The Roles of Campus Ministry Leaders: Guiding Students through the Transition to Adulthood

Despite historic existence of campus ministries at universities, little is known about the roles of campus ministry leaders. This research explored campus ministry leaders’ engagement with students through interviews (n = 19). Analysis indicated interviewees’ work includes building relationships with students, navigating the secular context of a public university, and tensions with others in campus ministry. Interviewees reported emotional strain resulting from extensive caring labor. Focused support for campus ministers would benefit both leaders and students.

Campus Ministry and Academics

Until the mid-twentieth century, 90% of Catholic colleges and universities were run by religious orders that integrated the study of religion with the religious life of the students, the vast majority of them being Catholic. Now, the student bodies include many non-Catholics, are mostly a-intellectual when it comes to religion, and would likely not take theology classes unless they were required. Faculty think moral formation is the obligation of a separate division of the university: student development offices and campus ministers. Most faculty are concerned only with intellectual development. As a professionalized group (master’s degree in pastoral ministry), campus ministers are often uninterested in the intellectual formation of students in the Catholic tradition. While retaining their primary responsibilities, faculty and campus ministers need to learn how to work with each other. Working together is much more possible at campuses that have a high percentage of undergraduate students in residence. Working with graduate students is more difficult, even at residential campuses.

Integrating Ministerial Visions: Lessons from Campus Ministry

In recent years, colleges and universities have seen an increase in a relatively new model of Catholic campus ministry: missionary organizations. As these missionaries grow in number, there is also an increase in the number of campuses that simultaneously use missionaries and long-term, professional ministers with graduate degrees. Drawing upon two national studies of Catholic campus ministers and the work of a national task force, this article will illuminate the obstacles these blended teams face in crafting a more holistic engagement with the Catholic tradition. It will also outline the steps to promote a more integrated ministerial vision and to become more pastorally effective. Implications for ministry more broadly are discussed.

Campus Ministry

This chapter discusses the life and work of Catholic and Protestant campus ministers, paying special attention to their backgrounds and demographics, training and formation, goals and priorities, core job activities, and career satisfaction. Drawing on the National Study of Campus Ministries, as well as previous studies, it compares Christian campus ministers to their predecessors in the 1950s and 1960s. Conducted between 2002 and 2008, the NSCM is the most comprehensive study of campus ministry in four decades. Surveying campus ministers in six denominations, two parachurch organizations, and eighty-eight private colleges, it provides a portrait of a changing profession. Like many American congregations, campus ministry has experienced the processes of feminization, diversification, and laicization. Emphasizing spiritual formation and personal mentoring, it remains a student-centered occupation.

Coping with Student Drug Use

Many campus ministers must deal with drug abuse by students. While the usual training for the ministry does develop attitudes useful for dealing with this problem, specific tools are also needed. Some basic information on particular drugs of abuse is provided, along with more general facts on drugs as biological chemicals. A narrative account of experiences with one approach is offered, along with applied reflections that extend toward some of the likely underlying causes. Campus ministers are in a position to deal with these as well.