Central and South Central PA Campus Staff 2009
Central and South Central PA Campus Staff 2009
Transforming College Students to Transform the World
The Coalition for Christian Outreach (CCO) is a campus ministry that partners with churches, colleges, and other organizations to develop men and women who live out their Christian faith in every area of life. Our ministry is distinct in three ways:
- Our ministry is transformational. We challenge the students we serve to submit every area of their lives to Jesus Christ.
- We partner with churches, colleges and other organizations, placing our staff in strategic positions of influence on campus. Some of our staff people serve as an arm of the local church on campus, while others work as residence hall directors, coaches or student activities directors.
- We do contextual ministry, meaning that our staff people adjust to the needs of the particular campus at which they serve. No two CCO ministries look exactly alike.
Our Core Values
- All things belong to God.
- Jesus changes people’s lives.
- We love college students.
- Faithfulness is pursued together.
- We celebrate life.
Statement of Faith
Click here to learn more about the CCO’s Statement of Faith
Cultural Diversity
We, the staff and board of the CCO, acknowledge that racism and ethno-centrism are common in our society, both in individuals and in institutions of all kinds. We believe that the Bible commands us to oppose injustice, discrimination and prejudice based on race or ethnicity. We are committed to seeking Christian unity even as we uphold the rich diversity of human cultures created by God.
As we seek to transform college students to transform the world, we are committed to educating ourselves and our students about these issues, encouraging one another to develop relationships across racial and ethnic lines. We seek to provide opportunities for ongoing dialogue about issues related to race and ethnicity.
In John 17:20-21, Jesus calls his disciples to unity, asking that all who believe in him would be one, as he and the Father are one. These words of Jesus leave little to the imagination when it comes to the importance of the unity of believers. In Jesus’ mind, the oneness of the community that he came to establish is essential to its accomplishment of its core purpose: producing disciples.
The CCO has placed a priority on oneness through racial reconciliation. We recognize that if we are to show Jesus to college students, we will be most effective as a unified body, demonstrating oneness with each other as Christ did with the Father. It is our desire that reconciliation permeate every part of our ministry, from our partnerships to on-campus fellowships.
Our History
In the late 1960’s, several Christian leaders in western Pennsylvania had a dream. Hundreds of teenagers were coming to Christ through Young Life and other local youth ministries, but when they graduated from high school and went off to college, there were few opportunities for them to continue to grow in their faith. What could be done to support and equip these students once they reached their respective campuses? With such a high concentration of colleges and universities in this part of the country, it became clear that the college campus was an untapped mission field.
On March 23, 1971, the CCO was born. Its mission was to bring various ministries together with a unified vision to minister to college students in cooperation with local churches. In 1973, the CCO was invited to place some of its staff into positions as residence hall directors at both Waynesburg College (now University) and Robert Morris College (now University). This was the beginning of an expanded vision of partnership , and the notion of working cooperatively with colleges and universities soon exploded into dozens of new opportunities.
From the beginning, the CCO has been committed to not only introducing students to Jesus Christ, but to helping them understand how their Christian faith should inform the way they study, play, work and live out every facet of life . Our core purpose, “transforming college students to transform the world,” points to this, as does our number one core value: “All things belong to God.”
In 1971, the CCO’s staff included three campus workers and an executive director, who reached out to students at five colleges and universities in western Pennsylvania and Ohio. Now in 2007, 179 CCO campus staff serve students on 83 campuses in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, West Virginia and in Washington, DC.
Today, the CCO is present not only at small private schools, but also on large state universities and commuter campuses. We reach out to traditional 18- to 22-year-old students as well as to law and medical graduate students. Some of our staff members specialize in international ministry, others in wilderness ministry and outdoor education, and some reach out primarily to the African-American student population. All of our staff are committed to reaching a broad a cross-section of students.
The CCO is committed to following God’s call, whether that means deepening our ministries at schools where we’ve had a presence since 1971 or moving into previously untapped geographical areas, like New York and Washington, DC . The CCO’s executive leadership is committed to discerning the needs of college students and campuses and to doing our work with excellence: transforming college students to transform the world.
Contact the CCO
Website : www.ccojubilee.org
Office:
CCO
5912 Penn Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15206
412.363.3303
(fax) 363.1005
