Benedict on Campus – Eight Spiritual Disciplines for Collegiate Ministry

by David E. MacDonald
Benedict on Campus – Eight Spiritual Disciplines for Collegiate Ministry

Incorporate spiritual disciplines into collegiate ministry settings.

Inspired by the religious life of St. Benedict and richly illustrated with concrete examples, MacDonald adapts eight spiritual disciplines for emerging young adults. This book is a practical guide for those who work with emerging adults—college and university chaplains, campus ministers, student leaders, pastors, parachurch professionals, and spiritual directors. 

Spiritual practices include:

  • Communal Prayer
  • Lectio Divina
  • Contemplative Prayer 
  • Service
  • Spiritual Direction
  • Pilgrimage
  • Intentional Community
  • Hospitality

Praise for Benedict on Campus

If you work with youth or emerging adults, you will love this book. David MacDonald is a wise guide, weaving ancient practices into contemporary life. This ancient/modern conversation is needed now more than ever as our highly digitized culture finds fresh meaning in the ancient Christian practices of contemplation and service. MacDonald’s advice for collegiate ministers to see themselves as “professional contemplative practitioners,” leading from a presence grounded in personal prayer, is wisdom for all Christian leaders.

—Dwight H. Judy, Professor Emeritus of Spiritual Formation, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. Author of A Quiet Pentecost: Inviting the Spirit into Congregational Life.

I highly recommend this book for its breath of reach into monastic, contemplative, and contemporary expressions of service and learning that are held together by the gifts of scripture, liturgy, poetic imagination, and a prophetic yearning for a more rightly ordered world. 

—Mark Forrester, Vanderbilt University’s Chaplain and Director of Religious Life  

This book sings its invitation to all who yearn for soul care amid cultures of anxiety. With sensitivity to multiple religious traditions, David dives deeply into spiritual gifts that we can offer to young adults discerning their place in this world. 

—Dori Baker, Senior Fellow of Research and Learning, The Forum for Theological Exploration

David E. MacDonaldis University Chaplain at Ohio Northern University in Ada, Ohio. He is also an elder in the East Ohio Conference of The United Methodist Church.