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(I think I’m going to keep writing short notes about the present road trip at the bottom of posts, so look for those in blue even if you skip the post!)
Two nights ago I had the marvelous opportunity to spend significant time with a college minister and his family. The Killerlains took me for some great Memphis barbecue (ribs and banana pudding, no less!), and they actually let me use their guest room for the night. In all, we spent a good few hours at dinner and at home talking about college ministry. The next morning, they even gave me some Honey Bunches of Oats – and we talked more college ministry! So fun!
And the real kicker is, I’d never met these people before in person. Ben K., the college pastor at a Bible church in Memphis, had connected with me over Facebook awhile back. So I made a point during this trip to meet him, his wife, and his son.
Here’s what I hope for us who are involved in college ministry (like Ben and I and maybe you are): I hope that we can develop a better and better kinship with others in our field.
A kinship is there in some circles, where college ministers get genuinely excited to see each other, to fight alongside each other, to learn from each other, to encourage each other.
But too often the semi-competition on the ground and the lack of support from our overseers and the lack of “college minister identity” in this underdeveloped field cause us to battle every-man-for-himself-style.
Seeing things as a battle is not the problem. We will be helped to see this more and more as a battle, not less. As we realize that we are all fighting tooth-and-nail for students to see Jesus and His life more clearly, I think we’ll naturally turn from “every man for himself” to “we’re all in this together.”
There can be / should be / sometimes already is a kinship among college ministers. Let us appreciate that we are a valiant, crazy few: called to one of the weirdest, most specific, most contextual, least understood, most ignored, most impactful, least stable, most dramatic, most ridiculous ministries in God’s Kingdom. Each of us enjoy this same awkward, wonderful reality – the church-based college minister down the street at First Not-Your-Denomination, the new parachurch girl in that other ministry, the longtime chaplain at the local Christian college, all the college ministers serving the state school three hours away, and you.
We’re not all the same, of course. But we knew that already.
But we are the same kind. And if we believe it, then “kindred” and kinship can’t be far behind.
Written from Goodlettsville, TN (Nashville area)
Tuesday’s T-shirt: the Poet tribe (really) of Whittier College
Tomorrow, more College Metro and Collegiate Summit
- I’ll be updating occasionally at Twitter
One of the great parts of a road trip is finding good ways to use the car-time. Listening to important stuff is one of those best practices.
(If you want updates on the trip itself, you’ll be able to find that each day at the bottom of the post in blue. So even if the posts don’t interest you, the trip updates might!)
It’s not particularly often that college ministry receives focus on a national stage. But as it turns out, this month 9Marks and Mark Dever interviewed Aaron Messner, Chaplain at Covenant College, about how churches can impact college students. And they talk (briefly but favorably) about campus-based college ministries, too. So that’s all three branches – church-based, Christian college, and campus-based college ministry – discussed in one interview. Good times indeed. BIG thanks to my friend Matt Haste for pointing me to this interview.
You can find the interview here: http://media.9marks.org/2009/04/01/college-students. Messner and the 9Marks guys have some really great things to say about college ministry in general. Listening might really be worth your time, especially to give you good fodder for explaining how important college ministry is.
(They talked about several other things, as reflected in the number of categories I’ve put this post in.)
Even if you don’t get to listen, here are some things that struck me as particularly notable:
- First, this is a great thing to pass along to your pastor, other local pastors, or other people who need to value college ministry. It could be really influential, especially if they already respect Mark Dever and/or 9Marks.
- I was reminded of the awesome perspective Christian college chaplains bring to the table of college ministry. These ministers – more than campus-based or church-based people – are likely to make use of a wide range of materials – Christian, secular, academic, current literature, etc. I saw that time and time again on my big trip.
- A great note Messner made: reaching college students doesn’t necessarily require a “cool” pastor. His example, in fact, was the professors on his campus; he said those with the most impact are simply those who are most authentic and relational with the students.
- A strong belief in God’s sovereignty fights students’ narcissism. Good word.
- They discussed churches not choosing to impact students because they seem them as “migratory birds.” That’s true (about churches) and not a bad word picture, either.
- Around the 51-minute mark, they discuss college ministry as similar to missions. What a wonderful thing to hear.
- Right at the end, Messner makes a strong point: Even though research is valuable, no matter how much we research college students and this generation, knowing college students requires hanging out with them. He’s right.
Written from Memphis, Tennessee
Yesterday’s T-shirt: the Red Raider tribe of Texas Tech University
Yesterday’s campus visits: Henderson State Univ. and Ouachita Baptist Univ.
I’m leaving this morning, headed to Memphis first. Then I’ll make my way to Nashville early Wednesday.
Apparently, there’s going to be live streaming of this Collegiate Summit‘s keynote addresses. This conference is the triennial gathering of “all” Southern Baptist college ministers (campus-based, church-based, and Christian colleges) in the U.S. (and, I think, Canada). While the conference won’t actually have all the college ministers from this largest Protestant denomination, there will still be hundreds of leaders there.
While I don’t know much about the live streaming, you can find it here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/collegiate-summit (HUGE hat tip to Jason Hew for sending this link)
You (and we) will get to enjoy:
- David Platt (one of the best young pastor-speakers you’ve never heard)
- Thom Rainer (prolific author and prez of LifeWay)
- David Kinnaman (one of the authors of unChristian)
- Jeff Iorg (unfortunately, he’s listed as “Jeff Lorg” on the streaming page; Dr. Iorg is a seminary prez and seems like a great, college-minister-loving guy)
Honestly, these should be really strong. Check them out if you get the chance.
prayin’: I’d also like to ask for your prayers during this trip. I’m so excited about this voyage, but it all depends on God providing opportunities, direction, wisdom, favor, encouragement, and chances to learn. I will send prayer requests along the way, but those six things pretty much cover the basics!
Meanwhile, here are specific requests for the next few days:
- for scheduling – that I’d know what to plan, and that I’d leave flexible what I need to
- for preparing to speak – I’ll lead a roundtable discussion sometime in there, and then I speak Saturday morning
- for the drive today and tomorrow – something like 10 hours of driving, and the weather may not be cooperating
Thanks, friends. This will be fun. And don’t worry – for those who enjoy learning like I do, there will be plenty of college ministry learnin’ we’ll get to do!
As I blogged last week, I leave tomorrow for Road Trip #11, and this one’s a doozy! This will be the longest road trip since the BIG one, clocking in at 5 1/2 weeks (at least). From eyeing the route, I figure I will see at least 16 states… and besides all the college ministry explorations and college minister hang-outs, there are also 2 or 3 conferences to attend, too.
So with such a big adventure on my hands, I want you to come along – from the comfort of your very own home. Or computer. Or cell phone. Explore with me. Experience with me. Learn with me.
There will be pictures. There will be posts. [All the posts so far are here.]
And there will be something brand new: Tweets!
That’s right, I’ve been sucked in to the wonderful, wide world of Twitter! Except for a brief excursion into Twittering during my nine-church-service weekend last August, I’m brand new to this. (For those who don’t use Twitter, you can follow along without joining; read the note at the very bottom of this post.)
For those who are using Twitter, some notes:
- @bensonhines is now live and tweeting.
- Please be patient with me; I’m new here. In fact, if you have tips or feedback, I would LOVE to hear it. Special thanks to @mynameisbrandon and @rhetter for providing a crash course in this stuff.
- While I’m at it, I made some tiny URLs for sharing the free ebook. Obviously, you can make your own or just point people to reachingthecampustribes.com. But here are some good ones: xr.com/rtct or tinyurl.com/campustribes. (These are now listed at the book site, too.)
For everybody, all the ways to get in touch with me:
I’m really excited about this newest road trip, and I’m hoping to include you guys like never before! So here’s a run-down of ALL the ways to come along on this trip, from least-connected to most-connected:
- Facebook group: Exploring College Ministry with Benson. I don’t send messages very often; during the trip, I might send 2 or 3 schedule updates to members of this group. (But remember, this is still the BEST way to stay posted on the most important updates for this whole project – like new road trips, new books, and other big news.)
- Facebook status updates. While I don’t treat this as a major point of connection, I probably will change my Facebook status occasionally to reflect the twists and turns of this adventure. So, as always, I’d love for you to befriend me!
- This blog. As usual, there will be a post every day (or close to it), so take a look whenever you’d like. Many of the posts over the next weeks will be directly related to the trip, as I discuss (and show via pictures) its adventures and learnings. (For all the posts related to the trip so far, click here.)
- Twitter: @bensonhines
- In person. Of course, if I get to cross your path on this trip, let’s try to hang out! Just contact me and let me know.
So there you have it! I hope you’ll join me.
For those unfamiliar with Twitter, you can still take a look at my regular updates whenever you’d like. Just go to www.twitter.com/bensonhines. Each update has a date and time, so you can watch as my days progress!
Two ministry positions that, if implemented throughout America, might radically change our success at helping produce strong Christian adults:
1. An intern* in a Youth Group (whether church-based or parachurch) dedicated to keeping up with, impacting, and helping transition people in the year(s) after they graduate high school. Basically, this person would function as a college minister within the youth ministry.
1a. Since this is in fact a college ministry blog, I’ll note that an intern* within a college ministry could also function in much the same way – as a freshman-focused minister, for example, or (in a church-based ministry) purposefully impacting away students.
2. An intern* in a College Ministry (whether church-based or parachurch) dedicated to keeping up with, impacting, and helping transition people in the year(s) after they graduate college. Basically, this person would function as a young adult minister within the college ministry.
*these activities could also be done by part-time ministers or within the larger job description of someone who is full-time.
Any way you cut it, a champion for the “next steppers” (at either of those next steps) could be just what we need.
In Reaching the Campus Tribes, I write:
It may be that college ministry will be best served in the same way [Youth Specialties helped youth ministry develop] – by a “super-sized hero,” an organization devoted to proclaiming the value of college ministry and helping the field develop. …
An … organization like this could serve as a think tank, a resource producer, a collaborative network, a fundraiser, and a rallying cry for college ministry – across the branches of our field, across denominational lines, and throughout the country (from Chapter 8, “Into the Harvest: A Road Map Forward from a Road Trip’s Findings,” p. 95-96).
I think a national organization devoted to supporting college ministry, providing resources for these efforts, and developing our field could be extremely helpful.
I was discussing this possibility with a colleague the other day, and I remarked that I believe there really is room for this to happen right now. In fact, I think the field of college ministry is heating up, but there’s a real vacuum of resourcing and support for a large number of college ministry efforts.
So here’s the equation I see:
vacuum + growing concern = wide-open opportunity for some group to step up
That means the early bird can get a giant worm. The first organization to muster the investment, focus, and breadth required to serve college ministry nationally might just find an enormous audience… and ultimately an enormous amount of campus-reaching might happen because somebody was called to be our hero.
Of course, it’s also vital that this be done right. One more equation is clearly at play:
vacuum + growing concern – deep understanding = wide-open opportunity for waste or even damage
But besides that concern – which is a true concern that we should all take seriously – I’m pretty hopeful about our situation. In fact, the field seems so ripe that it may simply be a matter of time before there are multiple organizations like this.
But, of course, the greatest amount of worm-munching might go to the early bird.
They say one’s worldview affects everything.
A while back, I received two great opportunities to speak about what I’ve learned about the national college ministry scene. The first is a chance next week to discuss “Big Ideas for Developed Campus Ministries” for the national triennial meeting of Southern Baptist college ministers called Collegiate Summit. I’ll be sharing some of the unknown but potentially-awesome methods and models I learned during my trip around the country (and since). (I’ll also be attending and leading a discussion at the College Metro portion, earlier in the week. Fun stuff!)
The second speaking gig is an awesome opportunity to share about national college ministry to a group of high school counselors from Christian high schools. (Some admissions people from Christian colleges might attend, too.) That event is the NACCAP national conference at Cedarville University in early June.
[to follow along on this trip, read this post]
When road trip opportunities like these arise, I get to scratching my head and rubbing my chin and pondering what college ministry exploring scheme might make the most sense this time.
So here’s where my worldview comes in.
Here’s the actual Eastern United States.
As I continued to think about the present situation, this is how I began to see the world:
Instead of taking two trips nearly back-to-back to Nash-Vegas and Ohio (and coming ALL the way back to Dallas in between), why not take the opportunity to work my way into the shadowy college ministry frontier that is New England?
By “shadowy,” I mean I haven’t gotten to explore the campus mission fields up there nearly as much as I’d like to. And that area is certainly a “frontier” for college ministry. The happy, unshadowy Boston on the map represents the fact that I did get to explore in and around that amazing place and make some great friends there during the yearlong trip; that part of the itinerary can be found here. Hopefully after these five weeks, I’ll be able to add many more smileys to my worldview. (Or something like that…)
So between speaking opportunities, for pretty much the entire month of May I’ll be learning what I can in various places around New England!
And I want you to come along. Before I leave this Tuesday, I’ll be posting how you can stay updated on the explorations, adventures, and insights from this trip. [Here's that post.] This will be my longest road trip since the yearlong one, and it’s going to be a blast. So I plan to work extra hard to bring you with me, through posts, pictures, and hopefully much more.
Those in the Facebook Group already knew about this trip. If you’re interested in staying updated (with only occasional updates, I promise), you should join Exploring College Ministry with Benson!
I should have information on Exploring College Ministry Road Trip #11 up here by 11am (if you live on the West Coast). A little bit later in the other time zones, of course.
This is going to be a BIG one.
Of course, if you’re a member of the Facebook Group, you (probably) already got a message about where I’m heading. (And it’s not the West Coast. That was Road Trip #10.)
If you’re really intrigued, you can look for clues in my Schedule. But that will only reveal part of the story…
Since the beginning of my daily blogging (and in the book), I’ve argued that college ministry is best approached missiologically (which I think is more than just “missionally,” but I’ll write about that some other time).
If I was going to evaluate whether a college ministry – even my own college ministry – was functioning like a missions effort, I would start with one telling question:
What are the cultural characteristics of the campus(es) you’re reaching?
My ability to answer that question – deeply, wisely, knowledgeably, uniquely – says a lot about how missiological my ministry has the opportunity to be.
Knowing the campus tribe extensively and deeply doesn’t make my college ministry a missions effort. But there’s no way I’ll build my best campus mission without it.
I wrote the last blog on Monday at around 6am… after being up all night finishing up the book versions and the book site. That whole process involved plenty of Mountain Dew, computer snags, and DVDs, plus driving 7 miles away at 5:30 in the morning to get faster internet (long story).
So it was good and right for me to take yesterday off!
For today, here are some updates on the ebook project I thought you might be interested in. I really appreciate everybody’s support. We’re all in this together, and the more the book spreads, the better our field will be improved!
If you haven’t seen the book, I encourage you to check it out. It’s pretty. Download it here.
mobile version: The iPhone / mobile version is ready and is made to view directly in the web browser on your phone. (Or you can just copy the file to your phone.) Reach it directly at reachingthecampustribes.com/mobile.
strong feedback so far: The feedback on the book so far has been really great. I’ve been hearing from both people I know and people I don’t, and I’m really hopeful that the book will impact lots of people. Plenty of people have been joining the Facebook group, too. That’s the thing to do if you want to get occasional updates on this whole project.
blog hype: If you want to see the various college ministry blogs that have been pointing people to the site, they’re listed in the sidebar at the book site. Thanks, pals! Keep it coming!
help the cause now active: The “help the cause” link at the book site is now active, and you can find that page here, too.
road trip #11: This has nothing to do with the book, but stay tuned for info on Road Trip #11. It’s turning out to be a pretty big one… And I leave in a week!
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