Campus Ministry in Salt Lake City: Faithfulness in a Challenging Mission Field
Tommy and Jennifer White share their experiences establishing a campus ministry among college students in Salt Lake City, Utah. From cultural and spiritual challenges to the slow work of building relationships, their journey highlights the importance of perseverance in reaching students. Their story emphasizes faithfulness over measurable success and trusting God with the results.
- Campus ministry in Utah presents unique cultural, spiritual, and relational challenges.
- Building meaningful relationships with students requires patience, hospitality, and consistent engagement.
- Faithfulness in ministry matters even when spiritual growth is difficult to measure.
By Tommy and Jennifer White
“Jesus hasn’t come through for me. There is no ‘Savior.’ We save ourselves,” said Craig, a University of Utah student who was baptized into Christ in spring 2010.
He read the Bible and prayed. He worshipped in community and served in a local church. He struggled with addictions. He expected Jesus, and other believers, to provide the perpetual high he craved.
Today he’s angry and has walked away from Jesus.
After three years of seeking to establish a body of Christ followers on college campuses in Utah, we’ve realized—sometimes through disappointment—we may not see measurable fruit for some time. Salt Lake City’s culture is unlike any we’ve experienced before.
Our Journey to the Wasatch Front
In 2005, the founder of Impact Ministries, Dean Trune, challenged us to pray about relocating to Salt Lake City with the intention of reaching college students. In 2008, after much prayer, we packed up our three children and stepped out to join God in what we believed he was doing.
The Foreign Country
We’ve heard Utah described as a “foreign country bordered on all sides by the U.S.” People mostly view Utah as a Mormon state, and Latter-day Saints do make up roughly two-thirds of the population. LDS members are famous for their family values and strong patriotism. There is, however, a dark and troubling layer found directly beneath the surface that makes ministering to college students in Utah a unique challenge.
For example, research reveals that Utah and its residents rank at or near the top in antidepressant prescriptions, incidences of rape, and subscriptions to online pornography. There are more than 30,000 polygamists in the state, with some estimating that figure might be closer to 70,000. Recently, the Center for Disease Control reported Utah leads the nation in the number of adults per capita who entertain suicidal thoughts.
Steve, an atheist student with whom we meet, is one of these individuals. Still, his spiritual hunger has made him an occasional Bible study attendee.
The Local Campus Scene
The University of Utah is the state’s oldest and largest institution of higher learning, as well as a major research university. There were 31,000 students enrolled for the 2011-12 year, 5 percent of them international students from more than 100 different nations. The “U” is a commuter campus. On-campus housing provides beds for roughly 10 percent of the school’s enrollment. There isn’t much school spirit on campus since students want to attend classes and then go home. Coming back to the campus for an evening Bible study doesn’t fit their lifestyle.
Westminster College (another local campus in Salt Lake City) was founded in 1875 to train young people for ministry under the guidance of the Presbyterian church. In 1976, there was a formal break from this original mission, and now Westminster is a secular liberal arts college with an enrollment of 3,200.
Planting
Ironically, our first opportunity on a campus was to lead a book study at Westminster in the fall of 2009. We struggled through that first semester. Some weeks, only one student would join us on Tuesday nights. But, through the semester we developed relationships with the few who did attend: an ex-Mormon-Baha’i, an agnostic, and a Christian.
Suzie, an agnostic, not only attended our meetings, but also presided over the school’s “Co-Exist” group. When she found herself in the hospital facing emergency surgery, she asked us to pray with her and her parents. Kim, another student, told us she became an LDS member through peer pressure in high school, but afterwards she raised questions about the faith with her LDS bishop. She was told to quit asking or leave. She left.
In 2010, we began to interact with more students at the University of Utah. We prayed, registered as an official school group, got word out to the few students we knew, and reserved a room at the student union. For several months, we met and studied the Bible, prayed, and got to know each other—all five of us!
Meeting through the summer helped us maintain our momentum. We met weekly for dinner, study, and prayer at our home. We were grateful to see more than 20 students, representing five countries, joining us as the year progressed. More importantly, we were building relationships with these students.
Recently we asked other campus ministers about the students their respective campus ministries were reaching. We came up with what we thought was an honest number, and added in a few more students who probably were involved in more obscure ministries on campus. By our best estimate, it appears only about 0.02 percent of the students are being reached by some sort of campus ministry. Amazing, isn’t it? (Interestingly, in our first year here, one campus ministry was running close to 100 students during a weekly worship night. There was a change in leadership the next year and the ministry shifted its focus to small groups. Last year it shut down completely.)
Reality Check
Every mission field has a unique culture. We’ve mentioned some of what makes Utah unique and challenging. But there is more.
Spiritual oppression: We’ve heard firsthand from many people visiting Utah who have experienced horrific nightmares. We’ve heard people speak of difficulties breathing, as if someone is crushing their chest, and of difficulty praying. We ourselves have experienced strange phenomena that defy logical explanation. And during our first 18 months, we had eight tires slashed.
Collegiate lifestyle: College students are at a major decision point in their lives. Bombarded by consumerism, relativism, postmodernism, secularism, and a large helping of hormones, they are sorting out for themselves what they believe and why. And all of this is in the midst of a culture dominated by Mormonism.
What Does Success Look Like in Salt Lake City?
Though we are still in a planting phase in this ministry, we’re encouraged to see God at work in powerful ways. Dave, a young man in our group, has decided to enter the ministry. He’ll be heading to Bible college this fall. Early on, we were able to teach the Bible to the wife of a South Korean graduate student. Jennifer has led an intense girls-only study on sexuality. Tommy meets weekly with a Chinese student, helping him respect women and follow Christ’s teachings.
And there’s Linda . . .
We met Linda, then an 18-year-old waitress and student at the “U,” three years ago while dining out. Tommy struck up a conversation with her and gave her our card. The next time we saw her, she said she liked our website, but wasn’t really into that kind of thing (i.e., religion, Jesus).
We continued to keep in touch. She joined us for Easter dinner. She became part of our lives, preparing our daughter’s hair for a special occasion, coming to our son’s basketball games. She began coming to our home more, joining and making friends with those in our group.
This past semester Linda would come over every Tuesday, hours before our Bible study began, and just hang out with us. She would chat and help Jennifer prepare food and clean house. But she would never stay for the Bible study. She shows interest in spiritual things once in a while, but to this day, she hasn’t stuck around for the whole study. What she has done is allow us into her life, and joined in ours.
In all of this, our calling is to be faithful. Paul wrote, “I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow” (1 Corinthians 3:6, New Living Translation).
Whether we’re planting or watering, we know the outcome is in God’s hands. God hasn’t called us to be successful in a worldly sense, he’s called us to be faithful. “Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart” (2 Corinthians 4:1).
Tommy and Jennifer White serve as campus ministers with Impact Campus Ministries as the Salt Lake City team leaders.
