Welcome to Unitarian Universalist Campus Ministry
Please start with our simple Unitarian Universalist (UU) Campus Ministry Survey:
Why UU Campus Ministry?
Young adults in college are going through some of the biggest decisions of their lives, thinking about identity, career, partners, new friends, where they will live, and educational path, and Unitarian Universalism provides wisdom and compassion through this time. It is a myth that young adults are too busy for spirituality, religion, or church. Young adults are consistently questioning, imagining, and dreaming about their place in the world and exploring many of the questions around which we build our Unitarian Universalist faith. Campus Ministry creates a place for students to explore religion and life and receive the wisdom and support of Unitarian Universalism through the significant transitions and decisions of young adulthood.
What is UU Campus Ministry?
Campus Ministry connects both new and lifelong Unitarian Universalists, creating a dynamic place where the search for truth and meaning is interconnected with the student life. Some campus ministries are connected with a local UU congregation, providing a stable "home" during the school year. Others may be far from a UU congregation raising transportation challenges, which require unique relationships with UUA Districts, Canadian Unitarian Regions or various clusters, focused on supporting campus ministry. The primary purpose of a UU Campus Ministry is to provide a meaningful place for fellowship, participatory worship, and social justice action.
Campus Ministry is an imperative in our denomination, and requires a similar commitment and dedication as most other congregational programs and campus student groups. This responsibility may be familiar to you—the need for a small group of individuals who make this their primary volunteer commitment for the year, similar to being a youth advisor, serving as President of your Board of Trustees, or serving in student government. The need for a designated and focused lay or student leader is the critical first step. Campus Ministry is not to be taken lightly and attempted as a small side activity. It is about providing an intentional and consistent place for people to be—a community on campus.
How about structure?
In the Unitarian Universalist world we struggle with a small population and limited resources; thus programs like campus ministry require strong lay leadership and institutional support to be successful. We work primarily with three types of UUCM Groups: (1) Campus-based Congregation-connected lay led; (2) Campus-based lay led; and (3) Campus-based Congregation-connected professional led. In all cases, successful long-term UUCM Groups need one or two committed adult members from a local UU congregation or university. These adult lay and professional campus chaplains are drawn from the rich lay leadership traditions of our congregations and sometimes from former youth leaders and advisors. Developing a system that utilizes and asks these people for help is one of the first keys to a good, healthy campus ministry.
What can I expect getting involved with organizing a UUCM Group?
The initial experience of organizing a campus ministry can be highly frustrating in learning the lifecycle of college life and how to effectively build a community from scratch. One of the first pieces of advice is for you to be prepared for significant ebbs and flows with the energy of your group. This is not easy preparation and requires you to have a long-term vision and plan of action, which meets effectively with the ups and downs of student's lives. We consider a core weekly UUCM group of 5 members to be a success!!! You will experience high and low attendance, but regardless of how many come we urge you to minister and encourage the spiritual growth of even one student at a time. With consistency, a good database and growing institutional support you will see amazing results. Know that if you are connecting with at least one student intentionally and regularly, you are doing good ministry. Beware of having your expectations for success wrapped up purely in a high number of students in your program
There are many small steps you can take to establish a UUCM Group, whether you are a lay or professional leader. This manual will provide you with tools to get started and ideas and inspiration to grow and improve your program.
Why have an Online Manual?
The simple answer is the widespread free and easy internet access for college students and congregations. This is also a work in progress with new material being developed and added monthly. Ideally by 2006 we will produce a useful print version. We will be slowly creating PDF documents for parts of this online manual.
Organizing Campus X: A Unitarian Universalist Guide is written to provide a comprehensive guide for campus ministry organizing within Unitarian Universalist congregations and by Unitarian Universalist students and lay leaders. There is a broad diversity of the types of campus ministry happening in Unitarian Universalism and hopefully you will find something of use to fit your experience and vision for campus ministry. This manual was originally written in 1996 and even with this update in 2003 there will be a need to revise and expand it again in the future. We encourage you to write notes directly into the manual about things you think should be added in future editions and when you have time compile these ideas and send them to the Office of Young Adult & Campus Ministry.
Thank you for your commitment and energy to building an intergenerational Unitarian Universalist religion and movement. Campus ministry is a part of our religious heritage and the involvement of all people, not just the students seeking a liberal religious community are needed for a successful program.
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Last updated on Friday, April 18, 2008.
