Goals

It is our goal to recruit personnel and plant ten ministries within the next ten years. In order to achieve this goal, men and women within the Church of Christ must unite to attack the problem we face. Hence the name, Campus Ministry United.

We believe God has led us to this point, and pray His hand be with us as we faithfully strive to bring glory to Him through serving this lost generation, and future generations to come.

Amen.

Quick Facts

* Studies show that the Churches of Christ stopped growing 25 years ago.

* Currently, the Churches of Christ have active campus ministries on less than 200 of the 4,000 university campuses.

* There is a great need to plant evangelistic ministries on the state campuses of the United States!

 

 

 

 

 

What is Campus Ministry United?

Campus Ministry United (CMU) was founded in 2005 and is a non-denominational organization affiliated with the Churches of Christ. CMU is committed to uniting Christian universities, stateside campus ministries, students, churches, and individual Christian men and women to reach the lost with the Good News of Jesus Christ on every major university campus in the world.

Our board of directors is made up of campus ministers, educators, and evangelists from all over the United States.

Why is Campus Ministry important?

While many college professors today profess belief in God, very few profess belief in the one true God embodied in Jesus Christ. Armed with this knowledge it is interesting to note that millions of their students are searching for meaning and purpose in life.

Why Effective Campus Ministry is Vital

Bill Bright[1] was known for saying: “Change the campus today and change the world tomorrow.” There isn’t a mission field in existence today poised to shake the foundations of global spirituality like the university campuses of the United States. Today’s students are future world leaders. Future doctors, lawyers, teachers, and professors – future journalists, counselors, businessmen, and businesswomen – future military officers, company executives, media professionals, and government leaders – all are found on the university campuses today.

This is the time in life when their worldview will be shaped. They’re seeking answers to questions like, “How did I get here and why do I exist? Is there a God? Does life have a purpose? Should I be religious? Are all religions the same?” For their sake and the sake of the people their lives will influence, truthful answers must be provided, and the only real source of truth is the gospel of Jesus Christ. We must make it our mission to be among them to provide these answers!

The need is greater today than ever before – a strong case for this can be made just by examining the numbers.

 

Campus Ministry: The Need According to the Numbers

In 1965, a Houston area preacher named Wes Reagan made a presentation at the Abilene lectures entitled, “The Lost Frontier” (later printed in 20^th Century Christian[2]). This presentation emphasized the urgent need for evangelistic work to take place on university campuses in the United States. When Reagan initially presented his speech, a little over four million students were enrolled full-time in American universities.[3] Today, enrollment is at a record-breaking 17.5 million, and that number is expected to increase another 13% by 2015.[4]

At the time of Reagan’s sermon, if we had converted just one out of every 1,000 international students in our country, we would have produced 100 new missionaries to be sent home facing no language or cultural barriers in spreading the gospel.[5] If we did the same thing today, efforts would produce over 550 new missionaries annually[6] – this would greatly exceed the current missionary efforts of all of our brotherhood universities combined.

In 1965, our people were active on 80 campuses out of a possible 2,120 (mainly as educators – not evangelists).[7] Today, we are active on less than 150 campuses[8] out of a possible 4,100.[9] That means over 95% of the colleges and universities in the United States lack an effective Church of Christ campus ministry!

When you consider the fact that almost every great spiritual awakening in the United States had its beginnings among students on a university campus,[10] and that 77% of Americans who become Christians do so before the age of 21,[11] you have a very powerful case for why our fellowship must make a concerted effort to plant effective, Jesus-loving, gospel-sharing campus ministries.

Youth ministries are common nowadays, and more youth ministers are being trained by brotherhood universities than there are jobs available. It is time to stop overlooking campus ministry. Effective ministries must be planted!

Our Mission

CMU's mission is three-fold. This organization exists to:

1) Provide ministry-enrichment materials for existing campus ministries.

Currently, we are accomplishing our first goal through our yearly ministry enrichment workshop held the week after Independence Day on the campus of Harding University in Searcy, AR. Lectures are on topics like student leadership development, spiritual mentoring, evangelistic Bible study, curriculum planning, history, small groups, ministry philosophy, etc. All of the classes and lectures from our workshops are made available free of charge through this website's audio/video page. More will be added in the future.

In addition to this, we sponsor evaluative studies pertinent to the Church of Christ campus ministry community, and are also in the process of putting together a campus ministry textbook to be used for our training courses as well as other practical guides and training materials to be made available through this website.

 
2) Assist Churches of Christ sponsoring new evangelistic ministry plants. 

There are many existing Churches of Christ without campus ministries whose facilities are situated near major universities. Many of the church leaders we've contacted in these congregations have wanted to establish a campus ministry for a long time, but didn't know where to start or what would be involved.

CMU will put interested church leaders in contact with experienced campus ministers who can help, and, where possible, will provide trained personnel to work as a part of the congregation in establishing a new campus ministry.

Congregations that are serious about establishing an effective campus ministry should consider making a new staff position available to be filled by a full-time campus minister.


3) Provide training and mentoring to empower future campus ministers and ministry planters to be effective.

New campus ministries must be planted! In order for new ministry plants to be successful, future leaders must be trained and equipped for the mission.

To help accomplish this, experienced campus ministers affiliated with CMU are in the process of developing a training program in conjunction with the Harding University Center for Advanced Ministry Training. Qualified applicants to this program will be required to complete a one to two year apprenticeship in a CMU affiliate ministry.

It's one thing to read a book or hear a lecture about campus ministry - it's something else entirely to actually engage in campus ministry. We firmly believe that students learn best from doing, and this program will emphasize that heavily.

For-credit and non-credit tracts will be offered.

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