Campus Ministry: Refining the Gold

Christian Campus Ministry at University of Kansas

St. Paul describes the life of the Christian as being “gold refined in the fire.” I find this to be a very good description of not only the life of the Christian broadly, but especially of the work of campus ministry.

As many know, the college years are simultaneously exciting and fraught with peril. There are all sorts of opportunities for learning, growth, new friends, new experiences, and, of course, the movement from being under the care of your parents to living as an adult. Along the way, many will also meet the person who will later become their spouse.

These are all wonderful. However, there is another side, where campus life, classes, professors, friends, roommates, etc., will press hard on the faith of our sons and daughters, encourage them to question what they know and believe, and ultimately to depart from the faith once delivered.

This is where campus ministry steps in. The local congregation and pastor provide not only the consistency of the Gospel and Sacraments, but a place where the faith can be nourished, strengthened, and refined. The questions and opposition that come from the world can be tackled through the Word of God and the Lutheran Confessions. Instead of resulting in a departure from these things, the student finds himself on even more solid ground.

Through the conversations, studies, mutual fellowship, and upbuilding provided in campus ministry, our sons and daughters become precisely what St. Paul describes: gold that has been refined through the fires of college. They emerge even stronger, more faithful, and ready to step into the world with a good and bold confession of Jesus crucified, raised, and ascended for sinners.

When you add to this the numerous students who are struggling with the faith broadly, are curious about the Lutheran confession, or have simply never heard the Gospel, we see an environment in which not only are our own sons and daughters strengthened, but those outside are brought into that same reality.

In the end, the Church as a whole is both larger and stronger. These students then scatter to all sorts of other congregations around the country and serve as an encouragement to faithfulness there, too.

What began in campus ministry continues in the larger Church—a family growing stronger and stronger, being refined by the Gospel, and awaiting the blessed resurrection together.