Our Mission
We are present on the campus of Dalhousie University to promote the integration of faith, learning, and lifestyle.
Our Vision
1] To draw students, faculty, and staff into community – a place – where we encounter the living God, where faith is nurtured, where the world of higher education is engaged and taken seriously, and where those who are in need are taken care of.
2] To prayerfully seek God’s word and wisdom as we pursue our academic endeavors, discern our cultural climate, and live well on God’s good earth.
3] To celebrate and bear witness to the love of God in Jesus Christ for the entire university community, encouraging people to follow God with all of their hearts, minds, and strength.
Here is a picture of what this looks like on the ground:
Hospitality
Our vision for this campus ministry is centered on hospitality. This is a “home-making” ministry. We seek to gather students in fellowship and around a common table to eat and to share life together. This is a safe place where trusting relationships are developed, Christian fellowship is experienced, and important faith and life issues are discussed. In this environment students experience something of a spiritual, emotional, intellectual, and physical “home away from home.”
Service
The vision for this campus ministry involves a desire to mobilize students to serve those who live in material poverty, homelessness, or have fallen on hard times. We try to make it possible for students to become involved in advocacy work, to build genuine relationships with others, and to get to know the faces of the people behind the issues that we are concerned about. We plan a number of volunteer opportunities for students throughout the academic year.
The Integration of Faith and Learning
The vision for this campus ministry involves a desire to help students, faculty, and staff explore how their faith informs their learning/work and how their learning/work informs their faith. We seek to help people develop a holistic world and life view.
This is facilitated through discussion groups, bible studies, prayer meetings, and worship gatherings. We also host an annual University Lecture Series in the fall semester. This series intends to enrich Dalhousie’s scholarly life and to testify to the contribution that Christian scholarship can make in the pursuit of academic faithfulness.
Having said this, we acknowledge that our academic work is not done in a vacuum and that we do not possess a neutral or objective perspective on reality. All of us bring a set of values and assumptions to the table of our academic endeavors. This is important to recognize because it helps to foster in us an attitude of humility as we learn and it helps us to better hear the voice of others.
We also believe that the integration of faith and learning is not just about obtaining knowledge (or a good job!). All learning should serve the ultimate purpose of helping us live well in God’s world. Therefore, we seek to draw people into not just a way of thinking, but to draw them into an alternative, Christ-centered way of living.
The Bible portrays a seamless continuity between our knowing and our doing. “Having an integrated perspective is not the goal; an integrated life is the goal. Learning isn’t merely for job readiness or self-advancement. Learning ought to be a way to love God and neighbor, a way to care for the creation and develop healthy communities” (The Outrageous Idea of Academic Faithfulness, 86).
Our Story
Beginning in the 1940’s in Michigan, Christian Reformed Campus Ministries has now spread throughout North America to more than 35 institutions of higher learning. These ministries have blessed thousands of students, faculty, and staff. By God’s grace, many students have been discipled and Christian leaders have been mentored and commissioned into service in all levels of governments, media, educational institutions, church, and business.
The Christian Reformed Campus Ministry at Dalhousie University was inaugurated in 2000. From that time, this ministry has sought to declare, explore, and celebrate the good news of Jesus Christ within the entire University community. As ambassadors of God's peaceable kingdom, it is our goal to become servants of all people.
This campus ministry is also a member of the Dalhousie Multifaith Centre. As such, we seek to embody the gospel of God’s kingdom in an ecumenical and multifaith context.