Found in Faith—Lost in Learning:
Gathering Hearts and Minds for Campus Ministry
Bill Van Groningen, March, 1998
A Working Document on Educational Requirements for CRCNA Campus Ministers[1]
“God so loved the world …
the Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighborhood …”[2]
“… it is impossible to master skills utterly foreign to one’s character.”[3]
“The fundamental missionary experience, by which the endeavor stands or falls, is to live on terms set by someone else. This is as true in the intellectual realm as elsewhere.”[4]
Preface
We are on a journey. In the providence of God we have been found in faith. Lost in the wonder of God’s (academic) world, we are being gathered for celebration and service. To that end, we seek to equip ourselves for the special task of mission and ministry within in the broken universe of North American Higher Education. Not everyone is called to this task. Some who hear the call are unprepared—not (yet) conditioned to meet the challenges of this particular path. All who take up this path will need to keep learning as they go.
We are never fully equipped for the journey. We depend on God’s grace to get us through. We grow as we go. We gain strength, maturity and wisdom as we journey on. We lean on each other for support along the way. We caution each other about the pitfalls we see ahead, rendering advice on what it will take to endure the rigors of the road.
To that end, to render advice on how best to prepare for ongoing mission and ministry in the world of higher education, the following policy on educational requirements for Christian Reformed Church campus ministers is proposed. There are always exceptions to the rule. The rule is but the norm by which we all take our measure. It provides both a guide and a goal—a way to keep us moving ever further and deeper into God’s gathering celebration of faith-filled learning.
(Nota Bene: This proposed policy is a very limited endeavor. From among all the qualities one might like to find in a prospective campus minister, we are here only concerned with formal, educational preparedness. Other necessary qualities—relational skills, compassionate heart, entrepreneurial spirit, self-disciplined, etc., etc.—are not directly in view in this proposed policy. A comprehensive portrait of the gifts and skills most desirable for a campus minister will have to wait for another time. What follows is but a one-dimensional beginning to such a portrait; but at least it’s a beginning.)
Originating Context
In May of 1997 a campus minister phoned the Executive Director of Christian Reformed Home Missions and asked: “What do you think the [soon to be selected] Campus Ministry Director would need to accomplish to be successful?” The Executive Director replied: “Oh, that’s easy. He needs to establish a comprehensive, unified vision for campus ministry; establish disciplined standards for those engaged in campus ministry; and raise, overall, the level of quality for campus ministry.”[5]
Not surprisingly, therefore, the Campus Ministry Director’s early assignments “to interpret and promote” the work of campus ministry began to delineate a comprehensive, unified vision for CRCNA campus ministry.[6] That articulation of campus ministry (again not surprisingly) entailed “disciplined standards” for its practitioners.[7] Early written and conversational comments concerning disciplined standards for campus ministers led to a request for a clearly articulated policy on “educational requirements for Christian Reformed Campus Ministers.”
The Christian Reformed documents which articulate the vision for, and the nature of, Christian Reformed Campus Ministry are entitled: VISION and To Pursue the Mission. Both documents underscore that Christian Reformed Campus Ministry is to be incarnational in kind and missional in method. The documents envision a witness to the Lord of learning that arises from within the life (“the discourse”) of the world of higher education.[8] Campus ministry is therefore to proceed on terms set by the host culture—in this case, the universe of academic culture. From within this culture, this particular universe, all that this culture entails is called to follow the way of Jesus—to pursue the way of faith, hope and love. For all the dimensions of the world of higher education, (including educational institutes, sports, think tanks, ideas, co-curricular activity, lab work, esoteric research, residence life, publishing, teaching, “all-nighters,” advising) campus ministry is to be an agent of God calling the whole universe of higher learning to submit to the One who is wisdom personified.[9]
Campus ministers--“chastened”[10] lovers of the Way--pursue their calling “to lead and serve” these ministries as members of Christ’s body. Campus ministers are people who belong to the body of Christ, who are sent by the body of Christ, who bear witness to the reality that in Christ “all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17). Campus ministry is to be an incarnational presence of the Christ. The witness of Jesus Christ is to happen through us—Christ’s witnesses (Acts 1:8). Campus Ministry is to be Christ’s body within the higher educational world, within the universe of higher learning. God so loved the world he took on our flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood; he tabernacled among us. Campus ministers must do no less. They must image God inside and in terms of the world of higher education. As they make their dwelling within the camp of the academy, campus ministers image the God who tabernacled among us. The VISION statement declares, “campus ministers take up this ministry on campus … because people and their institutions need to see and hear the Word of God in order to be redeemed, [and] because the Church itself needs to see and hear the word of the campuses in order to be faithful to Christ’s own mission in the world.”[11]
Another way of referring to the profound significance of the incarnation for the missional strategies of the church is to say that the church’s ministry must be appropriately “contextualized.” Places of ministry (context) can be very different, and each context carries its own special demands upon proclamation (translation) of Gospel in those places. Institutions of higher education constitute one such special context.[12]
To be incarnational in kind and missional in method is a recurring theme in the Scriptural story. God calls Abraham out of Ur and sends him into the crossroads of the world. Israel is to inhabit the promised land--the nexus of the ancient world’s politcal, commercial, intellectual and religious interaction. Even in exile, Israel is to “build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce,” marry and multiply.[13] Jesus takes on the Pharisees inside the temple. He extends his mission by situating himself inside the religious, social, political and economic structures of the day. Paul takes on the learned Athenians, again, on their terms--with rhetorical skill, footnoting the prophets and poets of the age.[14] Lydia was called and equipped to incarnational mission in the business world.[15]
Obviously, not everyone is gifted of God for every kind of a ministry. Not everyone is capable of living in both the Church and the Academy. Not everyone is equipped to lead and serve those persons who have entered into the life and discourse of the academy. And while the university is many things to many people (sports, clubs, extra-curricular excursions, etc.) it entails one thing for everyone--they are engaged in a course of study. The point is that anyone who is called of God to bear witness in and to the world of higher education must be willing and able to “live the life,”[16] and the defining moment of that life is intellectual endeavor.[17] The life of a campus minister entails entering into the codes and conduct, the requirements, of both the Church and the Academy. Such is the nature of campus ministry as articulated in the VISION and To Pursue the Mission documents.
Ecclesiastical Considerations
The Christian Reformed Church, in concert with most Reformational Churches around the globe and down through the ages, places a high value on an educated clergy. The Christian Reformed Church Order stipulates that “The completion of a satisfactory theological training shall be required for admission to the ministry of the Word.”[18] The Church Order guards its understanding of “satisfactory” very closely. In section c. of Article 6, the Church Order stipulates that persons not trained at a seminary of the Christian Reformed Church will still have to meet the requirements established for candidacy to the ministry operative in the Christian Reformed Church.
Of course, there are exceptions to this policy. So the Church Order includes articles stipulating what may be understood as legitimate exceptions to this rule.[19] It is important to note, however, that the exceptions do not undermine the value of, or the commitment to, an educated clergy. Rather, the articles of exception recognize that persons may be “singularly gifted” and have come to possess a “native ability” for ministry by some means other than formal theological schooling. The intent here seems to be that some persons, by way of exception, may be suitably trained for the ministry of the Word in a non-formal manner. Their training, while not of the prescribed academic theological kind, nonetheless has equipped them for leadership and service.
In recent times these “exceptional” cases have stretched the limits of this understanding of Articles 7 and 8 of the Church Order. Synod 1996 therefore appointed a study committee to explore this phenomenon and to suggest an appropriate response. The study committee on Alternative Routes to Ordained Ministry has not yet completed its work. But the early indications seem to suggest that the committee will recommend to Synod that the value of an educated clergy be maintained, while the number and kind of educational options available for attaining such credentials be increased. In short, the committee seems poised to suggest that a demonstration of relational giftedness, a clear articulation (confession) of Reformed Christian theology, and a studied knowledge of the Scriptures are minimum standards for any leader within the Christian Reformed Church. Further, the committee is likely to suggest that as a person’s sphere of service is broadened—as the scope of leadership is increased—increasingly formal and extensive guidelines for what counts as meeting these criteria should be enacted. Hence, a local Sunday School teacher should meet these requirements in a general way while an ordained evangelist should be held to a more formal educational standard, and a minister—who is free to offer a full range of ministry service anywhere—should be held to the highest standard. Again, the point to note is that the value of an educated clergy is not being diminished but maintained; it is the routes to achieving such standards that are being diversified.
Academic Considerations
The North American Academy is far more stringent than the Church on matters of educational qualifications. The general rule that holds across all levels of education—elementary, middle, secondary, tertiary, graduate and post-graduate—is that a leader must have obtained at least one, and usually two, levels of education higher than the audience they serve. Hence, to teach high school, a person must obtain at least a B.Ed. degree to obtain certification. To teach university, a person should have an earned doctorate. To teach doctoral students, a person must have an earned doctorate and demonstrate significant achievements (publications, research results, etc.,) in their field. Indeed, the academy is so concerned about this matter of credentials that it will de-certify schools which fail to have the required ratio of doctoral level academics on its faculty. (Persons with an M.A. are free to tutor and grade and generally assist professors with instruction, but they are not considered sufficient to establish the academic merit of a B.A. level educational institution.)
The privilege of “leading and serving” in a contemporary North American university is an honor and responsibility which the academic community still regulates very closely. Entry into the service and leadership of North American university life and discourse is an earned Ph.D. degree. Access may be gained with an M.A. The B.A. degree indicates that a person has entered into the domain of the academy, though only as an understudy. A more clearly delineated and defended social stratification of a culture is hard to imagine. You just don’t count until you gain access; and nothing but the Ph.D. ticket permits you to fully “join in,” to lead and serve, once entry has been gained.
Of course, not all “tickets” are worth the price. We should not willy nilly accede to worldly standards just to play along with worldly games. Rather, as with the Apostle Paul, we seek “to become all things to all people … for the sake of the Gospel.”[20] It comes as no surprise, therefore, to note that some of the leading missionaries of the Christian Reformed Church in the world of higher education are stellar academics.[21] Professors like Clifford Christians, Nathan Hatch, George Marsden, Richard Mouw, Alvin Plantinga, Nicholas Wolterstorff, along with a cadre of up and coming luminaries like Harry (Skip) Stout at Yale, Gerry Gabrielse at Harvard, and John VanEngen (the director of the Medieval Institute at Notre Dame) “promote gatherings of God’s people in the specialized context of higher education”[22] in exemplary ways. By way of contrast, they underscore the scandal delineated so well by Mark Noll.[23] If we are to be a credible missionary witness in the world of the academy, then it is imperative that our witness display the marks of an evangelical and intellectual excellence.[24] Neither one alone will do; loving God in the academy requires that we love God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind.
George Marsden writes, “the fact is that, no matter what the subject, our dominant academic culture trains scholars to keep quiet about their faith as the price of full acceptance in that community.”[25] Given that reality, campus ministry cannot hope to “form authentic community around God’s compassion, truth, and justice”[26] until we participate in opening up a better way—the Way of intellectual love.[27] It is deeply gratifying to note, therefore, that Christian Reformed campus ministries have been heralded as doing just that—opening up a better way, the way of intellectual love, inside the world of higher education.[28] In widely diverse ways, the Christian Reformed campus ministries at Grand Valley State (John DeBoer), the University of Iowa (Jason Chen), the University of Western Ontario (Michael Veenema), the University of New Mexico (Tony Begay) and the University of New Brunswick (John Valk) illustrate this ongoing reality.[29]
Conclusion
For Christian Reformed Campus Ministry to live up to its missional calling, it must be “thoroughly equipped”[30] for its wholistic task within its specifically academic context.[31] To journey with students, professors and other members of the academic community, to proclaim and pursue the Way, requires no less than following the model of our Lord Jesus who took on our flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood. Campus ministers must “take on” the academic life. Campus ministers must become members of and active agents within the academic community. If we refuse to take on the academic community on its own terms, we open ourselves to the indictment that we are parasitic upon the world of higher education.[32] We then live outside the community; we then feed ourselves at its expense.
To be obedient to Jesus’ injunction that we must love God with our minds, to be faithful to the missional call of campus ministry as articulated in our VISION and To Pursue the Mission commitments, for the sake of the Gospel, Campus Ministers of the Christian Reformed Church must be both pastorally and academically equipped and qualified. The Church has established criteria for ministry preparedness and these must also pertain to campus ministry; namely, an educated ministry. The Academy has established criteria for educational leadership and these must also pertain to campus ministry; namely, an academic degree at least one level, and preferably two levels, beyond those one intends to lead and serve.
In order to faithfully enter into the missional context of Campus Ministry, this paper therefore argues that the normal pastoral and educational requirements for persons seeking to serve as Campus Ministers in the Christian Reformed Church should be as follows.
Campus Ministers of the Christian Reformed Church will:
1. have the endorsement of the Church, indicating that the candidate has the requisite missional gifts[33];
2. have an advanced degree (academic or professional)[34];
3. demonstrate a commitment to continued learning[35].
Exceptions to this policy would require the candidate to provide a plan for how and when these criteria will be satisfied.[36]
[1] The term ‘CRCNA Campus Ministers’ is taken from the recently approved (Christian Reformed Home Missions and Christian Reformed-Campus Ministry Association) document, To Pursue the Mission. It is intended to refer to all persons (lay or ordained) engaged
in missional witness on educational campuses in North America on behalf of the Christian Reformed Church.
[2] John 3:16a (The Bible, New International Version, Zondervan, 1985); John 1: 14a, (The Message, James Peterson.)
[3] Jane Urquhart, The Underpainter, (McClelland and Stewart, 1997), p.130.
[4] Andrew F. Walls, The Missionary Movement in Christian History: Studies in the Transmission of Faith, (Orbis Books, 1996: New York), p.xix. Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., the Dean of the Chapel at Calvin College, concurs: “It’s folly for us to expect and serve a world we do not know,” he writes, and continues, “No business group, no army, no task force, no basketball team is sent out to serve clients or engage foes without knowing their character and habits, without trying, so to speak, to climb inside their skin,” (“Educating for Shalom,” pg. 2,3; the speech is available from Calvin College’s Advancement Office).
[5] The phone-call took place between John Rozeboom and the author of this position paper in mid-May, the latter having just been recommended to apply for the position and curious to determine Home Mission’s expectations for the new office.
[6] The comprehensive, unified vision being promoted is one arising out of the CRHM approved VISION and To Pursue the Mission documents.
[7] Early illustrations of this work are the feasibility study written for Boulder Korean Christian Reformed Church (a report entitled “Incarnating the Church Within the University”) and the University of Alberta campus ministry report entitled “Sojourning in Communities of Scholarly Shalom.” Both reports are on file in the Campus Ministry Director’s office.
[8] The term “world of higher education” is here used in its most inclusive sense, namely, as a code for all places and contexts of post-secondary education. As such, it is intended to include in its field of reference Community Colleges, Junior Colleges, Liberal Arts Colleges, Comprehensive Research Universities, Post-Graduate Institutes, etc., in short, the entire Academy.
[9] There are of course many entry points for a campus ministry. But every encounter, whether in the gym with sports jocks, in residence among friends, in the classroom with professors, is an encounter with the whole of that person within the specialized context of the world of higher education. Every dimension of campus ministry must therefore have the whole of the campus in view. Every campus minister must therefore be ready to “give an account” of their witness and mission in terms appropriate to the whole—the specialized context of higher education. (If 19th century farmers deserved an educated clergy, so do 1990’s university jocks!)
[10] The term ‘chastened’ is used in a precise way in To Pursue the Mission. “As a gathering of forgiven sinners, we reject the pretensions of triumphalism and acknowledge that we are implicated in the brokenness of the world. We think of ourselves as ‘one beggar telling another beggar where to find some bread’” pg. 14.
[11] VISION, Section IV, paragraph 1.
[12] To Pursue the Mission offers twelve characteristics for campus ministry, one of which is that campus ministry is that “Campus ministry shaped by the mission of the church will be contextual” (pg. 15).
[13] See Jeremiah 29, especially verses 4-9.
[16] Leadership Network goes so far as to argue that without “a passion for the mission” (in this case the mission to call the whole world of higher education to submit to the Lord of learning), “you can forget the rest” (NET/FAX; Number 84, November 10, 1997).
[17] In response to “Affirming God in the Academy,” a paper presented by Dr. John Valk to the Atlantic Regional Campus Ministers Conference (15 October 1997), Dr. Michael Ircha, Assistant Vice-President (Academic) at the University of New Brunswick declared, “The university is a place of life-long learning. Campus ministers must also be willing to continue to grow. The university asks campus ministers to grow.”
[18] Church Order, Article 6, section a.
[19] Church Order articles 7,8.
[20] See I Corinthians 9 (especially verses 22,23) and II Corinthians 11:5-7.
[21] This bold declaration was made again most recently (October 25, in a small group consultation on campus ministry) by the newly installed Director of the Institute for Christian Worship at Calvin College, Dr. John Witvliet, Jr.
[22] The quotation is taken from the Mission Statement of CRCNA Campus Ministry, To Pursue the Mission, p. 16.
[23] In his book, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, (Eerdmans, 1994), Mark Noll offers “an epistle from wounded lover” who regularly wonders “if it is impossible to be, with integrity, both evangelical and intellectual. The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind” p. ix, 3.
[24] In its recent celebrative review and critical reflection on the first 100 years of Christian Reformed Home Missions, (Flourishing In the Land: A 100-Year History of Christian Reformed Home Missions in North America, Scott Hozee and Christopher Meehan, (Eerdmans and Christian Reformed Home Missions, 1996; Chapter 4) Christian Reformed Home Missions chose to highlight three campus ministries. It is telling that while one of these ministries was chosen for its tragic social circumstance—the Kent State Massacre, the other two are considered the flagship campus ministries of the Christian Reformed Church, one American, one Canadian. Both of them are led by campus ministers of significant academic accomplishment. Don Postema has published internationally to critical acclaim. Bill Van Groningen has a Ph.D. degree in Philosophy freeing him to offer courses (accredited within the University’s curriculum) and various guest lectures at Queen’s University, as well as to host Colloquia and a Visiting Lecturer Series. Demonstrated academic achievement and excellence is a pre-requisite for successful campus ministry of the sort envisioned and articulated in the VISION and To Pursue the Mission documents.
[25] George Marsden, The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship, (Oxford University Press, 1997), p.7.
[26] VISION, Section III, paragraph 4.
[27] For a most elegant exposition of this call, see Cornelius Plantinga’s 1996 convocation address at Calvin College entitled, “Intellectual Love.”
[28] See, for example, the letter of Larry Offner, Ontario Regional Director of Inter-Varsity Canada, sent to the CRC Church offices in Burlington, Fall of 1997.
[29] Other ministries could have been have been cited, of course. These were named because they display the diversity and scope of this better way being opened up by CRC campus ministry.
[30] The term is the Apostle Paul’s in II Timothy 3:17.
[31] Tom Balke, in his “The Changing Face of the Canadian University: What Will It Look Like in 2007?,” suggests that unless effort is made to engage with faculty and administration in “key issues of the integration of faith and spirituality within academia” campus ministry might well be excluded from the campus altogether. We need, he says, to pursue “a wider role” in preparing and encouraging future academics to engage the very nature and purpose of universities in our post-modern world. (White Paper, November 1997, submitted to the Inter-Varsity (Canada) Board.)
[32] The grave danger of all campus ministry is that, by seeking to take on neither the life of the Church nor the life of the Academy, they end up, they end up betwixt and between—at best irrelevant to the Church and the Academy, and at worst, destructive to both.
[33] Such endorsement may arise in a variety of ways. Some persons will be ordained, some commissioned by a local Church body, etc. The requirement is that some body within the Church testifies to the requisite missional gifts for campus ministry, having discerned that the Spirit has called and equipped the person appropriately for campus ministry.
[34] Of course, while any advanced (post-B.A.) degree is considered the norm, further academic training would only serve to enhance the opportunities open to a campus minister within the world of higher education. Any and all such formal education (eg., Ph.D., D.Min., specialized certifications such as CAPE, etc.) is encouraged and supported by this proposed policy.
[35] A demonstrated commitment to continued learning might include, for example, research and writing projects which offer the Church helpful understandings of the issues, trends, concerns and perplexities of the “next generation.” (Campus ministers have in recent years declared to possess such understanding and so it is fitting to expect to see some of it!). It might entail being enrolled in a degree-granting program, an individualized reading/study program, regular participation in Professional Development conferences, constructing and offering courses, colloquia, special lectures at Learned Societies, campus ministry gatherings, etc., etc.
[36] Again, the intent here is to encourage ongoing learning as part and parcel of the call to campus ministry; therefore, an educational plan which meets the policy criteria would be encouraged as part of a person’s job description in campus ministry.
