In Their Own Words - Campus Ministers' Perceptions of Their Work and Their Worlds

Oct 15, 2026

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Qualitative research compares and contrasts campus ministers’ perceptions of their roles, support, and mission at a large public and a small private institution in the southeastern United States. The study uses semi-structured interviews with campus ministers from multiple faith traditions, then analyzes the responses. Background material traces how U.S. higher education evolved from religiously governed colleges and how campus ministry emerged as student affairs responsibilities shifted toward students’ spiritual and moral needs.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages12

Reading Time30 min

AccessFree to download

Campus ministers’ perceptions: roles, support, and mission

Historical and contextual foundations in U.S. higher education

Emergence and evolution of campus ministry

Contemporary campus minister roles and expectations

# In Their Own Words:Campus Ministers'Perceptions of TheirWork and Their Worlds Janice K.Davis,Merrily S.Dunn,J.Shay Davis* This qualitative study compared and contrasted the perceptions of roles,support,and mission of campus ministers at a large public and a small private institutionin the southeastern United States.Semi-structured interviews of campus ministers,representing a variety offaith traditions,were conducted and analyzed. Higher education in the United States began in the development of religiouslyaffiliated and religiously governed institutions.Starting with the Calvinist foundingof Harvard in 1636,a variety of Protestant denominations founded,governed andsometimes struggled over the control of an expanding number of colleges anduniversities.History shows that some of these remained private,religiouslyaffiliated institutions,others transitioned into institutions operating withindenominational traditions while still others became public(Brubacher &Rudy,1976;Rudolph,1990/1962).In general,it is believed these institutions werefounded to produce clergy members leading congregations through thechallenges inherent in creating a new country.In reality their institutionalmissions were broader,more complex and guided by the demands of apredominantly Christian culture(Thelin,2003).While they were designed toproduce church leadership,they also produced business and community leadersschooled in church,instilling Christian morals and ideals as the foundation ofsociety(Brubacher &Rudy,1976;Shockley,1989) In the nearly 370 years since the founding of Harvard,a wide spectrum ofinstitutions of higher education has emerged.While affiliation and governancehave also evolved,the necessity for places and persons oriented toward thespiritual needs of students has remained a constant in higher education.Public andprivate differences notwithstanding,the role of campus ministry and those fillingthe role of minister(or its equivalent)have changed significantly through the years.Interestingly,these positions were not present in the colonial colleges of NewEngland and were only found in a tiny percentage of the institutions founded afterthem.As is the case with the evolution of student affairs(Nuss,2003),the role ofcampus minister emerged when presidents and faculty members were no longerable to attend to the spiritual and moral needs of their students(Shockley,1989).Just as the role of student affairs is constantly evolving and must be considered DAVIS,DUNN,DAVIS within its context,higher education,so must campus ministry be considered bothwithin the higher education context and that broader context of the religious cultureof this country. From the colonial period to the present day,religious practice and spirituality in amultitude of forms impacted higher education.This influence and presence isevident in the variety of religiously based and affiliated institutions(Cohen,1998).It is also apparent in the host of choices students have as they express and explorereligion and spirituality as college students. Primary documents allow us an understanding of how this ministry evolved in therecent past,both within a higher education and a societal context.In June of 1966,a time of significant social change,the University of Georgia,together with theNational Campus Ministry Association,sponsored the National Campus MinistryConvocation,held in Athens at the UGA Center for Continuing Education.Thetheme was“Personal Wholeness and Professional Identity in the Campus Ministry.”The published proceedings from the meeting list topics as diverse as “TheUniversity and the Search for Identity,”“The Church and the Search for Integrity,”and“The Family and the Search for Wholeness.”The topic most relevant for thepurposes of this study is“Why Do We Have a Campus Minister?”The authoranswers this question for campus ministers in terms easily understood by studentaffairs professionals.“You are the only one who offers the challenge that theseyoung people

FAQs

What is the purpose of the qualitative study described in the document?

To compare and contrast campus ministers’ perceptions of their roles, support, and mission at different types of U.S. institutions.

How were campus ministers’ views collected and analyzed?

The study used semi-structured interviews with campus ministers representing a variety of faith traditions, and the interviews were analyzed for patterns in perceptions.

What factors does the document use to explain how campus ministry evolved?

It links campus ministry’s emergence to the historical shift from clergy and faculty attending to students’ spiritual needs toward broader institutional responsibility, within the context of American religious culture and changing governance of higher education.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by jayni