We started a discussion a while ago on University Ministry - a discussion I would like to continue today. And I think the initial question to shape thinking is quite simple:
What is the purpose or aim of a College or University Ministries? Is the aim discipleship? Evangelism? Both? Something else? Is the aim the same or different for local churches and parachurch organizations?
Church
based and parachurch ministries fill an important need on our campuses.
The fellowship, mentorship, and peer support provided are invaluable to
many students and the evangelical outreach has impacted many. Yet
there is room for improvement and there are some important issues we
need to address in the future.
I referred in the last post to John Stackhouse and his article on University Ministry. Some of what I reflect on here comes from his article - which helped to shape and crystallize my thinking. Some of the wording and organization will seem familiar to those who also read his article (i.e. I "borrowed" and am here giving credit to the source).
Campus ministries often seem to replicate or try to replicate church - they segregate students and emphasize church experiences of worship and small group devotion and community. But I suggest that this misses the true opportunity and power of University ministry. Campus ministry is or should be the church in action in a different mode than the local congregation. The University is a unique environment and campus ministry should recognize this and step up to the challenge.
So what is the call of God to the church deployed in campus ministry? What is it not?
A campus ministry is not a church - it is a branch of the church. So the first thing that campus ministries should do is to encourage student involvement in a local church - not to be served, but to serve and worship. Help students become mature committed Christian adults. Student churches - such as one I know that proudly bills itself as "not your parents church" - miss the point. Churches are and need to be multi-generational, multi-vocational communities of believers.
A campus ministry is not an affinity group to provide community and protection from the world. Let me be provocative. Campus ministries that take a culture warrior approach, circling the wagons to preserve the purity of the elect, satisfied to interact only with "safe" thinking, do as much harm as they do good.
A campus ministry is a unique branch of the church and should focus on the special, intrinsic challenges and opportunities of the university for students and for university graduates. This is one of the major points in Stackhouse's article. These considerations should get priority, even exclusive attention, in University ministry.
Stackhouse suggests that University Ministries should:
- Explain the university from a Christian point of view
- Explain the vocations of Christians in the university
- Explain how to get the most out of the university experience
- Teach students how to respond to university challenges and opportunities
- Offer opportunities and resources for mission
- Foster Christian ecumenism and mutual edification
More specifics are included in his post for each of the above points.
I will add one to his list
University ministries should provide a resource for students - undergraduates, but especially graduate students and scholars - to approach the Christian faith with the same intellectual integrity and rigor with which they are learning to approach their various academic disciplines. To grow the "Evangelical Mind" (or more generally the Christian Mind) and remove the scandal we need academic sodalities on our secular University campuses to train and disciple the next generation.
I will elaborate on this in the next post - but in the meantime:
What do you think?
If you wish to contact me directly you may do so at rjs4mail [at] att.net.
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Mike,
Thanks for your perspective. There is much in it I agree with - especially at the level of real people in real places, real churches near real campuses. And I am not sure how to connect the dots - that is how to proceed.
Most graduate students are day-to-day growing. They don't start knowing what it means to really study a discipline. Some don't get it even when they graduate. Disciplines vary, and the grind of getting through can swamp all else.
You said that "remarkably, many of the grad students I serve with don’t want a complex Gospel or a complex Bible or anything else complex". This is true in study as well - many are not comfortable with the complexity of their academic field either, they want it cut and dried (answer's in the back of the book) - but we push them forward. Campus ministry is harder as it is voluntary.
On the other hand, many students do undergo a change in grad school and come out thinking creative scholars on the other side. And among these are the people who will become professors at major institutions in the future. I know I changed enormously as I went through graduate school, then postdoctoral work, and into a faculty position. I learned how to think and how to be a scholar.
I found it very difficult to work out how to maintain faith and grow in faith through this transition. The disconnect between the two sides of my life caused deep soul searching - to use an overused term: cognitive dissonance. I don't think that I am alone in this experience.
Is there anyway to make this transformation easier? And easier doesn't mean "giving answers" but providing resources, forums for learning and discussion, pointing toward resources ...
RJS,
You asked if "Is there anyway to make this transformation easier?" Your suggestions are valuable, although I would want to critique it in one way:
None of it can happen apart from the reality of community. Now, I am aware that this is exactly the lightning rod of earlier comments. Having said this, you understand that the university is a cultural group unto itself. One of the consequences of this is that often grad students following Jesus need each other- not always people from the outside of that culture- to discern how to employ resources, participate in forums, etc. In other words, they live in the culture, and need each other for how to survive and thrive within that culture.
Otherwise, the generation of individuals by the dominant narrative of grad school culture gets propagated: and invitations to the kind of events- even if it means companionship!- often gets a brief calculation: can I afford the time to be with others away from my studies?
Often, the congregations I serve among nod their heads when I tell them about the normal "70-hour work weeks" the grad students perform. To be sure, that is also going around in some of the congregations as well. But, not with the kind of demands for intellectual creativity and academic production: not even close. That kind of pressure creates isolation.
So, I commend the forming of community to "make the transformation easier." There are tons of other good benefits that accompany such formation. Thanks for asking!
Mike,
I think the community issue as a "lightening rod" is a much bigger problem at the undergraduate than the graduate level. You make me think here.
And as we speak about grad-faculty ministries let me make an observation from experience...
One of the things that made grad school both fun and powerful was the community - the community of fellow students. Stressful and hard but in many respects a great experience. And you are absolutely right that a community of fellow Christian students is or can be important.
One thing that made transition to faculty hard was loss of that community, pretty much across the board. Isolation is the rule. The faculty is competitive and diverse - intentionally diverse within the discipline, each individual fills a niche. Christians are in a minority, in many places there is no real fellowship of Christians on campus, and fellow Christians in a local congregation have no clue of the demands for intellectual creativity and academic production - after all professors are "just teachers" and if not in class have little to do (now I'm cynical). It isn't all bad ... obviously. But it is a "unique culture group" as you said.
This is thought provoking.
RJS 15 & 19:
I recently met an old friend from grad school at an IV Grad and Faculty Ministries Conference. As regular faculty she continues to struggle with the tension between the highly complex world of Anthopological Archaeology and the "simple" faith of the churches she has access to.
She is a loud example of what you and Stackhouse call for in university-qualified campus ministry personnel. I bring a Ph.D. in US History and many hours of amateur study of culture and theology.
You ask whether there is vision for graduate or faculty ministry. I find serious vision for it in two places: InterVarsity's Graduate and Faculty Ministries, and in my own Christian Reformed Campus Ministry Association. The later is stronger in Canada, particularly Ontario, than in the US. But folks at Illinois, Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin-Madison, and myself here at Iowa State work hard to provide exactly the type of intelligent and educated discourse without being so high-falutin that we become useless.
Also, regarding another thread I picked up regarding faculty -- I find that here at Iowa State, Christian faculty lack community in part because they do not organize across either churches or disciplines. Often it even takes years for faculty in the same church to recognize each other. Campus ministry to faculty by people with the qualifications to dialogue with faculty can serve this purpose, for good or for bad.
BTW: You are right, being a woman makes all of this more difficult. We have a self-formed evangelical women's support group here at ISU. Six women meet monthly for breakfast.
Peace,
Randy
This post was forwarded to me several days ago and I'm just getting a chance to look at it. I only looked at a few comments so probably missed a lot. I did appreciate Randy's thoughts (April 1) and wanted to add a couple of things from my experience
1) I've been meeting with a faculty group here at Ohio State for several years (group has been facilitated for over 15 years by a professor, I "joined" when on staff with IV's Grad/Faculty ministry) which provides an opportunity to talk about a variety of issues that could likely never be discussed in their churches, where the academic world seems to be little understood or appreciated. These faculty seriously engage what it means to be a Christ-follower in a major public university and all make this group a priority when their schedules permit because the fellowship so powerfully encourages them. Outsiders like myself are welcomed, and have some say in the "agenda" (which is pretty loose) but the dominant force in how the conversations go emerges from the faculty themselves.
2) I've also been part of a grad fellowship which has a number of students who are willing to think and talk seriously about the complexities of Scripture and following Christ wherever he leads. They also have tried to engage in outreach both in the university and in the neighboring urban community where some of them live.
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