How Does Your Denomination Do College Ministry?

Our ministry with college students is shaped by a number of factors…

In a post last week I suggested that one of those factors was the particular “stream” of ministry from which we serve — campus-based ministry, para-church, church-based or campus church were the four different “streams” I identified (you can read more about that here).

In similar fashion, I think the denomination that our ministry is tied to (or that served to shape our own theological development and/or formal ministry training) plays a big role in how we do college ministry as well.

Different denominations understand (and therefore approach) ministry with college students in different ways… for different reasons.

Some see it as more central to their Kingdom mission than do others.

Some are willing to give it more resources than others.

Some design their ministry with college students to take on a specific focus — that clearly ties back to the denominational “parent.”

I think exploring this for our specific ministry context can help us to better understand how our ministry functions (or at least, how it has functioned for much of its recent history). It can also help us to understand our current state and the direction that we appear to be heading. Understanding this denominational tie might also help to explain why certain changes have been a struggle for our ministries.

Yes, it is definitely worth spending some time considering how our denominational ties have influenced our ministry…

And it might serve us well to consider how other denominations approach ministry with college students… and what we might be able to glean from them that could benefit the students we serve.