Which Campuses Do You Prioritize in College Ministry?

 In my Blog article about the Georgia Baptist Convention considering selling some of their Baptist Student Centers, the five being considered were described as "Flagship campuses".  Some do not like the term "Flagship campus" used in describing a particular campus and ministry.  I think their main objection is that every student is of equal value in God's sight.  Obviously, I could not agree with that more.  But, I do believe there are Flagship campuses either in terms of the ministry being very high profile OR the campus itself being described as such because of its size and or reputation in a state or even nationally.

In a previous Blog article, "College ministry Funding Options/Strategies for Southern Baptists",  I talked about different funding methods Baptists might choose when faced with budget cuts for campus ministry.  Those options were in no specific order::

1.. Leave college ministry to the non-denominational groups. - that will cost us nothing, but provide no denominational distinctives and direct strengthening of Southern Baptist churches.

2.  Adopt the Virginia model.  Convention employed College Ministers raise a percentage of their own salary.

3.  Ask the local churches to take up the college ministries.  Provide encouragement, training and perhaps some coordination.

4.  Go ONLY to the underserved campuses.  Many college campuses, especially in the south, have multiple Christian ministries.  If we must cutback, then why not go to those campuses that have little or no Christian ministries is the argument.

5.  Develop partnerships between State Conventions and Local churches. - This would be where local churches and the convention would put money together for a salary of a Campus Minister or one would own and maintain a Center and the other would provide staff, etc.

6. Go Only to the Flagship Campuses.  Work on those campuses that are larger and/or are best known and high profile.

I said in my previous article that I did not like any of the choices.  Some, I dislike more than others.  But, if forced to choose one of these options, I would choose,

Go Only to the Flagship Campuses.  I have worked on both a smaller campus where we saw a significant response and I have worked on a Flagship campus.  In many ways, Flagship campuses are harder.  On smaller and more regional campuses, there are not as many activities or competing forces.  Often, the administration on these smaller campuses is even more cooperative as they often have to work to develop healthy campus life and activities.

So, WHY the Flagship campus?  It is not unusual that there are more freshmen involved in a flagship campus ministry than total students involved on a smaller campus.  

5 Reasons to Prioritize Flagship Campuses:

1.  Larger population which provides the opportunity to impact more student lives.

2.  More leader type students tend to attend flagship campuses.  One of the tasks of college ministry is to be developing leaders for the church for the coming years. 

3.  The leaders that graduate from flagship campuses tend to become the financial and political leaders in a state.  Impacting them while in college impacts an entire state.

4.  It is easier to raise money for a flagship campus ministry. The alums of flagship campuses tend to remain loyal alumni which increases the likelihood of their financially supporting a ministry that impacted them.  Plus, the overall awareness of non-alums impacts their giving to it.

5.  A strong ministry on a flagship campus will be more generally high profile and known outside the campus community which will continue to raise the flag of college ministry and its benefits.

AGAIN, God does not love one student more than another.  This is an argument for making hard choices if and when resources decline.

Arliss Dickerson's book, Tips for College Freshmen:  124 Tips for Fun, Faith & Good Grades, is available at amazon.com/dp/B09QFB9DJ9.