You are here: Home > News > The Harvest January/February 2008 > Going deeper: Campus ministry in the Southwest Convocation

Going deeper:
Campus ministry in the Southwest Convocation

By Melodie Woerman
Editor, The Harvest

How do you do ministry with college students when you’re not in the middle of a traditional town-and-gown situation, when you’re among several parishes in an area filled with universities, colleges and community colleges?

Parishes in the Southwest Convocation are wrestling with those questions as they seek ways to reach out to young people on the campuses in their area.

The Rev. Craig Loya, one of two campus missioners for the Diocese of Kansas, said parishes in the greater Wichita area are exploring what shape their involvement with students could take.

To help clarify options and strategies, campus ministry committees have been formed at Good Shepherd, St. James’ and St. John’s in Wichita, Trinity, Arkansas City, and Grace, Winfield.

The first thing Loya asks those committees to do is pray — to pray for college students and for campus ministry in that parish. Beyond that, he asks parish members to think about how they can become what he calls “holy companions” to college students.

“This involves taking an active interest in their lives,” he said, “and offering deep and substantial intergenerational friendships that can provide wisdom, stability and support, an anchor of God’s love, for the often chaotic lives of students.”

A practical welcome

Giving students that “home-away-from-home” experience is prompting these parishes to think of practical ways they can help students, providing what Loya calls “the radical welcome of Christ.”

Parishes already have come up with lots of exciting possibilities, Loya said:

- hosting foreign exchange students in parishioners’ homes on Easter;
- special welcome bags for student visitors with needed items like Laundro-mat tokens, coffee shop coupons and other goodies;
- a quiet place to study during finals week;
- food and child care for commuter students;
- an on-campus seminar on marriage, family and sexuality for students contemplating marriage;
- a laundry drop, with parishioners handing out free laundry detergent along with an invitation to worship; and
- a healthy sandwich brown-bag ministry for students on their way to evening classes after work.

Giving it a try

Loya said he doesn’t know how many of these ideas will be implemented. And of those that parishes might try, it’s hard to tell which ones might have the desired impact on the lives of college students.

But the fact that parishes are willing to try, to take a risk in order to extend a hand of welcome, is what matters, he said.

In fact, the idea of parishes as holy companions for college students is becoming the dominant approach to parish-based campus ministries throughout the diocese.

He said this idea is beginning to take root in other parishes, too, including several in the Southeast Convocation.