Campus ministers from across the nation Connect at Lipscomb campus

Rebecca Bilbo | 

The annual National Campus Ministries Seminar was hosted this year by Lipscomb University’s Hazelip School of Theology and Woodmont Hills church of Christ August 2-5.

Keynote speaker Dan Kimball
Lipscomb's own John Mark Hicks
Lipscomb's First Lady Rhonda Lowry
Titled “Connect: The Emerging Church,” the conference’s theme played off the new term coined for the recent nationwide movement within Protestant churches to reach the postmodern generation, especially the unchurched.

As campus ministers spend every day on the front lines with young emerging adults, the conference’s keynote speaker Dan Kimball, founder of Vintage Faith Church in California and author of The Emerging Church: Vintage Christianity for New Generations, discussed why emerging generations are changing, what they think about the church and how ministers can respond to their viewpoint.

Lipscomb’s Associate Professor of Bible Lee Camp was one of six keynote speakers for the event. He gave a talk titled “Which Jesus Are We Following?” Younger generations today often perceive tradition in the church as a negative, but Camp urged his listeners to find Jesus’ presence in all traditions, old and new.

Twenty-four classes were offered, taught by campus ministers, licensed counselors from Woodmont Hills, local ministers and Lipscomb professors, John Mark Hicks, Mark Black, John York and Rhonda Lowry.

  • Click here to learn more about Lipscomb's Bible faculty who taught at the conference.

More than 250 campus ministers came from all types of colleges across the United States including Alabama, California, Colorado, Delaware, Kentucky, Florida, Tennessee and West Virginia.

Campus ministers can often feel isolated, especially those who minister to non-religious schools, said Audrey Everson, of the College of Bible who helped coordinate Lipscomb’s participation in the conference. This annual conference allows them to get together, share ideas and pray for each other. It also provided the spiritual “meat” that challenges, encourages and prepares them for the upcoming school year, she said.

“College ministers are in a unique situation, sitting in the middle of this culture that doesn’t act much like the traditional church culture,” Everson said.