BY SARAH BEASLEY
FOR THE CHRISTIAN CHRONICLE

OXFORD, MISS.

Doug Shields, a founder of the University Christian Student Center at the University of Mississipi, at the center's facility. Photo by Sarah Beasley.

Students at the University of Mississippi have access to a one-of-a-kind Christian student center that provides the spiritual nurturing and fellowship campus ministries are known for, but also offers on-site housing for up to 30 residents.

In 1960 Ole Miss became home to one of the early campus efforts when Paul Ayers, a young preacher from the Oxford Church of Christ, and two professors, Doug Shields and James Davis, established the University Christian Student Center with support from the local church.

The center will mark 40 years of ministry with a celebration April 6-8.

"I had a dream of trying to provide some of the advantages of a ‘Christian education’ to the great majority of Christian young people who ... were attending state colleges and universities," Shields said.

A nonprofit corporation was formed to direct the Center. Members of the Oxford church and other churches of Christ in the area assumed a $35,000 debt to buy property across from the main campus.

In fall 1961 six male students moved into the Center along with Emma Reaves, the Center’s first residential supervisor.

"From its beginning, the University Christian Student Center has had a mission to serve both the resident students in the Center as well as those living in University housing ...," Shields wrote in a historical essay about the Center.

In 1962, following a riot on campus protesting the admission of James Meredith, the first African-

American student, the university required all students to live on campus. It was not until 1966 that undergraduates were again allowed to live at the center.

Since 1966, the center has more than doubled its capacity, adding additional men’s and women’s dormitories, business offices, a library, recreational rooms, a living room, dining room and kitchen.

An estimated 230 students have lived at the Center since its beginning.

Eric Dahl, a board member for the center and an elder at the Oxford church, lived at the center from 1973 to 1977.

"The center gave me a place to see Christ reflected in the flesh in the form of the students and staff," said Dahl. "It is a safe place to ask hard spiritual questions and make lifelong spiritual friends."

Web Extra: Glen and Kathy Henton, Ole Miss campus ministers, with Doug Shields, one of the founders of the center.

Beginning in 1976, the Oxford church, with help from area churches, has employed a full time campus minister. The current campus minister, Glen Henton, came to Oxford in 1997 with his wife, Kathy, and their five children.

The Hentons took on a managerial role at the center as well, and oversee the weekly devotionals, Bible studies and prayer sessions for the residents.

"The greatest joy for us is when we see Christian young people who understand and put into practice their love for the Lord and make changes because of growing faith," Glen Henton said.

Kathy Henton works with her husband in the center’s office, but also devotes herself to working with the female residents through Bible study and devotionals.

"It seems incredible to be paid to be encouraged and invigorated by young people who are building their faith and setting the spiritual course of their lives," she said.

The Center was founded with the intent of protecting and encouraging the faith of Christians on campus. The Hentons, however, have come with the motivation not only to work with Christian students, but also to reach out to non-Christians.

"There has been a wholesome change in outlook from protecting the faith of the students to outreach by the students to the non-Christians on campus," Shields said.

From the beginning, however, one goal has remained unchanged for all those familiar with the center — to develop "minds that worship, hearts that are pure, lives with a purpose and homes that last."

THE UNIVERSITY CHRISTIAN STUDENT CENTER is attempting to contact all alumni before the April celebration. E-mail the UCSC at mailto:ucsc@watervalley.net for information.

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