Campus Ministry

Abstract

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.