Should There be a Difference in Campus Based and Church Based College Ministry?

I spent 41 years doing campus based college ministry and 2 1/2 doing church based college ministry.  Out of both sides of that, I had the strong conviction that they should not look just alike.

One reason that churches often do what I would call a version of a campus based ministry is that the College Minister or volunteer leaders were active in a campus based ministry that blessed  them and so they do what they saw and experienced.  That is a pretty natural and likely happening.  One campus based College Minister told me that area churches hire his graduates and they then do all the same things that his ministry on campus is doing and students see all the same things instead of benefitting from both ministries.

So, what differences should there be in the two and how do we understand them better?  Church based college ministry have the great opportunity to expose students to and connect them to Christians of a wide range of ages, backgrounds, and vocations.

Campus based ministries should and most try to resist the temptation to become the students' church.  But, it can easily happen even when the ministry does not intend it.  So, campus based ministries should be pointing student toward local churches.  But, when students see the same thing at both places, why should they invest the time and energy in both?

Church based ministries must point students toward their church wide events....not just their student only events.  Why does that matter, if they are getting community and solid Bible teaching at student only events?    If we teach and show students that faith communities will always specialize in their needs and interests, we can be contributing to a "consumer only" view of faith and church.

Both campus based and church based offer opportunities to serve.  But, the church can offer a wider variety of opportunities..  These in turn help prepare students for service in churches for their entire life time.

It has been my experience that campus based ministries can be more specific and intentional in doing leadership training and it is one thing that churches should expect of their campus based partners.

Campus based ministries can and should be more specific in speaking to student topics and questions.  You will not hear many Sunday morning church services or even week night events centered around sex, getting ready for marriage, doing healthy relationships, accepting and giving forgiveness, how to witness to your roommate, etc.  Campus based ministries often do and should offer training in time management, setting goals, etc, etc.  They are not spiritual topics, but needed ones.

Most church college ministries are done by larger churches and cannot offer students the opportunity to lead the worship, play in the band (as a new experience), even to speak at the service, where a campus based ministry can, which is usually not as large.  I have sat through the first time college students played in a band together and led worship.....it was sometimes painful and I have then sat in church a few years later and seen and heard those same students lead worship in a large church.

The SECRET SAUCE OF CHURCH BASED COLLEGE MINISTRY is all the lay people of different ages who can bring students into their homes and show them Christian families doing every day life.  Christian teachers, lawyers, business people can give students a view into what the students are pointing their life toward with their majors and how to live it as a Christian.  Church ministries can and should lean into that.

Instead of competing or ignoring each other, campus based and church based college ministries should be communicating and talking about which can do what for students that is best for them and for God's kingdom in the days to come.

One question we must continually ask is, How is what we are doing now helping point college students to church involvement, leadership and service in the years to come? Neither ministry can just be about the present.  College ministries must be raising up the church leaders of the future....both lay leadership and ministerial.

Arliss Dickerson's book, Almost Everything About College Ministry, is available at  Amazon.com/dp/B08CMD9CXX and A College Student's Guide to Spiritual Maturity is at Amazon.com/dp/B0CXTCTNB1.