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.....

The Next Two Years

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!

Ten Years Ago

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

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.