RJS on Missional Campus Ministry, or My Passion

Excellent article by RJS at Jesus Creed in her "Missional Campus Ministry" series. She addresses an issue very close to my heart: engaging university students on a rigorous intellectual level outside the classroom setting.

To put it quite simply, this is my passion.

She raises the question of what churches and ministries must do in order to engage these students.

Here's my submission:

• We need to facilitate an atmosphere of intellectual, dialogical engagement with Scripture and the whole of the created order, from history to science to reason to ethics to politics—everything.
• We need solidly evangelical churches founded on the inerrant, infallible Word of God but open to and conversant with the questions intellectuals (Christian and non) are asking about Christian faith and reality, especially issues of epistemology, biblical criticism, and pluralism.
• We need churches who model Christian love and shalom in their interactions with one another and their "neighbors," who are a strong, positive presence in their communities.
• In short, we need churches who link love of God of the mind, heart, soul, and body into a community of robust Christian discipleship and mission.

We need churches with all these characteristics, near every university campus, if we are going to make a significant, lasting impact among university students, who are the future of our society.