Campus Ministry and Local Churches: Room to Partner

Chi Alpha (kai ál-fah) Christian Fellowship, the collegiate missional arm of the Assemblies of God, is staying strong through the summer thanks in part to local churches. With national Chi Alpha reporting only 42 “Church Based” campus groups, there is ample opportunity—in this ministry alone—for local churches to take college ministries under their fostering wing.

A recent survey of 40 college students from 14 colleges and universities evinces that 92% of students attending both a campus ministry and a church prefer to go to church with members of their campus ministry. Students, then, are not only looking to come to church—they are looking to come to church together. Churches in college towns should take advantage of this refreshing knowledge. While the local church can provide campus ministries with needed funds, experiential wisdom, and pastoral oversight, campus ministries can cultivate church ministries by serving and by giving fresh insight on how to reach college students.

My recent interviews of a church-based Chi Alpha (XA) group evidence the mutual benefits of a church‒campus ministry relationship. Members of Farmville Virginia’s XA group, which group serves several local colleges, talk of the blessings they have received from New Life Assemblies of God, a local congregation, and from its congregants. “One family [who attends New Life] donated a whole building to Chi Alpha!” one Farmville Chi Alphan exclaims. In fact, the 1100 ft.² building has been fully furnished through charitable donations, and it now houses weekly prayer meetings, worship services, and hangouts. The group has grown closer, they say, through sharing the responsibilities of their endearingly entitled “Chi Alpha House.”

New Life Church has additionally provided the group with its last two campus pastors and an all-important church home. Unlike campus ministry members who attend different churches from others in their ministry, Farmville Chi Alpha members almost unanimously attend New Life. This fact effectively eliminates the stress of frequent church-hopping that many students face. In turn, the students, having a established a collegiate church home, are more likely to stay rooted in their faith beyond college than those who do not have a church home.

The relationship between the local church and campus ministry, however, is not one-sided. With an entire family of young believers dedicated to New Life, the church has a constant flow of young volunteers and a thriving connection with local colleges. Students of Farmville’s Chi Alpha bring church initiatives, such as fasts and community outreach events, to their Chi Alpha small groups and their schools. Much of the group also serves New Life in one or more of its ministerial capacities, the most common of which being the church’s worship team and children’s ministry.

This Chi Alpha group epitomizes the relationship between local church and campus ministry. Churches and campus ministries everywhere should endeavor to follow its example.