Christian Reformed

Welcome to the homepage of the Christian Reformed Campus Ministry at Brock University!
In partnership with chaplains from other denominations and faith groups at Brock, the Christian Reformed Campus Ministry aims to provide the spiritual needs of all students, faculty and staff.

On campus, the Christian Reformed campus minister seeks to be a constant symbol of God's presence in everyone's life and to be a witness to the love of Jesus Christ that commands us to love God and one another.

This love embraces everyone on campus, no matter what his or her faith or belief system may be. It finds expression in a whole variety of actions, from counselling a student through the stress of a troubled relationship, or offering support to a faculty member or a member of staff who is experiencing a family crisis, to organizing social justice programs either locally or abroad.

An important component of the Christian Reformed campus minister's work is focused on the Christian students, faculty and staff on campus. Through various ministry efforts and programs (book- and panel discussions, public lectures, retreats, fun events), the campus minister wants to support and encourage them in their journey toward God and to help them gain a better understanding of how to apply their faith in everyday life. However, this is always done in a context of sensitivity and mutual respect, a context in which there is always room for difference of opinion as well as for the expression of doubts and questions.

Contact
The CRC campus minister's office on campus is in Decew Residence, R217, just around the corner from Decew Cafeteria and the After Hours' Lounge. First-time visitors are advised to go to the Information Desk in Schmon Tower (the tallest building on campus) and to phone André at x3134.

Office hours: 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (Monday to Friday)
Telephone: 905-688-5550 x3134
E-mail: abasson@brocku.ca

The Mission of the Christian Reformed Campus Ministry at Brock
The relationship of the Christian Reformed campus minister with the Brock community can best be described as one of prophetic or critical solidarity. The example is that of the Old Testament prophets. On the one hand, they were fully part of the people they served. On the other hand, they also maintained a healthy distance in order to be able to identify and condemn — in a spirit of genuine humility — policies or actions that did not promote the cause of justice for all and concern for persons marginalized or excluded by the rest of society.

Thus, for example, in the face of the widespread philosophy which claims that the purpose of a university education is exclusively to teach students job skills and to prepare them for a career, the Brock Christian Reformed campus ministry wishes to encourage and even challenge the University to remain faithful to its calling as an institution of higher learning, which is primarily to pursue and seek to instil in its students modes of thinking and conduct that will promote the well-being of all creation.

Furthermore, the Christian Reformed campus ministry at Brock aims to foster a culture of imagination and hope on campus, i.e. a culture that is free from the many dangerous ideologies that have found a welcoming home in our universities (e.g. ideologies characterized by greed, egoism, and the pursuit of self-gratification). It wants to inspire the academic community and everyone associated with it to see beyond the present and imagine what our world can be if, for example, justice and compassion rather than exploitation and naked profit were to determine economic policy. It also wants to invite everyone on campus to hope such a world is not only possible, but inevitable, because it has been promised by God.

In an age when university curricula have become increasingly specialized, thus transforming the university into a multiversity, a Reformed campus ministry will endeavor to promote learning that sees all elements of God's creation as interrelated. Consequently, it will also seek to create opportunities for students and faculty to discuss important issues (e.g. globalization or the rise of religious fundamentalism) from a perspective that includes a whole variety of disciplines and areas of academic specialization.

At the same time, the Christian Reformed campus ministry at Brock fully appreciates and even celebrates the rich diversity of background, opinion and lifestyle represented on campus. It certainly does not want to impose its views on students, faculty and staff whose views are different from its own, or who may even be hostile to the Christian faith.

This approach to campus ministry is underpinned by the following convictions

1. The whole world belongs to God. The fact that Christ came to this world as a human affirms that God cares not only about our souls, but about our bodies as well. In fact, all of creation is important to him.

2. Unfortunately our world is no longer what God originally intended it to be, namely a place of peace, justice and harmony between God and all of creation, and between humankind and the rest of creation.

3. Yet, we also have God's promise that all of it will be restored and renewed.

4. For this reason, we are driven by hope, not a pie-in-the-sky kind of hope, but a hope that has its feet firmly planted in the amazing things God has already done for us throughout human history, notably in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

5. Learning more about this world — whether through philosophy, economics, or the sciences — is an essential part of the Christian life and our relationship with God

6. This learning is not just about acquiring knowledge for its own sake. Its purpose is above all to qualify people to get involved in God's restoration purpose. The University, or any institution of learning for that matter, therefore occupies a very special place in God's plan. (While this perspective on learning may not be unique to the Christian Reformed Church, the denomination can nevertheless claim to belong to a tradition that has always emphasized the importance of education, especially at the college and university level. This tradition goes back to the French Reformer, John Calvin (1509-1564). Calvin was a fervent supporter of institutions of learning and, at one time of his life, was himself a professor. Wherever they settled, Calvin's intellectual heirs established colleges, many of which later became famous universities. Harvard University is perhaps the best-known example in North America).

7. Every person who in daily life (work or leisure) in some way contributes to making the world a better place (e.g. improving the environment) and to helping others develop their full potential as human beings (e.g. combating racism or poverty), participates in God's act of re-creation, whether that person is aware of it or not. However, not just individuals are the agents of this process of restoration, institutions like universities also have a calling in this regard.

How does this play out on a secular university campus like Brock where many faiths and beliefs systems are represented? How does this affect members of the Brock community who are not interested in religion or even opposed to it? Shouldn't any publicly funded institution in a multicultural context like a university be a neutral space, off limits to religion (except as an academic discipline) or, for that matter, to any set of beliefs that is not based on hard facts? In any case, isn't faith something that belongs strictly to one's private life?

One of the great lies that is currently considered the truth on many Canadian university campuses claims that the pursuit of knowledge is and should be a neutral activity in which there is no room for any personal beliefs or views. It insists that whether one is analyzing a literary text, studying an economic system, or conducting an experiment in a laboratory, one should remain objective and stick to the facts. But no matter how objective we try to be, no matter what we're studying or researching, we always do it within a particular interpretive framework or worldview. This interpretive framework or worldview is not necessarily of a religious kind. It can even be purely scientific, as in the case of the person who seeks to find a purely scientific explanation for everything and believes it is the only valid one.

At Brock, which identifies itself as a secular university (as opposed to universities that openly pursue a religious mandate), Christianity only requests that it will be allowed the same space and respect — no more and no less — as any other interpretive framework or worldview, not just in the private life of students, faculty and staff, but also in every other sphere of life on campus.
 

Selected Recommended Reading

Cobb, J.B. (ed.): Christian Faith and Religious Diversity (Augsburg Fortress, Minneapolis, 2002)

Dunn, R.R.: The Spiritual Life of Students. A Guide For Youth Workers, Pastors, Teachers and Campus Ministers (Intervarsity Press, Downers Grove, 2001)

Klassen, N. and Zimmermanm, J.: The Passionate Intellect. Invarnational Humanism and the Future of University Education (Baker Academic, Grand Rapids, 2006)

Moltmann, J.: In the End - the Beginning (SCM Press, London, 2004 [English Translation])

Opitz, D. and Melleby, D.: The Outrageous Idea of Academic Faithfulness. A Guide For Students (Brazos Press, Grand Rapids, 2007)

Parks, S.D., Big Questions, Worthy Dreams. Mentoring Young Adults in Their Search for Meaning, Purpose, and Faith (Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 2000)

Pearcy, N.: Total Truth. Liberating Christianity From Its Cultural Captivity (Crossway Books, Wheaton Illinois, 2004)

Plantinga, C.: Engaging God's World. A Christian Vision of Faith, Learning and Living (Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2002)

Vanhoozer, K., Anderson, C.A., Sleasman, M.J.: Everyday Theology. How To Read Cultural Texts and Interpret Trends (Baker Academic, Grand Rapids, 2007)

Wells, D.F.: Above All Earthly Pow'rs. Christ in a Postmodern World (Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2005)

White, S.L: The College Chplain. A Pratical Guid to Campus Ministry (The Pilgrim Press, Cleveland, 2005)

News and Events
TBA.

Links
To come.