The Virtues of Being the “Visiting Team”

This is a post about campus ministry. But let me begin by noting that Penn State has 8 (eight!) home football games this year. Most colleges can’t schedule this way. Penn State is one of the few who can. Why is this?

Penn State has an insatiable demand for tickets, and possesses both the largest stadium and the largest alumni association in the country. Each home game is incredibly lucrative, and they have no problem lining up teams, such as Akron, Syracuse, and Temple (our first three opponents), who will accept a nice payout in return for being annihilated in front of 110,000+ adoring Nittany Lion fans. Penn State has everybody coming to them, because they can.

But is this a good idea? For the fans and for the coffers, it makes sense. Yet I’ve seen Penn State roundly criticized by ESPN and other prognosticators for having the “2nd weakest schedule” in college football. We’re compared unfavorably with Ohio State, who’s playing USC in a few weeks. In the politics of college football, voters seem inclined to forgive Ohio State for risking a non-conference loss in September. Just because you can schedule all home games doesn’t mean you should.

Why do I bring this up? Because most campus ministries today act like we’re Penn State–and our situation is more like Temple’s. (Sorry to pick on you, Owls. You know I luv ya). On the campus gridiron of ideas, we’re not competitive. We’re an afterthought. At best, we’re tolerated with a condescending pat on the head. At worst, we’re regarded as a threat to the institution and threatened with expulsion (as Temple was kicked out of the Big East). While we may have a few Appalachian State vs. Michigan moments here and there, in general we’re not competitive, not admired, and worst of all–not even on the radar. In many places, we are irrelevant. Forget the Top 25, forget BCS–we’re just looking for a winning season.

The absurdity of it all is that we keep scheduling home games, week after week after week. But the masses aren’t coming to see us, and the other teams aren’t interested in scheduling us. We end up running scrimmages for the faithful few to watch on our turf, but not a lot is getting done. The spring exhibition game is fun in April, but who wants to watch that in September, October, November, and New Year’s Day?

Campus ministries need to wake up. We are not Penn State. We can’t keep scheduling home games. Even if we can, we shouldn’t. We need to put on the white jerseys and become the visiting team. We need to go to the arenas that matter, and start matching up.

Case in point: The other night I went to the first meeting of the year of the Penn State Atheist-Agnostic Association. For the second year in a row, I was the only Christian present.  Like many Christians, atheists feel they are a persecuted minority. But atheists are more accustomed to marginalization and stigma, (if not less agitated by it). For example, several of them make it a practice to visit different churches on Sunday mornings. They may be there to mock and laugh among themselves, I don’t know, but the point is they go. They’re willing to be the away team. Consequently, they are much more adept at articulating their beliefs and engaging with those who disagree with them.

On the other hand, Christians are notorious for retreating to our bunkers. But if we were half as willing to venture out of our holy huddles, and onto someone else’s turf, we might find we’re making some actual progress. At that atheist meeting, I met a bunch of new people and had several great conversations with students who were intrigued that I was there. I invited several of them to Sojourn, my faith-and-doubt forum. Only one student seemed offended that I was there, and had some harsh words for me. But I’ll go into any arena if that’s all I have to deal with!

The point of missional, incarnational ministry is that we leave our comfort zones, and go to people. We meet them where they are. I can think of at least three reasons why it’s good to be the visiting team:

1. It’s disarming. No question of you pulling a power-play if you’re the only Christian in the room!

2. It shows you’re willing to listen. In case you haven’t noticed, that’s one of the most common complaints people have about Christians.

3. It’s what Jesus did, isn’t it?