New Details about May 30, and Fun Times with the Presbytery of Northern New England

I guess after my six total hours on the road to the Presbytery of Southern New England’s meeting in New Canaan, CT last month, God decided I had done enough driving for a while—this weekend’s meeting of the Presbytery of Northern New England took place at Nashua Presbyterian Church in Nashua, NH, a quick (maybe because I was speeding) 45 minute drive up the road from my house. It could have been somewhere like Burlington, VT or Leeds, ME. So I count myself fortunate on the driving end.

My presentation to the Presbytery of Northern New England also marked the rollout of several details on our May 30 event, now entitled “Great Expectations: For Students and Ministry in Higher Education.” The event will be held from 10 am to 4 pm at The Presbyterian Church in Burlington, MA, just north of Boston. And I’m excited to share that Barbara Wheeler, the president of Auburn Theological Seminary in New York City, and Rick Spalding, the chaplain at Williams College in Williamstown, MA will be our guest speakers. These two dynamic individuals will bring their respective expertise in mainline denominational trends and college student life into conversation with one another, as their portion of the event will be a time of presentation and dialogue about the various challenges facing collegiate ministry in New England. These are two speakers you won’t want to miss!

The trip to Nashua also provided me with an opportunity to speak with several people in the presbytery who care about collegiate ministries. During our lunchtime conversation, we spoke particularly about why younger denominations are experiencing explosive growth in campus ministry while denominations such as the Presbyterian Church (USA) seem to be pulling back on campus. While it is not all about money, in some ways I do think funding and other forms of support and resources have a lot to do with the answer to this question. My perception of denominations making inroads in campus ministry is that they have a commitment to the ministry from the highest levels of the denomination, a commitment backed up by funding and an infrastructure to support the kinds of ministries they provide. I’ve heard that one denomination’s new church developments often have two full-time ministers if located close to a campus: one for the church, and one whose job is specifically geared toward campus ministry. Our ad hoc approach, though it has its merits, cannot measure up to that level of coordination or support. These ministries also have a very clear identity, a “brand,” if you will. You may not like or agree with the brand, but you know exactly what they are about. Mainline campus ministries are getting better at clarifying their identity, but many still struggle to nail down what they are about.

Really, what I’ve learned is that all effective campus ministry boils down to relationships—relationships with students and relationships with the institution in which one serves. You want to start a campus ministry at a college where nothing is present? You need to build relationships with key administrators who can open doors for you and give you access to students. You want to build a student group? You need to be an active, visible, consistently-present face on campus who actually has time to talk to students. Resources—financial, volunteer, training, or otherwise—make relationships possible. So if we don’t have any volunteers, and we don’t have much money, and we don’t have a clear, concrete strategy to get such resources functioning at all levels of our church bureaucracy, we will have trouble building relationships on campus.

Now, I don’t want to make it sound like all would be well if we had more money. The Jesus-movement that swept through the eastern Mediterranean in the first century didn’t have a lot of money either. But it had average people who were passionately committed to the gospel, and who were willing to give of themselves in various ways to spread that good news. I think if we can have the same—Presbyterians all over New England who are committed to witnessing to Christ’s abundant love on campus in whatever way they are called—our ministry to the campus will not only survive, but thrive well into the future.