Why the University?

It is a legitimate question to ask, “Why do we go through so much trouble to do university ministry?” We spend lots of money, send seminary trained ministers and sometimes more staff – but why so much attention? We don’t do this at the high-school level. We don’t send full-time missionaries to Wal-mart or the Skate-Park. Some of us aren’t asking this question. “Of course we have campus ministries! I was in one, wasn’t everybody?” In fact, not that many people are actually involved. In my three experiences with campus ministry I would liberally guess that around 4% of students are involved. Even if your campus ministry was “bursting at the seams” it was probably not a large percentage of the university population. Wherever you are on this question it is worth asking, especially in our case as we see God plant a church with University Presence as a core value.

First, we pursue a University Presence because there are people there! This may seem obvious, but shouldn’t be overlooked. There are LOTS of people on a University Campus. In my two stints as a Campus Minister over 80K students were enrolled and I have met probably a couple thousand of them. There are lots of people. Secondly, there are lots of DIFFERENT people. So many people groups are represented. International students abound, different regions of the country are represented, various parts of the state. The nations are gathered each semester on a university campus. Thirdly, there are lots of different people with different WOLRDVIEWS. Worldviews are simply the lens through which we see life. They include religious beliefs, values, cultural moorings, ideas, imagination, and so forth. Like Paul at Athens there are many gods represented, even unknown gods. Lastly, we are INVITED, or at the least, PERMITED on campus. At my present campus the head of Student Organizations responded to my question, “Does this campus need another campus ministry?” by saying, “The more the merrier.” Other demographics may not be as inviting and actually may make it very difficult for campus ministries. In whatever case, if you are there, count it a great invitation. We are there and have an open door to relationships with lots of different people with differing worldviews. What a privilege.

How can the church help? This is a great question. Many attempts and creativity, failed plans and successes follow in the wake of this question. Should we do “adopt a student” or add students to our community groups, small groups? Etc… A key part of answering this question is to bar the doors to the church being overrun with students. IOW: don’t be a church where it is a majority of 18—22 year olds. This isn’t healthy nor biblical. One reason we have a college ministry is so the college students are ministered to “in particular.” The students may not be overly involved with everything the church does but if he/she is involved with RUF then they are a part of the mission of Grace and Peace: reaching and equipping others (in their neck of the woods – the college campus). I have often heard comments about students not being involved in the life of the church and to an extent that may be true, but if they are serving with RUF then they are serving the church. They only have 3-5 years (really 2 good ones) where they can actively contribute in a college ministry. Having them at every prayer breakfast may not be a good idea. But, they also need adults to look up to and younger folk to serve. They need more of an accurate reflection of the church than just their peer group. This is where we cannot put rules down concerning how this should look. The best model I’ve seen is when church folk take the initiative either formally or informally to have students over and students take the initiative to be with the gathered church on the Lord’s day as well as plug in where it best suits them and the church (using discernment about campus ministry involvement). There are no easy answers, but a church that casts an atmosphere of grace and peace will certainly attract college students as well as send partners in ministry into their world. Since we are in a college town then the campus is our neighbor. The question should always be crossing our minds, “How do we live and love our neighbors up on the hill?” How can we best have a university presence?