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The last 48 hours have been pretty exciting, in large part because I’ve gotten to spend some great time with some great people. And I noticed that I happen to have encountered three groups that can truly be considered major, important, even historic elements within the field of College Ministry.
These groups are not “hidden gems” within the field of college ministry. They’re well-known, well-established groups that have had a major influence on the field of college ministry. But as I’ve found time and time again, we are often not familiar enough with even these major aspects of our vocation. So if you’re less familiar with these groups than you’d like to be, I encourage you to take a look – and even dig in deeper on your own.
Urbana
In the future, when we have glorious things like college ministry history books, the triennial Urbana conference will be a major fixture – maybe even its own chapter. It was exciting to get a great tour of the national offices on Tuesday from national staffmember Eric Holmer – but all the more exciting because Urbana approaches! (Several employees are focused solely on Urbana during this time.)
A blurb from their web page (urbana.org) points to a glorious past and a vision that continues today:
Since 1946 InterVarsity has been providing a place for college students to see, hear, and respond to God’s global mission at Urbana conferences. If you want to see the world in a whole new light, come to Urbana 09. You’ll learn about critical global issues from dynamic teachers, worship with thousands in one of the most diverse gatherings in North America, and hear missional students and recent graduates testify to God’s faithfulness to the ends of the earth.
As someone noted recently, Urbana is so clearly connected to the heart of InterVarsity that understanding this conference really does help one understand its parent organization. But for us in the wider world of college ministry, it’s also important for us to realize that this conference is a rich part of our history. It clearly is, even today, the King of Collegiate Conferences. And not nearly all who attend Urbana are IV students and leaders; it’s wide open to any interested in learning of God’s global call.
You can read more about Urbana – even plenty about its great history – at urbana.org. Yes, it was historically held in Urbana/Champaign – but Urbana09 will be the second one held in St. Louis. Yes, you can still go. And I’m thinking about it myself…
Ivy Jungle Network
Many of you are well-familiar with IJ but, alas, I run into plenty of college ministers who aren’t. And their intro on the site (ivyjungle.org) really says all there is to say:
Welcome to the Ivy Jungle Network, a loose association of men and women who minister to collegians. We exist to serve church-based college ministers, para-church campus workers and college and university chaplains. If you work in campus ministry, then you should be part of the Ivy Jungle Network.
And you know what? It’s true.
Yes, it’s a loose association – the major “thing” to Ivy Jungle has simply been annual or biannual conferences over the last several years. But many college ministers also know the value of being on the monthly email list, and other items – like the large-scale Campus Ministry Survey – continue to inform.
But there is no better connection these days to the world of Evangelical college ministry than Ivy Jungle. It was a blast to sit down with Director Evan Hunter yesterday to hear more as IJ looks to the future – and continues to hope to advance the field of college ministry.
Great Commission Ministries
As far as I know, Great Commission Ministries is the one U.S. ministry with widespread work in collegiate church planting, and they’re on a whole bunch of campuses. Here’s one way they describe themselves on their site:
GCM mobilizes missionaries to serve in U.S. churches that are missional in nature: churches that do extensive outreach to the unsaved and unchurched, in a culturally relevant way. Our missionaries serve in churches that otherwise could not financially support their own staff.
While GCM certainly has some non-collegiate-oriented churches, collegiate church planting is a major pillar of what they do. The group has an interesting history; like some other things born in the zealous times of the Jesus Movement, it has had bouts with unhealth – which the group publicly acknowledges. But under what appears to be largely a second generation of leadership, GCM continues to plant churches and work to impact students all over the country – and some of their collegiate church plants have gotten really, really big. (I got to chat with Mike Filicicchia yesterday, who’s fundraising right now to join the staff of one at UMichigan.)
While I couldn’t find a full list of GCM campus churches, there’s a fairly good chance that any collegiate church plant on your campus is GCM – so you can always ask. The ones I’ve probably heard the most buzz about are New Life Christian Fellowship at VA Tech and New Life Church at University of Michigan (which I’ll be visiting this weekend). (They’re not all called New Life.)
written from the McCords’ in Palatine, IL (one of my great homes-away-from-home)
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Road Trip 13: Days 31 & 32 recap
recap: Chicagoland, including fun with friends and great chats with college ministry people
T-shirts: the Bulldog tribe of Louisiana Tech and the Cobbers of Concordia College, Moorhead
thursday: finishing up in Chicago, then on to Ann Arbor! (see all explorations so far)
I believe I first outlined my classification of the “three branches” of college ministry in a post way back in February 2008 (written only a few hundred miles south of here, during the yearlong road trip). I had variously referred to those three branches before and since, including in my book:
- Campus-based college ministry (including parachurch, denominational, and independent ministries centering their activity on the local campus)
- Church-based college ministry (ministries overseen within individual churches)
- Spiritual development at Christian colleges (the specific people or departments in Christian colleges dedicated to student discipleship, often called “spiritual life” or “chaplaincy”) (from Reaching the Campus Tribes, pages 17-18)
Those branches are distinguished, in my mind, by a few major things:
- Campus integration (the connection of the ministry to the college campus, including where it centers its activity)
- Oversight (who tends to hire, govern, and evaluate a ministry’s leaders)
- Function (the way the ministry operates and “feels,” particularly to students)
- Field reception (the lines the college ministry community has tended to draw between these areas)
While any of these factors might be clearer or fuzzier for an individual ministry, I do feel they fairly well delineate between the various branches. So using this terminology has been really helpful to me.
But as I continue to explore and ponder, I always want to be open to tweaking my approach! One question has especially led me to consider adding a “fourth branch” to my classification (it’s the first question listed below). But while I’m at it, I figured I would ask for further input. So if you’ve got any thoughts on these things, please fire away!
The big questions:
- Collegiate Church Planting is a major strategy employed on a significant number of campuses. Should it be considered a fourth branch of college ministry, or does it fit better under one of the present branches?
- Should campus-based ministry be split into two branches: denominational / church-related and fully parachurch?
- Should ministries run entirely by students be considered a separate branch of college ministry?
- What’s the best term for Branch #3? “Spiritual development at Christian colleges”? “Chaplaincy”? Something else?
- Any other adjustments you would make to this system?
Please feel free to weigh in – I’d love to hear your thoughts, arguments, questions, additions, or concerns!
written from my 7th Motel 6 in 9 days (in Vallejo, CA)
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Road Trip 13: Day 9 recap
exploring Cal State Chico, and then down to the Bay Area
T-shirt: the Fighting Illini of University of Illinois
today: Stanford and other Bay Area fun
One of the newest college ministry models is the collegiate church. I had certainly heard of “collegiate churches” before this trip, but part of the fun of this year is getting to see my preconceived notions discarded, corrected, or at the very least nuanced. I certainly know a lot more about “collegiate churches” and collegiate church planting than I understood before August 16th.
[Sorry, by the way, for the lack of blogging this week. I'm not participating in the Writer's Strike, I promise. Usually, a lack here just means I've had good success staying busy with interviews and other parts of this exploration. That's true this week, for sure - just pray for balance for me!]
To this point on the trip, I’ve personally encountered 6 or 7 collegiate churches. (It was 6 before today, but I’m actually working on another one here in Baton Rouge!) This included sitting down with the pastor of each of the first 6 and attending 5 of their services. I also got to connect with Stacey Wideman, the Coordinator of the Collegiate Church Planting Community in Boston, as well as Tom Mauriello, Executive Director of Great Commission Ministries. GCM has planted collegiate churches on lots of campuses. While I will certainly encounter further ways of “doing the collegiate church thing” on this trip, I’ve definitely seen a variety of methods already.
Today, I’ll fill you in on the Boston situation. Look for details from Amherst, Mass., New Britain, Connecticut, Baton Rouge, LA, and Great Commission Ministries soon. I think each example of this model-in-action offers the chance to be stretched in our imaginations when it comes to campus ministry. Hoorah collaboration.
If you want to get a more lively run-down of the Collegiate Church Planting Community, check out their “Know Us” site here. Otherwise, you can keep reading! Read the rest of this entry »
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