Month: October 2023

College students have proved a significant sending force in the modern missions movement, most notably with the Student Volunteer Movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Those in Churches of Christ are no different, with state school campus ministries playing a significant role in missions efforts, particularly after World War II. This article examines the place of missionary mobilization, overseas campus ministries, and international student ministries in twentieth-century Churches of Christ campus ministries.

The link between the college campus and the world’s peoples has always been strong, and the contemporary American campus is no exception. From early collegiate missions societies across the East Coast to present-day missionary mobilization, the college campus has been a substantial player in world missions. Arguably no greater missionary movement has occurred in the history of the modern church than that of the Student Volunteer Movement, which began on American college campuses. Out of it, influential leaders like John Mott laid the foundation for missions on the domestic campus through international student ministry. In the twentieth century, Churches of Christ built on the foundation previously laid by others.

Cross-cultural ministry is only a portion of the larger story of twentieth-century campus ministry in Churches of Christ, yet it is a significant portion. The days of Bible Chairs and Campus Evangelism (1918–1970) saw a heavy focus on ministries sending and receiving full-time missionaries. The Discipling Movement (1971–1988) was a remarkable yet controversial period that saw a substantial impact on campuses around the world. Post-Crossroads (1989–1999) efforts increased the focus on international student ministry.1 This paper examines the history of missions in Church of Christ campus ministries, beginning with precursor efforts in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries and focusing on missionary mobilization, overseas campus ministries, and international student ministries throughout the twentieth century.

Precursors to Church of Christ Efforts (1886–1917)

Three main organizations in the early twentieth century paved the way for Church of Christ efforts: the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions (SVM), the Chinese Students’ Christian Association (CSCA), and the Committee on Friendly Relations Among Foreign Students (CFR). John Mott was the primary figure that tied them all together. Just before Mott was a college student at Cornell, mobilization efforts in England led several influential Cambridge student-athletes to give their lives to missions. J. K. Studd, one of the so-called “Cambridge Seven,” spoke at Cornell in January of 1886 with words that would forever change the course of Mott’s life, saying, “Seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God.”2 That night, Mott consecrated his life to Christ, like thousands more would in coming years. As the leader of the Cornell YMCA, he was invited later that year to the first international campus ministry conference at Mount Hermon, Massachusetts.3 In an attempt to impact the lives of younger students with more collegiate years ahead of them, only underclassmen were invited, except for Robert Wilder of Princeton. Wilder, who had been invited because of his significant impact at Princeton, suggested that a night be given to speaking to the needs of foreign missions.4 Robert’s sister, Grace, had prayed that 100 men from the conference would commit to missions; following the night with a missions focus, students began discussing the call to the mission field, signing their names to a commitment to go, “willing and desirous, God permitting.”5 Throughout the month-long conference, ninety-nine students committed, with the hundredth student signing his pledge during a farewell prayer meeting.6 The group then commissioned Wilder and a few others to mobilize more. They rallied 1,000 others in one year, and the Student Volunteer Movement was born.7 Formalized in 1888, Mott was made chairman, though this would not be his only position of global leadership.8

As SVM gained momentum, so did the need for international student ministry. In the early twentieth century, the largest group of international students coming to America was Chinese, so C. T. Wang formed the CSCA in 1908, which in three years grew from six to over eight hundred.9 Although Chinese students represented the greatest need, students from hundreds of other nations were coming to the United States as well, which led to the formation of the CFR by Mott in 1911.10 These early international student ministries provided a safe transition to students’ new homes, companionship with others, and opportunities for spiritual growth with the hopes of a Christian witness upon their return home.11 Eventually, these organizations would lose their evangelical focus, but not before sufficient strides had been made in missionary mobilization and international student ministry across American campuses.12 By 1918, the year campus ministry began in Churches of Christ, the effects of World War I on European colleges were only increasing the influx of international students to the United States and, with it, the global vision of American evangelicals.13

Bible Chairs and Campus Evangelism:
Sending and Receiving Full-Time Workers (1918–1970)

Churches of Christ began ministry on college campuses in 1918 at UT-Austin.14 Before Disciples of Christ and Churches of Christ had officially separated in 1906, Restoration Movement churches had established a campus ministry at the University of Michigan in 1893, though this came to be associated with the Disciples.15 For the first few decades, campus ministry operated through the function of a Bible Chair, in which “college students could take religious courses . . . at the [church] facility, and credit might (or might not) be given in their degree program.”16 Though historical data on campus ministries in early decades is scant, the creation of the National Bible Chair Lectureship in 1957 and Bible Chair Journal in 1958 provides a picture going forward.17 By 1958, Churches of Christ had ministries on twenty-nine campuses and were experiencing great momentum.18 Like campus ministry, the mission field saw little activity from Churches of Christ in the first half of the twentieth century, though this increased exponentially following World War II. At the end of the war, Churches of Christ only existed in fifteen countries. However, by 1960, seventy countries had churches, with forty hosting almost two hundred American missionaries.19 Until 1970, it would be the sending and receiving of these vocational missionaries that would remain the greatest missions focus of Church of Christ campus ministries.

In a later era, Dennis Files reminded campus ministers that the call of the Great Commission might mean that they not only mobilize students to the mission field but that they themselves go. However, early Church of Christ campus ministers needed no such reminder, as many of them were missionaries themselves.20 One of the most successful campus ministers of the twentieth century was Bob Davidson, who served students at Texas A&M starting in 1954. After a brief stint in campus ministry, Davidson left for Thailand, where he served as a missionary and saw many conversions before returning to work as a campus minister at A&M Church of Christ in 1970.21 Over the following decades, he would build on his experience as a foreign evangelist to lead a ministry that was often one of the largest in the nation. Part of that involved taking students on short-term mission trips, including some back to Thailand, through “Aggies for Christ in the Orient.”22 Jim Woodroof, though not a campus minister, would later serve alongside Davidson as the preaching minister at A&M Church of Christ after ten years in New Zealand.23 The year after Davidson left for Thailand, Wayne and Shirley Harris arrived in Lubbock, Texas, where Wayne led the campus ministry at Texas Tech. However, they, too, would leave for the mission field, heading to Denmark in the fall of 1961, with the belief that their time overseas would strengthen their leadership of college students upon their return.24 Robert Skelton was likewise a missionary, well-known in Churches of Christ for his work in Salzburg, Austria, from 1956 until he assumed the campus ministry position at Texas A&I in 1964.25 The following year, Leon Crouch left the campus ministry position at Texas Tech to plant a church in Liverpool, England, and Joe Watson left Oklahoma State for South Africa.26 In 1966, Gary Adams arrived in Cisco, Texas, to direct the Bible Chair after ten years of work in Holland.27

While many Bible Chairs were led by full-time campus ministers, other church leaders often contributed in various ways. Two influential leaders were elders Wayne Long of University Avenue Church of Christ (Austin, TX) and Frank Trayler of Edinburg Church of Christ (Edinburg, TX). Long, a professor at UT Austin, planted the first Church of Christ in Thailand during a temporary stint at the University of Bangkok.28 Upon Long’s return to the United States, University Avenue began looking for a missionary they might sponsor to continue long-term work in Thailand. This search led to the support of Parker and Donna Henderson as the first full-time missionary couple in Thailand from Churches of Christ.29 Trayler’s experience in Latin American missions uniquely equipped him to teach Bible Chair courses in Spanish. His work led the ministry at the largely Hispanic Pan-American College to grow to two hundred twenty-six in 1969, one of the largest in Churches of Christ at the time.30 During this time, campus ministries not only received missionaries, but those former missionaries (and other campus ministers) empowered and motivated students to pursue a call to missions.

One of the primary ways ministers at the time mobilized students was through their teaching. The first reference to such came in the fall of 1960, when the campus ministry at Texas Tech held a missions-focused small group with current and former missionaries leading discussions.31 Years later, the ministry at the University of Georgia would follow suit.32 Likewise, Tarleton State would host a similar “Mission Study Supper” with students hearing from influential missiologists such as Dr. George Gurganus.33 Students in campus ministries were urged to pursue vocational missions and to use the skills they were attaining at state schools for the sake of the Gospel cross-culturally, and many rose to this task.34

The short biographical entries of American Church of Christ missionaries in the 1964 book A Missionary Pictorial give a helpful picture of efforts at the time. Although many more of the nearly three hundred missionaries listed at the time came from Christian colleges than state colleges, thirteen of those were trained at state school campus ministries.35 However, the exact number of missionaries sent out as graduates of campus ministries is hard to discern since at least two from Eastern New Mexico (and possibly more from other campuses) were left out of the work. Stephen Eckstein Jr.—often regarded as the most prolific campus minister the Churches of Christ have seen—has long been revered for his teaching ability, and his ministry at ENMU was one of the most effective missionary-sending ministries, with six former students serving overseas in the mid-‘60s.36 Students from other campuses served later in the ‘60s and, thus, were not recorded, like Jim Pinegar and David Grimes, who left Memphis for Zambia and East Asia, respectively.37 Others shared the gospel around the world for a short time, such as John Coleman, who lived in Pakistan thanks to the Texas A&M Intercollege Exchange Program.38 Though international student ministry and overseas campuses ministries received attention during this time, it was the heyday of missionary mobilization.

The international student ministry these ministers and students engaged in gained momentum during the Campus Evangelism movement. “Campus Evangelism” was an organization formed in 1966 under the auspices of Broadway Church of Christ in Lubbock, Texas.39 Building on the strategies of parachurch ministries like Campus Crusade for Christ, Campus Evangelism sought to promote a new model of campus ministry across the country focused less on scholarship and more on evangelism.40 International student ministry had already been carried out a few years prior, particularly at Oklahoma State, where the aforementioned Joe Watson helped lead outreach and saw frequent church attendance by international students.41 Campus Evangelism, though, helped elevate international student ministry nationwide. The methodology of international student banquets and a mindset of bold evangelism were readily picked up by other ministries. New Mexico saw forty-five students attend a banquet, and Tennessee Tech set a goal of reaching one hundred international students in a school year.42 Georgia even had four international students living at its student center.43 Even still, the greatest days of international student ministry would lie ahead.

The Bible Chair and Campus Evangelism years would also see the start of overseas campus ministries that would reach their height in the ‘70s and ‘80s. As early as the late ‘50s, Church of Christ missionaries reached out to college students abroad.44 In 1960, Bible Chair Journal surveyed campus ministers and received a favorable response regarding future attempts at planting campus ministries overseas.45 By 1970, Churches of Christ had a campus ministry in Italy, Japan, Korea, and Switzerland, but this was only the beginning.46 Though Campus Evangelism would die after just a few years due to increasing controversy and a subsequent lack of financial support, it gave birth to a movement that would bring even more controversy and, with it, an even grander global vision.47

The Discipling Movement:
Reaching Campuses Worldwide (1971–1987)

Likely, the most influential campus ministry in Churches of Christ was a pilot project of Campus Evangelism planted at the University of Florida in conjunction with Fourteenth Street Church of Christ, later renamed Crossroads Church of Christ.48 Chuck Lucas, the campus minister (and later preaching minister) at Crossroads, rose to prominence after seeing incredible growth through the implementation of intense evangelism, followed by one-on-one discipleship of new converts, a practice common in the “Shepherding Movement” of charismatic churches in the ‘70s.49 In ten years, the church grew from one hundred in 1968 to over 1,000 in 1978.50 Also, Crossroads trained an incredible number of ministers who also saw growth on other campuses; in 1980, ten of the twenty-seven Churches of Christ that baptized over one hundred people had ministers trained at Crossroads.51 Around that time, Kip McKean, a convert of the ministry in Florida, began leading ministries to colleges in Boston that would see even more significant growth by the mid-‘80s. Far surpassing Crossroads, Boston saw almost 1,800 baptisms in the first six years, coming to be seen as the center of the movement.52 Thus, the “Discipling Movement” (or “Crossroads Movement” or “Boston Movement”) was born.

Despite all this exciting growth, controversy followed the Discipling Movement. Even by the early ‘80s, before the explosion of the Boston Church of Christ, multiple books had been written on the movement and the perceived control over disciples’ lives by their disciplers.53 Newspaper articles from Gainesville spoke of a “Reputation of Aggressiveness [and] Mind Control” that accompanied the church’s growth.54 Even still, the passion for world evangelism emanating from the movement was hard to deny.

Although the international student ministry would experience its greatest focus in the ‘90s, the high evangelistic fervor of the Discipling Movement meant that no other period would see as much fruit among international students. In some ways, the old methodology was carried over, with ministries still utilizing events like international banquets.55 At the same time, a more direct approach was taken, with ministries often starting evangelistic Bible studies geared toward international students on campuses like Oregon State, Ole Miss, and Ohio State, the first of which even held them in Spanish.56 Florida International University also had a Spanish evangelistic Bible study and a Spanish service on Sundays and saw forty-one international student baptisms in one year alone.57 In 1979, three different ministries converted students from Hong Kong, which sparked a desire for a directory of international students across the country who might connect with one another.58 Over the next two years, the campus ministry at Alabama A&M and Alabama-Huntsville converted students from Nigeria, Iran, the Bahamas, and Japan.59 The directory, inspired by these conversions and more at the turn of the ‘80s, found that Church of Christ campus ministries had one hundred and eighty Christian international students alone, not to mention the number of students coming to faith.60 Not only did these students come to faith, they were sent back to their home countries to reach others. One of these, Oswaldo Bustillo, was converted at the University of Washington in 1979; upon his return to his home country of Honduras in 1981, he helped a missionary-led church grow from twenty-five to ninety-five and become self-sufficient.61 The missionary impetus toward international students on campus carried over in students’ hearts as they moved to take the gospel to college students across the world.

As mentioned before, overseas campus ministries began in the Bible Chair days. The first of these began in Milan, Italy, in 1963 under the direction of Dr. Fausto Salvoni.62 Other ministries in Japan, Korea, and Switzerland soon appeared in directories.63 In the aftermath of Campus Evangelism and during the rise of the Discipling Movement, other ministries not necessarily associated with Crossroads still contributed to a growing global focus. Though not always viewed in the same light of missions as other ministries due to the long-standing prevalence of Churches of Christ in Canada, the rise of Canadian campus ministries in the late ‘70s is still noteworthy. In 1974, a ministry was established in Ottawa for students of Carleton and Ottawa universities.64 Soon thereafter, ministries arose to students at Edmonton campuses and the universities of Calgary, Regina, Saskatchewan, and Victoria.65 In 1982, another ministry not affiliated with Crossroads arose in Nigeria at the University of Ife, thanks to the efforts of Jide Oguntimein, an Ole Miss campus ministry grad and Ife faculty member.66 Graduates from three different ministries also attempted to start a campus ministry in Guatemala.67 Neither the Nigerian nor Guatemalan ministries were listed in directories, so exact numbers can be difficult to determine, but the greatest number of overseas campus ministries according to directories of Campus Journal (previously named Bible Chair Journal and later Campus Crosswalk) came in at 13 in the summer of 1983.68 Soon after, ministries would begin setting their eyes on the largest campuses in the world as targets of ministries. However, it would be members of the Discipling Movement who would begin to reach them.69

By the mid-‘80s, Boston Church of Christ was the new epicenter of the movement due to their increased growth and the firing of Chuck Lucas from Crossroads following “recurring sins.”70 Although Boston did not specifically set out to start campus ministries on the major campuses of the world, as they planted churches in major world cities, they focused their evangelism heavily on young adults, and campus ministry remained a major factor in the movement.71 In 1982, Boston Church of Christ sent Kevin Darby to Sydney, Australia, where former LSU campus minister Mike Fontenot served.72 However, the first church fully planted by Boston was born in July of 1982 in London, England, under the leadership of James Lloyd and Douglas Arthur.73 Unlike some other Boston church plants, its connection with campus ministry and church planting prior to some of the greater controversy surrounding Boston led to its listing in directories alongside other overseas ministries.74 In the fall of that year, the Boston Movement held its first World Missions Seminar to increase giving and workers for cross-cultural church plants.75 Over the next five years, Boston Church of Christ would plant churches and reach thousands of college students in Toronto (August 1985), Johannesburg (June 1986), Paris (August 1986), Stockholm (October 1986), and Bombay (November 1986).76

Along with the international church plants, Boston “restructured” a collegiate church in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1987.77 “Restructuring” was a practice Boston soon made common, particularly in the United States among churches formerly affiliated with Crossroads, in which leaders would willingly step down and move to Boston to be trained, and the Boston church’s eldership would assume remote authority.78 By this point, the mounting critiques of what mainline Churches of Christ felt to be unbiblical doctrines and un-Christlike pride and spiritual abuses were leading Churches of Christ and Discipling Movement churches to view themselves as two distinct groups. Though Boston churches would not become the “International Churches of Christ” until 1993, shifting views on baptism, ecclesiology, and authority in the fall of 1987 drew a line in the sand.79 By 1988, Campus Journal no longer listed Discipling Movement ministries as their own. The International Churches of Christ’s global impact was far from over, but 1987 marked the end of their place in Church of Christ campus ministry missions.

Post-Crossroads Efforts:
The Height of International Student Ministry (1988–1999)

Looking toward the end of the 20th century, collegiate Churches of Christ sought to recover from the turmoil of the Discipling Movement without departing from their global vision. The immediate break caused by the Discipling Movement led to a quick decline in the number of campus ministries, overseas ministries notwithstanding. Nonetheless, in 1988, building on the foundation Wayne Long set in Bangkok in the ‘50s, Russ Pennington established a campus ministry at nearby Rankhamhaeng University, then the largest in the world. More plans were established for a campus ministry in Hungary, led by a team from Oregon State to campuses in Budapest.80 In 1994, plans were also made for a campus ministry in South Africa. In 1997, Tim and Debbie Martin began a campus ministry in Vienna, Austria, to build on prior efforts of Christian faculty.81 Even still, the global vision of the late ‘80s and ‘90s shifted from overseas campus ministries to short-term mission trips and international student ministry.

One of the most significant forces in campus ministry missions post-Crossroads came thanks to Let’s Start Talking (LST). LST was formed in 1980 to equip college students to spend six weeks overseas sharing the gospel through free conversational English programs in partnership with local churches, which would carry out follow-up work.82 Particularly in the ‘90s, LST gained traction with campus ministries. In the summer of 1991, over one hundred workers went to nine European countries, many of whom came from state school campus ministries, including the ministry at California Polytechnic State, which held Bible studies in a former Communist seminar building in East Germany following the fall of the Iron Curtain.83 By 1995, LST sent students from a dozen different state school campus ministries to Europe, Asia, and South America.84 Other ministries took short-term mission trips apart from LST and also saw fruit. In 1992, Andy Miller led the campus ministry at UC-Bakersfield to Malaysia and Singapore for the summer and helped lead sixty-six people to Christ.85 The following summer, sixty students from the University of Arkansas led three people to Christ during a Spring Break evangelistic campaign in Mexico.86 Meanwhile, other ministries like Auburn, led by Jim Brinkerhoff, and Sam Houston State partnered for joint short-term mission trips.87 Let’s Start Talking and ministers like Brinkerhoff led the charge in short-term missions and domestic evangelism among international students.

In 1990, ten years after its inception, LST adapted its training to be used for conversational English in a domestic setting with international students, which it called FriendSpeak.88 Also in 1990, ministers collaborated to write Ministering on the College Campus, with Brinkerhoff writing a chapter on “Working with International Students.” By that point, Auburn had seen several international students come to Christ through an emphasis on relational evangelism. Brinkerhoff listed several methods of outreach present at the time including: Adopt-a-Student programs, conversational English classes, and International Student dinners.89 In 1994, Campus Crosswalk devoted an entire issue to international student ministry, providing a biblical basis and practical suggestions. In it, at least sixteen countries are noted as represented by international students in various ministries nationwide.90 Later that year, Campus Crosswalk editor Milton Jones published “The Circle Study,” a gospel illustration he designed as a campus minister at Washington specifically for international students, which began with man as created in the image of a Creator God and walked through salvation through God’s Son.91 Ministries used all these methods and more to befriend students and share the Gospel cross-culturally.

Moreover, while no single ministry might have seen as many conversions in one year as Florida International in the early ‘80s, many campus ministries still saw significant fruit. In 1993, Memphis had over eighty international students from nine countries in evangelistic Bible studies.92 As other ministries likewise leveraged relational evangelism or conversational English programs to share the gospel, they saw students come to faith and take the gospel back home.93 This emphasis on international student ministry and short-term missions would continue in Church of Christ campus ministry into the twenty-first century.

Conclusion

Shortly after the end of the twentieth century, Jim Brinkerhoff spoke about why, after many years in campus ministry with giftedness in teaching, he did not pursue a preaching position at a church. In reflection, he said, “At times, I gave it serious consideration. Each time, though, I thought to myself, ‘Where else could I go that carries with it the possibilities of the world vision that is inherent within campus ministries?’ We in campus ministries are among those who can rightfully claim to possess Archimedes’ Lever—‘Give me a place to stand, and I will move the earth.’ ”94 Church of Christ campus ministries in the twentieth century went to great efforts to do just that—to grab hold of Archimedes’ Lever to make an impact throughout the whole world.

Ministries like SVM, CSCA, and CFR paved the way for later efforts. Those in the years of Bible Chairs and Campus Evangelism sent and received numerous full-time missionaries to and from the mission field. The Discipling Movement, for all its controversy, saw a global vision and bold efforts to take the gospel to major cities and campuses around the world. Those who came through the other side of the Discipling Movement focused on short-term missions and international student ministries as one century closed and another began, making way for those who would continue their efforts into the twenty-first century.

Dylan Kirkland is a campus minister at University Church of Christ in Tuscaloosa, AL, and a PhD student at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary studying evangelism with a research focus on campus ministry. Before working at University Church of Christ, he was a recruiter for Pioneer Bible Translators.