Although Campus Outreach shares many common commitments with other campus ministries, these are the distinctives that make Campus Outreach unique. We believe these are core commitments and are a part of the spiritual DNA that God has built into this movement. With His enabling, we desire to faithfully live out these commitments and be who He has called CO to be in the Kingdom and the Body of Christ.
Campus Outreach believes in a strong relationship with the church. Each regional ministry is under the authority and leadership of a local hub church, which provides a crucial source of accountability, leadership, and resources. Within each region, staff members and students of outlying campus ministries become involved in local churches.
Campus Outreach is called to be inter-denominational and yet deeply connected with the Bride of Christ. We are committed to our local-sending hub churches under whose authority and supervision we do all our work. Additionally, we desire to establish healthy and growing long-term relationships with other local/campus/national/indigenous churches in new areas where we are expanding. We believe that God is expanding His Kingdom throughout the world in many ways and that His Church, the Bride of Christ, is central to that expansion. It is only through, in, to, of, by, from, along-side, under, and with these churches that the CO Vision can be accomplished.
Campus Outreach has found that the most effective way to grow big is by staying small. Campus Outreach is actually made up of a network of more than 20 “franchises” throughout the world that all share the same vision, values, and strategic commitments. Because of our commitment to the church, each franchise is under the authority of a local hub church for that region. By continuing to send out new teams to new states and countries, each individual franchise stays relatively small while the movement of Campus Outreach grows – producing more and more leadership opportunities and building more and more laborers.
In order to fulfill the Campus Outreach vision, we create various Catalytic Events that are deemed critical for us in fulfilling our objectives on any particular campus and in any particular region of the work. These events range from weekly worship to eight-week gatherings and are attended by dozens to thousands of students. The intended purpose of such events includes evangelizing, establishing, equipping, and exporting/mobilizing. The desired participants at any one of these events might be male, female, exposed or unexposed to the Gospel, non-Christian, growing Christian, or Christian leaders.
We are passionately committed to build and multiply Teams who will live out the Gospel incarnationally in their context. We believe this is an application of the Biblical truth of the Body of Christ and how God desires for the Body to operate. We desire to live in such a way that our relating to one another will be a testimony to the world (John 13:34-35). We desire to minister as a team in such a way that our impact is multiplied and the contribution of each person is maximized (1 Cor. 12).
As expressed above, Campus Outreach is a network of more than 20 franchises throughout the world. These franchises are the organic fruit of ministry and relationships as God, through His Gospel, has reached and transformed the lives of students and staff. Each franchise holds to the same basic theology, vision and values, and is committed to partnering together to see the ministry develop and expand. This connection and these commitments are seen most visibly in the sharing of resources, joint student conferences, collective staff training events, and project partnerships.