About Jim Musser: Experience and Insights

Jim was raised in a church-going home in Indiana, but came to understand what it meant to follow Jesus early in his freshman year at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana while observing the lives of those who claimed to be Christians. He was a student leader in his campus ministry and graduated with a degree in Social Work. He went on to complete a Master of Divinity degree at Emmanuel Seminary at Milligan University in Tennessee. After graduating, he served as Director of Campus Christians at the University of Kansas for 21 years, where he also earned a Master of Education degree in Counseling Psychology and became an avid Jayhawk and KC Chiefs fan. He then was called in 2004 to the same position with Campus Christian Fellowship at Appalachian State University (Go Mountaineers!) in Boone, North Carolina. At the end of July 2022, Jim completed his tenure with CCF and now works full-time leading UpStream Ministries. Jim and his wife, Marianna, live in Lewisville, NC where they enjoy involvement in their church, ministering to refugees in the area, as well as taking long walks and making occasional visits to the mountains of Western North Carolina to hike.

Over his long career in campus ministry, Jim discipled hundreds of students, proclaimed the Word of God on campus, led hundreds of mission trips, both in country and internationally, trained small group leaders, spoke in hundreds of churches, and wrote daily devotions (Words from the Well) for 20 years, first geared to college students and later expanding to a wider audience of adults.

During his long tenure, Jim began to notice how spiritually immature Christian freshmen were. Most were unable to articulate their faith, did not know how to study the Bible, were uncomfortable with praying in front of others, had no missional vision for their lives, and were unconcerned about reaching their peers with the gospel. He posed the question which led to his writing Letters from Downstream: how could a young person raised in a Christian home and involved in a church for their entire lives be so immature spiritually? He equated it with a high school graduate unable to read or do simple math. He concluded there is something wrong with how kids are being raised spiritually at home and in the church. This led him to start UpStream Ministries.

Besides leading UpStream, Jim does freelance writing. In 2024, he wrote two Sunday School teaching series for LifeStone Ministries, along with daily meditations for another one of their publications. He has also written two books—Letters from Downstream (to be republished by LifeStone in early 2025) and Is Your Faith Ready for College?, a spiritual prep guide for college-bound teens.

Jim is available for speaking and leading seminars on a variety of topics, but mainly relating to raising kids spiritually in a way that achieves a lifelong and robust faith.