Bridging the Gap Between Campus Ministry and Church
On university campuses around the world, CMF provides Christian communities for students who, very often, are not Christian. Our Globalscope campus ministries are unique in that Christians, atheists, agnostics and anyone in between can find community together. Their time spent as part of a Globalscope ministry, a community centered on the love of God, is life changing.
While students are introduced to Christ and experience a community of faith while attending school, staying connected to a welcoming Christian community after graduation can be a challenge. The heart of every Globalscope team is for students who are introduced to Christ in their ministries to remain part of a Christian community after their time at university is done.
Our El Oasis campus ministry in Santiago, Chile has been working on ways to bridge the gap between campus ministry and church, keeping young people on various faith journeys connected to a Christian community.
Belén Martínez, the leader of the Santiago team, shared that “we wanted to generate a support network where we could send our students knowing that they would be received with an understanding of their context and prejudices about Christianity and churches.”
On September 12 the El Oasis team held an event at the campus house and invited local pastors, youth leaders, and others interested in potentially collaborating with them. The event allowed these church leaders to experience the community firsthand and learn more about El Oasis through a presentation on what they do, why they do it, and the ways that they can connect with each other.
Most of the pastors and youth leaders who received an invitation were able to come, experience a typical student event and stay for the presentation. Many of the pastors unfamiliar with the ministry were struck by the innovative way they have of reaching out to college students. Most of them were very willing to collaborate in the future and even to open their churches for the team to share about the ministry. One of the church youth leaders in attendance is now going to be the main speaker at an upcoming El Oasis retreat.
Belén is excited about what future partnerships with local churches could look like. “We can ask for help for talks in our retreats and volunteering in the kitchen, but we could also help them in their outreach and social projects, so we could generate something together.”
The team believes that this is a great first step in creating a network of collaboration but also how it might increase the visibility of the body of Christ in Santiago.