Progressive Christian
Life on Campus

Join our ZOE Community!

 

Becoming a ZOE campus ministry affiliate is simple!  No dues are required.  If your ministry fits our understanding of progressive Christianity,* is willing to add/link ZOE in your public identity, and will encourage your students and leaders to participate in ZOE's community, you're in! Just email us to be listed HERE. You'll be joining a community of mutual support and fellowship globally. Students, campus ministry professionals, and supporters:  get our E-NEWS for program ideas, events/gatherings for students and staff, news, and best practices by emailing us HERE! - ask to be added to the list...  Students:  start a ZOE Pod - a student-led group - or campus ministry! Students:  coming soon:  the ZOE Podcast!  - hosted by students, for students and young adults everywhere -- focused on what matters to our generation: personally, spiritually, and collectively...  We're assembling an impressive crew of hosts and contributors.  Want to be on the podcast team?  Email us!  And follow ZOE on INSTAGRAM for the latest happenings in progressive Christian life on campuses everywhere.

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Changing Your Campus Ministry Affiliation

ZOE welcomes campus ministry chapters and their staff members into our network!  But we know that making this change can, in many cases, be very challenging.  Campus staffers and their campus ministries often outgrow the theology and social values of the networks in which they are embedded.  But leaving those networks can be a wrenching process, spiritually, emotionally, relationally, and practically.

 

We’re here to help!

 

Unlike evangelical campus Christian fellowship networks, in which staffers raise money and send it to the national organization which then pays their salaries (after taking a cut), our network is an association with no financial or other kinds of control over chapters on campuses.  Many of our ZOE affiliate chapters are sponsored financially, or are staffed, by local churches and/or mainline Protestant denominations.  And other chapters are completely independent organizations, financially supported by individuals and local churches of multiple denominations.

 

ZOE affiliation is easy and free. But we know that for the many campus staffers and ministries that would like to affiliate with us, or otherwise leave their existing affiliation behind, things are not so simple.

 

We’re at your service, confidentially, as you begin your discernment about making the switch:

 

• We can coach you with confidential spiritual support and practical advice as you go through the process of clarifying your identity and broadening your affiliations. We can advise you regarding the different options you can pursue to continue your work on your campus as you transition to a progressive identity.  We can put you in touch with mentors – progressive pastors and leaders in the neighborhood of your ministry, and "ex-vangelical" peers who are going on journeys similar to yours.  We can stand beside you and offer spiritual support as you go through your theological "deconstruction" and "reconstruction" process.

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• We can connect you with local progressive churches and other groups through which you may be able to create a new base of financial and other practical support as you change affiliation.

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• We can connect you with the campus ministry networks of the mainline Protestant denominations with which we work closely.  In addition to affiliating with ZOE, you may want to affiliate or have a relationship with one or more of them.

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• We can advise you regarding your professional development as you make the transition.  We can guide you in checking out graduate education in ministry or related fields, and/or pursuing ordination in a mainline Protestant denomination.

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• We can provide you with resources - Bible study guides, worship and program materials, online events, etc, that introduce your students to the progressive understanding of the faith.  You can begin to integrate your students into the ZOE community before making a formal switch of affiliation.

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Email us at zoeprogressivechristianlife@gmail.com  to start the conversation!

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*Here are some helpful descriptions of progressive Christianity:  Convergence: "Values"  -- John Pavolivitz: "Explaining progressive Christianity" -- Lydia Sohn - "Brief Primer on Progressive Christianity"

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