Campus ministry at Auburn: community, mission, and lasting impact
Perry Rubin describes how Auburn Christian Fellowship centers on relationships, consistent community life, and an evangelistic presence on campus. He explains how students grow through shared rhythms of worship, service, and discipleship during their college years.
- Campus ministry thrives through close community and everyday relationships.
- University life can challenge faith, making grounding and connection crucial.
- Graduates often carry their formation into local church service and global mission.
By Brad Dupray
Perry Rubin has been ministering to the students of Auburn University in Alabama since 1993. When Dean Collins started Auburn Christian Fellowship in 1978, “campus ministry” was a fledgling idea in the deep South that had yet to take hold. Since that time Christian church and church of Christ campus ministries have taken shape at major universities throughout the United States. Perry is a master’s level graduate of Emmanuel School of Religion and Fuller Seminary and has served in local churches in Tennessee, California, and Georgia. He and his wife, Laura, have three children, Rebekah (15), Rachel (14), and Noah (9).
Life inside a campus ministry
What happens at a campus ministry?
There’s the program side of things—Bible studies, small groups, retreats, mission trips—much like the programs you would find in a church. But on a deeper level, most of the campus ministries I’m familiar with are really founded on relationships, working to form community.
It seems the nature of the ministry—working in close-knit environment like a university—would encourage community.
I tell people campus ministry, from my viewpoint, is a lot more like the church is intended to be. I see that students are involved in, or touched by, our ministry four, five, or six days a week. We become family for these students who come from all over the globe. It’s people really involved in each other’s lives—playing together, studying together, and worshiping together 24/7.
Shouldn’t a local church fulfill that role?
I think the local church should be fulfilling that role, but it seems the connections—with God and with others—and the need for connection among this generation of young people is being found in the community where they live. Most of our students at Auburn go to some church in the area on Sunday. But during the week this is where they are. There are students for whom we are their church, and for most of them I would say we’re their primary place of fellowship.
What does the campus ministry offer that the local church doesn’t offer?
The biggest thing is that sense of community, and I think community is really huge. It’s connection. Our students go to classes together, go to dinner together, and share apartments. I think we can be a little more adventuresome, too. We can more easily try new things we think will really help our students get connected
Evangelism and campus culture
Is the primary role of campus ministry evangelistic?
I would say yes, on several levels. We are here to be a living, organic testimony to not only the individual students but to the university; we provide the invitation of Christ to join the journey. It’s also evangelistic in that there are a lot of young people from Christian backgrounds who get lost at the university because the university doesn’t have a lot of room for faith.
Is the university antagonistic toward Christianity, or simply neutral?
I don’t think it’s equipped to deal with issues of faith. It can be a shock when you sit in a class and have a professor say, “This is a biology class and we teach evolution. If you insist on God and creation I’m going to fail you.” These are people in authority who, according to our culture, hold your future in their hands. They’ll be disparaging about faith (not every one of them). They use their authority to blast faith, so it can be a difficult situation for kids who aren’t grounded.
How do you compete with everything happening on campus to draw students to the campus ministry?
It’s all relational. It’s kids bringing their friends. We advertise through the newspaper and campus radio, but we primarily rely on relationships. We try to create an atmosphere of acceptance and love and fun. If something exciting is going on kids are going to bring their friends.
Give me an example of what “goes on?”
We have a big fellowship meal on Thursday evening as a part of our budget. When Dean Collins started the ministry in 1978, he started it as a Thursday night free meal. It’s an outreach. We buy the groceries, and the students cook the meals. We encourage people to invite friends. It’s a nonthreatening way for a non-Christian to set foot in a Christian place. We show videos, play games, make announcements about our ministry, and we get names. That’s what Thursday night is about—we get names.
Do Christian church students gravitate toward your ministry?
They’re among the hardest kids to get involved in this ministry and I’m not sure why (though I have ideas). Phil Hudson, one of my missionary heroes, suggested perhaps it’s because we do a good job of getting kids involved in church but not really discipling them to follow Jesus—they are connected to a church, but not necessarily to Christ. He is not the source of their identity or their ground of life in this world. So when they leave their home and their town and their church, they’re not looking for a replacement for their church, a place and community in which they can sustain their faith and grow spiritually, because it is not a cornerstone of who they are. I think there’s a good bit of truth in that.
Formation that goes beyond graduation
Doesn’t campus ministry just have a short-term effect as students come and go?
Campus ministry in the modern Western world is essential if we are going to fulfill the Great Commission. The apostle Paul targeted urban areas because he knew it was from those areas that ideas spread to the culture. I think that same thing is taking place at the modern university. Students come from all over the world to places like Auburn. Last year we baptized a young woman from Harbin, China. Her dream is to return to China, teach in a school, and share the love of Jesus in her town. There are few ministries that have the potential to reach the world with the gospel like the university campuses in our country.
The future of our country is on university campuses today. Presidents, teachers, doctors, moms, and dads—they’re here for three or four or five years and then it’s like the dandelion pod; it explodes and they’re all over the face of the globe. There’s nothing with potential to reach the world like campus ministry.
How do you prepare students for ministry after college?
We focus a lot on their relationship with Christ, their place in the world, and emphasizing they are the hands and feet of Jesus to this world. We talk about faith as “whole life,” that real faith expresses itself in how we run businesses, spend our money and time, treat people in life, and determine our choice of careers. I try to get them to think in terms of how God wants to fit them into his plan for the expansion of his kingdom, how their work is a gift of and from God, and that wherever they go they are always there as children of God, ambassadors of Christ
After students graduate do they integrate into the local church?
Yes, I think they do. I can’t make a broad-brush statement about that, but many of ACF’s former students are missionaries, teaching Sunday school, working with youth groups, and serving as deacons and preachers. We’re working to build the local church once students leave here. Over my 15 years here that has obviously been my prayer.
How defined are the denominational lines of campus ministry groups?
We are a part of the campus ministry association here at Auburn, and most universities have some organization like that. At Auburn we meet together, we’re friends, and we all understand we’re working for the same thing. Just like in the local church, we’ve got a number of students who are involved here and other places. At Auburn there are 15 campus ministries, so you can go to a Bible study every night if you want. And most of the local churches have some kind of a college ministry. If you’re a Christian “consumer” (which is not a good thing) you can get something every day.
Do you ever feel alone?
Oh yeah. At Auburn we’re kind of on an island. Campus ministry is really a 24/7 thing, so when students are here you don’t have time to do a whole lot else. In between semesters you have a lot of flexibility. That said, like us, most of the campus ministries I know have people in congregations that support them and are interested in what they’re doing and have a vision for reaching the university and a vision for reaching the world. And we know we are here for the purposes of God, by his will, involved in a world-changing mission. At times I feel a bit isolated, but when I sit back and think about it, we have a whole family of partners that have a passion for what we do—giving and praying and fighting alongside us to get university students connected to Jesus, his Word, and his community in a life-changing relationship That’s just cool.
Brad Dupray is senior vice president, investor development, with Church Development Fund, Irvine, California.
