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Monday I blogged about struggles I’ve seen in two of the branches of college ministry, after speaking on that (among other things) last week at a seminary “brownbag.”
After sharing the difficulties I’ve seen in campus-based and church-based college ministry, I wanted to touch on the other two branches today!
Institutional College Ministry
- Because it’s the most campus-integrated of the branches, those working in Christian colleges likely face some varieties of “red tape” that others don’t. They’re seen as representatives of the university and are clearly tied to its aims and efforts.
- Likewise, these college ministers are unlikely to be overseen fellow or former college ministers. Because of the uniqueness of our work, this can create difficulties.
- This area of college ministry sometimes has a higher educational bar than others; larger Christian colleges (or ones with more developed spiritual life programs) may require a Doctorate or at least a Master’s for those serving in Institutional College Ministry.
Collegiate Churches
- Funding
- Intergenerational connections are usually few
- While this branch has actually been around for awhile, it still feels new (or is unheard of) to many.
- While autonomy can certainly be a strength, it also certainly presents struggles. Oversight and collective wisdom – from more than just college students – can be a helpful thing…
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Last Monday, I argued that we who serve as “missionaries to the campus tribes” need to avail ourselves of learning our field – our “missiology.” It’s not enough for us to learn techniques and “Best Practices” (which I’ve argued don’t exist much in college ministry, anyway). We need to care about the theory side of our work, even if some of us are wired to care about it more than others.
To that end, I wrote about some things I’d had opportunities to speak on recently: the delineation of the four branches of campus ministry, some variations I’ve seen within those branches, and some strengths of each form.
Now I arrive at some of the “struggles” in those branches. Today, I’ll look at the difficulties faced in campus-based and church-based college ministry; tomorrow I should be able to examine struggles in the other two branches.
As I noted last week (in regards to the strengths), these listed struggles generally reflect the more “classic” or common models for each area. As I discussed last week, there are variations in every branch, so some struggles apply more broadly than others.
Campus-based college ministry struggles
- Though many in this camp will – rightly – talk about the joy of locating partners for their ministry, personal support-raising can still be a difficult road. Not all campus-based groups have to support-raise, but those that don’t seem generally limited to denominational campus-based work in the South.
- For those truly “parachurch,” it’s easier to disconnect with the rest of American Christianity – whether it’s churches, denominations, new lines of thoughts, new forms of ministry, or anything else.
- Denominational campus-based ministries may face difficulties – practical, theological, or otherwise – of their denominational ties. Some have faced severe issues along these lines.
- It is often harder within this form of college ministry to connect students to local churches within their collegiate years, and even pointing them to / teaching them about “churchmanship” may also be more difficult (or simply less of a felt need).
- Autonomy has its downsides, to be sure.
Church-based college ministry struggles
- Churches often struggle with a lack of longevity – of both college ministries AND “versions” of their college ministries.
- These ministers are usually not overseen by individuals who have served in college ministry.
- Integration with the campus is trickier in this branch than any other.
- Compared to campus-based college ministry, it’s much harder to find an open position in this field; even the opportunity to volunteer to run a church collegiate outreach may, sadly, not be available!
- This branch doesn’t hasn’t had a lot of development.
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This week, I’ve been offering some learning on the various branches. Not all of this is news to most readers, I’m sure, but I still want to share what I’ve seen in the nationwide views I’ve had the chance to gain.
Today and tomorrow, I want to visit the other part of my seminar from Tuesday morning: my perspective on the Strengths and Struggles of the four branches of college ministry. First, many of the strengths that seem to exist in each branch – including some you might not have often thought about.
These strengths usually reflect the more “classic” or more common models for each area. As I discussed yesterday, there are variations in every branch, so some strengths apply more broadly than others.
Campus-based college ministry strengths
- While our entire field remains quite underdeveloped, campus-based college ministry is clearly the most developed of the branches. In general, it’s got more handed-down wisdom, more collaboration, more “lifers,” more conferences, and more history than the other branches.
- As I’ve argued – often and in ebook form – I believe all college ministry works best when it’s viewed missiologically. Campus-based college ministry seems to take this tack pretty naturally, as it usually involves some group – a number of supporters, perhaps, or a collection of churches – sending a missionary-expert to dwell within and reach a campus tribe.
- Longevity – of ministries and ministers.
- Oversight is provided – usually – by other (or former) college ministers.
- There are in some sense “unlimited” job openings, as long as individuals are willing to raise their own support.
- While many find personal support-raising (the predominant funding method here) a discouraging concept, many do report value in raising up lots of ministry “partners” – and it’s diversified funding, as well.
Church-based college ministry strengths
- When a college minister is actually employed by a church, the funding is steady and doesn’t generally have to be raised.
- Naturally provides opportunities to integrate students into church life and help them make intergenerational connections (which seems beneficial for both the present and life following graduation).
- As American Christians – possibly – seem to be recognizing a greater need for impacting students after high school, there seems to be lots of room for growth in this branch.
- Those serving within a church setting might have the opportunity to feel less isolated.
- The backing of a church can encourage longevity of a ministry and its identity, even across multiple leaders.
Institutional
- This area seems to have the best structures in place for widespread collaboration, and this is perhaps the most “learned” branch. (Some institutional college ministers serve as faculty, have higher levels of education than most, serve as “lifers,” learn from other fields – secular and Christian, etc.)
- High level of integration with the campus (obviously), thus sharing some of the proximity strengths of campus-based college ministry
- Funding is often “set” and might be an expected, long-term part of the budget (moreso than many church-based college ministries).
- The backing of the school may aid ministry longevity.
Collegiate Churches
- Share an interesting mix of some strengths from both church-based ministry (church integration, for example) and campus-based college ministry (missiological activity, among other things).
- Autonomy
- This strategy seems to have some momentum, as major groups are (newly) considering this strategy and the emergence of multi-site churches has led / could lead to collegiate sites.
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I enjoyed sharing with Dallas Seminary students yesterday, and I wanted to offer here some of the points I presented to them. But one of the areas I didn’t get to cover – fully, at least – were the variations found in each of the branches of college ministry. It was, after all, a primer, so it generally made the most sense to present the “classic” versions of each branch.
But each of the branches do indeed have variations – and they’re important to note, since often we only know the “versions” we ourselves have seen. So here’s a quick run-down of some diversifications within each branch.
Campus-based
This one has two well-known methodologies already: denominational campus-based ministries (like Wesley Foundation, Chi Alpha, and several others) and fully parachurch work (like InterVarsity, Navigators, and Campus Crusade). But even beyond that, some ministries look a little different from the “norms.”
- Niche-based ministries (based on anything from campus geography to majors to ethnicity)
- Complementary ministries (that purposely accomplish only part of students’ discipleship, leaving other portions to other ministries)
- Student-directed ministries (with no adult leader on-site or off-site)
- These have a spectrum from fully autonomous, standalone ministries to well regulated, national ministries
Church-based
- There’s a broad spectrum here of fully volunteer-directed ministries (with even students sometimes playing this role) to multi-staff-member church-based ministries running very large, well budgeted ministries… and everything in-between (part-time ministers, full-time ministers with multiple “hats,” and so on)
- Some church-based ministries (or portions of those ministries) function in a way nearly identical (“on the ground,” though not in oversight) to campus-based ministries
- Some hybrids exist – like some CCO ministries and Campus Outreach ministries – in which the college ministries function under a church but are also resourced and overseen by a national ministry
Institutional
- The primary duties may vary more widely than any other college ministry branch. Institutional college ministers may (or may not) focus on a Chapel program, mobilizing students in service and missions, discipleship / small groups, serving in more of a “chaplain” / pastoral role, involvement with faculty and staff, and/or other areas.
- Somewhat like church-based college ministers, those serving at Christian colleges could have spiritual development as only one of lots of duties… all the way to having large staffs
- The religious spectrum of schools obviously affects the institutional college ministers, and not all college ministers are necessarily of the exact same theological bent as their institution
- While the institutional college minister is often the only college minister serving a Christian college directly, many are impacted by local church-based ministers and some even have campus-based ministries present
- The amount of freedom these college ministers have varies, since they are completely tied to the college they serve
Collegiate Churches
- The main variation I’ve seen here is in autonomy. Some of these collegiate churches are independent church plants. Others were planted by a “mother church” that still has some tie to them. Some are part of a larger church-planting body (particularly Great Commission Ministries). And a few multisite churches have planted a campus site – which still fits this branch, certainly, but functions as a site of a larger church.
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Today I have the chance to share a brownbag seminar at Dallas Theological Seminar. I’ve been asked to speak on “The Four Streams of College Ministry,” introducing for students the branches that make up our field.
I’ve found it immensely helpful to think about collegiate ministry in four branches. But it’s actually been through my journeys that this nomenclature has developed, and I wanted to revisit that issue before jumping into further thoughts later this week.
In October 2009, I first broached the subject of broadening my original 3-branch system. I received some great comments on that post – comments that truly helped me digest that issue. Here’s (most of) that post, followed by a link to the comments it received.
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I believe I first outlined my classification of the “three branches” of college ministry in a post way back in February 2008. I had variously referred to those three branches before, 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).
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?
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A handful of college ministers weighed in on that post with some outstanding thoughts, leading me to the four-branch system I now use. I highly encourage you to check out those comments here.
Those thoughts also helped solidify the names I tend to use for these “Four Streams.” Here’s how I’ll describe those branches with the seminary students today:
- Campus-based college ministry (which includes both fully parachurch and denominational ministries)
- Church-based college ministry
- Institutional college ministry (specific spiritual development organized by Christian schools)
- Collegiate churches (including independent church plants and campus-focused sites of multisite churches)
In the days to come, I’ll observe some of the differences, similarities, and unique aspects of these branches! And as always, I’d love your thoughts on how this is organized – in our underdeveloped field, this is one sort of discussion we need a lot more of!
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I’ve argued time and time again that collegiate ministry is best understood as awfully similar – in practice and theory – to foreign missions. I argued that most fervently in my book, Reaching the Campus Tribes, but the parallels are pretty obvious to a good number of us who actually serve in this field.
But if we Evangelical college ministers are going to keep getting better at this, then learning our field is going to have to be part of that.
Of course, not all of us may be “wired” to be hard-core theorists, to explore deeply the work we do. But I honestly believe that ALL of us should be learners (as I’ve also argued plenty). Some of us may be more devoted to learning, more wired for learning, and more adept at learning. But I think every college minister should make up his or her mind to become better at this task as time goes on.
And we do that – in part – by thinking about our field. By exploring a little “College Ministry Missiology.”
I’ve had some neat chances to present some “missiology” of our field recently, and I’ll be sharing some of those thoughts this week. But this isn’t just an introductory post to that theme. It’s an attempt to ask one simple question:
Are you as faithful in learning about college ministry as you should be?
Hopefully I can offer a little something along those lines this week. But regardless, I hope we’ll see learning as a real part of fulfilling the ministries we’ve received from the Lord. Because if we’re not understanding our work better over time, are we really accomplishing all we were meant to?
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Yesterday, I had two conversations in which I described today’s observation about the field of College Ministry. One of those was in preparation for my time today with college ministers from around the country, as they meet in a cohort with Leadership Network here in Dallas… so I’ll probably share this observation with them, too!
So since it’s on my mind, I wanted to share this thought here, as well.
As I’ve made my way across the country (multiple times!) and sat with many college ministers from the various branches of our field (campus-based, church-based, institutional, and collegiate churches), I’ve noticed that, by-and-large, there seems to be far too much sameness. Too much homogeneity, especially given the contextual diversity of the places we serve.
That diversity isn’t simply regional; even campuses in the same town can be widely diverse. We may not recognize that diversity if we’ve only served on a campus or two, but it’s truly there: Every campus really is its own “tribe.” While we certainly can find similarities and discern categories among campuses, the point is that those things must be found and discerned. They’re not obvious or automatic campus-to-campus.
But here’s the weird thing: Even within all that sameness, there’s a level of disconnected difference that also makes me sad. Yes, most college ministries look very similar (even if on the tip-top surface they seem to be different). But at the level of practices and functional models and methods, there seems to be very little sharing of “Best Practices” and other wisdom – especially outside of the more established campus-based college ministries.
So in the very place I’d love to see some similarities – simply because there is wisdom to be gained and there are skills to be shared – I see everybody simply doing “as they see fit.” Not in a sinful way, but in a way that continues to point to the underdevelopment of our field.
More on this – and why it matters practically – later. Feel free to share your thoughts!
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This is the week of Catalyst Conference in Atlanta – and the College Ministers Cohort there! I’m excited to join with well over 100 college ministers at our various activities this week, including a big lunch tomorrow. Today’s the first “main” Catalyst day, though, so I wanted to revisit something that Cohort attendees AND the rest of us should consider.
Because we have to stand up for our field of ministry.
Last night we (in the Cohort) got the last-minute chance to tag along at a dinner. The speaker was David Platt, who spoke (phenomenally, as always) about mustering his family’s and his church’s resources to care for a hurting world. He had some Q&A time at the end, so I did what I hope I’ll always do.
I went to bat for College Ministry.
Simply by asking Platt how his church had mobilized college students to reach the world (which I knew they had), a room full of mostly non-college ministers got to hear – clearly – the potential our students bring to the cause of worldwide impact.
My question (obviously) wasn’t any big deal. But I bring up that episode from last night simply to encourage us all to consider raising the question of Collegiate Ministry every opportunity we have.
And at a place like Catalyst (or any conference or seminar), the opportunities are plentiful:
- To a seminary: “What programs do you have for training college ministers?” (No, not youth ministers. College ministers.)
- To a parachurch ministry: “How do you connect college students with this?” “Have you had the chance to engage people with this early in their lives, like in college?”
- A denomination or other multi-church group: “How do you mobilize and resource college ministry in your churches?” “I saw all your stuff for Youth Ministry… what kinds of Campus Ministry programs do you have?”
- To a publisher: “What do you market to college students?” “Do you have anything college ministers can use for small groups?” “Do you have any collegiate versions or study guides of your books?”
I’ve written before,
Christian organizations need to realize that the field of College Ministry shouldn’t be overlooked – not just because it’s such an important and valuable mission field, but because their very aims (of both ministry and sales) would benefit.
You never know when a seminary representative might return to her campus and say, “Have we ever thought about training college ministers here?”
We never know when a publisher – after getting questions at a few conferences in a row – might make a suggestion at a meeting back at the offices.
When they hear from us – especially if they hear from many of us – it’s going to make an impression.
We should be asking these questions, putting this topic on their minds. Because nobody else will.
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All week, I’ve blogged some thoughts about why College Ministers are really important – and I’ve aimed for reasons we don’t usually hear about / think about. Hope they’ve been encouraging. (Those four posts are here, here, here, and here.)
Now that it’s Friday, I want to encourage you to consider a Fridea along the same lines: Spend some hours (between now and the school year’s start) to actively remember why this work is SO vital.
Maybe you can start with my posts from this week…
…but I bet you have memories you can use: What was the first experience that made you think, “I want to be a campus minister”? How did God call you to this task? What were some of the early Best Moments, the moments when you saw exciting fruit and were glad to be exactly where you are?
What were some of the victories of the past year?
You also have resources you can use to remind yourself that THIS WORK MATTERS. If you work for a campus ministry organization, there are probably some sort of “Why College Ministry?” pamphlets or other propaganda lying around… When’s the last time you read them to convince yourself?
But what’s more, you might even need to take your (own) word for it! Look at the emails you’ve sent out to supporters. If you’re in a church, think through the arguments you’ve made (or would make) to your overseers and to parents about why this stuff is vital. How have you explained the glories of college ministry to your family and friends? Listen to yourself!
You KNOW college ministry matters. But right here, right before you jump in again with gusto, it might help to REMEMBER WHY college ministry matters.
Enjoy the hours.
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