The 10 Anchors of Union Church are theological convictions and philosophies of ministry that we are tied to in order to remain faithful to our core values of Gospel, Community and Mission. These Anchors inform everything from our partnerships and budget to our church government and Sunday liturgy. We believe that a strong commitment to these Anchors will create a culture that will bring God glory and us joy.
Anchor # 9 - College Ministry and Church Planting
We are committed to strategic college ministry and church planting. Locally, Auburn University is a mission field unto itself. Of the 90,000+ people in the Auburn/Opelika area, 30% are students (27,000) in a very unique season of life, which requires a very unique missionary strategy. We want to faithfully engage this people group that occupies such a prominent yet temporary place in our city.
Regionally, the current generation of students will one day occupy positions of leadership and influence in Alabama, the South and beyond. A large percentage of students will move to pursue careers in Houston, Atlanta, Nashville and Birmingham after graduation. If our goal is to completely saturate our region with the gospel and make the South reflect more of the Kingdom, then college towns become strategic sending centers. What is absorbed and valued in college towns like Auburn, Tuscaloosa, Oxford and Starkville will eventually be taught and practiced in places like New Orleans, Jackson, Orlando and Huntsville. We want the college ministry of Union Church to essentially be the developmental “minor league” system that prepares students to make disciples and plant churches in their future, professional contexts. We want to take this same approach with international students and global church planting. The nations have come to Auburn and we want to particularly invest in them – especially those who come from predominately non-Christian or even restricted-access countries where church planting is illegal.
While we want to see hundreds of churches planted in the regional hub cities that many, if not most of our students will eventually live in, we particularly want to invest in church planting in other college towns across the country. Not only do we feel that college towns are uniquely positioned to have a “downstream” impact on the culture at large but because of the peculiar rhythms of college towns (highly transient population, lower income streams, liberal bent of academia, seasonal attendance, etc.) they require specialized approaches that are different from urban and suburban churches.