What Churches are Influential in University Communities? (RJS)

Scot linked yesterday to the Missio Alliance website – where the page starts with an observation: “North America has become a mission field. In large parts of our culture, Christianity now exists at the margins and is met with a sense of antagonism amidst the growth of religious pluralism.”

Nowhere is this more true than on our college and university campuses – especially our elite secular colleges and universities. Universities are great places, the environment is exciting, the intellectual atmosphere challenging. But there is no doubt that these are also mission fields – fields as significant as any other place on the globe.

I’ve spent 30 years in secular universities as student, scholar, and professor. This is an area where I have had a longstanding interest, especially but not solely focused on issues at the intersection of science and the Christian faith. But I don’t have broad experience with University ministries. So today I have a question, and would like to get some input from readers.

What churches in America and Canada are especially influential in university communities? Many churches have undergraduate ministries, but I am especially interested in churches where there are a significant number of faculty and graduate students, Churches located in university towns or university “neighborhoods” throughout the country.

If you have good examples you can drop them in comments (I am not interested in criticisms today, but positive comments are also welcome). You can also send the names of good examples via e-mail to my usual address: rjs4mail[at]att.net.