Parents FAQ
If you don’t see an answer to your question here, please ask us!
What does your organization believe?Cru is part of an international, non-profit and non-denominational para-church organization. While we partner with many churches, we are not affiliated with a particular denomination. Our campus chapters reflect the same core beliefs as our parent organization.
My child is part of a ministry that might be Cru, but the name isn’t the same. Who can I contact to be sure?Over 1700 Cru-related communities are active on college and high school campuses, some were established before we chose Cru as a common name. Others are part of our network of ministries to specific cultures and groups on campus. The easiest way is to use our Campus Finder tool to search for the Cru ministries at your child’s school. If we are on campus, you’ll see contact information for any Cru groups active on that campus. Sometimes technology gets touchy – if you have problems, please contact us directly via email, text, phone or mail.
My student is talking about applying for a summer missions project. What is that?Similar to mission trips that churches offer, Summer Missions with Cru give students opportunities to deepen their faith, work and play hard, and share God’s grace with others. The “just for parents” page in our Summer Missions section has a lot of helpful information.
My high school student is asking me about going to a conference in another city (or another country). I need more information before I can agree to this.Cru’s high school and junior high ministry (formerly known as Student Venture) sponsors several conferences and mission opportunities each year across the country and overseas. You can find details and contact information on their conferences page for the event your child is considering.
What is a STINT, and why does my student have to raise money to go?Students can apply for internships to work with Cru for a year. Internships that take them overseas are known as STINT years. These women and men are given the opportunity to serve on teams and develop their leadership skills in a variety of ministry settings. Like our long-term missionaries, interns are required to develop a team of people who commit to supporting them with prayer and financial contributions toward salary and benefits. You can read more about these programs on the Internship Application site.
My son or daughter is talking about joining Cru as a staff member. How does that work, exactly?Not many children say “missionary” when you ask what they want to be when they grow up. Whether your child did or not, you probably have some questions about the application and placement process for Cru missionaries. Please take a look at the information we have gathered about the recruiting process. You'll find a page specifically for parents, and the remainder of the Missionary Staff Members section might be helpful too.
Someone contacted me about supporting their family and ministry financially. Why? Don’t you pay your campus leaders?Cru is a nonprofit organization, and we maintain no central funds. Staff members, including the president, raise support to cover salaries, benefits and expenses. Ministry leaders also raise the funds separately to cover ministry expenses on their campus. This model of funding means more missionaries are sent each than we could raise ever money for centrally. Raising ministry funds locally also allow leaders to build relationships with churches and other organizations in their surrounding area.
I understand your organization used to be Campus Crusade for Christ. Why did you change the name? Is Christ still important to what you’re doing?We want to assure you that Christ remains front and center in the work we do on campus and in every ministry context. There’s only one reason for our new name – we want to do a better job of connecting students, faculty members and others not on a campus, to God’s love and forgiveness.
