The Church vs. Campus Ministries 2.0

I will attempt to answer a question posed in response to the first posting of this series. Please forgive me if I have overstated or oversimplified anything and I mean only to comment on what I currently am seeing in relation to this subject.

Question: "What is the biblical role of the church in reaching collegiate students?"

Answer: The definition of what a church is has been hazed over by ministries all over the world seeking to be relevant, but not really answer with the God-given response found in the Scriptures. Acts 2:42-47 is a good starting place and has much to say about what the multi-generational body of Christ looks like in coming together, listening to the Word of God taught, sharing all things, and praising God for all things done through the finished work of Jesus Christ. Obviously, meeting in houses is not the rule in determining whether or not a body of believers is a church. In some cultures and contexts where persecution happens or when even a lack of resources occurs this becomes permissable and even encouraged in order to not neglect meeting together as Hebrews 10:25 states, "as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near." This is where many will say, "Can't ten college students who meet together every Tuesday night for Bible study be considered a church? They share things, they pray for each other, they hold each other accountable, and they teach the word. What's the big deal?!" Every New Testament instance of a body of believers or a congregation meeting together provides no contextual proof for peoples of just the same age group or generation. The multi-generational church is to meet together continuously in hopes of maturing into the likeness of Christ and for the building up of the body. How can a group of 19-year olds mature in Christ when all that is influencing them is themselves and not older men and women? Titus ran into the same issues as Paul challenged him (Titus 2) that older women needed to pour into younger women in discipleship because Titus was not in a position to do so or ever will be.

What this means then in regards to reaching the campus is that the local church needs to put Christ on display through the biblical framework laid out in the New Testament in being the church to the culture they are trying to reach. More often then not in most secular universities, getting on campus is very difficult and proves sometimes impossible for the private schools as well. The reason we have campus ministries today is because local churches abandoned ship and walked away from the culture and decided to start supporting agencies instead of their own people to go outside the camp and to do the work God has ordained them to do.

In light of all of this then, local churches that work through campus ministries to reach college students seems to be the best way currently for accessible purposes alone. But, this should not be so ultimately. Local churches cannot sit back and let agencies or para-church ministries do the work they were called to do. All local churches are going to have different focuses, aims, and goals, but each one near a college campus must have a missional purpose in reaching students for Christ and maturing them in Christ. This is their biblical role and when a campus ministry proves antithetical towards those goals, continue to pray that God would open a door for your local church to declare the mystery of Christ through another means.

Question: "What is the biblical role of campus ministries in reaching collegiate students?

Answer: The role itself is defined simply as being an extension of the local church or gateway, but not a replacement. A replacement for what? A replacement for what was discussed above. It is not the role of the campus ministry to administer the Lord's Supper or Baptism. These are reserved for who? You got it! The local church. This has gotten me now thinking about the difference between a "para-church ministry" and a "para-local church ministry". The difference between the two lies I believe in whether or not a ministry truly treasures and values the local church the way it should be for Great Commission purposes or if it hinders the local church from accomplishing its evangelistic goals or even pushes the church aside as if it isn't equipped and competent as a campus ministry to do relevant ministerial work. I would define a para-local church ministry as the former and a para-church ministry as the latter.

At Baptist Campus Ministry where we serve we have to think deeply about what our role is as a para-local church ministry and I think it is to make disciples of those who do and don't know about the Gospel and to mobilize them towards the Bride of Christ and to mobilize them towards reaching the unreached peoples of the world, all through the support of the local church. Many campus ministries would strongly agree with what I said in theory, but in practicality it doesn't work for them. There may be some viable reasons why it doesn't work for them practically from not having a biblical local church base to pull from all the way to not having churches who even care about collegiate ministry. But, there are also some who choose to not even care and to disregard what I've said in practicality because they view the biblical local church as an option to their ministry versus being a grid by which they filter their campus ministry through.

This is a paradigm shift. It doesn't happen overnight. It is an arduous process that takes dedication and patience in moving towards the eternal ends of reaching the world (college campuses) with the Gospel through the God-ordained means of the local church. If campus ministries don't take on this paradigm shift and move with it, they will continue to feed students with an apathetic attitude towards local church membership, involvement, and multi-generational discipleship. After college what is left? It won't be Baptist Campus Ministry, Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, Campus Crusade, Campus Outreach, etc. It will be the local church made up of the multi-generational body of Christ.

I believe this can happen through even BCM as we exist and strive to be a para-local church ministry commissioned and supported through the local church to minister to the university public sector here in Chapel Hill.

Soli Deo gloria!