book.

The Changing Spirituality of Young Adults Project, has a wealth of articles on the spirituality of emerging adults. The project is funded by a Lily Grant.

Christianity Today had an interview with Christian Smith after Souls in Transition was published. It is a wonderfully succinct encapsulation of his research.

Alexander W. ("Sandy") Austin, the author of Spirituality in Higher Education report mentioned above, published a book in November with his wife entitled, Cultivating the Spirit: How College Can Enhance Student's Inner Lives . I have it on order and will review it later this year.

The Numbers Game

2010-12-27T12:13:00.000-05:00

I am of two minds about numbers in collegiate ministry. On one hand, tracking and reporting numbers is helpful in indicating trends. Is a certain program working? If the number of students responding has been decreasing for a couple of years, why? Is it time to reinvest the energy and resources into some other offering?

The danger is equating numbers with ministry. I have seen at least one evaluation by a middle governing body which used a numeric ratio as part of its evaluation. The number of students served by a ministry was divided by the total number of enrolled students at the institution, and then this figure was used to compare different ministries within the diocese. For ministries, such as many PC(USA) college ministries, which emphasize hospitality, environments which encourage questions, and mentoring, numbers do not adequately reflect the impact of the ministry. Ministries gathered around worship or service might find numerical comparisons more useful.

I remember a synod campus ministry gathering early in my college ministry. A number of campus ministers were adamantly rejecting any numerical reporting of students served. It struck me as a response which might obscure a meaningful evaluation. I understand some of that reluctance, but also believe that we need to a better job of reporting and publicizing stories of students who have been changed by campus ministry. Numbers by themselves can't tell the story.

Adult Mentors

2010-11-16T17:48:00.002-05:00

I've appreciated Chuck Bomar's continuing emphasis on having adult mentors as a basic component of a congregation's college ministry.

The recent Princeton Seminary's Emerging Adult Conference returned to similar themes of adult involvement again and again. Kara Powell, from the Fuller Youth Institute's College Transition Initiative reported that from their "Sticky Faith"(how can a young person's faith stick through the emerging adult transitions) research a necessary component of congregational life should be intergenerational experiences. Christian Smith, in Souls in Transition, listed the teenage years factors which correlated most strongly with stronger emerging adult religious practices. The top three: (1)the teen's personal faith commitment, devotion, and experience. (2) the religious commitment and practice of their parents, and (3) other supportive religious adults in the congregation.

Adult relationships and presence is important as young people try to discern how they are to navigate adulthood. I've always appreciated the faculty or staff member who "adopted" students and invited them into their homes, lives, and families. Their impact is significant, and many graduates still stay in contact with them.

Congregations near campus often try the "adopt a student" / "adopt a family" / "adopt a grandparent" of matching students and interested adults, often with mixed results. The thought of a long-term commitment (by both parties!) seems intimidating, and having more than one student with each family might reduce the anxiety of thee unknown.

Perhaps more modest opportunities for the generations to connect might work. A morning together building a Habitat House followed by lunch, a combined work project with the campus ministry group and one of the congregation's groups. A few families might be flexible enough to informally invite a couple of students to lunch after the Sunday worship.Pairing students and adults as church school teachers might provide some opportunities for intergenerational relations. (This means not seeing college students as bodies to help out in the church school, but mentoring as an outreach ministry in itself.) The congregation could invite the campus ministry group to join them on a mission project during Spring Break and provide some scholarship assistance to the students.

What other ways are there to give students the contact in faith with adults?

Student Representation on the Board

2010-10-21T07:26:00.000-05:00

How are students involved in the leadership and vision of the campus ministry? I don't mean the leadership board elected each year which organizes programs and activities. I mean the governing board / trustees of the organization. How is the student voice heard?

How many board members have current insight into the student culture on campus? Not the alums, who remember how it used to be. Not the faculty member (as much as they think they might know the student culture on their campus). The campus minister can help, usually, but hers is often the only voice of folks engaged in the ministry. A student board member helps correct this deficiency.

But if the expectation is that one student can provide all that input, that asks a lot of the student. The student can help facilitate getting board members engaged with a range of students. Arranging for a board member to take two or three students out to dinner, or arranging for a student host when the board member comes to a programs or a residence hall bible study, provides board contact with students. (These types of encounters should be in addition to a yearly State of the Ministry report to the board by the student leadership.)

One way of helping the student rep is by intentionally overlapping the position. One student, who has some experience with the board, can help the new member feel more comfortable speaking up in meetings, and initiating conversations with board members outside the regular board meetings.

A student presence on the board helps ground the board's discussions, helps to provide a reality check, and provides a leadership experience for the student- which hopefully will pay off in the future when they move away and begin a career and become involved in a campus ministry governing board.

Early Assessment

2010-10-06T19:20:00.000-05:00

Used to be that mid-term grades helped students see how they were really doing in college. Then in the recent past, retention studies indicated that First Year Students needed earlier feedback on how they were doing. Thus Early Assessment grades. Before Fall Break students would get an evaluation of how they were doing, so that they could make corrections before it was too late.

So now is the time for an early assessment of how our ministries are doing this year.

It's one of the aphorisms of collegiate ministry that you will never have more students at a regular college ministry function than you will at the beginning of the semester. But there are some students who came and have stopped coming. Why? Who has checked up on them?

Which programs worked and why? Which ones didn't and why?

Which student leaders have risen to the challenge of their ministry? Now is the time to affirm them.

Which student leaders haven't yet stepped up? Now is the time to check in with them and do a little mentoring.

Which governing board / oversight committee members don't yet have the big picture of what they are supposed to be doing?

Cultivating Student Affairs

2010-09-27T07:38:00.000-05:00

The folks on campus who might come closest to understanding collegiate ministry are the student affairs / student life professionals. They, too, love students, want them to have rich and helpful experiences and develop a meaningful life. Their importance and impact are also devalued by the community. The first weeks of school are even crazier for them than for collegiate ministers!

So now would be a good time to stop by their office with some goodies and a thank you note for what they are trying to do in the lives of our college students. And sometime, after the dust settles, find some time to meet with a few of the staffers to build relationships.

If they know you are supportive of their efforts and that you are concerned about all students ( not just Presbyterians), and you're not going to coercion or badger non-Christians, they may begin to think of you as a referral resource. The activities directors can commiserate over planning events when few people show up, and the disconnect between students who say they are attending and never appear. Perhaps you know artists which would appeal to student populations not on the student activities committee's radars.

Most campuses now have crisis plans developed. Are you a resource for them?

Jennifer Martin, at the Koinonia House at the University of Oregon, reminded me of good information to share with student affairs folks. Recent studies, such as from Christian Smith at the National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR) , the Higher Education Resource Institute, and the Fuller Seminary College Transitions Program, indicate that the more the religious involvement of the student, the less likely they are to binge drink or to be "loners". Helping reduce those two campus cohorts will get the attention of the student life professionals! Perhaps you could offer to do an information session for the staff later in the year.

Are you routinely praying for the student affairs / student life staff? Do they know that?

Collegiate Ministry Through the Numbers

2010-09-14T08:27:00.001-05:00

I’ve been trying to gather some factual information about the PC(USA)’s collegiate ministry efforts. The three most recent sources of data for PC(USA) collegiate ministries are: a report from all congregations in 1999 which gave a report of all congregations involved in student ministries and led to the development of the Campus Ministry Locator; a 2004 Presbyterian Panel Survey which asked primarily about church-related colleges; and a 2009 e-mail Congregational Survey on Collegiate Ministries which asked mainly about congregational involvement in collegiate ministry.

What they show:

In 2006, the Campus Ministry Locator listed roughly 350 established organizational groups doing campus ministry on behalf of the PC(USA). Some were ecumenical campus ministries which included PC(USA) support. There were roughly 700 congregations who said they had some special outreach to college students. All told, approximately 1000 campuses had some PC(USA) presence.

In 2009, twenty-two percent of congregations were located within a mile of at least one college or university. Eighty-four percent reported at least one college or university within ten miles of their congregation’s facilities.

In 2009, only one in four congregations near a college campus had their own direct ministry with students from that or other nearby schools. An overlapping one in four provided financial support to a campus ministry in their locality.

What they don’t show:

How many PC(USA) students there are. The denomination doesn’t request that traditional age group breakdown from churches. Any estimate is a guess. A rough estimate would be 20,000 – 70,000. (For example, here are three estimates. The Chronicle of Higher Education indicated that 2.9%, or approximately 40,600, Freshman in 2009 were Presbyterian. The Department of Education’s enrollment data of traditionally aged college students in 2007 was 668,426, and adjusting that by the Chronicle’s Presbyterian percentage gives 19,384. Assuming college age young people make up 3 % of the denomination, there would be 62,300 students.)

Whether or not the indicated ministry is viable. The 1999 data was self-reported, so if congregations y were “engaged in any outreach activities to college or university students other than members”, they were included as “campus ministry congregations”. There was no criteria about what would constitute a ministry to students beyond the congregation (e.g., an active student group of non-conregants, a staff member or designated lay leader, a specific program budget, a web site, mention of student outreach on existing web site, etc.). A number of congregations assumed that if they “offered church participation”, then they had a “ministry” to students. Clearly those same students would not agree. The 2009 e-mail survey has different results. (See below)

Whether the ministry currently exists. Remember that for other than congregations, this data ten years old. A number of ministries listed then are no longer functioning.

What Possibilities are indicated

At most, only 23% of higher education campuses have a PC(USA) collegiate ministry. This assumes 1000 institutions with a presence out of 4400 total institutions.

Many congregations close to higher education institutions do not have collegiate ministry programs. Why not? Why aren’t congregations not near institutions supporting the ministry of near campus congregations?

The number of PC(USA) students served is not that important. PC(USA) collegiate ministry is Presbyterian ministry to collegians and is not ministry to Presbyterian students! Let’s ask how many students have some connection to the ministry. Most college ministries involve the whole spectrum of college students, not just Christians associated with a mainstream denomination.

The PC(USA)’s Campus Ministry Locator is woefully and embarrassingly out of date. When ministries cease, or contact persons move, no one notifies the Office of Collegiate ministries. I guestimate you have a one in three chance of getting correct information. (My method is to pick two numbers- the first is the state and the second is the entry in that state. Pick three sets of two and then see if there is a college ministry and a working e-mail.)

The PC(USA) needs to conduct a more complete survey. The 2009 e-mail survey had a limited number of responses, but seemed to reflect the whole denomination. Some criteria needs to be established and contact information maintained for those congregations ( as well as organizations and chaplaincies) in order to be listed on the Locator. For example , twenty seven percent of congregations report that they “directly offer … ministry programs specifically for students who attend nearby colleges and universities”. This would translate to 2458 congregations. Fully two thirds of these congregations are not currently listed on the Locator. These congregations are also not part of the PACHEM network, and have not participated in PACHEM’s newsletters, resource sharing, or national conferences.

What next?

How do we get congregations excited about collegiate ministry?
How do we help congregations begin a college ministry?
How do we move them beyond thinking truncated thinking?
Thinking what they can get out of it, rather than what can they can put into it.
Thinking only Presbyterian students.
How do we get them cooperating with congregations nearest to campuses?
How do we get congregations and campus ministries / chaplaincies working together?
How do we get congregational campus ministry folks connected and empowered?

The Most Important Weeks

2010-08-12T14:24:00.000-05:00

We're just about to start the most important two, three, and four weeks of the year - the beginning of school. What we do during those weeks sets the tone for the year. Here are a few suggestions.

Let folks know you exist
Update your information at the three national data bases. Consider having an e-mail just for the ministry and have it set up to automatically forward to your e-mail account. That way, inquirers will always be able to contact someone. If you’ve moved, it can be shifted to your replacement. If you have a 9 month contract, it can go to someone who can respond. E-mail is going to connect you with adults. Your students consider e-mail what the college administration uses. That’s why you need Facebook.

Have a Face book Page with a name which includes Presbyterian and Your institution, e.g. “Presbyterian Campus Ministry at Confused State” Then have a Face book Group with your group’s name, e.g. “ W-House” See PACHEM's web page on this.

Check that your web site is current. Remember that students will only visit your page just to get initial info. After that they will use Facebook. Mostly it will be parents of your students, institution faculty and staff, and your ministry mentors who will re-visit the web page.

Contact nearby presbyteries and ask them to ask churches to send you the names and e-mails of anyone from their congregations coming to your institution. It's not too late to do this! Some congregations may only now know their student's fall plans.

Have a visible on-campus presence at the beginning of the semester.
Meet new students and their families at Move-In Day and Activities Fairs. Some suggestions are : local churches bake cookies for you, bags have your Facebook address; have stamped envelopes with a sheet of paper with encouragement to write home (and send cookies to their campus minister); give out cold bottles of water; rent a snow cone machine and let folks choose their flavors (all flavors are welcome at our ministry); have a bowl of Smarties with a sign making some connection with your ministry; a small handout with dining hall hours, wellness center hours, and your ministry event times. …… others? Let's share!

Involve as many upperclass as you can in welcoming. Have a few of your leaders specifically “friend” new students. Have them offer help and advice in settling in, and invite the new students to your opening meeting.

Consciously look to the margins. What students aren't getting the same welcome as the "typical" incoming First Years? Transfer students, older students, veterans, international students, differently-abled, etc. What can your ministry do to be welcoming to them?

Get your priorities right before you begin
You, your board, and your student leaders commit to praying for the in-coming students for their first two weeks on campus.

Have your Leadership Team agree upon a goal for the first two weeks (in addition to the focused prayer above)

God bless you and your ministries during this most important time.

The Next Two Years

2010-07-24T11:20:00.000-05:00

As a result of the actions of the PC(U.S.A.)'s 219th General Assembly, Collegiate Ministries has some new opportunities:
(1) The Office of Collegiate Ministries will return as a stand-alone office.
(2) A higher education strategy will be developed to be presented to the 220th General Assembly in 2012.
(3) A Presbyterian Student Organization will be formed.
(4) The Presbyterian Student Leadership Team will be rejuvenated with funding.
(5) There was significant support across the Assembly for Collegiate Ministry.

These are encouraging opportunities, but

(1) While the approved overture had funds for a full associate position, currently the associate is about half time in Collegiate Ministries. What will the new organization look like? A half-time Young Adult Ministries (or will admit that we have no Young Adult ministry)- combined with Youth? (please, no. Youth ministry is not the same as young adult ministry) Will operating funds increase for a full-time office programs?

(2) Will the GAMC release sufficient funds to conduct a comprehensive, useful higher education strategy? If the office has only its current funds available, there won't be much of a strategy. Will there be enough time to gather data, involve middle governing bodies and other denominations and still have the report finished in time to report to the 2012 GA? There is only about 15 months in which to work.

(3) The student organization was funded by the Assembly's Sunday Worship offering.(The amount has not yet been released.) As a student told the committee hearing collegiate ministry issues, "What happens when that offering money runs out?" What will be the sustainable source of funding?

(4) What exactly is the purpose of a Presbyterian Student Leadership Team? How will that be communicated to the denomination? What sustained funding will there be?

(5) How will significant support translate in practical terms?

We have a lot of work to do to capitalize on this movement!

General Assembly

2010-07-11T12:35:00.000-05:00

The General Assembly passed the resolution to re-establish a stand alone Office of Collegiate Ministries and to develop a higher education strategy to be presented at the 2012 GA. There was an outporing of support for Collegiate Ministries which was encouraging and affirming.

The committee discussed and debated the overture and its dilebration turned out to be the the current state of collegiate ministry thought in microcosm. I wish it had been archived. It would have been a wonderful teaching tool.

The only really negative part was the attitude and action of some of the Louisville staff. They weren't interested in discussing the overture with the advocates, and made it clear that congregational ministries were important, and that they would sacrifice collegiate ministry in a heartbeat.

In 1998, the Lutherans conducted a big survey concerning Lutheran church-related schools. One of the big shockers of that study concerned the perceptions of different groups on the effectiveness of a church-related college experience. Guess which group undervalued church-related education the most? Church bureaucrats! More so than even non-churched adults. Perhaps by extension we might say that church officials would undervalue collegeiate ministry.

How can we change this? We have to find better ways to let the church know what collegiate ministry is doing. Perhaps a full-time staff member can help with that, but the collegiate ministry community has to be more PR proactive. How do we do that??

Ten Years Ago

2010-06-28T14:54:00.000-05:00

When the PC(U.S.A.) was formed in 1983, both of the uniting denominations had recently completed higher education mission papers: the UPC in the U.S.A. in 1981, and the PC(US) in 1982. In 1986, a new study was commissioned for the united church. That report, "On Being Faithful: The Continuing Mission of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in Higher Education was adopted in 1994.

Because of concerns that the success of parachurch campus ministries was reducing the impact of PC(U.S.A.), the 1998 General Assembly directed a church-wide mission strategy "for ministry to higher education". That strategy was adopted by the 213th General Assembly in 2001 as "Renewing the Commitment".

Our history has been to think anew about collegiate ministry every ten years or so. That means the 2010 General Assembly needs to direct a new study.

That got me to thinking about what has changed in the last ten years in college ministry.

2000. Before Facebook and texting. Back when only student's parents had cell phones. Before 9/11. Before the cultural awareness of other religions. Back when the denomination had a logo which said "Campus Ministry Touched Me" and we didn't think that might be icky. Back when going off to college probably meant that your faith practice declined. Back when the only wars we were fighting were the War on Drugs and the Culture Wars. Before Helicopter Parents. Before the denomination got out of ecumenical student ministries.

Yes somethings remain the same, but what a culture shift! In 2010 students still bitch about the food- but now they coplain becuse there aren't more than just one vegan and gluten free and organic and stir fry option.

So let's get on with thinking how ministry is changing, and how we can support and empower those who minister on our behalf with, for, and to college students.

Long Range Thinking

2010-06-09T09:17:00.000-05:00

The PC(USA) needs to do some long range thinking about collegiate ministries.

The last time the denomination addressed any collegiate ministry issue (except the approval of church-related institutions) was in 2001 with the report, “Renewing the Commitment: A Church-wide Mission Strategy for Ministry in Higher Education by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) ." There was a subsequent report in 2003 which was initially hoped to be a companion piece to "Renewing the Committment." The report, "Reclaiming the Vision: A Mission Strategy to Strengthen the Partnership Between the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and Its Related Schools, Colleges, and Universities" has little meat and no teeth. One proof is that it has no link on the PC(USA) website. I've put it on the PACHEM site so it can be accessed.

Here are a few reasons why we need a new stragety, a long range vision for collegiate ministry:

- The domination’s headquarters has systematically cut and minimized Collegiate Ministries since 2001. The shuttling of the office and the restructuring of Louisville means that much of the report mentions offices and entities which no longer exist. The economic and political reality of 2010 is much different than in 2010.

- Long rage thinking is a somewhat new concept for collegiate ministries. Campus ministries after World War II and the eccumenical era assumed that the denomination valued collegiate ministry as a given, so the focus was on year-to-year program funding. Campus Ministry boards allocated funds with church sessions as a model. With reductions in funding from all sources, and with the denomination pulling back from eccumenical collegiate ministry efforts, campus ministries must think long range. Boards need to rethink their purpose from the session model to the non-profit organization model. The church needs to address clearly what the role and goal of collegiate ministry should be in the future.

- The denomination also needs to rethink its relation to higher education institutions. Few colleges now recieve significant funds (the currency of influence to them) from the denominational structure, yet the denomination has some residual fond paternal notion of the closeness of church-relations. The intellectual resources of the institutions are ignored. And exactly what does being church-related mean? What are the minimum expectations from both parties?

- How do we use the resources we have most effectively? How do we hold collegiate ministries accountable? Can anyone set up a table on a campus quad and claim to be a PC(USA) campus ministry? How do we hold the burocracy accountable? If we say that collegiate ministry is important and the life of the mind foundational for us, how should that translate into resources?

The General Assemby this summer will address an overture concerning Collegiate Ministry. Overture 102 is unfortunately entitled, "On Reestablishing an Office of Collegiate Ministries as a Vital Part of Ministry and Mission." The second part of the overture is asking for "a strategy for mission in higher education in concert with middle governing bodies, congregations, and, where possible, ecumenical partners." I hope that request will not get lost in the buracratic arguements about separate offices, staff members, and budgets.
The PC(USA) needs to do some serious, thoughtful, long range thinking about collegiate ministries.

Migration Season

2010-05-23T07:38:00.000-05:00

The Migration Season for our college age young people has begun. Youth Sundays with recognition of the graduating seniors is the congregation's way of launching them out of the nest. Launched with the unspoken assumption that they will test their wings and eventually return when it is time for them to have children. Sent off with little or no support.

How many times have you collegiate ministers received communication from a congregation informing you that one of their members has enrolled in your institution? For me, in 22 years, less than 10 letters or e-mails! That's neglectful, and pityful.

We wring our hands because our congregations are getting smaller, yet we allow a whole segment to leave by the back door. We forget our vows we made to them when they were baptized.

Chuck Bomar, who blogs at College Ministry Thoughts, is doing good work in thinking about and addressing this area of congregational inaction. He pushes for every congregation to have some intentional strategy for ministry to the college aged, whether that congregation is near an higher education institution or not. And he emphases personal connections over programs.

His new book, The Slow Fade, (written along with a pastor and a recent college graduate) encourages congregations and families to invest in college-aged people, to prevent the "slow fade" from active involvement in faith communities. Investing means connecting students with the full life of the faith community by providing them with nurturing inter-generational relationships and meaningful service. This is not campus ministry, but might overlap into it.

The Slow Fade is a helpfull little book for congregations near your institutions, or for fculty or staff who might be feeling called to be more involved in the spiritual life of students. It is a plea to understand the twenty somethings and an encouragement for adults in the congregation to be involved in the life of a college student, not just for the well-being of the college student, but for the enrichment of the entire faith community.

Campus ministry can't do it all.

Preparing for Summer

2010-05-03T07:56:00.000-05:00

In the summer I often hear college ministers discussing what they are doing to prepare for the new academic year. I don't think I have ever heard someone say what they were doing to prepare for summer. Not recreationally (that's a typical conversation topic) but professionally. Many collegiate ministers have open / unpaid/ down time during the summer. How can we prepare to make that time effective for our ministries? Suggestions?

Here are a few which come to mind.

Make a reading list. Pick a few books which will stimulate your reflecting about your ministry. Pick a few which will nurture your spirit. Then get to reading.

Inspire your student leaders. Give them a question or two from them to think about over the summer. Use their responses as part of your leadership retreat before school starts. Maybe you all could start a discussion thread- private for you and the leaders. Specifically contact them in the middle of the summer. Send them a small devotional or article. Thank them for their ministry during the past year and ask them to continue praying for the ministry and for you in preparation for the new year.

Connect with potential students. You probably already have a student who writes to all the prospective students who find your ministry on Face Book. Make certain they are being welcomed already. Are there orientation days where incoming students could indicate interest?

Oversight board development. Is there an article or thought piece you could give them (and maybe even write) which they could use as a summer reflection stimulator. Then use it as a discussion starter at your late summer / early fall Board retreat or meeting.

Attend a professional conference. A good way to get ideas, resources, and encouragement. Summit '10 or NCMA's conferences would be good ones.

What else?
What resources could you share with us?

The Two Week Window

2010-04-08T07:37:00.000-05:00

In the rhythm of the semesters, the beginnings are important as students choose how they will spend their time. As the semester progresses, their routines become fixed, and it becomes harder for them to allocate time to a weekly meeting, for instance.

What this means for collegiate ministry is that there is a two week window at the beginning of each semester for students to visit your groups/meetings/programs and decide whether or not to join up. (OK, the window isn't fully shut until a month into the semester, and there are always exceptions: new students might show if a friend brings them, some personal crisis stimulates them to seek spiritual support, etc. But you get my point.)

I was reminded of this seeing a list of things new college students should know.

E-mail or Facebook a Good Idea a Day along with your Bible verse and thought. What really will be helpful to new students.
Have upperclass give a Survival tip (where can you find the best hotdog, the closest place to get Ramen noodles, cash a check, late night coffee, etc.)
Have a faculty member give the Most Important Single Thing to Succeed in A College Class.

I even tried for a few years to make up a booklet by collecting 30 days of Insights. Each day had a reflection by an upperclass or faculty member, a quotation (usually from Scripture, but I let the authors pick), and a survival tip. Handy numbers, locations, and contacts were listed so that those pages could be removed and saved.

Communication and contact are the critical components!

Get e-mails by asking your Presbytery and Synod, Orientation events, Activities Fairs, responses to inquiries to your organization's Facebook Page, current student referrals, and anyone who shows up or visits your events.

Collegiate Ministries Overture

2010-03-10T15:52:00.001-05:00

Well done to the Campus Ministers and Chaplains of the Synod of Lakes and Prairies! At their meeting this fall they moved beyond complaining and took action. They developed an Overture to the 2010 General Assembly, and Heather Jones Libich, FPC Cedar Falls, brought it to her Presbytery.

At the March 2nd meeting, the Presbytery approved the Overture which:
1. Directs the General Assembly Mission Council to re-establish an Office of Collegiate Ministries.
2. Directs that Office to prepare a strategy for Mission in Higher Education.
3. Directs that the Office present the strategy to the 220th (2012) general Assembly.

I hope other collegiate ministry supports will get their presbyteries to concur with this Overture. The presbyteries will have to postmark their concurrence to the Office of the General Assembly by May 4, 2010. The more presbyteries that concur add weight to to the Overture.

If you've been concerned about the direction of the denomination's inaction concerning collegiate ministry, and if you complained about it, now is the time to take some action!! Get your presbytery on board!!!

Here is a full copy of the Overture. When is officially posted on the GA business site, I will update this link. But this will get you started!!!

Inter-Faith Collegiate Ministry

2010-02-27T08:27:00.002-05:00

This week I'm especially appreciative of a subset of collegiate ministers: those who work calls them into serious, on-going, inter-faith dialogue. To be fully present on campus today already means to be engaged in some sort of inter faith work, but I'm thinking specifically of those whose context or job description highlights that activity.

It's what our students face. The Hindu down the hall is a kind, loving, peace-filled person whose life seems to make sense for him or her. Some of the Christians on the hall may try to convert her, a few may be aware of differences and try to understand them, but almost all will "live and let live."

Inter-faith folks try to move beyond tolerance to a place where each person can celebrate and pursue their own faith in a mutually supportive environment. This almost invariably means that the institution supports and encourages the activities of these collegiate ministers. Most congregations or ecumenical funding groups or para-church organizations would not be as open. They might want to be tolerant (civil) towards other faiths, but there is a hierarchical understanding of other faiths inherent in their self-understanding.

Imagine a campus minister asking a congregation for financial support of the ministry, and highlighting activities and lives changed as a result of the ministry. As part of the ministry activities, said campus minister discusses how the efforts to renovate the prayer space and kitchen have invigorated the Muslim students and they have become better organized and vocal on campus - thanks to the past financial support of that particular congregation. So please give us more money next year.

These Directors of Spiritual Life or Directors of Interfaith Campus Ministries learn from experience that their own particular faith is deepened and enriched by open and honest encounters with those of other faiths. And they are also made acutely aware of how most incoming college students have no knowledge of other traditions, and very little knowledge of their own family's faith.

So blessings on those folks in their important work, and a challenge to the rest of us that we can send students to them who know the rudiments of their own tradition. (And yes, I am advocating for a "No Christian Left Behind" educational assessment. George Bush left behind, not Hal Lindsey.)

Evangelism's Step Child

2010-02-08T15:33:00.000-05:00

I read that Louisville has hired a new Associate in the Evangelism Area. Since Collegiate Ministries is part of the Evangelism and Church Growth Ministry Area, that got me to thinking about the relationship with Collegiate Ministries and the Ministry Area of which is a part.

If you go to the Evangelism and Church Growth Ministry Area portion of the PC(USA)'s website, you won't find anything connecting Collegiate Ministries to the goals or directions of the Area. There is now a link to "Youth AND Collegiate Ministry." Just a link. On the same line. The same sort of link one can find on the "US and World Missions" page. (There Collegiate Ministries is listed under "Mission Through Education" while ministries to Youth, Men, Women, and Older Adults are listed under Ministry In Your Community.)

While little staffing, money and apparently no connective theology ties collegiate ministry with its parent area, evangelism and church growth, what area of the national church has more efficient evangelism? Most campus ministries are a de facto congregation - a faith community. Within that campus community will be a higher proportion of non-churched, un-churched, disaffected churched, atheists, and agnostics than in ANY established congregation. Maybe even MOST new church developments. Is that not effective evangelism?

The PC(USA)’s evangelism interest translates to spending money and hiring staff to “growth the church deep and wide.” But by all but ignoring collegiate ministries as evangelism and church growth, I’m afraid we’re growing the church shallow and narrow!

To clarify: The reduction in staff and operating budget from the Office of Collegiate Ministries and the increased staff and budget for the Office of Evangelism is all under the same management directorate for budget and control in the GMAC's Evangelism and Church Growth Ministry Area.

A Collegiate Ministry Conference

2010-01-20T07:45:00.000-05:00

During the Montreat College Conference, Adrian McMullen, the PC(USA)'s Associate for Collegiate and Young Adult Ministries, hosted a reception for collegiate ministers. Over 35 attended. As part of the event, Adrian asked folks what resources they would like. Most of the ensuing conversation centered around a professional conference, and fleshing out what a helpful conference would be like.

It should be held during the summer, and should contain times for inspiration, relaxation, and skills development. A recognized name should be a keynoter, but most of the education should be led from within the body of practioners. Some identified topics for workshops included board development, financial management, drawing local churches into supporting the ministries, and best practices. There was also a desire to ensure time enough to hear each other's stories.

The result looked amazingly identical to the conference the PACHEM Leadership Board had planned for July 2010 at their last board meeting! Only two members of the board were present at the Montreat reception, and neither of them contributed to this part of the discussions. I think this exercise was a validation of the of the Summit '10 Collegiate Ministry Conference. It has the flow and content desired by collegiate ministry folks, and I'm excited that the PC(USA) collegiate ministry community will be doing this.

In a perfect world, I don't think I would want to schedule a conference on the July 4th weekend. (Summit '10 is scheduled 1-4 July) There must be SOMEONE in Louisville who thought that having General Assembly run July 3-10 was normal (I wonder when the last time a GA met over July 4th?), so that for PACHEM to hope to have some presence at GA, the Summit conference would have to overlap at the beginning. But I hope the need and desire for such a gathering will outweigh the timing, and if it is important that an attendee be home on the 4th, that travelling that day will be acceptable.

Collegiate Ministry as Vanguard

2010-01-05T17:48:00.000-05:00

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?

The Woman at the Well Must Have Been a Non-Traditional Student

2010-01-02T22:34:00.000-05:00

The Samaritan woman who encounters Jesus at the well (John 4:7-12) has many similarities with Presbyterians on college campuses. She comes face-to-face with different faith traditions (who distrust each other). She is eager for theological discussions, raises questions, and won't settle for easy answers. (She has the longest theological discussion in the NT) She comes to know the grace of God and receives the grace of Living Water. Then she shares what she knows- doubts and all. She had the experience of encountering Jesus, the Living Water, and when she went to share it, she knew her vocabulary couldn't do justice to the event (or be correct), so she just described it. - And the "disciples" were astonished that Jesus would spend time with such a person.

Most Presbyterian College Ministry I know is characterized by theological inquiry in a safe environment which avoids easy answers.

In these ministries students want and find relationships which share the Grace of God as embodied in Jesus. These relationships are honest, so that doubts are recognized and accepted. And doctrinal formulations take second place behind descriptions of experiential Grace.

Annos Inturruptus

2009-12-11T05:25:00.000-05:00

For those engaged in campus worshipping communities, this season has its liturgical tensions. The worshipping year includes Advent, but not Christmas; Lent, but not Easter. The students are off campus / at home. Especially for those liturgically inclined, how can we allow the community to participate in the full range of the church year?

The culture has been celebrating Christmas since October, and the rest of campus since the return from Thanksgiving Break. How to seriously address Advent? Many have the largest worship service of the year, some sort of Christmas and candle-lighting event, a pseudo- Christmas Eve, this weekend. (Some had it last week.) Perhaps a couple of weeks with Advent themes and hymns, then the last week on campus could be Christmas? Perhaps a recognition of Advent and its themes with the acknowledgement that the community wants to celebrate Christmas together before everyone goes their separate ways? Any suggestions?

Lent and Easter seem a little different. With Lent and Easter, the campus isn't celebrating Easter, but when will the campus worshipers celebrate Easter? Prematurely, during Lent, or during Eastertide, when students have already celebrated Easter at home (or on the beach)?

Is this an "in the world, but not of it" issue?

Where is Our Theology?

2009-11-26T09:53:00.000-05:00

I am thinking about all the professional books released this fall which I have read. They are:
Souls in Transition, Christian Smith with Patricia Snell
It's All About Jesus! Faith as as Oppositional Collegiate Subculture, Peter Magolda and Kelsey Ebben Gross
To Transform the World: Vital United Methodist Campus Ministries, edited by Alice G. Knotts
College Ministry 101: A Guide to Working With 18 -25 Year Olds, Chuck Bomar
Reaching the Campus Tribes (An Opening Inquiry), Benson Hines

Each, in a different way, is bringing something to the collegiate ministry discussion. But they highlight a deficiency in current collegiate ministry thinking.

Who is doing the hard work of theology of collegiate ministry? Where is serious thought about "why" going on? There are an increasing number of "how" and "who" books about this student generation, but when it comes to theology they are light. That characterizes the above books. I'm not slamming them for their theology. I just want more meat! Is anyone working on the theology of collegiate ministry from a Reformed perspective?

Where is the face of theoretical collegiate ministry in the PC(USA)? For that matter, is there any face / name recognition the denomination has for collegiate, comparable to Roger Nishioka or Kenda Creasy Dean for youth ministry?

Maybe the denomination isn't taking collegiate ministry seriously enough because we have not taken our profession and calling seriously enough to write, wrestle, publish, and publically discuss it.

Already, not yet

2009-10-28T18:05:00.001-05:00

The beginning of this school year feels a bit like this sign -I'm not always sure which way things are heading. Make no mistake, I love what I do - I get to walk alongside young adults who are trying to figure out a lot of stuff. Things like what they want to study, who they want to date, what they believe about God. It is an honor and privilege to be allowed to participate in those conversations, to listen as some big questions are asked. But there are some tricky parts about ministry at a university. For one thing, people are ALWAYS coming and going. There is the normal, expected graduation of many - usually those who have become over time the group's leaders. There are the students who drop out of the campus ministry group for awhile because their class schedule is particularly grueling or they have to take on another job. There are those who decide they fit in better with a different group of folks. There are those who transfer to a different school. There are those who decide college is not for them. On the flip side, there are lots of folks who don't start looking for a ministry group till they have been in school for a year or two or four. It makes for an interesting dynamic. I recently learned that you need 17 hours of time with a group for them to develop "group-ness". They don't have to be continuous, but it does have to be the exact same people - so anytime someone leaves or someone new joins you are back at hour number one. Seventeen hours . . that is next to impossible in this context. So we already have a group, but they are not yet a group.

I feel like I am coming and going a bit these days as well. We are looking into ways we can become more sustainable for the long term - so in addition to the everyday, much of my time has been focused on a project that won't really begin to affect us until 2011 or 2012. So I'm working with today's students while spending lots of time dreaming about what this ministry could be for students who haven't even taken their SATs yet! The already and the not yet are struggling for my attention.

So how do you stay fully present to the people who are here now while looking forward? How do you foster community and group cohesiveness when you are never working with the same group twice?

Research and Development

2009-10-26T19:30:00.002-05:00

The United Methodist Church's General Board of Higher Education and Ministry recently published a book, To Transform the World: Vital United Methodist Campus Ministries. In it, ten United Methodist campus ministers address some aspect of campus ministry from the lens of their own situation, and in the process develop what vital campus ministries contribute as well as need from the denomination.

I was struck by a phrase Kristin Stoneking used in her chapter, "Our Heart and Our Treasure: Strategies for Healthy Partnerships for Campus Ministries and Annual Conferences." In it she writes, "... campus ministries are to the church much like 'research and development' departments are to corporations." (p.78)

R&D departments are funded by the corporation expecting results in the future, not necessarily in the present. And since there might not be a perceived benefit in the present, short-sighted leaders and other departments, jealous of resources being allocated for R&D, are eager to have R&D funds reduced or eliminated. The members of R&D departments are a different breed, because they invariably think in terms of future possibilities, and need to think "outside the box" in order to be successful.

What group sends more people to seminary? What group plants seeds which grow into congregational leaders? What group is living out the issues which the denomination is currently struggling or which it hasn't yet begun to seriously address?

Is there any successful corporation without a vital R&D Department? How can the PC(USA) be so short-sighted as to be reducing its Research and Development though its collegiate ministries?

...And if there is anyone who ought to be publishing a book on "transforming the world", shouldn't it be the Presbyterians?

College is Good for Your Faith

2009-10-12T11:53:00.003-05:00

Prevailing wisdom is that going to college weakens your faith. That apparently held true until the 1990s. Now there has been a shift, so that going to college will more likely strengthen your faith than weaken it!

Christian Smith, from the University of Notre Dame, is the Director of their Center for the Study of Religion and Society. He has been engaged in a study of emerging adults,first when they were teenagers (published in 2005 as Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers), and now the follow-up as they became traditionally aged college students, Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults. His conclusion is that, " for contemporary emerging adults, going to college does not increase the "risk" of religious decline or apostasy as it did in the not-to-distant past. Some evidence now even suggests that it may actually decrease that risk, compared to not attending college." (p.251)

Campus Ministry critics may need to re-formulate some of their their arguments.

Additional studies:
"Losing My Religion:The Social Sources of Religious Decline in Early Adulthood"
"Religion and College Attendance: Change Among Students"

Not Just a Ministry to Presbyterians

2009-10-02T14:12:00.004-05:00

Appropriating a slogan from an ELCA colleague, "Presbyterian Campus Ministry: a Presbyterian ministry on campus, not just a ministry to Presbyterians." I really like that. I wish we could get that thought down to local congregations (and even up to denominational leaders). Too often discussions about campus ministry turn towards the number of Presbyterian students served. Usually this means PC(USA) students.
Most campus ministries of which I am acquainted have participants over the entire spectrum of belief. Many student leaders in PC(USA) campus ministries are not Presbyterian.
We should be celebrating this witness!
The Presbyterian presence in higher education has always been open to all. John Calvin wanted education for everyone, believer or not. While Roman Catholic institutions were founded primarily for Roman Catholics, Presbyterian Colleges were never just for Presbyterians. In the same way, Presbyterian campus ministries should never be just for Presbyterians.
So - congregations and leaders ask- "Why should we support ministry to students other denominations?"
Why not?
Aren't we to "Love God with all our minds?"

What's Different?

2009-09-12T11:02:00.004-05:00

In the past few of weeks I have had a couple of discussions with folks wanting to know how college students and campus ministry is different now than when they were in college. They were almost all Boomers, and either on boards or just interested in collegiate ministry. Here are some of what I remember telling them:

1.It's not what, but who. They were interested in apologetics, was Christianity true, what proof is there, etc. Now student want relationships first- who are you, how do you live, what dives you, gives you meaning. Only later do they want to know about facts, doctrines, and beliefs.

2. College does not cause a loss of faith. While that was true of Boomers (the questioning, challenging authority,etc,), this generation of students does not have a reduction of religious participation because of college. A Southern baptist survey a few years ago found that dropping out of church attendance was no different whether the students were in or out of college or even whether they were Baptist. In fact, there are some studies showing that since the 1990s, religious faith is strengthened by college attendance.

3. There is more competition for time. The number of extra-curricular organizations on campus has exploded. The number and diversity of religious organizations and options is also much greater. More students have cars, more routinely go home on the weekend.

4. There is more competition for programming. A witness to the success of collegiate ministry in the past 30 years has been that the higher education institutions have duplicated many of programs originated in campus ministry: international student hospitality, welcoming of diversity, service spring breaks, community involvement and service, and substance free alternative programs.

5. Students today are more indifferent to religion. Denominations mean less. There are fewer "religious" discussions late night. Boomers looked to higher education to find a meaning in life (a religious issue), while current students are more interested in having a good job and money to have the life they imagine (in their minds, religion has no connection with this goal).

6. Fewer college students are Presbyterian. A smaller percentage of the US attended college when the Boomers were students. Presbyterians, always valuing education, comprised a disproportionally higher percentage of undergraduates. Now, many more people attend more institutions, so the percentage of Presbyterians has decreased. Even in most PC(USA)-related colleges, Presbyterians are currently a minority on campus.

What have I forgotten?

The leadership (middle governing body staff and committees, session members, and board members) are from a different generation. Their experience of college and therefore their expectations of ministry to and with college students is different. How can we help them understand this?

What are we really feeling?

2009-08-24T18:11:00.002-05:00

I am a college junior transferring into a new college, and I’ve been thinking a lot about change. Change is something we have all experienced at some point in our lives. For most the major change happens when we graduate from High School and we move to a new school, usually some distance from home. With this type of change comes many different emotions; nervousness, anxiousness, excitement, uneasiness and the list continues. Having gone through this change once I figured the second time I had to go through it would be easier but I was wrong . I actually feel more anxious then the first time.

Growing up as a PK (Pastor’s Kid) I have always had a faith centered up bringing. In many ways the church was my second family and I became very close and dependent on both my parents and my church family. Leaving the comforts of my home and families was extremely hard in the fall of 2007. I really didn’t know how I would be able to survive without them and their constant support. I haven’t ever gone “church shopping” in my life and I have never had to look for other Christians to hang out with; they were always just there and around. Walking on to Le Moyne College campus my first day as a freshman was terrifying. I didn’t know who to reach out to, to gain that small comfort of home. Being a Roman Catholic college they catered to that denomination. I remember talking to my advisor about finding a church to go to since I was spiritually being drained and she told me there was only one Presbyterian Church near by. Since I didn’t have a car she said she would get me in contact with someone that went there so I could get a ride but unfortunately I had fallen through the cracks and was forgotten until it was too late. It was just past mid semester and I hadn’t been involved in any type of religious activity and I was at my breaking point. I remember calling home in tears to my father who was ready to call the campus minister to come to my rescue and begging him to let me come home and not to call her. At that point the campus minister and I just didn’t connect. She seemed more concerned with those who went to chapel, which was like a Roman Catholic service, and wasn’t as interested in those who didn’t and strived for something different. That night I decided to not return for the spring semester and after finals I went home spiritually broken and started to pick up the pieces. My church family was excellent and all helped me gain my spirituality back.

Now it’s been a year and half since Le Moyne and I have graduated from my community college (where I connected with a college group at a local church) and have to go through change again. I am not going to sit here and lie and say I am not anxious. I actually really scared and uneasy for the fear of the past repeating itself. I am afraid of falling through the cracks and not finding “Where I belong” at SUNY Brockport. My prayer is that the campus minister is open minded to all denominations and is willing make an effort to make me feel a part of their religious group gatherings. Many think the students should and will come to them if they want to but in reality many students don’t know where they belong. They don’t know where to seek help or who to go to gain that sense of home. I wish when I was getting ready to go to Le Moyne the Campus ministry office sent me something or made themselves present during meal times. I would have been more prone to talk if they approached me. I was already overwhelmed with so many new things that I wanted someone to find me and show interest in my involvement. Since it has been year and half I have grown up and matured into a deeper Christian. I am prepared now to look for the campus ministry the first week and get myself involved. I have already scouted out a couple churches I want to look into and see if they fit my needs and if none do I will rely on my campus ministry to help me out. Even though I have a plan set this time I am still nervous and wish I had someone to “hold my hand” and tell me where to go. I recently heard a statistic that 3 out of 4 Christian students fall through the cracks when they get to school. That is ridiculous if you ask me and I wonder how it can be changed. This semester I am determined to find ways to get the number to zero. Someone isn’t doing there job and I want to be one that help pull those who have fallen through the cracks out. It’s hard to go through change, especially alone. I think campus ministries needs to put themselves out there and be noticeable. Be the group they run to, to find home, strength, peace and love. You could be the answer to an anxious student’s prayer.

What Do We Call Ourselves?

2009-08-21T16:31:00.003-05:00

Campus Ministers. Ministry on, to, and with a campus is a good description of what we do. In usual PC(USA) circles, a campus minister is someone who is engaged in ministry on a college or university campus. Campus Ministers are usually further designated as an organization-based campus minister or a congregation-based campus ministry, depending on the source of funding. College students acting as peer ministers can also be called Campus Ministers. Sometimes high school ministry is classified as campus ministry, so there could be some confusion as well as devaluation of the term.

In congregational structure, the campus minister might be called the Associate or Assistant (Pastor) for Campus Ministry. If the title is Young Adult Ministry or Student Ministry, the congregation’s mission to college students is not clearly indicated.

Chaplains. Chaplains exercise ministry from within a higher education institution. That is, they are an employee and being paid by the institution. Some denominations also call folks serving as campus ministers “chaplains.” Chaplains are engaged in campus ministry. The official title for some chaplains is Campus Minister, Minister to the Campus, Minister to Students, Director of Religious Life, or Dean of the Chapel.

Higher Education Ministers is also generally correct term, but infrequently used these days. Higher Education ministry connotes a previous time in which the denomination’s resources, staff, and interest in ministry on campus was high(er). “Higher Education” indicates the whole academic enterprise (that is, students, faculty, and staff), while campus ministry seems more focused on students. I don’t know any campus ministers who think that ministry to faculty and staff is NOT also part of their responsibility, though, it’s just that students are their priority.

Collegiate Ministers. This is an umbrella term which encompasses those serving as campus ministers as well as chaplains and higher education ministers. To some it might sound wordy, even academic, but it is inclusive. The denomination replaced the term “Higher Education Ministries” with “Collegiate Ministries” during some reorganization at the end of 2003.

Dispatch from the Ozarks: The Calm and the Storm

2009-08-04T14:39:00.002-05:00

The Pre-Orientation Ruminations of a Humble Chaplain

Down the hall from my office in the lower level of the campus chapel is an expanse of concrete floor, peppered with bits and pieces of rubble and threads of old carpet. For over twenty-five years, the concrete has been blanketed by a sea of dark turquoise wall-to-wall carpeting. In the span of those years, that carpet has held steadfast under the anxiously pacing feet of graduating seniors preparing for baccalaureate services; the feverish swirling and twirling of blushing brides and busy bridesmaids in heaps of taffeta, lace, and velvet; the scrambling sneakers and snapping flip-flops of thousands of students gathering for prayer services, potluck fellowships, movie nights, and classes. It has withstood the tests of many floods, held together when the dragging of furniture has threatened to tear it asunder, and endured the vigors of vacuuming and high-concentrate shampooing. After all of this, at last, the time for change has come: shiny new floor tile—light, less ponderous, and much easier to clean—is being measured, cut, and installed as I type.

As I prepare for the arrival of new students to campus, and look forward to welcoming the “old” ones back, I can’t help but think about the importance of a good foundation. Our first-year students are daring to tread new ground by engaging the college experience and newfound independence. For some, this will be exciting and fun; for others, frightening and threatening; and for most, all of those things combined. They will choose to walk many different paths as they seek to understand who they are as individuals, and how to live in community. There will be bumps, bruises, and bad choices in the process. Taking up the carpet of the past, so to speak, and laying the “new tile” of the college experience can produce tremendous growth, but can also induce a profound sense of trauma. My prayer this year, as it is every year, is that the foundations on which students lay the tiles of new experiences are as firm, trustworthy, and receptive as our trusty chapel basement flooring has proven itself to be. Should they not be so firm, however, there is no need to panic,--the “spackle” of God’s grace and mercy is always at hand!

Nancy J. Benson-Nicol is the University Chaplain at the University of the Ozarks in Clarksville, AR. Now a "rising senior," she begins her fourth year in ministry at Ozarks.

Missionary Collegiate Ministry

2009-08-03T19:34:00.003-05:00

I want to branch off the previous post that collegiate ministry must be bi-lingual, and take it further.

For at least the last ten years of my chaplaincy I introduced myself at Presbytery and GA committee meetings as the “Presbytery of Muskingum Valley’s missionary to Muskingum College.” The metaphor of missionary is central for collegiate ministry.

Missionaries (collegiate ministry practioners) are sent to a foreign culture. This culture has its own language, customs, and history. To be effective missionaries they must learn the customs and be able to translate the Good News of the Gospel into the language of the peoples with whom they work. Sometimes, faithful Christians back home become confused / perplexed when they hear -out of context- some of those translations.

Each mission is separate and unique. Even missionaries in the same country or city may have very different ministries and use very different skills as well as vocabularies in their work in the mission field. They are united in their love for Christ and the desire to share Christ’s love, but the visible expressions of their ministries may look radically different. They are also trying to share Christ’s love through a particular authorizing denomination.

The support from the home church is both a joy and a concern. People are proud of their missionaries and speak of them as if what they do is important, but tangible support is spotty and minimal at best. This is also true of the “Home Office.”(The PC(USA) thinks some missionary work important enough that they help some missionaries go into congregations to tell their stories. Collegiate ministries is not currently one of them.)

There is one characteristic of missionary work which does not sit well with faithful but unthoughtful church members in the pews, but which almost every missionary with whom I have spoken understands. Those lay people have a mechanical notion of missionary work.; say the right words and heathens become Presbyterians. Missionaries understand the process to be much more complex. The work of the missionary is to the field, not exclusively to Presbyterians, or even exclusively to Christians. Missionaries trust in God’s grace and the Holy Spirit to work in the hearts and lives of those who encounter the Gospel through the work of the ministry. Those back home trust that the missionary is spreading the Gospel. They do not think deeply enough to realize that some medical missionaries, for instance, restore sight to the blind in the context of the saving love of God revealed through Jesus Christ, but do not preach doctrine.

Morale of missionaries is vitally important to the health of their ministries. Since missionaries are most often acting alone and contact with colleagues in similar ministries is rare, missionaries need support and encouragement from the Home Office. Congregations back home can give some support and encouragement, but this is rare- and since often the congregations don’t really understand the dynamics of missiology- opportunities for mutual support and nurture are lacking. The Home Office must be the enabler of this renewal.

Reflection: Multi-Lingual Christian Living

2009-07-03T09:19:00.003-05:00

Two summers ago, I had the same dream twice, and it affected me. I dreamed that I was learning to become multilingual in terms of people. I was learning to speak the various "languages" of the people who surround my life. And I wasn't the only one who was trying to do this. Others were doing it as well. They were intentionally trying to learn how to speak my language too. We were all learning how to converse through one another's dreams, anxieties, hopes, and experiences.

I think this is a huge part of what it means to share in the humanity of one another, and we certainly share in this way as we engage in young adult ministry. We don't necessarily come to a full sharing if we can only hear others through the lens of our own language, even though we certainly bring our own dreams, anxieties, hopes, and experiences to the table. We cannot share fully if we simply define others in our own terms. I think in order to share in the humanity of one another, we have to be willing to enter the world of another, even if this causes us to leave our own comfort zone.

Perhaps this type of sharing is like moving to foreign country. Commonalities between ourselves and others become treasured. We draw upon our common experiences to communicate. But we also move beyond commonalities and begin to treasure the differences in the others as well. We learn to enter a foreign world. We learn to speak the language of the ones who live there. We know that the best way to do this is to get our noses out of the dictionaries and phrase books and to have an immersion experience. This makes our language learning dependant upon the people who actually speak the language. We can know the phrases from the phrase books all day long, but if we confine ourselves to their use, we'll probably put up a wall between ourselves and others, never moving beyond benign trivialities no matter how grammatically correct our phrases may be. We need to learn the slang. We also know that no matter how long we live there, our experience will never be exactly equivalent with those who grew up in the region, but as we continue to live among them and speak their language, we learn how to converse in their world. And their world becomes a part of us too. We don't claim that their experience is our experience, but through immersion, we adopt their experience toward ourselves. It is now a part of us too. And our world will never be the same now. As we go back to our own country, we will have new ways of understanding life, and our language is enriched because we have known theirs.

How willing are we to enter the world of another? How willing are we to learn to speak the language of another, becoming conversant in the person's dreams, anxieties, hopes, and experiences? Won't this require time and focused attention? Won't we make mistakes and faux pas in the process, at times using the wrong word for the wrong situation? As we do, will we and the other both find that even in our blunders, it is worth sharing our humanity? Do we see the worth of entering that world, not only for ourselves, but for others? Isn't it true that one of the most affirming experiences is for others to find out that their world is worth entering?

As others have learned to speak my language, I have found that to be true. I have been affirmed because I have found out that my world is worth entering. And I don't know about you, but I can't imagine missing out on becoming a world traveler. And there are worlds of discovery - right under our noses in campus ministry!

You know, I'm really glad I had those dreams.

Campus Ministry IS and IS Not Congregational

2009-06-24T11:46:00.000-05:00

I’ve been thinking about how campus ministries are like congregations. They are communities of faith in a particular context. When students go to college, they are often physically and increasingly emotionally removed from their home congregation. Most students have no regular connection with a church near the campus. Many of our students consider the weekly religious life fellowship meeting / Chapel/ Bible study / worship time to be their “church” and so have no need to be connected to "another" congregation while they are in college. I tried (and know colleagues who have tried) to help the students see that they needed to be part of a multi-generational full spectrum worshiping community, but I don't believe I was ever successful.

What would it mean if the PCUSA considered campus ministries to be part of congregational ministries rather than something different?

At the same time, I recognize that there is much in campus ministry with which congregations (and denomination staff) have little history or skill. The number of agnostics, atheists, denominations and faiths represented in many of our campus ministry groups is not a normal experience of a local congregation. In this respect we are more like missionaries, in a foreign culture, having to learn the language and custom of the people, and having to translate the Gospel into their language. The academic environment, as well as the developmentally appropriate tasks of students, means that questioning and challenging faith traditions and traditionalisms in a safe environment is much more prevalent than in a local congregation. This is evangelism at its core.

What would it mean if the PCUSA considered campus ministries to be the vanguard of the denomination rather than an auxiliary component?

PACHEM Blog Updates

2009-06-02T08:16:00.002-05:00

As a result of the recent YAM Jam Conference, we have re-activated this blog, and hope it will be a way to think collectively about the many aspects of collegiate ministry.

Contributors are welcome!