The Final Report is Finally Done

Don't forget—registration for Great Expectations continues until May 15. Please email me (Kelsey) and let me know you're coming! It promises to be an exciting day and an important one: now that NEPCI has completed its work, the ball is really in our court to take the next steps. A good turnout for the event will ensure that the next steps are effective.

Last weekend, I guess you could say that NEPCI formally ended—I presented the final report on our research to our funding body, the New England Presbytery Partnership Group (one of the myriad governance committees in our Presbyterian system). The report turned out to be about 30 pages, single-spaced, written mostly to address campus ministry issues as they related to Presbyterian polity. However, the report features sections about the nature and needs of college students today, and talks a lot about the general campus ministry landscape. When I confirm with the Presbytery Partnership Group that they want the report to be distributed, I will post a link to it on this website. But in any case, the current phase of this work is over.

Just a few reflections on what I’ve learned through the process of studying campus ministry for nearly a year now… one, I think I have added quite a bit of nuance to my understanding of the student relationship to mainline Protestant denominations. When I spoke with campus ministers and chaplains in the fall, I got the impression that denominations were irrelevant to all students. They had moved beyond denomination, were “postdenominational” in every way. But after talking to students in focus groups, I came to the conclusion that describing students as postdenominational was too simplistic. The students I met are what I like to call “denominationally open.” Whether a student came into college with no clue about the denominational thing or actually looking for something in their own tradition, most students care more about the kind of community they find within a particular ministry than with its denominational label. If the ministry welcomes them, helps them identify with a peer group, and makes room for their questions, among other things, students seem willing to participate in the ministry even if they must cross denominational lines to do so. It doesn’t mean the denominational identity has no meaning, but it does mean that community and a sense of belonging mean more. It is less a question whether our ministries are Presbyterian or anything else, and more about what students find there.

I have also learned that although some ministries we support aren’t doing the most flashy, high profile activities on campus, that doesn’t mean that their work is not making a difference. Chaplains and campus ministers serve based on their resources (which aren’t always much anyway), their own spiritual gifts, and the needs of the campus. On some campuses this meant large student groups with retreats, worships, and Bible studies. For others, it meant participating in other, not explicitly religious groups and committees as a pastoral presence and a spiritual resource. Nearly all the campus ministries I encountered were about relationships, and that seems to me the primary task we should consider when we’re evaluating collegiate ministries: is the ministry building transformative relationships, both one-on-one and with other groups on campus? Relationship-building takes on many forms, but all truly life-changing relationships will contribute positively toward a more just and compassionate campus culture.

Finally, this project has taught me more about this church that I love. I have discovered that Presbyterians in New England are not apathetic about young adult involvement, nor do they only wish to see students in the pews so that their churches will survive (although there is a bit of that longing mixed in, too). The Presbyterians I have encountered have children and grandchildren in colleges all over the country, and they care about this work because they realize how much college students need people of faith to be there for them. Campus ministry really is a mission for the church—not a mission based on that notion of the university as a temple to godless secularism, but a mission in that students need us as witnesses to Christ’s peace in times of tragedy, Christ’s unconditional love in times of stress and strain. They need caring companions on the journey, wherever that path might take them. And I think Presbyterians are beginning to awaken to God’s call and respond to that need.