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God rocked me – once again – with Psalm 127 this week, but this time in regards to college ministry specifically.
Unless the LORD builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchman stays awake in vain.
It is in vain that you rise up early
and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious toil;
for he gives to his beloved sleep. (v. 1-2 ESV)
I realized that a huge portion of our time as college ministers is spent on the two tasks from verse 1: building and guarding.
We’re building our ministries as a whole, we’re building individual activities and projects, we’re building our students as a group, and we’re building individual students.
We’re guarding, too – guarding students from spiritual failure, guarding from unhealthy groups and people, guarding from problematic campus forces, and even guarding from group members or overseers who might misunderstand (and interfere with) what’s being accomplished.
So if that’s true, then Psalm 127 intersects with most of what we college ministers do on a daily and yearly basis. And I’d argue that the passage actually reveals TWO truths which sound the same but prove powerful in their slight differences:
- We desperately need God to work
- We don’t desperately need our work
On the one hand, these verses shout our desperate need for God Himself to build and to guard. If He doesn’t, then our efforts at building and guarding - again, a huge portion of our ministry work – are in vain. If He doesn’t act, if He doesn’t “show up,” if He’s not architecting and watchman-ing, then we college ministers are better off going into Sales or taking a nap.
But on the other hand, this passage shouts that we don’t desperately need us. This truth means, despite the message in pop-Christianity, that I’m not actually supposed to “work like it all depends on me.” It’s easy to read verse 1 and miss this side of the coin, but look closely: we are not exactly “co-builders” or “co-watchmen” here. We’re Assistant Builders and Assistant Watchmen, at best. Still a duty – but vanity, vanity if He’s not the true Builder or the true Guard.
And that’s why verse 2 connects here, because it suggests that not only is work-without-God-working an empty proposition, so is overwork. Yes, we do work – verse 1 makes that clear. But we aren’t allowed to work like it’s up to us; we aren’t allowed to work “that way.” So though we work… we rest, we hope, we trust, we wait, and we’re open to the “adventures” that may come.
It’s the latter truth God had to remind me of this week, but both of ‘em together can make a huge difference in how we carry out our task, as college ministers, of building and guarding.
written from snowy and rainy Fargo, ND
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Road Trip 13: Day 27 recap
recap: a wonderful, extremely needed day of rest, relaxation, encouragement
new campuses: Concordia College (#22), home of the Cobbers
T-shirt: the Rock tribe of Slippery Rock University
saturday: a major catch-up day, including planning for the rest of this trip (see all explorations so far)
Chi Alpha director Brad Lewis mentioned last night that NDSU and Minnesota State Moorhead have had plenty of students come down with the swine flu. And though that news is true for campuses nationwide, I sadly hadn’t connected that issue to potential college ministry activity.
My thickness bums me out. I (and we) should be really good at recognizing “reachable moments,” opportunities for ministry that connect with the present Zeitgeist. Serving others involves connecting with their felt needs when we can, and “dealing with swine flu” is certainly a felt need for many of our campuses.
So, better late than never, this week’s Fridea:
Minister in light of the swine flu.
I would love to hear any ways ministries have connected with their campus / with students around this issue. Please post a comment if you’ve done it or heard about it!
Obviously, our response will vary campus-to-campus, and maybe this isn’t something your campus needs. But here are some ways campus ministries just might minister in light of the present “swinegeist.”
- Help with the campus’s swine flu prevention / awareness efforts
- Passing on to your group any messages the campus wants them to know
- Serve students who are quarantined or otherwise swinfluenza’d. (Cookies? Class notes? Tutoring afterward? Nice notes? Serenading?)
- Pray for students with it
- Pray for students not to get it
- Help in similar ways with faculty and staff
- Work with faculty to help out, as they face difficulties of irregular student attendance, etc.
- Help in similar ways off-campus – in the community
- Talk to administrators, staff, and faculty about other actions they’re taking – and consider any ways your ministry might be able to pitch in, complement, or just plain love
Truly integrating with our campuses means connecting on the things they find important sometimes, even if it’s not the brightest spot on our own radar screens. Ministering in light of swine flu might just be a simple, servant-y way to play helpful roles among the campus community.
Find synopses of all the Frideas – interesting little college ministry methods that might be worth a shot – over here.
written from Motel 6, Fargo, ND
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Road Trip 13: Day 26 recap
recap: finally made it up to Fargo; exploring some ministry at NDSU and Minnesota State Moorhead (see all explorations so far)
new campuses: Minnesota State Moorhead (#20), North Dakota State (#21)
new states: North Dakota (#10), Minnesota (#11)
T-shirt: the Wildcat tribe of Cal State Chico
friday: mostly a much-needed Sabbath, it looks like (I’d appreciate your prayers for rest and encouragement!)
Yesterday, as I made the snowy crossing from Wyoming into South Dakota, I did more than just pass into State #9 of this road trip. And as I “landed” at South Dakota School of Mines & Technology in Rapid City, I accomplished more than exploring Campus #19 of this trip.
I have now had the immense privilege of exploring campuses in all 48 states in the Continental U.S. in the last two years!
In fact, if I’m figuring correctly, I think my streak actually started with University of Oregon in March 2008 – so it’s only been some 19 months. (So if anybody has suggestions for getting up to AK or getting out to Hawaii by March, then that would be awesome…)
This milestone leaves me in awe once again at this crazy adventure I’ve been called to, and I hope I (and we) never miss the point that it makes so clearly: We who serve in college ministry serve in a wide, wide world! God is doing amazing things, encountering the campus tribes in powerful and exciting ways, all throughout our country. And it’s a BIG country.
So any of us would be foolish to rely on generalizations and well-worn playbooks when we have so many states, regions, and circles to learn from. Any of us would be ridiculous to presume some “manifest destiny” to establish work without first examining the work of God already taking place on a particular campus. Any of us would be poor stewards of the ministry we have received not to take advantage of the creativity, innovations, useful methods, and collective millennia of wisdom available from a nation full of awesome campus missionaries.
But on the other hand, any of us can be so, so proud that we serve among the outstanding guys and gals who labor among the campus tribes.
It has been my pleasure and a deep honor to meet a bunch of them, face-to-face, right there on their turf. (Not nearly enough, but many of them.) They are awesome people, and it’s my joy and my job to tell you about them and their wisdom – and to introduce you to each other as often as I can. (That last part might be the most fun of all.)
Thanks for joining me on these adventures. Count ‘em up, friends – we’ve now been to 48.
written from Sioux Falls, SD
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Road Trip 13: Days 24 & 25
recap: 2 more huge driving days, with some cool stops along the way (see all explorations so far)
mileage: 5,186 miles (so far)
campus visits: Colorado State University (#17), Gillette College (#18), South Dakota School of Mines & Technology (#19)
T-shirt: the Gators of San Francisco State University
thursday: heading to Fargo/Moorhead & college ministry fun there
Sorry I didn’t get to do a regular post today, but I’ll be back on the horse(?) tomorrow, including a major milestone accomplished today!
Meanwhile, Mark Batterson is both promoting college ministry and offering 100 copies of his new book free to college ministers today on his blog:
http://evotional.com/2009/10/free-book-4-campus-pastors.html
It is rare, as you know, for pastors with his platform to mention campus ministry at all, let alone in the encouraging way he does. If you can,
- Please visit his blog (it lets him know we care)
- Thank him for promoting college ministry on a national state
- Check out his book, Primal, for sure!
Thanks to Jeff Dyer for pointing this out to me today!
Written from the Surbeck Student Center at South Dakota School of Mines
A quiz about commercials and branding: Can you name the companies advertised by these three well-known ad campaigns?
- A green British gecko who urges you to buy insurance
- Cavemen who chafe under the inference that something is “so easy, even [they] can do it”
- A pile of cash with googly eyes and semi-creepy music
- The tagline, “15 minutes could save you 15 percent or more”
Got your answers?
That’s right, they’re all marketing efforts of the Government Employees Insurance Company, better known as GEICO.
But as you may have noticed, these aren’t “Famous GEICO Campaigns from History.” These campaigns have run concurrently, even though they’re all clearly a marketing campaign of their own.
And this multi-pronged approach has a lot to commend it.
Have you ever thought about recruiting students to your ministry this way? I know it’s easy to think in terms of “mega-branding,” making darn sure you keep everything from the background images to the fonts identical between your advertising efforts: campus signs, newspaper ads, banners, web page, T-shirts, emails, and so on.
But might your ministry draw more students – and different kinds of students – with a multi-pronged approach? This isn’t just about getting a bigger number of students – but advertising in ways other than our normal might introduce us to students other than our normal, too.
written from Lakewood, CO (in the Denver area)
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Road Trip 13: Day 23
recap: long driving day 1 of 3… including a great campus stop
campus visit: Mesa State College (#16)
T-shirt: the Falcon tribe of Lackawanna College (of Scranton, PA)
monday: another long drive as I make my way to Fargo, with a little MORE explorin’ along the way (see all explorations so far)
If you learned that on your next mission trip overseas you would encounter a high concentration of tribe members in one profession, how would you prepare?
One of the cool college ministers I’ve been able to meet on this trip is Aaron Friesen, College Pastor at Magnolia Avenue Baptist Church in Riverside, CA. The church is situated right by California Baptist University, but like many church-based ministries, they connect with multiple campus tribes. Aaron and his boss, Mike Lovato, wandered with me among the Highlander tribe of UC Riverside, and at some point I asked what UCR’s emphases might be.
Afterwards, Aaron did a little research and was nice enough to send me what he found; it turns out that UCR is, among other things, strong in Business Administration, and it has one of the “Top 100″ LGBT chapters in the country.
This past week, I got to visit UNLV. One of their focus areas quickly became clear – and, if you think about it, makes a lot of sense. (Can you guess what it is?)
That’s right – the William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration sits on campus in a cool building that actually seems to resemble an open-air hotel lobby. Yes, he was the founder of those Harrah’s casinos. And it’s not surprising for University of Nevada, Las Vegas, to specialize in that area.
So here’s my question: How often does college ministry impact connect with campus emphasis?
What might it look like to have specific studies for Business majors? Outreach to LGBT members, and others in that community? Discussions about Christian hospitality on a campus interested in the hospitality industry?
Clearly, there are some niche ministry efforts in our field. But I’d argue that there aren’t nearly enough. We might find that by going “deeper” in reaching single communities, we might just have the chance to reach more students, reach them better, be ultra-relevant to our audience, help students connect their future vocations with Jesus, integrate with the campus itself, directly “invade” dark places (when campus distinctives fall into that category), and more.
So have you ever brainstormed / prayed through that idea, picking some unique aspect of your campus and dreaming about intersecting it with Jesus? This could be an official (or unofficial) emphasis, a strength, a weakness, even its location or love for a certain sport.
Try it – even with some zany areas – and you might stumble upon something exciting. (And be sure to let me know!)
Meanwhile, have you seen any interesting niche ministries?
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written from Cedar City, UT
Road Trip 13: Day 22
recap: catching up, hunkered down in southern Utah
two brief campus visits: Dixie State College (#14) and Southern Utah (#15)
T-shirt: the Owl tribe of Temple University
monday: I begin 24+ hours of driving in 3 days, with some explorin’ along the way (see all explorations so far)
Upon arriving in St. George, Utah, last night, I tweeted / Facebooked my excitement over God’s Providence. When your home is a rarely-interrupted string of Motel 6 rooms in different cities, it’s easy to get particularly excited about the little variations that make for a more excellent stay. In this case, it’s a room in the front, parking directly outside, WiFi availability, a cheaper-than-usual room (with an internet discount on top of that), and an extra bed that makes for a perfect storage platform.
It’s easy to get excited about the little things. I’m thankful for a happy home.
I’m also thankful for the fact that with UNLV today, I’ve now gotten to visit college campuses in 46 states in the last two years. By Wednesday, it should be 48.
Further excitement over my temporary home came from the fact that, as I rode into Utah, I decided it would be profitable to camp out for a bit. So it looks like I’ll be right here through today and well into Sunday – if not all the way into Monday. Two or three days in one location? That feels like a month within a trip that has bounced me place to place to place like I’m a some kind of itinerant college ministry researcher…
So that’s part 1 of this week’s plan: time in Utah through Monday sometime.
As for the rest, I’ve already called an audible after announcing my plans to the Facebook Group. The plan now?
- Utah into Colorado (instead of into Wyoming via Salt Lake City)
- through Grand Junction, CO, and Fort Collins (at least)
- then out the top of Colorado, through Wyoming’s corner, and into South Dakota
- and on to Fargo by Thursday
While I’ve got to move quickly, I’m always open to fitting in some connections if I can. So if you’ve got any to recommend… (Please just don’t be offended if I can’t take you up on it – I’ll only have 3 days, and an awful lot of distance between here and Fargo.)
At three weeks into Road Trip 13, it’s been a good one. Wild, but good.
written from St. George, UT
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Road Trip 13: Day 20 recap
through Nevada, stop in Vegas, and into Utah (see all explorations so far)
mileage: 3,609 miles so far
new states: Nevada (#5) and Utah (#6)
new campus: UNLV (#13)
T-shirt: the Islander tribe of Texas A&M Corpus Christi
today: work time in St. George, Utah
What if, on occasion, we taught our students how to make really, really common things God-glorious? That’s this week’s Fridea: teaching our students to live beautifully within the natural, daily elements of their lives.
I Corinthians 10:31 is of course a key verse here:
“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (ESV)
But how often do we actually teach students how to do that? I can’t remember ever hearing an “eating” message in church or any other ministry – even though that one thing takes up hours of my week, and even though I can quickly think of plenty of biblical wisdom on, or connected to, that topic.
If that “common” task is brought under the reign of Christ, might it trigger other forms of obedience to the command to “in all your ways acknowledge Him”?
What if we occasionally brought biblical wisdom and wise counsel to bear on
- Eating
- Sleeping
- Studying (not just academics – though that’s important, too – but the act of simply studying)
- Time Management
- Personal “Beautification” / “Grooming”
- Casual (and other) Conversation
- Multi-tasking
- Driving
- Clothing
- Planning
- Social Event-attending
- and other “common” events in the life of an American college student?
A teaching series? Small group topic? One-on-one discipleship material? “Position papers” available to your students? A database on your college blog? A series you advertise to the campus at large?
If, on the other hand, we (accidentally) teach students that biblical truth, prayer, and the counsel of wise Christians are only pertinent to BIG theological questions and BIG life choices, then we can’t complain much about segmentation or cafeteria-style Christianity.
But provide a Theology of Party Attendance or a Theology of Sleep, and your tribe might better realize how God requires we acknowledge Him – and find out how deeply abundant life can go.
Paul’s summing-up of I Corinthians 10 is honestly a little unnatural. The whole chapter is a deep theological discussion that dives into complex places (places modern, freedom-loving Christians aren’t too comfortable with). It reveals a hard, very specific way to love others. So he could have summed up only with, “And that’s how much we’re called to love others – even laying down our very freedom to do so.” Instead, Paul reveals, “That’s just ONE of the crazy ways that we get to glorify God in the day-to-day, common aspects of our lives.”
So maybe we can help our students find the other ways, too.
Find synopses of all the Frideas – somewhat crazy little campus ministry methods that might be worth a shot – over here.
written from Barstow, CA
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Road Trip 13: Day 19 recap
finished my time in SoCal, including seeing campus #12 (Biola University) and some great conversations! (see all explorations so far)
T-shirt: the Wolverine tribe of Michigan
today: very possibly visiting both Nevada and Utah, with campus explorations
Yesterday’s guest post by Brandon Smith connects with a theme that has already come up several times on this trip: our ability to make specific, college ministry application from general teaching.
The widely-recognized lack of campus ministry training resources doesn’t let us off the hook when it comes to advancing our understanding of our vocation. We can still learn from plenty of sources, if we choose to.
Using the Catalyst Conference as an example: For as long as I’m a college minister, I hope I’ll always walk away from conferences like that with lots of application for my work as a college minister – not simply great “general ministry” thoughts that are cool to share with others but don’t affect my day-to-day work.
So I want to give you permission – actually, I want to challenge all of us – to a little more one-track-mindedness! When you attend a ministry conference, consider analyzing its value for your present work. When you read a book, why not read it with college-ministry-colored glasses? When you have extra time, you could look for blogs and articles and other sources that might be applied – however tangentially – to college ministry. This won’t always feel natural and certainly isn’t always easy. But it keeps each of us from being “a jack of all trades, and master of none.”
Very often
we dabble in every area in which we have an interest
rather than
especially focusing on the area that already has our investment.
Just a couple of days ago, Drew Aufhammer of UCLA’s Campus Crusade described their staff learning collegiate ministry principles from a church-planting conference. In that same conversation, I described a major college ministry brainstorming tool I gained from Seth Godin’s marketing book, Free Prize Inside. And I’ll never forget Casey Casady of Temple Baptist Church in Ruston, LA, noting ESPN Magazine as a place he picks up design ideas from.
These are just a few random examples of “outside learning,” but it’s been sad to hear very few college ministers describe learning from outside sources like this. And I’ve asked. (The only preponderance of ministers who talk regularly about outside sources has been chaplains at Christian colleges.)
Certainly, God has other things to teach us that apply to other parts of our lives. But if our vocation – our calling – is college ministry, it’s very possible that God wants to teach us LOTS MORE about our field… even when He ships that wisdom in other packages.
written from yet another Motel 6! (Norwalk, CA)
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Road Trip 13: Days 17 & 18 recap
Spent more great time in SoCal (see all explorations so far!)
Mileage: 3,180 miles so far
T-shirt: the Thunderduck tribe of Richland College, and the Wildcats of K. State
today: hanging out with people in La Mirada and Fullerton, and then (I think) headed out of state!
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