What exactly is College Ministry?
18 08 2009As I sat trying to quell the playful bickering between a couple of my students yesterday, I had the opportunity to talk with one young man who wanted to know exactly what we do. "Why is college ministry different than my high school youth group?" He asked. I tried to explain it to him, but I really felt like I’d failed a bit.
This morning, while checking out Twitter, a tweet by @CampusMinGuy caught my eye – "Characteristics of College Ministry," based on an article written by @bensonhines. I clicked the link, and just finished reading through the article. WOW, I wish I’d had a copy of this with me yesterday. It does one heck of a job of explaining what I couldn’t get into words. Here is an exerpt -
The practice of college ministry is far more like Missions than like Christian Education.
So ministering to a college campus is in many ways more like Missions in Mozambique than it is even like Youth Ministry.
The more I work with college students, the more I think this is true. Go to http://bit.ly/JfPEY for the full article. Or just track me down on campus, I’ll have a copy with me today, just in case….
-Kevin
Goes with the beginning of the semester. I had a guy stop by the office last week just to find out what a chaplain is. Looks like you’ve found a better answer than my stock answer: Mostly we eat poutine, love people, and talk about Jesus.
I like the idea that the difference between a “youth group” and a College Ministry is all about mission. That’s just cool.
Thanks a bunch, Kevin!
I didn’t actually write that article – but I did write that quote within the article! It’s from my free book Reaching the Campus Tribes. If you get the chance, take a look – it’s a quick read with lots of cool pictures, among other things.
But I appreciate your thoughts. I was happy about how Jesus Creed (that blog) covered the book today, and I’m hoping it enables others to better understand college ministry!