PUBLIC CAMPUS MINISTRIES (PCM) DEPARTMENT, WAD
God’s Ambassadors to the Campuses of Higher Learning
The gospel mandate is to reach every creature, tongue and people with the good news of salvation in Christ Jesus, including students in the campuses (Universities / Colleges / Polytechnics) of higher learning. But while we cannot as a church freely reach-out in this context, we can send ambassadors to do the work in our behalf. This is where the work of the Public Campus Ministries department comes in. Our children/church members in the tertiary institutions of learning are actually God’s ambassadors to the campuses where they study. It is our duty as a church (the sending entity) to provide for all their needs and create appropriate environment and opportunities for them to adequately represent Christ in these campuses. Ellen G. White adds a voice to the unspeakable value of our ambassadors in the campuses when she said even Satan “knows that there is no other class that can do as much good as young men and young women who are consecrated to God. The youth, if right, could sway a mighty influence. Preachers, or laymen advanced in years, cannot have one-half the influence upon the young, that the youth, devoted to God, can have upon their associates…You can do a work that those who minister in word and doctrine cannot do. You can reach a class whom the minister cannot affect” Messages to Young People, 204, 207.
Furthermore, redeeming and restoring our young people in the campuses via Public Campus Ministry is also a means of achieving the daunting challenge of reaching the upper-class of society that has confronted the church until date. These young people in the Universities/Colleges/Polytechnics will constitute the upper-class of society and will be a handy channel for the church in reaching the upper-class of society. So let us rethink and support the work of Public Campus Ministry for a better today and a greater tomorrow.
The General Conference of Seventh-day Adventist church has led the way by making PCM a department of the church’s ministries and electing a director/coordinator to lead the work. WAD has followed and likewise our Unions and Conferences/Missions. We look forward to every Local Church electing a PCM coordinator for 2017 church officers throughout WAD territory.