Graduate Student Ministry

Graduate and professional students are an often under served population on campus. They don't usually want to participate in the undergrad fellowship, and they often have time and family constraints.

Some specific facets of a grad school outreach might include:
English conversation, especially for families
Child care
Transportation for spouses
Assistance with food, clothing (especially for seasons not present at home), and furnishings
Groups which meet at unusual times for Bible Study and support
Job training for spouses




Many of these needs would be applicable to immigrant communities, and are volunteer intensive.
Wouldn't this be a good ministry for some volunteers to spearhead?
Retirees in local congregations might be a good source of support. Even those in congregations which aren't near campus might feel called to help with transportation or English conversations.

Even small congregations near campus, who feel as if they don't currently have the energy or resources for an undergraduate campus ministry, might be able to provide some graduate student ministry.

The Graduate Studies Administration on campus would be a good place to begin in trying to identify needs and locations of the graduate students.

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Here's a model of a grad student ministry practiced by at least two Presbyterian congregations:
Meet after worship for lunch provided by the congregation (usually pizza or something simple ordered in) and use five questions as discussion starters ("What struck you in the sermon?", "Did anything in worship  move you or seem especially appropriate today?", etc.) Child care might be provided, based on the attenders. The group eats and talks for a while. They end with prayer, and leave after about an hour total.

It's an easy way to start.

Professional Organizations With UKirk

The PC(USA)'s collegiate ministry professionals are moving to three organizations. The Presbyterian College Chaplains Association, PCCA, will remain unchanged, and continue to function as it currently does. PACHEM's roles will be divided into two groups. The Office of Collegiate Ministries Advisory Board will function as its name implies, and will work on long range strategy. (Part of that long range strategy may include some student organization or event.) The majority of PACHEM will be folded into UKirk. The website, resources, newsletters, conferences, and Collegiate Ministry Locator will migrate to www.ukirk.org in the next few months. PACHEM members, and those who already receive newsletters, will be seamlessly transferred to UKirk (we hope!)

UKirk (as even the name implies) holds up congregational based college ministry as its standard model. According to the 2012 Collegiate Ministry Strategy, congregations near campuses will be identified and helped/ encouraged to develop a campus ministry mission.

So what about those doing collegiate ministry but who are not congregation based?

The UKirk branding will be useful to those stand-alone Presbyterian Campus Ministers. Ecumenical ministries may be able to work UKirk in somehow, perhaps when they list the seals of the various denominations supporting them. The ecumenical ministries would be included in the Ministry Locator.

What about PCUSA congregations near a campus who currently support an ecumenical ministry on campus? Can they work in tandem, both being UKirk Ministries? Can there be numerous UKirk chapters for a single campus? More thinking is needed in this area.

As for chaplains, perhaps a few church-related institutions will be able to use the UKirk brand /logo for their own Presbyterian fellowship group on campus. Most chaplaincies, because of their charge to the entire campus, will not.

The hope is that the UKirk  emphasis will stimulate the chaplains to encourage the local PCUSA church to step up the church's college ministry. The hope is that the congregations and the chaplaincies will work better together to" reach, love, and teach" the college students.

One of the underlining UKirk assumptions, I think, is that the churches near our colleges have mainly assumed that the chaplains are doing the campus ministry for the congregations, while at the same time the churches don't understand the ramifications of the multifaith component of the chaplains. Many chaplaincies and local congregations have cordial relations, but not the level and spirit of cooperation UKirk implies. By stimulating the congregations to be active doing campus ministry while working with the chaplains, the chaplains will feel more support from the congregations. The end result is that more students will get connected.

I don't have a good feel for how the denomination's "worshiping community" concept will be a part of all this. The Chaplaincies have their own worshiping communities, most with strong Reformed overtones. Will the denomination take credit for them? Will chaplains be treated as congregational pastors instead of second class Presbyters? Might not a congregation have a worshiping community of college students, while the chaplain also has one (and with some students involved in both?)


This is an exciting time for collegiate ministry, fraught with potential. And hope springs eternal.....

Adult Mentors

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?

Collegiate Ministry Through the Numbers

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?

Migration Season

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.

Campus Ministry IS and IS Not Congregational

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?