The National Campus Ministry Seminar this year is going to take things to a whole new level. These are exciting times in campus ministry, as the seeds of a lot of visionary thinking are starting to take root in small but important ways. Over the last several years, the Campus Crosswalk organization has become more relevant, more and more leaders are venturing into the waters of campus-ministry centered church plants, the church as a whole is awakening bit by bit to the mission of campus ministry, and more students who have had their lives changed by campus ministry are choosing to dedicate their lives to that calling.

One thing that feeds a lot of that enthusiasm is the National Campus Ministry Seminar. This year will mark the 50th meeting of campus ministry leaders, visionary church leaders, and students from all over the nation. And, unlike the previous 50 years, the seminar is not being run by a particular campus ministry but by the Crosswalk Board itself. It will be at the home of Mustangs for Christ at SMU in Dallas, but the board is designing the program, so a tremendous amount of freedom has been afforded to take things forward. Along with some important movements in Churches of Christ, NCMS has joined the efforts to help spearhead unification efforts with the Independent Christian Churches. This is very important for campus ministry because together these movements can combine incredible resources. I was deeply affected last year by Dean Trune of Impact Ministries, a campus ministry-focused church planting effort of the Christian Churches. He brought things to the table that nobody in our movement would have last year, and I would not have been able to learn from those things had we not been open to cooperation with them.

If you have even the slightest interest in campus ministry, attend NCMS. It will open your eyes to the true mission of campus ministry across America. The revisioning of NCMS this year is going to blow the top off this event and extend its reach and impact even more. And it will be in Dallas, so it won't be far.

PLUS, I will be teaching a class about what campus ministers need to know about social networking on the internet (MySpace, Facebook, Blogging, Instant Messaging, etc). There is only one day of classes this year, so I'll be competing against some big names. Register and come so that I can have some people in my class!

Click here for 2006 National Campus Ministry Seminar