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college ministry

Missional Campus Ministry | Jesus Creed

Scot McKnight has entered the conversation about Missional College Ministry over at Jesus Creed.

He’s gearing up for a series of post it appears, and I am looking forward to engaging what he is saying!  Head over there and interact with this basic question:

“What should a missional campus ministry look like in our largely post-Christian world?”

More at Jesus Creed here.


For some other resources, check out:

If you have written about college ministry, post some links in a comment below!

By Todd Engstrom

Although I was raised in the church and had a knowledge of God, I didn’t embrace Jesus until I heard gospel preached and lived out by some Young Life leaders. God has proven faithful and good to me since that day, even in great suffering and loss. I have learned to treasure Romans 8:28 as a wellspring of hope and truth.

God has blessed me with an amazing wife (Olivia), three sons (Micah, Hudson and Owen) and a daughter (Emmaline). Growing up in the northwest, the thought never crossed my mind that I would have four children who are native Texans. Despite landing in the south, I still watch Notre Dame games with my children every Saturday in hopes they will land at my alma mater.

2 replies on “Missional Campus Ministry | Jesus Creed”

Thanks for pointing out all the great resources, but they raised the question to me: Who would you say are the most successful practitioners of campus ministry in this country? (in other words: how credible are the people writing these things?)
Louie Giglio had an amazing ministry for some time, but he obviously left to do Passion. I don’t feel like I have a great pulse on who is really enjoying wild success on campuses. What are your thoughts?

Mike,
Thanks for your question, and it’s definitely a great one. Benson Hines (www.exploringcollegeministry.com) would be an excellent person to ask that question of, as he probably has the broadest perspective of what is happening on the ground of anyone in the nation right now.

Also, I think your question isn’t just a singular one…success can be defined in lots of ways. From a numerical perspective of influence, there are men like Louie who have done a phenomenal job of communicating to this generation. From individual campuses, there are men like Ben Stuart at Texas A&M’s Breakaway Ministry who do a great job of week in, week out connecting with large number of college students. Those types of ministries are working in certain places, but that simply is not reality at the University of Texas. There are 61 different evangelical ministries on our campus, and collectively we reach ~5000 total students, but the campus has doubled (6% to 12%) in four years as the missional community effort has gathered steam and the Holy Spirit has stirred in incredible ways. I would say that this is quite significant in a place as historically resistant to the gospel as UT.

Also, there has been a distinct rise of church based campus ministries that are having an impact (Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Summit Church in Durham, NC, Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, The Austin Stone Community Church in Austin, TX, etc.), which is a very significant move in college ministry. Lastly, traditional campus ministries (Campus Crusade, The Navigators, etc.) are still having tremendous impact on campuses as well using more time tested methodologies. All that to be said, I think I’d need to know what we determine as success for college ministry in order to answer the question more fully.

Are there some criteria in particular that you are thinking of?

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