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If you missed it, Campus Crusade for Christ unveiled its new name for the U.S. ministry this week! “Cru” will go “official” in 2012, although your various campuses will probably adjust on different timetables. (And some of you have probably seen simply “Cru” for awhile already.)
They have an open discussion board up to discuss the name change, and I’ve read through quite a bit of it. Like many forums, it’s drawn plenty of nonsense, but there are definitely some good discussions and good questions taking place, too.
I also really encourage you to check out the videos if you haven’t – there’s some great stuff there, including from Bill Bright’s widow and from an Executive Director who was originally not a fan of “Cru” (a very wise addition to the testimony list).
I presented my first thoughts on this yesterday. From the discussions on the forum and some additional reflectin’, some thoughts:
- This will like affect college ministers more than college ministry activity. On campus, few people will have any problem with the name “Cru” (except for the branding issue mentioned yesterday), and it will indeed avoid the barriers “Crusade” erects. But sadly, there will likely be supporters of our Campus Crusade staff friends who pull funding because of misunderstandings about the name (see below). Pray for them.
- Hopefully Cru will give its staff all sorts of tools for sharing about the name-change. One concern that does seem to be coming from the campus ministers via the discussion board is a difficulty knowing how to explain the new name. Hopefully well-written letters from national staff, brilliant “talking points,” DVDs, and other tools will be provided… quickly. If I was a staff member, I’d want to contact my supporters this week with some really choice words.
- I’m glad they’re allowing the airing of views. The discussion board is a good thing, even if it doesn’t produce solely good material. A big company like Crusade should go over-the-top in transparency as often as possible.
- I hope the “higher-ups” see the value of addressing concerns. Sadly, it seems like regional or national team comments on the forum are few and far between. On the other hand, I’ve really appreciated the comments from my friend Ryan McReynolds (a Regional Director in the Northeast) – they’re well-said, for one thing, and sprinkled conservatively rather than saturating the discussion. I hope others will jump in, or that new responses will be constructed that honor the valid concerns but also address them directly.
- Explaining the “removal” of “Christ” is going to be an uphill battle. Since discussion boards always draw out the discontented, they’re not good “surveys” as such. But it’s still clear that among those upset by the name, their biggest issue is likely to be the absence of “Christ” in the name. Hopefully Cru can repeatedly point out that they didn’t actually remove anything. They felt the need to completely start over on the name and ultimately landed on “Cru” as an reflection of the past… not a shortening of the past name. (That’ll be a tough sell for some, I’m sure, but it’s true.)
- Is “Cru” going to feel dated? This seems a more valid concern, and it’s got me wondering, too. It’s possible “Cru” will sound like a relic sooner rather than later – especially if they try to emphasize that it’s a modification of the word “crew.” But this effect is also probably heightened when a group goes from a clearly “old-school” name to a clearly more modern name; the renaming of the Baptist General Conference denomination to “Converge Worldwide” is one recent example. It may be that “Cru” stands the test of time just fine.
- I hope they’ll buy the domain(s). Right now, cru.com hosts a directory of sports and leisure clubs in Ulster, Northern Ireland. (And you have to imagine that a site like that has had way more hits than they’re used to in the last couple of days.) I’m shocked they weren’t able to find a donor to help grab that domain before the announcement. Cru.org is apparently registered by Campus Crusade, even though they didn’t have it set up yesterday when I checked. There are probably other domains worth going for, too (.net, .co, etc.).
- This is national news. For now, let me leave you with some good links. I’m sure you can Google to find more:
- Christianity Today offers a great run-down of the story.
- The Washington Post provides a short, helpful article.
- Baptist Press gives a great synopsis of the situation.
- USA Today‘s Faith & Reason blog actually covered this in a rather awkward way, like the author was trying to stir up concerns rather than cover the issue.
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If you’re interested in college ministry at all, you’re interested in this: The country’s best-known, best-branded college ministry (by far) will change its name in 2012. Campus Crusade for Christ will officially become “cru” nationwide.
(I was going to post about something college ministries can learn from Justin Bieber – really – but I’ll save that for this week’s Fridea. Check back in a couple of days!)
Campus Crusade has done a good job with their announcement page for this change, including the official press release and a very strong Q&A page. It’s interesting to note not only the whys (and the hows) of the name-change, but also to read between the lines and see some of the concerns others have already expressed.
(See some additional thoughts & links in the next post.)
the why of the change
In their words,
There’s only one reason we’d change. We want to do a better job of connecting people to God’s love and forgiveness. It’s all about helping people experience the good news that Jesus offers.
Since 2009, Campus Crusade for Christ International has been officially looking at making a change for its U.S. mission, but various levels have felt this need for a much longer time. The key issues involve both “campus” and “crusade.” The former is a problem because Campus Crusade does have much work beyond college campuses.
But for the huge part of U.S. Campus Crusade that is collegiate work, it’s the word “Crusade” that has been problematic. (I wrote on those “unexpected shiftings of vocabular connotations” back in 2009.) While “crusade” actually has a much more general meaning, newer generations may not associate the word with anything other than the historical Crusades. And when you add the fact that Campus Crusade sends lots of students to the mission field each year, the level of concern increases all the more.
Very interestingly, they write
Our surveys show that, in the U.S., twenty percent of the people willing to consider the gospel are less interested in talking with us after they hear the name. We are changing the name for the sake of more effective ministry.
my first thoughts
From my viewpoint – not only of Crusade but also in broader Evangelical campus ministry – here are some first reflections on this far-reaching decision in the world of College Ministry.
1. The name. I knew this change was coming, and my best guess was they’d land on one of three options:
- Cru, since it is the common nickname across many campuses.
- CRU – as an acronym – since it keeps the common nickname but adds meaning. It could be something like “Christ Reaching the University” (at least for the campus work).
- Campus for Christ, which is the Canadian name already and is (obviously) stinkin’ close.
Officially, the new name is “cru” for the logo and “Cru” in normal sentences. (“Lowercase letters are used in the logo to “avoid confusion as an acronym or abbreviation.”)
2. A tough situation. When it comes down to it, I think they had to change the name. (That 20% statistic alone is enough to sway me!) So once that decision was reached, it’s sensible to go with something derived from what they’ve had, and something already connected to many of their chapters (which they call “movements”).
But having to change at all still makes things tough. There’s no college ministry out there with nearly the name recognition among outsiders; pastors and parents seem far more likely to know to tell their students to “look for Campus Crusade!” than anything else.
As a point of comparison, second prize in “brand recognition” probably goes to the Baptist Student Union… the former name of the Southern Baptist Convention’s campus-based ministry. BSU is now called “Baptist Collegiate Ministries” nationally and all sorts of different things state-by-state. Yet those outside the world of college ministry continue to point students to “BSU,” even though that name is only used in a few states. (You can read about their situation here.)
So Cru is likely to face something similar for a long, long time: As students, donors, and others come looking for “Campus Crusade for Christ,” they won’t find what they’re looking for (immediately, at least). That’s a huge loss from a branding perspective.
3. Growing in Cru vs. Rowing in Crew. While it may sound silly, there will be places the new name will cause confusion with rowing teams. “Cru” and “Crew” are homophones, obviously. So at campuses where “rowing crew” is a big deal – yes, there are such campuses – this may cause a bit of a hiccup. Remember The Social Network? (Fortunately, Cru is known as “Real Life” in Boston!)
The funny thing is, Cru will now share this difficulty with InterVarsity, whose name has long caused some to assume an athletic connection.
4. Internal pressures. No matter what we outside the Campus Crusade family think about the name-change, I imagine it’s probably a bit nightmarish dealing with detractors from throughout the staff and donor base. (The FAQ makes clear what some of the concerns are.)
We should pray for our Cru brothers and sisters as they, again, do the best they can with a tough situation. And we should pray for those on the local level; it’s never fun being told you have to change your name, even if you can see why. Those who haven’t already shifted to “Cru” or something else entirely probably have reasons for keeping the status quo, so I’m sure there will be some level of grumpiness and difficulty!
5. The larger campus missionary community? In describing the process, Cru noted that they solicited ideas from thousands within the organization. The decision itself involved 30 staff members from throughout the organization, as well as input from two outside agencies. All of that is superb.
What I missed in reading the site, however, was any mention of discussing this with those outside the Campus Crusade family. (Of course, they might have involved staff from IV, Navigators, Chi Alpha, etc., but I didn’t see it mentioned.)
Rightly or wrongly, one of the biggest concerns I hear about local Cru ministries is the classic “They’re just interested in doing their own thing” complaint. It seems like both the name-change process and the announcement were big chances for this largest of campus ministries to clarify that they see themselves as members of a much larger community of those “reaching the campus tribes.” But hopefully this was a part of the process; if so, maybe they’ll note that at some point.
6. God cares about names. I really appreciate the emphasis they’ve placed on God needing to direct this process (especially in the video announcements). In the end, the decision may seem “simple,” but it’s good for all of us to remember that God cares about directing us in our individual ministries, too – whether we’re picking a name, designing a T-shirt, or writing a blog. We should be praying about it all!
7. Of course, they’re phasing it in. Don’t be surprised if “Campus Crusade for Christ” is still used at your campus for semesters or even years to come. The page states they’re waiting until “early 2012″ so they can make sure “Cru has high name recognition with our stakeholders.”
But I imagine (and hope) there will be major leeway given to those “on the ground” to phase this in. The tough thing about a major change at the campus level is that word-of-mouth and branding are so key. The nice thing, though, is that within 3 years no one even remembers there was a change!
More tomorrow. This is a big moment in the history of our field. I’ve got additional thoughts & links in the next post. Further, if you’re interested in getting to know Cru better, here are my reflections after attending the DFW Winter Conf, and part two is here. (One of the best ways to get to know a college ministry is to participate in what it sees as a cornerstone activity.)
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Obviously, I’ve written on the Bethel College a bit – if you want to catch up, see the first post and the updates post (which I’ve updated since I originally wrote it, too). But there have been enough new developments that I want to post one more time.
Campus-wide revivals are a real part of the history of college ministry, and they’re rare enough that it’s worth examining and enjoying them when they happen! So there are a few new ways to do that:
If you have 9 minutes, I encourage you to watch this video recollection from the Senior VP of Bethel, Dennis Engbrecht. I encourage you to read some of the really cool comments from Erin Kinzel of the Bethel College staff, below that. And I definitely encourage you to click over to college minister Sarah Koutz’s blog, where she’s already reported quite a few observations and testimonies!
Here are Erin’s comments from yesterday, including ways to pray for the Bethel students:
Thanks so much for spreading the word about this. We pray it will spread to the other colleges in our area (including Notre Dame, Goshen College, Holy Cross, Saint Mary’s, IUSB, and many more I’m forgetting) and beyond. …
Our spring break is next week – we pray that students will carry the message (and fire!) of what happened last week as they leave campus. Please pray for the fire of revival to continue to burn in their hearts while they are away.
Also, 32 faculty and staff members volunteered to lead follow-up discipleship groups, so please be in prayer for those. I really appreciate how Shawn Holtgren, our VP for student development, presented the groups to the students in chapel yesterday. He said that his goal was not to create a program or a system or some type of cookie-cutter follow-up, because discipleship has to come from the heart. (That’s my paraphrase – I remember him being much more eloquent.) :) I admire Bethel’s leadership for wrestling with the tension between providing structured guidance and follow up, and yet giving enough freedom for the Holy Spirit to work.
Thanks again for posting about this. May it spread to many more college campuses!!
Erin Kinzel
Assistant Director of Marketing
Bethel College
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Additional updates since this was first posted are in red! Big thanks to Sarah Koutz for much of the new info.
If you didn’t see the news over the weekend, an Evangelical Christian college near Notre Dame reported experiencing a campus-wide revival last week! This news from Bethel College is obviously something exciting for the whole college ministry community, and I hope you’ll take a second to read my original report. We should be praying for the students, faculty, and administration of the Pilot tribe – as well as those who minister to them on campus and off!
Here are some updates I’ve gathered, and I’ll try to post more here this week if anything new comes up.
Reports
Local college minister Sarah Koutz has started sharing her impressions and her students’ experiences at her blog! Be sure to check it out.
“Bethel College Revival Breaks Out“: Geoff Hensley, a staff member of Granger Community Church (a well-known Northern Indiana megachurch)
“‘Revival’ on the Bethel College Campus“: Bill & Debbie Jones, Missionary Church denomination missionaries-in-residence at Bethel
An interesting recollection of a revival at Bethel College in 1991, posted by Gary Wright, president of World Renewal International
College Ministries
Impact Campus Ministries (South Bend)
Churches a number of Bethel students attend
River Valley Community Church
Calvary Baptist Church
Nappanee Missionary Church
Granger Community Church
Other Links
Bethel College home page (including their official updates)
Bethel College chapel page (if you want to view some of last week’s stuff)
Mentions on Twitter: “official” mentions, mentions of “Bethel” and “Revival” together (these are pretty neat to scroll through!)
After reading below, be sure to catch the updates at this post.
There’s a pretty rich history of rather spontaneous revival activity breaking out at Christian colleges. Asbury College has a history of several revivals, and I actually took a road trip to see the aftermath of one during the spring of 2006. Sixteen years ago, one particularly influential revival broke out at Howard Payne University in West Texas, spreading to places like Wheaton College, Southwestern Seminary, and Gordon College.
This past week, an exciting similar revival has been reported at Bethel College, a 2000-student Evangelical college in the Missionary Church denomination. The school is located in Mishawaka, IN, not far from South Bend (the home of Notre Dame) and some 100 miles from Chicago.
The Senior VP of Bethel, Dennis Engbrecht, sent the following email out to Missionary Churches on Wednesday (with links added where applicable):
You have probably already caught wind of what is taking place on Bethel’s campus via Twitter [official Twitter feed, mentions of Bethel on Twitter], Facebook, and the internet. Today the Lord showed up at chapel and it lasted 7.5 hours. Forgive me for not going into all of the details but we resume meeting at 9 PM tonight so I have but a few minutes to share what is transpiring.
Jeff Kling, a former Bethel student in the 1980′s, a young man who never came to Christ during his two years at Bethel, shared how God miraculously healed him of stage 4 cancer. His story has been widely covered by the media and has made the front page of at least three local newspapers in the past 12 months. Over the past year Jeff has been sharing openly his own conversion as a result of this miraculous healing. His testimony is powerful. Catch it on our website via the chapel archives.
However, how the Lord used Jeff’s testimony today is even more powerful.
I received a call three weeks ago from a former Bethel professor indicating that God was going to use Jeff Kling to bring revival to Bethel. Last night a small group of us met for prayer in the trustees board room. Today God did above and beyond what any of us could have expected…even though it was what we had and others have prayed for.
Bethel is in the midst of a revival.
Today for 7.5 hours we worshipped God in a way I have not witnessed at Bethel for 20 years. Students shared Scripture, confessed sin, repented, were filled with the Holy Spirit, testified to incredible transformations of lives, and texted friends, families, and home churches what God was doing. Unknown to us, the chapel was being viewed all across the United States…live. One person reported his father was listening to the service in Puerto Rico for hours. People from the community started coming into chapel in the afternoon. Faculty and staff listening from their offices joined in and some became a part of the confession, repentance, and admonitions from the Lord. A former student from 1980 who had walked in darkness for 20 years after she graduated saw from her insurance agency office on Face book that “Revival is at Bethel!” and drove over to share her testimony. A young man came to the stage about the 4th hour and said he had been at Bethel for 4 years and knew all about Jesus but still did not know Jesus. He prayed right there in front of the student body to receive Jesus into his life. The place erupted in euphoria. John Brummel, my intercessory prayer friend, came down to campus last night from north of Grand Rapids and prayed through the night for this service. I just had supper with him and we rejoiced at being able to witness the fruit of prayer and intercession.
There is so much more to share, so much more to come. This is just the beginning. God is raising up a generation of world changers for His Kingdom.
Please be in prayer. The enemy is not happy. Pray for wisdom, discernment, and follow through on the part of those who have been transformed. Pray that the revival would spread from the campus into the community, to the church, across the nation, overseas, and to the lost.
An update was sent out on Thursday:
Today we learned some interesting details. Normally there are 25-35 “hits” on our chapel services web site. Yesterday there were nearly 3000 hits. These came from nearly every state and 17 nations. Here are a few more interesting developments
- Last night a student who made a public confession in the 7 ½ hour chapel service shared with his youth group later that evening. As a result a number of young people came to a saving relationship with Christ.
- A Bethel coach indicated that his student athletes began meeting with him at 1:30 yesterday and this continued until 7:30 last evening, cancelling practice. When he got home there was a group of more student-athletes waiting for him wanting to talk about what had transpired yesterday in chapel.
- The repentance and confession that started in chapel yesterday continued late last night in residence halls across campus into the early hours of the morning.
- A pastor from Peoria, IL called Dr. Weakland to let her know that his church had been praying for revival at Bethel…at the exact time that chapel was going on.
- Another athletic team spontaneously met this morning at 7:30 AM for prayer and individual reconciliation.
- There is a student movement to pray through the week-end for the Lord to continue what began yesterday in chapel.
- There are preliminary plans developing to share individually as well as collectively in various locations over Spring Break in just over a week.
God is good.
One last note: I found one other note on the Bethel site that I really appreciated seeing. In the midst of all this, they seem to be recognizing the deep need to follow this exciting event with a process. They posted, “[W]e will be forming discipleship groups across campus as a way to follow up with students. Please pray for the faculty and staff who will step forward to lead these groups, and that the groups would help facilitate the healing work God wants to do on our campus.”
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Stick with me on this one. You might be intrigued.
When I first began “hard” training in college ministry practice (often by attending conferences, but through some other means as well), I absorbed a lot from a guy named Tim Elmore. If you’re not familiar with Tim, he’s the Prez of Growing Leaders, one of the most phenomenal organizations you could possibly connect with, learn from, and get resources from if you’re in the world of collegiate ministry.
One of Tim’s many emphases is on “creating a disciplemaking culture,” and it’s something I heard him mention a lot in those early years of college ministry work. And when he brought that up, I always had a reference point for that notion: my alma mater, Texas A&M. What I didn’t fully understand then (but now know) is that Texas A&M has probably been the campus with the most college ministry “success” (along several measures) of any campus in the U.S. in the last few decades. And what I experienced in my years there (around the turn of the century) was, indeed, a disciplemaking culture.
All over that town, ministry was multiplying. One-on-one disciplemaking was inordinately commonplace. But so were other examples of student initiative leading to surprising impact, service, conversions, and calling. And in every organization (at least from my point of view), college students were “replacing themselves” by raising up younger students to fill their roles. The ministries didn’t exactly “run themselves,” I’m sure. But they kinda did, as we were quickly assimilated into wild-eyed Jesus-following and disciple- and ministry-multiplication.
Now that I’ve had the chance to visit campuses all over the States, I’ve had the awesome chance to see other places where various collegian activities have become, it seems, commonplace. I haven’t run into too many environments where the entire campus is saturated, like what we experienced down there. But I have seen several college ministries where one or more of the following seems to be springing up and/or simply normative among students:
- immersive “missional” ministry on campus
- voluntary service to campus or outside of campus
- purposeful disciplemaking
- deep ministry commitments
- discipleship communities of fellow believers / communal living
- large numbers sent to missions, seminary, or other ministry endeavors
- and probably more that I’m not thinking of
It’s hard to explain, and I certainly can’t get my head fully around this notion yet. But there almost seems to be a sort of campus ministry out there where students are building upon the vision of the leaders, rather than simply running with the vision of the leaders. Perhaps this is along the lines of the “flywheel” spoken of in Good to Great, that begins to turn faster and faster as time goes on. I do think it’s the “disciplemaking culture” Elmore spoke of. It’s a situation where not only teachers and Bible study leaders and others impact students, but even the culture itself seems to accelerate the growth process. These are the ministries where you’d say, “It’s in the water,” because somehow the whole ministry has gained synergistic influence.
Not nearly every college campus has even one college ministry that has reached this point. Hear that again: The “most effective” campus ministry on a given campus might not have reached this point. And two things need to be said about that:
- While I do believe a disciplemaking culture is very worth aiming for, most college ministries (by far) probably haven’t gotten to the “step” I’m trying to describe here. And yet lots and lots of ministries are still having incredible impact on campuses, even without having this particular attribute.
- This is one of the many reasons fully understanding the field of college ministry requires a very broad sample. While the above activities (bolded) are common, they are far from everywhere – an important distinction for all of us to grasp.
This is one of those areas where I’m really simply highlighting something I’ve noticed in my trips around the U.S.. And that “something” boils down to this:
There seem to be ministries that have achieved a sort of “second step,” when ministry and impact have begun to multiply – in both quantity and quality – in what appears to be a nearly “automatic” way.
For me to be able to speak of anything definite here, much more work and observation needs to be done. I don’t know if this is something happening more than I realize, if it’s achievable by all college ministries, or if it’s helpful to spend lots of time worrying about achieving this “step.”
But I do think it’s worth thinking about, and realizing that in at least some campus tribes, college ministries are seeing something astounding like this.
I’d love to hear some thoughts on this notion. Still working this one through, but that’s what Monday blogs are for!
The picture was taken at the steps of Cal Poly, another campus tribe with a reputation for strong Christian impact!
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As I noted in a recent weekly review of campus ministry discussions, Logan Gentry of The Austin Stone Community Church has been posting a history of their church’s college ministry on their blog. In that case, it’s a brief recap of major events, changes, and decisions in the life of that young ministry. (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)
In my most recent Research Road Trip, I had the chance to go rather in-depth with several Chi Alpha ministries, including asking Campus Pastors about their chapters’ histories. But I ask about college ministry histories a lot, and college ministers have reflected that this “recounting” is a rare (and helpful) experience.
Do you see your college ministry as a campus mission, complete with its own history of development, achievement, struggle, provision, and adventure?
If your ministry truly can’t be viewed that way… well, that’s another post for another day.
But there’s a good chance yours does have a history worth remembering (even in the grumpy points). Whether your ministry is 100 years old or 1 year old, is positioned on campus or established through a church, has seen dozens of leaders or a few (or only one), is humongous or small, there are a million reasons to research and reflect on its history.
Our college ministry’s history should give us insight into places of strength and weakness in our ministry, any “trajectory” God wants to show us, principles for further growth, areas where we’ve left our moorings, changes that have had particularly helpful (or harmful) effects, and pointers for the future. It might expose us to new sources of wisdom (like particular leaders from the past or activities that were particularly fruitful). It might really encourage us, even by reminder of the great acts of God. It might humble us, too.
But what’s more, God wants to be glorified by the story of a college ministry. And we have some part to play in that glorification.
“Oh give thanks to the LORD; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples!
Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his wonderful works!”
–Psalm 105:1-2 ESV (the intro to a psalm that recounts history)
Whether it’s ever published by IVPress or not, your campus mission can and should be a glorious missions story. When’s the last time you considered your history?
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I had the neat chance yesterday to meet with Kevin Twit and Syneva Colle, staff members of the RUF chapter at Belmont University. Kevin is the 14-year director of the ministry.
But aside from the fact that all college ministries are worth getting to know, this one has a particular claim to fame. It’s the home base for Indelible Grace.
Indelible Grace Music is dedicated to pairing old hymns (and Scripture) with more contemporary music. As Kevin writes on their site,
Our hope is to help the church recover the tradition of putting old hymns to new music for each generation, and to enrich our worship with a huge view of God and His indelible grace.
Indelible Grace Music grew out of ministering to college students, primarily through Reformed University Fellowship (RUF). We saw many touched by the gospel, and gripped by the rich theology and great poetry of the hymns of the Church. As these students began to taste more of the depth of the gospel and the richness of the hymn tradition, many began to join the music of their culture with the words of our forefathers (and mothers!), and a movement was born.
(Read the whole IDM philosophy here.)
Indelible Grace’s music has been widely distributed, apparently; not only have they sold 50,000 CDs but the songs make up the official “RUF Hymnbook,” and their lyrics/music are available for free online. There’s more – including a touring band that I believe has led worship at multiple Ivy Jungle conferences.
In other words, from the efforts and talents of one ministry arose innovation that helped RUFs throughout the country – and other ministries, too.
It’s probably no surprise that this particular innovation arose from
- A school dedicated to Music and Music Business education
- A ministry situated in the middle of Nashville
- A campus minister with a Music and Music Business background
- Ministry years that just happened to include participation by the Jars of Clay guys, Sandra McCracken, and other future music notables.
But I would argue that innovative practices or resources that have nationwide impact should REGULARLY come forth from
- College ministries.
Clearly, what Indelible Grace has done is awesome, and I don’t mean to diminish that at all. But we who serve college campuses are on the frontlines of new generations, on the frontlines of culture, and in situations that (should) force radical creativity and (should) promote radical community and cooperation. It seems that we should see examples of this kind of advancement pop up here and there, time after time, from developed college ministries all over the country. Not 100 a year, obviously. But I figure we should see this kind of thing more.
Just a thought.
Written from Motel 6, Brentwood, TN
Road Trip #12 update (Day 8)
Yesterday’s T-shirt: Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania
All the explorations of this trip (so far) can be seen here.
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Yesterday, I looked at the difficulties faced by Campus Crusade for Christ in light of the negative connotation of the word “crusade.” I found that interesting in my travels around the country, so I thought you might, too!
Probably the biggest branding difficulty in the world of college ministry right now belongs to the Southern Baptists. In case you’re unaware, their campus ministries collectively are officially called “Baptist Collegiate Ministries” at this point in time. But that name is far from standardized nationwide.
brand difficulties and the BSU (BCM, BSM, etc., etc., etc.)
BCM used to be known as BSU – Baptist Student Union. And as far as I can tell, that name was pretty standard on campuses throughout the country. In fact, that branding “stuck” so well that I regularly hear about “BSU” from those inside and outside college ministry circles.
The problem is, only a few states’ Baptist college ministries actually use the “BSU” name anymore.
It seems that a while back, various states began stepping away from the “Baptist Student Union” designation. I’ve heard of three (possible) reasons for this:
- no longer wanting students and leaders to think of their ministries as simply “student unions for Baptist students”
- confusion with the Black Student Union
- growing disuse of the term “student union” in general
- not wanting to be solely identified as the ministry of a certain denomination
Since any state and any local campus ministry is free to decide its name, over time the above reasons (or others) have led to various names. These names now include:
- Baptist Campus Ministry / -ies
- Baptist Collegiate Ministry / -ies
- Baptist Student Ministry / -ies
- Christian Challenge
- Priority
- Crosswalk
- Northwest Collegiate Ministries
- Baptist Student Union
- and various names of individual local ministries
This is no critique of anybody’s choices in this matter, but it’s instructive for anyone who might be thinking about names for college ministries or “branding” issues.
In the case of the SBC, I think this is a real challenge (in large part because they’re so widespread). Whether they realize it or not, pastors, youth pastors, parents, and others may be ineffective when they hope to point new college students to the SBC ministry on their new campus. The name they know may have changed, or the name they know may not be in use in that state.
I brought up the issue of college ministry names (and changing the names of college ministries) last week in a discussion on longevity. So I thought I’d follow that tangent a bit and look at a couple of college ministries in light of their tricky name-histories. (And it just so happens, these ministries are probably THE two most widely known college ministries in the U.S.)
Recognizing the histories and challenges of other ministries of course gives us wisdom about our own. So you might find this interesting, just as I did as I learned about it throughout the my year of research in 2007-2008.
When a name becomes… problematic
From the standpoint of an outside observer, Campus Crusade for Christ seems to be facing a nationwide challenge in regards to its name. This is a fairly new concern, so it’s going to be interesting to see how it pans out. It’s also an interesting case, since it’s a result of Campus Crusade being caught by nothing but the “unexpected shiftings of vocabular connotations.”
Obviously, the word “crusade” has long had a more general meaning than its use in describing the historical “Crusades.” For instance, its most famous use in recent times is probably in the Billy Graham Crusades. Those who don’t recognize the word’s generic meaning (including college students) can make some pretty obnoxious statements about it being a “stupid choice” for a name.
Regardless of actual meanings, however, the word “crusade” is more and more rarely used for any other purpose than to discuss the historic, infamous Crusades (and people have become more sensitive to such things). So that has caused difficulties. As a result, some Campus Crusade ministries have felt the need (understandably) to change their name. “Cru” is the simple result in many cases, but there has been a variety of responses – many of which sound nothing like the original name.
(I’m sure there are occasionally other reasons for local name-changes, too. This is one reason I happen to know about.)
Why is that a problem?
One of the primary concerns comes as Christians help students make the transition from high school. Well-meaning pastors and others encourage their youth group graduates to check out Campus Crusade ministries all the time. Sadly, those students may bypass the very ministry they’d been encouraged to find – because it’s called “Real Life” or something.
Of course, this non-uniform name-changing could ultimately diminish the incredibly strong branding Campus Crusade for Christ has built over the last several decades. Honestly, that kind of bums me out. But I’ll be watching intently to see Crusade’s response to this stuff; based on their track record, they might just have something pretty smart up their sleeve.
Tomorrow, the tricky case faced by the Southern Baptist college ministries. [Here's that post.]
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