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U.S. campus ministries sign unity agreement
Erin Roach, Baptist Press
April 01, 2011
4 MIN READ TIME

U.S. campus ministries sign unity agreement

U.S. campus ministries sign unity agreement
Erin Roach, Baptist Press
April 01, 2011

NASHVILLE, Tenn.

— Leaders from 17 college campus ministries have signed an agreement aimed at

keeping their work cooperative rather than competitive as they seek to point

students to Christ.

The Chicago Agreement, which was drafted last fall during a

meeting at the InterVarsity Press offices in

Illinois, includes eight basic points of unity in mission that were unanimously

approved earlier this year.

Organizations represented include Baptist Collegiate

Ministry at LifeWay Christian Resources and the North American Mission Board as

well as InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, Campus Crusade for Christ and

Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

“I think the document is helpful because it expresses the

intention to work with other likeminded groups to help reach our campuses with

the Good News of the gospel message of Jesus Christ,” John Moore, national

collegiate ministry leader for church and network partnerships at LifeWay and a

signer of the agreement, told Baptist Press.

The ministries agreed to teach their staff, volunteers and

faculty and student leadership the following principles about relationships

with other Christian groups in accordance with John 13:34-35:

  • We are all part of Christ’s body.
  • We do not regard any campus as our exclusive field. We

    recognize that many students and faculty may be helped through the various

    appeals and styles of the different organizations.

  • We will seek to establish relationships and build bridges

    with our counterparts in other Christian groups on campus. When establishing

    ministries on new campuses, we will take the initiative to communicate with the

    leadership of existing groups.

  • We will speak well of and refrain from criticism of each

    other’s ministries and members.

  • We commit to addressing problems on a local,

    regional or national level by humbly communicating with our counterparts,

    seeking the Lord together to resolve the issues.

  • We affirm the leadership commitments students and faculty

    have made to each other’s ministries and will not actively recruit them away

    from those groups. When starting a new campus work, each organization will

    endeavor to select new leaders, not leaders from other ministries.

  • We recognize students and faculty have the freedom to

    choose their involvement with any campus ministry. In general, we will

    encourage them to select and be involved with one primary organization.

  • We will encourage collaborative efforts on a voluntary

    basis between our organizations. We are open to share experiences and resources

    to assist each other with the unique challenges of campus ministry.

The agreement is an update of an earlier document approved

by leaders of Campus Crusade for Christ, Navigators, Young Life and InterVarsity

in 1971. Those organizations wanted to modify the language of their

partnership, and they identified other ministries that might want to join them.

Jim Lundgren, senior vice president and director of

collegiate ministries for InterVarsity, said their hope was that 10 or 12

ministries would be represented in the new agreement.

“To our surprise, 16 of the 17 came for the 24-hour meeting.

The one campus director who could not come made a pledge to sign whatever we

developed,” Lundgren said in a news release.

The group wanted to write a clear and simple agreement that “did

not read like a theological treatise or a legal document.”

“I believe that the spirit of partnership and respect that

we experienced together is as important as what we produced in the actual

agreement,” Lundgren said. “I see the Chicago Agreement as a sign of the work

of the Holy Spirit in our movement and in leadership of these other movements.”

Lundgren said the leadership group plans to meet every three

years in order to modify the agreement as necessary and to learn from each

other in the task of reaching college students for Christ.

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Roach is an assistant editor of

Baptist Press.)

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