College Union

The State of United Methodist Campus Ministry
Steve Rankin
Southwestern College

I rather dislike the fact that I’ve grown long enough in the tooth to have an opinion about campus ministry worth sharing.  Maybe it’s because I’ve started looking like Yoda.  Regardless,  I have been given the opportunity of late to be in a variety of settings in which college students was a topic of discussion and I thus could act as something like a participant-observer.  My personal reservations about age and appearance notwithstanding, I offer the following thoughts on the state of campus ministry in The United Methodist Church.

First exhibit, General Conference, 2008: In spite of the fact that “developing young leaders” is a stated goal and even with an increased number of young people as delegates and, oh yes, hearing the first ever Young People’s Address (which you can find at umc.org), we still seem not to know quite what to do with/about college ministries.  You could feel the urgency in the numer-ous references to “young people.”  Some really impressive and hopeful goals were presented and passed.  But who will carry them out?  In the plenary sessions, I listened for some reference to campus ministry as an important means for meeting this goal, but heard nary a one.  Hm.

So, we’re still operating with a “hurry up” mindset that ultimately seems to change little.  In looking for help to carry out these goals, denominational leaders tend to jump from conference agencies to seminaries, to local churches, to people they know.  In this case, General Conference decisions are passed to the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry, which means that the plan for training will come from Nashville.  Right now there are some holes in that organiza-tion.  You may have heard that both Luther Felder and Ken Bedell are gone from the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry.  So, if you get asked to help with any training efforts to develop young leaders, by all means, say yes!  And make your efforts count.

Two other observations prompted by General Conference: (1) if you could imagine a denomina-tional flow chart (scary, I know), campus ministry units are more firmly established as structur-ally on par with the local church.  For example, service in campus ministry now counts toward the “probationary” (we call it “residency,” I think) period post-seminary.  It could be that this change will produce a higher level of awareness of campus ministry among our annual confer-ence structures.  If we have more candidates meeting ordination requirements through campus ministry, then interview committees necessarily will hear more about campus ministry.  It cannot but help, just by virtue of the increased attention.  (2) Imagine what kind of shift would take place in our annual conference conversations if Wesley Foundation directors and other college ministers were listened to in the same fashion as we listen to pastors of congregations?  Besides, isn’t the annual conference the basic unit of our connection?  And are not local churches truly mission stations for the spreading of the Gospel and the edification of believers?  What is a cam-pus ministry unit, after all?

So now, let us look at the other side of this coin and muster up a little courage and candor.  Being in campus ministry usually gets us out of the merry-go-round of the annual appointment frenzy (I know, not always).  Sometimes being in campus ministry frees us from conference politics.  Most campus ministries operate outside of the constant scrutiny of conference officials (again, I know, not always), even if you are beholden to pick board members and make reports and budget requests to commissions and committees.  It is not an exaggeration to say campus ministers do tend to be a little independent.  Yet, we are part of that part of the Body of  Christ called The United Methodist Church.  We are responsible to our brother and sister colleagues in the connec-tion.  It’s time for us to think through our ecclesiology and get involved beyond our campus min-istries.  In other words, we don’t always have to wait around on some “big change” that looks like it matters to make an impact.  Let me state it quite bluntly: the wider church needs to hear your voice.

Now that I’m warmed up, I’m thinking about fools rushing in where angels fear to tread.  As I raise this next issue, I may look the fool to some of you for even mentioning it.  United Method-ist Campus Ministry is still factionalized in ways that we should not be.  No doubt, there are theological differences at work, but in my experience anyway, the old liberal-conservative divi-sions are much less pronounced than they used to be.  It’s more that we’re just kind of awkward around each other.  It seems to me that the real basic difference is that some people are more loyal to denominational structures than others and, conversely, some of us have been “burned” by the system and want as little to do with it as we can get away with.  I have spent significant time with people in the United Methodist Campus Ministry Association and, obviously, with College Union folks.  I’m surprised at the similar feelings of isolation and frustration with the denomination from people in both groups.  So, if Democrats and Republicans can reach across the aisle, so can we.

Enough of denominational concerns.  How about some more general cultural observations?  This Baby-Boomer is watching a new youth movement emerging and man, am I jealous!  In the 1960s, college students rebelled against the plastic, cookie-cutter, superficial, hypocritical “Es-tablishment.”  Many in that generation “dropped out.”  By contrast (hence my jealousy) today’s young people are no less idealistic and probably in some ways more realistic.  They just want to make a difference.  Political pundits are beginning to talk about the “youth vote” much the way they talk about race or gender or geography.  Are students on your campus turning out in droves to register to vote?  How do we encourage and enhance this civic-mindedness?  How could we help turn their attention to the church?  You’ve probably read some of the recent literature on young people and the church (e.g. David Kinnamon’s book, UnChristian or Dan Kimballs, They Like Jesus But Not the Church).  My take on these studies is that young people are not so much angry (as Baby-Boomers were) as they are disappointed, in a wistful sort of way.  Again, a golden opportunity for us to re-think our ecclesiology and help young people connect.

College students themselves seem increasingly culturally and technologically savvy but less and less emotionally and spiritually mature.  As consumers, they’re confident, opinionated and often impatient.  On campus, they act like consumers when they should be acting like students.  Yet, though they can voice their opinions in the bluntest of terms, in other ways they seem virtually frozen by self-consciousness and lack of confidence.  I constantly watch students struggle to find the courage just to ask a question.  They desperately want to avoid “looking stupid.”  Their ego fragility is poignant and alarming.  As many of you know, I’m a professor and I have to admit that teaching college students these days (I mean no disrespect to any of them) feels more like teaching high school than it once did.  One big reason: “helicopter parents.”  Second big reason: cell phones.  Third big reason: high schools that don’t require excellence and perseverance.  Fourth reason: over-scheduled lives.  College students are tired all of the time.  They’re so busy, they don’t have time to think.

I hope you won’t dismiss this final thought as merely the fulminations of a hoary academic.  Campus ministry is hugely important for helping young people at an incredibly crucial, signifi-cant moment in their lives to learn how to reflect, to pray thoughtfully, to listen, to drink deeply of the well that springs up to eternal life.  (Where else will they get it during their college years?)  Some things simply cannot be hurried and personal growth is one of those things.  It is precisely at this point that campus ministers are so vital.  Are we good examples?  Do we model lives of thoughtfulness?  Do we slow down?  Do we engage the faith with our minds?  Are we students of the Word?  Do we know the grand Narrative?  Can we share true wisdom?  It’s good to be culturally savvy.  It’s better to be wise and godly.  Our students desperately need us to be.

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