Women in College Ministry

I believe we need women in College Ministry.  This is not some wild eyed rant, but rather where I always come from....practicality.

Some years ago I had just hired a woman to be my Associate when I happened to look out the window of our campus center and saw three pastors coming across the lawn.  We had no meeting scheduled and there was not an event about to happen. It was one of those "oh-oh moments".  They were there to protest that I had just hired a woman for a key ministry position.  Part of their concern was that she was married and her husband had indicated he would move wherever she found the opportunity to do what she felt God had called her to do.

I told them of my belief that if at all possible we needed a woman on our staff. I shared the story of one of my female students who had come in recently concerned about going to her first visit to a Gynecologist for an exam.  I told my pastor friends, "I am not real good with those kind of talks.".  One of the pastor's mouth dropped open and he said, "I guess College Ministry is different than the pastorate.".  I also indicated that I had a personal rule that I would not go into the women's dorms.

My wife served as our part-time Office Coordinator handling all our finances, working with our churches that did our weekly Outreach Lunch Program, etc.  I noticed that when students were sick they did not want to talk to me.  They wanted to see her.  She would feel their forehead and look into their eyes and tell them if they had fever or whatever.  Guys that I was close to would still go to our women staffers for "a woman's point of view" on certain issues.

Most of my movement is in the Baptist world of College Ministry and I know that many years ago when I started out as a BSU Director, some of the better known College Ministry leaders were women.  I think one of the reasons for the decline of women doing College Ministry among Baptists partly relates to the shift from the title of "Director" to the title of "Campus Minister".  Many Baptist entities require their College Ministers to be out preaching in churches and so is our custom, this points more to men in these roles.

The ministry I formally led now hosts a Welcome Lunch for 300 freshmen women going through Sorority Recruitment.  Their seeing a woman staffer they can relate to and connect to is huge.  Through the years we were blessed to reach many super sharp women and they were looking for role models of women who knew Christ and served him.  We were blessed to have some on our staff they could look to.

This is not a discussion about ordination, women pastoring churches, etc.  This is about recognizing the need to have women serving in College Ministry.  It is my hope that in different ways we can lift up the opportunities and need for women who feel called to ministry or are just open to how God would use them.

What are some options?  As budgets are cut and money gets tighter, consider the possibility of finding a woman in your community who might be open to working part-time during the school year and not working in the summer when her children are out of school.  One such woman I hired and paid very little was almost like a full time staffer for us in time and most of all effectiveness.  Some College Ministries are now recruiting couples for their staff....not just the guy.....but both the man and woman are recruited to serve on the campus ministry staff.

Let's be as creative as possible.....but we need women in College Ministry.


Coming in May:  FIXING A BROKEN COLLEGE MINISTRY