Church Planting in Campus Contexts

I spent much of last week research church planting in campus contexts and then on Friday and Saturday made two presentations on the topic at the National Campus Ministers Seminar, held this year at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. Tim Melikian, campus minister at the Universit of Oklahoma, did a fine job organizing the program.

We are beginning to realize in Mission Alive the need for church planting in campus contexts. Formative life decsions are made during the university years. Churches planted are naturally multicultural when evangelists reach out to impact all part of the campus. And the world is touched if the church works through international students converted to evangelize their nations.

The International Churches of Christ (ICOC) have most effectively planted churches in the Restoration Heritage. They considered the campus their "synogogue," the most receptive area out of which to evangelize the nations. Marvin Lucus, evangelist and campus minister of the ICOC in DFW, said in an interview, "Through campus ministry we start a church.” They begin a church by converting students and then their siblings, friends, and parents.

Marvin said that the growth of the ICOC stagnated when the focus changed from campus to family ministry. “If we had constantly evangelized on our campuses," Marvin commented, "we would today have all age groups in our churches.” Thus today there are more people between ages 35-45 than any other age.

I found their traditional ministry style to be (1) incarnational (They do not isolate themselves in a student center off campus but place their ministries on the campus.), (2) leadership focused (The evangelist or campus minister trains campus leaders who facilitate their ministries), (3) visionary (They tend to see the big picture on campus and are able to connect with developing student leaders.), and (4) transformational (They expect radical transformation of life.). Their traditional top-down, manipulative discipling patterns resulting in a type of salvation by works is now being tempered by many ICOC leaders. They have much to teach us about church planting in campus contexts.

There are two broad approaches to church planting in campus contexts. First, a seeker sensitive approach tries to attract crowds through big events and publicity. Second, a spiritual formation approach grows from the grassroots up through prayer and study groups. An example of the second approach in Brandon Worsham's ministry called FOCUS (www.anyfocus.org) at the University of Texas in Dallas. They focus on one-on-one Bible studies and small, gender-specific groups in the dorms, called "cores." These cores group together as "communities" within the dorms. A Sunday evening devotional brings all the cores and communities together for a time of worship. Like with the ICOC, all major events occur on campus (with the exception of the Sunday worship period for the ICOC). Brandon Worsham says that the students on campus do not want to "bloat" by attracting students through seeker-sensitive practices but want to express authentic Christianity with disciple-making and spiritual formation at its core. I feel a personal affinity with this type of apprach.

Because of geographical and cultural distance, FOCUS will eventually be come a satellite church of the Northeast church. The church building is 17 minutes from the church building. Also the university context is a specialized cultural context which require specialized cultural forms of worship and community.

These are a few lessons that I have learned through interviews in preparation for my presentations.