Why Boston University?

Chi Alpha Campus Ministries original strategy in Boston was to attempt to minister on as many campuses as possible. There was good fruit that came out of those years, but the size of individual university ministries was small and so the impact of Chi Alpha was limited. In 2009, we made a shift in our strategy. We are now concentrating on one campus in order to have a larger impact. Once that happens, then we will begin to export that success to other campuses.

Boston University makes a good target. It is the city's largest campus at 32,000. It also has the largest international student population. Large campuses tend to overwhelm students relationally and leads to greater distance between students and a sense of anonymity, but this tends to be true of any urban campus. If we can overcome this at Boston University, then we should be prepared for the social climate of the other campuses in the city. Truth be told though, we are concentrating on Boston University because God told us to start there.

What About the Other Forty-some Campuses?

We are not writing off the rest of the city. It is important that we remain focused. If we spread ourselves too thin, we will not go deep on any campus. But we have an open invitation to students from any other university to join on Boston University's campus for training and support, and we will prepare them to begin ministering on their campuses. We are partnering with area churches to create additional training opportunities. We can't go out to each college yet, but if students come to us, we will help them return to their campuses to make a difference.

A Place to Train Campus Missionaries

Our focus on one campus also allows us the time and energy to train campus missionaries. As a Chi Alpha Campus Ministries Internship, we are able to train potential campus missionaries from all over the U.S. By reproducing our leadership, we will be able to touch many more students than we could have otherwise. Instead of stretching ourselves too thin, we will raise up more co-workers to expand the work.