new-media and collegiate ministry

I got this today from my alma mater:

The Office of Development is currently working on a story about alumni that have published books or have done musical recordings. … If you or any other alumni that you know of are involved in any writing projects or musical endeavors, please contact me.

Thanks so much!

It’s way cool that we’ve so many alumni publishing, but many of us graduate from seminary into fields where there just isn’t the opportunity for much publishing to be done. For example, my beloved vocation, collegiate ministry, sees guys like Benson Hines doing the hard work of traveling the continent to produce a freely distributed ebook, Steve Lutz writing and self publishing print worthy essays, and C for C bigwig Brian Barela colaborating online to do the same thing with an ebook on starting new campus ministries. There are plenty of reasons for this. It’s a widely unrecognized and underdeveloped field. You’ll be hard pressed to find seminaries that offer degrees specific to collegiate ministry, which means there aren’t a lot of classes looking for books or professors producing them. And let’s face it, if someone wrote a book that every collegiate minister in North America would be likely to read, it will never sell like the latest mass appeal, fits-nicely-between-the-precious-moments-figurines-and-footprints-posters Christian bookstore book.

I’m not complaining. There’s certainly room to develop our field and work to where there is more publishing, reading, and teaching going on around this thing that we do, but more than that, embracing new-media is the way to go, and the way we’re going. In fact, in a field where we’re never likely to compete with vocations like pastoral ministry, church planting, and worship leading, I find myself grateful for the meaningful connections and learning that new-media have made possible. And, to be quite honest, for the most part, I prefer it. It elevates thoughtful practitioners above the place of pure academics. This means that I get to read faithful field workers and ministry leaders who have practical, lived out, proven, and real things to say. It means that academics who lend their voice to the conversation, for whom I am grateful, (see Stackhouse and McKnight) carry due authority without being the only voices we have access to. It also means that a guy like me can contribute and take part in more significant ways than attending an occasional conference. Like Martin Luther with the printing press, we’ve the opportunity to ride a new wave of media technology, and to shape how it will be used as we do.

If my seminary ever does decide to call for bloggers, they’ll find myself, Kyle, Kristin, Jason, and Anita typing away. Of course, by then, I’ll probably have finished my book… :p Nevertheless, I’m looking forward to tonight’s old fashioned academic lecture at the seminary, where I expect to learn much that I can apply right where I’m at.

related link: Seth Godin has some good thoughts on how new-media can improve academic instruction, and save you money on textbooks at the same time.