The CAMPUS motto–”Taking Higher Education Higher”–reflects CAMPUS’s philosophy of excellence–academic excellence combined with spiritual excellence. CAMPUS believes that “higher education” must lead students to the “Most High” and seeks to make this objective an actual reality in the lives of all students.
Thus, of the different models of Adventist secular campus ministries, CAMPUS takes seriously the challenge of presenting the Three Angels’ messages to public universities. Patterning its training programs after the example of Ezra, CAMPUS seeks to encourage students to “study,” “practice,” and “proclaim” our distinctive Seventh-day Adventist message (Ezra 7:10).
What this means in practical terms is that all CAMPUS–sponsored programs and events must strive to accomplish the following three objectives:
- students must be carefully instructed in the fundamentals of the Adventist faith,
- students must be led to experience a transformation in their lives, and
- students must be encouraged to actively share their faith.
The above three objectives are captured in the vision of CAMPUS: To develop “a Bible-based revival movement in which every student is a missionary.“
In September 1998 Michigan Conference became the first in the North American Division (NAD) to create a department focused solely on ministry on secular university and college campuses. A year later, CAMPUS (Center for Adventist Ministry to Public University Students) was established as the nerve center of Michigan Conference’s Public Campus Ministries Department.
Located in Ann Arbor, MI, near the University of Michigan, CAMPUS is widely recognized for developing a credible Seventh-day Adventist secular campus ministry in North America. It is also widely perceived as the major center of a grassroots spiritual revival that is taking place among Adventist students and youth around the world. Among other things,
- CAMPUS has earned the trust of students and young people as the place where lives are transformed and where brilliant and godly leaders are developed;
- CAMPUS is the birth place and sponsor of GYC, a thriving, grassroots, revival movement organized and led by Adventist young adults (www.gycweb.org);
- CAMPUS has a biblically-grounded philosophy and methodology of ministry;
- CAMPUS has a viable, sustainable, carefully-planned, and year-round program of training for students;
- CAMPUS is one of the few ministries that has succeeded in actually creating a truly racially-diverse and mission-driven student movement;
- CAMPUS is fulfilling E.G.White’s 1895 statement that ministry to secular campuses is “a work [that] must be done, and it will be done by those who are led and taught of God” (3 Selected Messages, p. 234). Interestingly, this statement was made in connection with The University of Michigan–where CAMPUS is based!
