Today is April Fool’s Day, and there are some great things happening on the web, as usual. The best I’ve seen so far is today’s Brian Lehrer Show from WNYC on GM’s New Plan (hopefully audio is coming later).
Today is also the first event for Presbyterian Bloggers Unite – on campus ministry. It’s honestly hard for me to write on this right now, as the PCUSA’s support for campus ministry is changing very quickly because of staff cutbacks that merged the campus ministry office with the youth ministry office and cut the staff who had been working in campus ministry. I’ve worked with both offices over the years, and I’m trying to be hopeful about the merger even though I have some concerns.
That said, I’m not going to dwell on the uncertainties of the future here. For me, campus ministry was a time of full engagement with the life of the church. In high school, I was very active in youth ministry programs, but toward the end of those days things changed in my home church and I felt left out. However, when I went to college, I resolved from the beginning that I would try to get involved differently, so I set out for church that first Sunday morning even before classes started. I was alone in the bathroom that morning, even in the Deep South, but I quickly found a home in that wonderful congregation.
Soon I discovered that there was more going on for college students and got involved in the Westminster Fellowship sponsored out of the church. We were never a large group, but something special was happening in our midst that could not be measured by numbers. Through time spent together, Bible study, and special trips, we got to know one another and provided a place for people to gather who were looking for someplace to call home in the midst of a campus filled with Greek letter societies, other religious organizations, and affinity groups that in some way were more about exclusion than inclusion.
During my sophomore year, I was brought on board as a campus peer minister, paid a small stipend simply to maintain the email list, make announcements, help organize events, and show up when we met. My junior year, we welcomed an associate pastor to the church who was responsible in part for campus ministry, and she helped us grow in faith even more. We even organized the first statewide gathering of Presbyterian campus ministries in Mississippi.
I also got involved in campus ministry nationally with the Presbyterian Student Strategy Team, where we organized national gatherings of Presbyterian college students for the first time in a number of years. The numbers were often small, but the things happening across the denomination, in ecumenical ministries and in congregations, always surprised and encouraged me. I also traveled to several regional events across the country to represent the team and engage with other college students about their experiences in the church.
I could write much, much more about my days in campus ministry, but I’m amazed these days by how the connections I made in those four years continue to sustain me in my ministry today. Imagine my surprise three years ago when I walked into my room at an event for new pastors and discovered that my roommate was an old friend who had served with me on PSST! I count others from conferences and events during my college years among my best friends even today.
I believe that the college years were a formative time for my ministry, and I can’t imagine engaging that sense of call without campus ministry. I pray that all of us across the PCUSA will work to meet college students where they are and make a place for them to be welcome in the church during these formative years, not so much out of fear of losing them but because we know that they have gifts to share and need a place where they can feel at home.
Love your post, Andy, especially this: “We were never a large group, but something special was happening in our midst that could not be measured by numbers. Through time spent together, Bible study, and special trips, we got to know one another and provided a place for people to gather who were looking for someplace to call home in the midst of a campus filled with Greek letter societies, other religious organizations, and affinity groups that in some way were more about exclusion than inclusion.”
As a campus minister at Emory University in Atlanta, I am constantly having to remind myself that growth can be used to refer to SPIRITUAL growth as well as (or instead of) numerical growth. I constantly strive to be an instrument in the spiritual growth of the few participants (8 or 10) we have in PCM@Emory, all the while trying to remind myself that I do NOT have to compete with the larger, more social campus ministry groups (RUF or Intervarsity) for my work there to be considered fruitful and pleasing to God.
Sadly, though, in this day and age, numerical growth is more likely to get financial backing. I worry how these current economic times will affect a ministry like ours at Emory where a budget of $30,000 is used for a “mere” ten students. But think about what was done with a “mere” twelve disciples over two thousand years ago…! I hope and pray the new restructuring will prove to be a positive move for campus ministry.
While you wrote this yesterday, I met with Saint Andrew Presbytery’s Campus Ministry Committee. I told them we had something going again at Ole Miss after several years of no presence whatsoever. However, what we have going is more of a college-age ‘youth’ group and not a campus ministry because we do not have a staff person on campus. Most in our fellowship group are counselors at Hopewell during the summer because they are the college students most dedicated to the church and enjoy being with their friends. The Presbytery is struggling to maintain and grow groups at MS State and Northwest as well.
Thanks for the comment, Jonathan. It’s good to hear that things are going a bit again at Ole Miss! If you use your measure, then things weren’t much different when I was there. It was definitely personality-centered — people brought friends from their existing networks, but we also had a surprising amount of cohesion come about just from being together there. Nonetheless, I’d say that’s probably still a campus ministry, based in the congregation, open to all who are looking for some kind of place. I’ll have to tell you more when we get together at the Big Tent 🙂