The College Chaplain: A Practical Guide to Campus Ministry [With CD]

By Stephen L. White

The College Chaplain is a practical "nuts and bolts" guide to the everyday details of campus ministry. White has organized the book around the key roles and functions of a campus chaplain, as pastor, priest, rabbi, prophet, steward, herald, missionary, or pilgrim. The book provides many useful tips and suggestions for new and experienced campus ministers, including best practices and honest struggles from the author's experience.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0829816771
• ISBN13: 9780829816778
• Release Date: September 2005
• Publisher: Pilgrim Press
• Length: 191 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Very helpful for new chaplains

As a new university chaplain in a mainline denomination, I found The College Chaplain: A Practical Guide to Campus Ministry to be an invaluable primer on effective campus ministry. The book is structured so that each chapter addresses a different role in the ministry of the chaplain (e.g. "The Chaplain as Pastor"; "The Chaplain as Steward"; "The Chaplain as Herald"). These chapters offer insightful theological reflection on those roles, and that reflection is further enriched with a full complement of real-life stories and examples gleaned from the author's many years as a university chaplain. In many ways, this is less a book on _what_to_do_ and more a book on _how_to_be_ as a college chaplain. As such, it is a valuable addition to the bookshelf of anyone just coming into the challenging field of student ministry.

Very helpful and well-written

This is a really excellent overview of the practicalities of campus ministry. It also includes wonderful theological reflections about the topics covered. If you're interested in campus ministry, this is for you.

Wonderful Resource for Campus Denominational Ministry

"The College Chaplain" is a wonderful resource for anyone engaged in or contemplating denominational campus ministry. Stephen White's book is a very readable cross between a practical manual for those engaged in day to day ministry on college campuses and a gentle theological reflection on the role of campus chaplain more generally. Though much of the book is specific to the Princeton campus (where the author works), I find this specificity to be a strength in revealing the careful thought he has given to how he has shaped his ministry within his own context. Of course, readers will have to consider their own campus contexts as they use this book to help inform their own ministries. But the true joy of reading this book comes from being invited into how the author weaves together the many roles he plays as a chaplain -- a challenge that exists within all denominations and in every ministry setting. The book is quite readable -- I read it in only a couple hours, but I have continued to linger over the contents for many weeks. Admittedly, I am a seminarian, so books about ministry appeal to me, but what makes this one worth reading is the distinctive voice of the author: clearly a theological thinker, but engaged in the work of ongoing ministry that gives life and reality to his underlying theology. Though this book is written from within my own Christian denomination, I would recommend it to campus ministers from any tradition as it helps flesh out the many hats that a chaplain wears to his or her students.