Written by: CampUs4
11/19/2009 3:17 PM

 Getting Started

by Don Morrison

Moving to Tampa to work with students at the University of South Florida, I felt very alone. We were welcomed into the Tampa Bay Church of Christ, a loving congregation with a passion to reach out to students. The church had been planted in the early 1970s by young college graduates who had themselves become Christians on a public university campus. There was just one major problem that had to be dealt with: by the time my family and I had arrived on the scene, there was no campus ministry and only a couple of students.

The University of South Florida had close to 40,000 students at that time, about 3500 on campus housing units and thousands of apartments within a five mile radius of campus. I lived about 1.5 miles north of campus in a house selected because of its large Great Room; Donna and I were committed to having students in our home at every opportunity. After some distractions at church, we set to work.

There was a lot of planning for the hope of bringing in students to our church. The congregation looked forward to the new life and vibrancy of university students among us. They were ready to host events, prepare meals, open their homes, and generally support and love whatever students would come to us. One of the students who was already with us became a best friend and co-worker to me. Though he was working on a doctorate in electrical engineering, he chose to make time to reach out to students on campus. Every Tuesday and Thursday we would find a basketball court that attracted people, usually behind one of the dorms, and hang out and play for a few hours. We had printed business cards and invitations for whatever event we had coming up which we would give to anyone who would take them. We planned the events knowing that, most of the time, no one would show up except us. We decided not to be discouraged if no one came, but to pray for those we had hoped would come and plan our next contacts with students. Then we ate and laughed at ourselves and kept moving forward. 

We also met people through our Welcome Back Picnic which we hosted at the beginning of the school-year. Our church always made this a success by being there and being friendly. We posted invitations everywhere, set up tents on campus, and went out in groups to each of the dorms and met students and helped them move in. We invited them to our picnic and gave away lots of food along with information about who we were and what we were doing. Our church fed students every Wednesday night before Bible study and often on Sundays. Food is always a great way to attract university students. Each semester we had an International Student Dinner where our international students could showcase their country’s cuisine. We provided money for ingredients and pots and pans and kitchen appliances in our homes and they gave us wonderful tastes of their home. We bought dozens of pizzas and dropped into a dorm and emptied box after box to serve and meet students. We hosted lectures and concerts on campus. We bathed everything in prayer, believing that God would bless our efforts. All this happened before we were really established. One semester the university changed the rules for student organizations, and I had to scramble just to find student acquaintances who would sign on so we could maintain our official status and have use of facilities.

After about 18 months in Tampa, we had our first new student. We had played basketball several times, and he was seeking God. We studied together, and he was baptized in a public swimming pool. He was a great young man who loved people and made things fun. Soon afterward we were meeting more people and studying the Bible with several who were already working with us. We felt that our job was to reach out to people of all stripes and help them mature in Jesus – that meant attracting people, teaching who Jesus is, committing oneself to Christ, growing in the Lord, and learning how to do these things for one another. We baptized a lot of people through our outreach. In fact, most of our students did not come from a Church of Christ background, and they were eager to share what they were learning with others.

It was not our goal to merely give students a group to be with. We did not want to be merely a respite for our own members. Certainly we were that for our students, but we wanted to be an outpost of God’s kingdom, a mission point among the most fertile soil in our nation. We hoped that it would become a touchstone in those students’ lives so that they would become leaders in their congregations when they graduated and moved on.

From 1991 to 1999, Don Morrison was a campus minister in Tampa, where he started the ministry that Lynn Stringfellow now leads. Don currently serves as pulpit minister with South Eleventh and Willis Church of Christ in Abilene, Texas. He and his wife, Donna, have three children.

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