Where Did College Ministry Start?

 Who did college ministry first and where?  There are many anecdotes told about this person and that church beginning a ministry to college students.  One Baptist story is that Marion Leavell sat in an open vehicle on the Old Miss campus in the 1920's with heated bricks wrapped in newspaper to stay warm. From this "office" she counseled students and loaned books.

Following is a brief summary of the start of different national college ministries in their early days:

Dr. Charles Ball, Professor of Missions at Southwestern Baptist Seminary, made a motion at the Texas Baptist State Convention in 1914 to establish The Baptist Student Missionary Movement.  Following that, in 1915 at the Southern Baptist Convention, a committee was appointed to further consider this movement as a ministry to the United States and Canada.

Wesley Foundation, which is a ministry of the United Methodist Church, began in 1913 at the University of Illinois.  It claims ancestry to the Holy Club, a group of students at Oxford University, formed in 1729 by John and Charles Wesley.

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship traces their roots to a movement of British university students starting at Cambridge University in 1877.  InterVarsity was on campus in Canada in 1928.  In 1937 the Canadians sent Stacy Woods, the Canadian Director, to meet with students at the University of Michigan where they formed the first U. S. chapter.

Bill and Vonette Bright founded Campus Crusade for Christ in 1951 at UCLA.  In 1952 Bill Bright wrote The Four Spiritual Laws, which is likely the most widely known and used Christian tract of modern times.

The Fellowship of Christian Athletes began in Oklahoma in 1954 when the Basketball Coach at Eastern Oklahoma A&M wrote a letter to 19 well known athletes and coaches stating his dream of a ministry to and with athletes.  The national headquarters was established in Kansas City in 1956.

The Navigators was established in 1958 at the University of Nebraska by Leroy and Virginia Eims.  Eims later wrote the best selling and still widely used book, The Lost Art of Discipleship.

Chi Alpha, a ministry of the Assemblies of God, was established at Missouri State University in 1953.  J. Robert Ashcroft and J. Calvin Holsinger were the original organizers.

Campus Outreach began in Birmingham, Alabama in 1978 by a local church.

Student Mobilization was started at the University of Arkansas in 1986 by Steve Shadrach.

There are a wide variety of more regional ministries such as MBSF, RUF, and Church of Christ ministries with a variety of dates and starting points.

Where did college ministry start? It started in the heart of God who planted it in the hearts of many men and women across the world.

This information is taken from a variety of informal histories, dates under pictures, etc. and is adapted from Almost Everything About College Ministry Amazon.com/dp/b08CMD9CXX.