Most campus ministers I know occupy an unusual position in the campus structure. On the one hand, they are involved with the lives of students and faculty on a very intimate level, dealing with personal beliefs, family relationships, major decisions and crises, and so on. They address needs that the rest of the university may not even acknowledge.
On the other hand, campus ministers often exist on the margins of “normal” campus life. They aren’t part of the student-faculty-administration structure that defines the contemporary university, and their budgets, agendas, and priorities may have little to do with the university’s. On some campuses, they don’t even officially exist —the campus ministry is, technically, organized by the faculty advisor and student representatives, with the campus ministry staff person having no actual role as far as the university is concerned.
(By the way, I think this marginal position can actually provide great power and freedom. But more on that another time.)
The result is that campus ministers may have only tangential knowledge of the university’s core activities: teaching, research, service. So here’s the question that I have for students and faculty:
What should campus ministers know about your campus?
- Where do you see God moving on your campus?
- Where does sin affect the people, ideas, and structures of the campus?
- What’s absolutely vital to your campus experience…but gets little attention from campus ministry?
Leave your thoughts in the comments. You can also email me if you would prefer.
Photo credit: Velovotee via Flickr
The former Associate Director for the Emerging Scholars Network, Micheal lives in Cincinnati with his wife and three children and works as a web manager for a national storage and organization company. He writes about work, vocation, and finding meaning in what you do at No Small Actors.