Who is on more campuses BCM or CRU is an often asked question. The answer is....InterVarsity. I didn't see that coming either. Here are the latest figures, as I was given them.
InterVarsity 725 campuses (30,000 students involved)
BCM 682 campuses (70,000 students involved)
CRU 639 campuses (No involved figure given)
FCA 468 campuses (No involved figure given)
ISI 384 campuses (No involved figure given)
International Students Incorporated.
Chi Alpha 128 campuses (No involved figure given)
Other ministries that some of us would be familiar with are strong regional ministries, but tend not to be "national ministries".
It might be surprising to some to see that the number of students involved in BCM with forty three (43) less campuses is more than twice as large as InterVarsity. One explanation might be that InterVarsity keys around discipleship. It reinforces my strong belief that we need BOTH large group events AND small group and one to one discipleship. I would guess that CRU's number involved would be significant, as they tend to have well done weekly large group events.
The report that BCM Campus Ministers fill out that goes into determining this national figure asks for "Collegians impacted in Campus Ministry programs" and then "Collegians involved in Campus Ministry programs". The most recent"impacted" figure just released is 492,349.
Arliss Dickerson is the author of five books on college ministry at amazon.com (type in Arliss Dickerson). "ALMOST Everything About College Ministry" will be available in early summer.
I love reading your blog. Just FYI, Chi Alpha's numbers above are out-of-date. The national Chi Alpha director presented the results of the 2018-2019 XA census at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWiY7nZ7IjU
ReplyDeleteSummary:
285 active groups (320 chartered)
Attendance at weekly worship services: 15,894 (roughly 55 per group)
Total involvement: 21,820 (roughly 75 per group)
Keep blogging!