December 5, 2005
By Vicki Brown

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A new process for reviewing campus ministries will be tested in Kentucky next March, said the Rev. Luther Felder, staff executive in the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry's section on campus ministry.

"This will be a test of how well the instrument works," Felder said.

The Kentucky Annual (regional) Conference, wanting to strengthen its campus ministries, had requested help with the review. A team of agency staff and others, including someone from the annual conference and other campus ministers, will perform the review, which will cover finances, management and annual conference relations.

"This process will help annual conferences determine that the ministry is viable, that the work of Christ is being accomplished, and that the resources the church has invested are being used in a way that is consistent with the church's intent," Felder said.

The board has also been asked to help review of Nebraska campus ministries. That process is being planned.

The review process that will be used in Kentucky is not a pass or fail model but is aimed at increasing accountability and assessing the ministries in an effort to improve how they function. When conference leaders asked for advice on how to improve campus ministries, Felder asked if they would be willing to test the process.

Annual conferences have had responsibility for campus ministries for about 25 years, Felder said. Three years in the making, the new review process is based on the one used by the denomination's University Senate in reviewing colleges. The conferences can tailor the process to meet their needs, and any action afterward is up to the individual conference.

The board and the United Methodist Campus Ministers Association overwhelmingly approved both the review process for campus ministries and standards for credentialing campus ministers, Felder said.

But that does not mean campus ministers can start getting credentialed immediately, according to Felder and the Rev. Bill Campbell, who is co-chairman of the coordinating committee of the campus ministers association.

"At this point, we're still looking at refining some of that process," said Campbell, the United Methodist campus minister at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro. "This is a ministry that requires special skills and abilities. Not just anyone can do campus ministry."

Felder said campus ministries must complete the review process and be certified as meeting standards of institutional integrity, program quality, sound financial health and management and good relations with their annual conference before the minister can seek to be credentialed.

"We're not quite ready for someone to enroll and start the credentialing process," Campbell said.

Staff members in the Campus Ministry Section are working with the board's Division of Ordained Ministry on refining the credentialing process, but that is complicated by the fact that not every campus minister is ordained. "Some campus ministers have Christian education degrees," he said.

The aim, though, is to ensure that campus ministers have the skills and training they need to do a good job.

"Most pastors are educated in how to pastor a local church," Campbell said. "But a campus ministry is like starting a new church every four years. You are always dealing with a moving congregation. Most of the funding comes from outside the ministry."

And, Campbell said, a campus minister must understand the higher education environment.

The credentialing process sets forth standards that ministers must meet. Those include having an understanding of higher education and how to run a nonprofit organization. Also, the minister must demonstrate that he or she is using the campus ministry to develop Christian leaders and guide them in vocational discernment, whether they go into clergy or lay work.

Once the review process is refined, Campbell said legislation could be proposed for General Conference, the denomination's top lawmaking body.

"At this point, there is no mandate to even recommend to annual conferences that they use the review document or the credentialing process," he said.

United Methodist News Service
Vicki Brown is an associate editor and writer in the Office of Interpretation, United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry.