Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Jesus Creed

Home
Evangelical
Missional Campus Ministry 5 (RJS)

Missional Campus Ministry 5 (RJS)

Last updated on: October 9, 2012 at 5:33 am by RJS

Missional Campus Ministry 5 (RJS) 2012-10-09T05:33:25-05:00 RJS

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

It has been a while – but the Missional Campus Ministry series will continue on an occasional basis as resources or topics appear. Today I would like to focus conversation around a recent blog post by John Stackhouse – Campus Ministry That’s Not for Every One. Here is a brief excerpt… speaking about a visit to the University of Ottawa:

But what I liked the most about working with him in producing several events on campus is that he is trying to reach the people most campus groups don’t: the thoughtful, and perhaps even threatening, inquirer, the smart student or professor who has been asking hard questions of Christianity perhaps for years and hasn’t found even a safe place in which to ask them, let alone a place to encounter satisfying answers to them.

…

It’s harder to reach these people on campus, not least because many of them have had previous experiences with religious types and have been disappointed and offended by the defensive, even anti-intellectual, attitude they encountered. So they’re not likely now to show up at a “Free Pizza Night!” to “Hear local pastor Rev. Bill Jones speak on loving God better!” Rather than having their hard questions welcomed in the spirit of the university, they have been marginalized as troublesome party-poopers, spoiling a nice session of grooving on Jesus. Or perhaps they indeed have been engaged by Christians, but then their questions have exposed the Christians’ intellectual shallowness, their inability to articulate good grounds for their beliefs that make sense beyond the circle of already-convinced faith.

I will like to elaborate on these ideas a bit – focused on discussion of the following question:

What can be done to make an impact on campus – today and in the future, to move beyond “intellectual shallowness” or the perception of such shallowness?

The university or college campus is a mission field in many ways – and the pressures on eager undergraduates on their own for the first time are immense. We need organizations, both parachurch and church-based ministries, that concentrate on mission to the broad populations; ministries that provide a place for Bible study, discipleship, and fellowship. The broad middle of the student population.is a group in need of attention – and I appreciate the hard work that goes into evangelism, relationship, and discipleship in a wide range of active campus ministries.

But we need more than this as well. I broached this subject back in April in a series of posts on Education, Discipleship, and the Future that developed off of Stackhouse’s post on Engaging the University.

We need to be able to … “meet the university on its own terms: discussion of issues that matter in a way that meets the university’s own ideal standards of engagement, standards of both courteous respect and intellectual rigour.” (Again quoting Stackhouse)

There are a couple of comments on Stackhouse’s blog as I write this – both good, but one in particular caught my eye: An edited version is below:

I have to say, I consider myself extremely blessed to be taking my undergrad degrees where I am. … We’ve been lucky in Regina in that our IVCF staff worker has always stressed the importance of Christians seriously engaging with the academy at large. He’s made it a priority to identify academically-minded Christian students and help guide them in their intellectual development. … By helping students gain a strong understanding of their Christian faith in relation to their studies, he’s helped to form individuals capable of presenting an intellectual Christianity to their classmates and professors.

I remember vividly one of my own professors confessing to me over a beer that twenty years ago he would never have given Christianity a second thought. At the time, he said, the Christians he knew seemed quite shallow, intellectually speaking. But these days he’s finding it harder to just “shrug off.” The reason he gave? Apparently some Christian students like myself and a friend of mine … fail to fit his old stereotype of the simple-minded Christian.

This commenter also brings up a serious problem, a problem that several commenters on my original series also brought up from their perspective as they work in Campus Ministry.

Of course, the trouble with running an intellectual campus ministry is that undergraduate Christians (in general) just don’t seem all that interested in being academically relevant. … One suchChristian student told me a few years ago that, after a week of hard classes, she just didn’t feel up to taking part in a small group if it made her think too much. … applying her intelligence to her faith? That seemed a wholly unnecessary burden.

Where should we go from here?

From my perspective – having been a graduate student and now as a professor – we have a real problem. There are several facets of the problem – here are a few, you can probably identify more:

1. Many, perhaps most, Christian undergraduate students, even many, perhaps most, graduate students, do not want the unnecessary burden of developing an intellectually robust faith. (And perhaps do not even realize how much they will need it in the future.)

2. Shallow answers and an anti-intellectual approach will not engage the University at its root. It will not impact the serious scholars and thinkers, those who will be the next generation of leaders. More importantly it breeds an arrogance that allows many to simply dismiss faith as something not worth a second thought.

3. There is no safe place for a Christian with serious questions to go for dialogue and growth. This is a problem with two consequences – some simply lose faith. Others, while retaining faith, cannot be a real witness within the academy when they know that they do not really believe much of what they are “supposed” to believe.

4. Many campus ministry workers are themselves ill equipped to engage the hard questions.

I have no answers today…but I would like to throw this open for discussion.

What can be done to engage the smart student or professor who asks the hard questions?

How can we disciple and equip the students who will go on to be professors and leaders? How should we provide encouragement and opportunity for growth?

Do you have any example of successful approaches to share – either from your ministry or from your experience as a student?

If you wish to contact me directly you may do so at rjs4mail [at] att.net.

University Ministry

Youth Ministry

Previous Post

October 13, 2009

Manifold Witness 1

Next Post

October 13, 2009 Acts and Mission 42

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Acts of the Apostles Adam Advent Anabaptism Angels Anglican Apologetics Atonement Baptism BCP Prayers Bible Biblical Studies Birds Blogging Bloglossary Bonhoeffer Books Calvinism Christianity Church Church History Coffee Colossians Commentary Recs Conversion Creation Creeds Culture Death Ecclesiastes Economics Education Embracing Grace Emergent Emerging Movement Eschatology Essays Ethics Eucharist Evangelicalism Family Fasting Fathers Fellowship of Differents Footsteps Tour Fun and Whimsical Gospel Grace Happiness Heaven Hell Holy Spirit Irenaeus James Jesus Jesus Creed Job Justification Kingdom of God Law Lectures Lent Liberalism Love and Marriage Mabanteneni Manhood Mary Miracles Missio Alliance MissioLife Missional Missional Jesus Movies and Film New Perspective Northern Seminary OneLife Origins Project Orthodox Parables Pastor's Spouse Pastoring and Leading Pastoring and Preaching Patristics Paul Paul-John Tour Pharisees Pietism Political Theology Prayer and Formation Preaching Problems for Faith Psalm 119 Psalms Public Issues Purgatory Religions Resurrection Revelation Romans Rule of JCreed Science and Faith Sermon on the Mount Sports Ten Commandments Theology Third Way Top Ten Lists Translations Uncategorized Universalism University Ministry Way Out Weekly Meanderings Wisdom Women and Ministry Work Worship Writing & Blogging Youth Ministry

Select a Month July 2021 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 0000

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

I am a donkey that spoke to rebuke my master, a prophet. What am I?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Balaam's donkey A miracle donkey A prophet's beast A talking animal