Missiology of Chi Alpha

Many Christians today think of missions as something that only ever happens in other languages on other continents. That’s clearly the bulk of missions: 95 percent of the world lives outside the United States. Yet, that’s not all of missions. 

What is Mission? Jesus said, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save those who are lost,” and “I will build my church.” At the conclusion of His earthly mission He instructed His followers to continue His work to “go and make disciples of all nations, teaching to obey all I have commanded you.” The core work of mission is the establishment of communities of believers which exist to further Christ’s redemptive purpose on earth. Is our mission to win converts? We are more than evangelism. We are to establish communities of believers.

Self-Governing, Self-Funding and Self-Perpetuating Communities

The only real model in Scripture of what this mission looks like is given to us through Luke’s narrative in the Book of Acts. This chronicles the birth, development and expansion of Christ’s ongoing mission. The primary activities of those early missionaries (Paul and his missionary band) have provided the foundation for understanding how we are to establish those communities of believers as self-governing, self-funding and self-perpetuating communities. 

A church engages in missions whenever it expands the kingdom without deriving new members for itself. In other words, missions is the church reaching beyond itself. As with the apostle Paul, typically this takes the form of the church sending missionaries (teams or individuals) from one geographical area, establishing self-governing, self-funding, and self-perpetuating communities of believers in another area. Thus church planting in America and overseas are both missionary activities.

However, we must not limit our understanding of “Church.” There is another expression of this missionary activity. There are some contexts demanding ministry where self-governing, self-funding and self-perpetuating churches take on a different look.

How does this indigenous principle work in the context of the college and university campus? 

Many campuses are self-sufficient communities with their own apartments, res

taurants, police departments, fire departments and post offices. In fact, on many campuses freshmen are not allowed to own vehicles. It’s possible to go weeks without ever setting foot off campus. These are also very transient communities shifting dramatically every school year and completely every four to five years. Thus campuses are their own communities needing their own witness. 

So the planting of Christian communities on the campus must take on a different model. In fact, to force a “traditional” church model would be illegal at Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Yale, MIT, USC and most of America’s best-known colleges. Planting traditional churches next to the campus is sometimes possible, but not always.

But we cannot simply throw up our hands and let the campuses go its merry way. Universities are the steering wheels of societies: As goes the campus, so goes the culture. By ministering at an established educational center, Paul was able to influence the entire province of Asia. 

[Paul] took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord (Acts 19:9-10, NIV ).

Thus it is vital that we touch universities in order to touch the world.

And so we must establish ministries (other communities) on university campuses which can reach the students there.

Can they be self-governing? 

Yes, but not in the same sense as a traditional church. Student-led groups without ongoing guidance have demonstrated a predictable cycle: rapid expansion, short stability, rapid collapse. There are exceptions, but this is the dominant trend. The rapid turnover of leadership proves to be too difficult for the organization to weather without an external source of stability. In addition, college students are still young and prone to make very simple mistakes in leadership. Thus, they need external leaders to come in and coach them. 

And at the same time responsibility for self direction must be part of the ongoing work of the campus missionary, laying real responsibility for the development of the ministry and self determination squarely in the hands of student leaders.

Can they be self-funding? 

Yes, but not in the same sense as a traditional church. Few students have full-time jobs, almost all are making minimum wage, and almost all of their income goes to support their education. Exacerbating the problem, universities (especially the elite ones) tend to be in high cost-of-living areas. Thus, supporting a full-time minister is beyond the scope of almost all student ministries. Also, at some universities it is illegal to receive offerings. Generally a student ministry can fund its program costs through offerings. Here they accept responsibility of God’s work locally and the expansion of His Mission. As in the case of Paul the Apostle, those who minister to them must have an external source of funding.

Can they be self-perpetuating? 

Yes, but not in the same sense as a traditional church. Universities are “sticky.” That is to say a student team from UC Berkeley typically can’t pick up and transplant themselves to UT Austin. Admissions, scholarships and credits make transferring difficult. So while students can evangelize other students on their own campus, they have a limited ability to evangelize students on other campuses. Thus, there must be some external organization, coordinating ministry to all the colleges and universities across America. They do however have the responsibility as “owners” of the ministry to be part of the multiplication of ministry to the generations of students who will come behind them. 

In Acts, the missionary team would make converts, establish communities, set things in order and then move on. University communities are moving targets. The “mission field” moves on while the missionary stays local. Thus the primary work of the campus missionary is to assist those who minister on campus to reproduce themselves before transitioning on to the work world.

And so we see that while university ministry requires missionary outreach, the biblical model of missionary activity is different than the traditional Assemblies of God missionary paradigm.

Jesus ministered within the culture in which He was raised because He was called to have a unique strategic impact. By touching Israel, He would touch the world. 

Paul also stayed within his own nation. He traveled from strategic center to strategic center, realizing that from such places the gospel would ring out like a bell to the surrounding countryside (1 Thessalonians 1:8). 

The campus is a transient field. While the field moves, the missionary stays stationary. 

The Chi Alpha missionary has a responsibility to the Church. They do not have an option of working with them or not. 

Both should be looking to establish and release new ministries to be carried on by the community so that the ministries can endure beyond their tenure.

Understanding University Missions Terms

What is the mission field? 

The mission field is wherever the church does not exist, is not strong enough to sustain itself, or is unable to reach a certain community. 

What do we mean by a missionary? 

A missionary is someone who is sent and supported as a representative of Jesus to advance God’s global plan. Making disciples, establishing communities of believers and setting in order ongoing ministry.

What do we hope to establish and set in order? 

Redemptive communities of students.

What is the work of a missionary in our context? 

To reach the lost, disciple the saved, and challenge the hardhearted. We must empower students to take shared responsibility for the development and continuation of the work of God on their campuses. We must integrate believers into the life of the Church universal as they transition from the university to the marketplace. We must teach them to invest in God’s work both locally and worldwide. 

If we are to see these communities develop we as missionaries must look at how we are building those communities. Longevity of the communities we build is an issue. What will we produce that can endure? Is all the work dependent on my presence? As a missionary, I want to make disciples, set new communities in order and guide leadership to ownership of the ministry. Paul’s pattern is useful to help us understand patterns of mission work. He made converts, set leadership in order and taught doctrine. 

Do we have an option of working with the local church? 

While as a campus missionary our primary work is to the university community, we must also cultivate and maintain healthy relationships with the traditional local church to ensure an ongoing ministry locally and positive transition for our students.

Chi Alpha and The Church

The purpose of Chi Alpha is to be a demonstration to the campus of the totality of the person and work of Jesus Christ. We are thus not a Christian club or fellowship group; we are a representation of the body of Christ. This is clear, even though we accept classification as a “club” or student organization for the sake of popular communication with the campus world.

“There is one body” we belong to the Church universal (Ephesians 4:1-6) and to the Assemblies of God in particular. We are a segment of the Church in the sense that wherever two or three believers gather in Jesus’ name, He has promised to be in the midst of them (Matthew 18:20). Our mission is focused not only on the campus time in a person’s life, but involves the reconciliation of that person to Christ and to lifelong fellowship with His people (Ephesians 4:7-13).

As a collegiate expression of Christ’s community, we take seriously our need for submission to the authority of both the district and sponsoring Assemblies. Under this umbrella we function (Ephesians 4:14-16).

Deeply aware of the urgency of this moment in history, we commit ourselves unreservedly to the work of reconciling men and women to God by the power 

of the Spirit. We consider the Great Commission of Jesus Christ to be our personal and primary responsibility before God and dedicate ourselves to reaching and discipling students to impact the nations of the earth before Christ’s return.