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I would argue that nearly all – or all – college ministers can play a significant role with their students over the Christmas break. Remember, this is a significant moment in students’ lives – these 3 to 5 weeks are no small chunk out of the year, and they’re often filled with temptation, family, emotions, boredom… And many of our students won’t encounter nearly the kind of shepherding they did when school was in session.
Will you help them?
I posted the thoughts below last December, but they fit with yesterday’s thoughts. Hopefully you’ll be in contact with your students – and maybe this will give you some fodder for what you share.
It’s interesting to realize that while the greater Church sees Christmastime as both a high point of the year and an extremely active time of year, for college ministry it’s often the opposite. Even many church-based college ministries experience a sharp decline in activity and work.
Since that’s true, it’s pretty natural for college ministers to talk very little about the Christmas story, unlike just about any other minister out there.
And I’m not sure that’s such a great thing.
Yes, many Christian students will get a healthy dose of “Christmas-ness” (both sacred and secular versions) in the week or two following Finals, once they’re away from school. And for the many who grew up in Christian homes, much of that Christmas-ness has become so familiar it borders on (or has fully crossed into) cliché.
But if we college ministers are spending our whole lives reaching this very particular group of people – college students – then shouldn’t we be really good at translating for this audience? We should be all about busting up clichés for them, translating the many truths of our Faith for our very specific hearers – not translating simply to the point of understanding but to the point of students grasping the truths and feeling their weight.
So if you have room this year, you might try your hand at translating Christmas for your students. The old, old story that Linus speaks from that stage or that they’ll hear at the Christmas Eve service back home is amazing, life-changing stuff… but college students may need our help to re-see that.
(I posted some thoughts on HOW to do this right here – and be sure to check out that post’s comments for others’ great ideas!)
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Even if most or all of your students are gone, I had a thought for a little exhortation you might make as Christmas approaches. (You can still contact your students by email, remember. It’s allowed.)
I realize there are plenty of “big,” radical ways we can encourage students to let Christ reign during Christmas. (And for a list of challenges for the entire Winter Break, check this out! I was encouraged to hear that a local college ministry passed out these ideas and a few more to all their students last week!)
Yes, there are big-sized ways to serve and impact and grow and sacrifice during Christmas. But what about this idea: Have you challenged your students on how they might let Christ “impose” even on the gift portion of their Christmases?
Assuming most of your students aren’t foregoing all their presents altogether, it seems like challenging them to look through spiritual eyes at what they get for Christmas is great spiritual practice. They’ve got three chances to put Jesus square in the middle of the gifting:
- What they put on their Christmas wish lists
- How they spend their Christmas money
How many of your students are likely to ask for / use their Christmas money for a Christian book that would be well worth reading? What about a new Study Bible or Bible Commentary? What about a video game they know will help develop relationships with their dorm-mates? Or a film they know will help inspire them spiritually (whether it’s a Christian movie or not)? Will they buy iPhone apps that help them be better students? Will they ask their parents for Wal-mart gift cards so they can not spend so much on fast food?
More importantly, did they at any point pray for God’s wisdom in what they asked for? And will they pray for God’s wisdom in how they spend their Christmas money?
Are we raising up students who “in all their ways acknowledge Him”?
My list of examples surely don’t cover all the possibilities of Jesus-directed gifting. The great thing is, a little prayer and a little thought can help students realize how they can purposely grow, serve, and live best in the New Year. And while – again – I recognize it may seem holier just to focus on “Christian service” or “Christian witnessing,” Jesus probably wants to be Lord even of our Christmas lists. And if our students practice that Lordship here, who knows where they might let Him impose next?
Why don’t you write ‘em with this idea? (And if you have some specific suggestions on stuff worth buying – including book titles and other things you’d recommend – you might want to throw those in there!)
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My longtime friend is a partner in a new restaurant here in Dallas, and he and I ate breakfast-for-lunch over there on Friday. At some point, he asked for my honest opinion on anything I noticed… and if you know me, you know that analyzing any experience is like Christmas for me.
I hemmed-and-hawed, not because I don’t thoroughly enjoy that process, but because I’m always worried I’m going to insult, bore, or otherwise turn off with my tedium. But he assured me he wanted my thoughts – even the ticky-tack stuff – and kept encouraging me to write those thoughts down on a Comment Card.
Your college ministry has likely wrapped up the bulk of its operations for the semester / quarter, but there may still be students hanging around taking Finals or waiting for graduation. And even if everybody’s gone home, fortunately for today’s idea they don’t have an awful lot to do as they sit at home.
It might be high time to get feedback from your students, just like Shane asked for my ideas about his eatery. Maybe it’s through constructing a survey, a direct email to a bunch of students, or several in-person interviews. Maybe you can encourage students to ponder and then follow up – specifically – in January. Whatever. However you do it (and that’s worth praying and thinking through, of course), there’s double delight in student feedback:
1. For your college ministry.
Feedback will make your campus ministry better. No doubt about it. It’s a chance to get the wisdom of many, many counselors. And even when some students aren’t all that “wise” about your ministry (’cause they’re new or ’cause they’re not so wise!), it’s a chance to learn what they think about your ministry… and knowing people’s perception is just as important a piece of information as their ideas for betterment might be.
2. For the students.
Everybody likes knowing they’ve got a hand in something. Everybody likes believing their opinion matters. And especially students in the Millennial Generation like knowing they can enact change, they have a voice, there’s authenticity in their leaders, they’re a part of the team, and so on. Soliciting feedback (and treating it with respect) conveys all that. (And I’d point out – specifically – some of the changes you make as a result of feedback. Maybe even name names…)
BONUS
One last idea: Don’t just ask students. Ask volunteers (if you have some). Those guys and gals have some of the most important feedback you need to hear.
And while you’re at it, consider who else’s opinion matters: maybe parents of students, faculty, administration, past people in your position, townspeople, donors, alumni. In various ministries, any or all of these people might have really important things to share.
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Yesterday, I gave some specifics for shepherding students in the area of Service – specifically by noting some things we want to help them avoid.
Today, a cheerier note: Qualities of service we want to build in our students. Again, hopefully it’s a helpful little template or checklist, something for you to build your own service-shepherding strategies around!
1. Purposeful service
We should help students see that their service should be organized and practiced around the real needs, the outcomes that we actually want to achieve. In the marathon-encouragement world, that means encouraging and supporting in the ways the runners need most. What we say when we cheer, what drinks or snacks we offer, where we stand – all of this is organized around what most helps the runners.
Likewise, our students need to learn that there’s no such thing as a “good service project” that doesn’t accomplish what’s actually needed. If they learn to start with needs and work backwards to determine the methods to use, they’ll be servants indeed.
2. Foolish-looking service
When we start talking about good service, we’d better prepare our students for the fact that the best service won’t always have a direct relationship with dignity. In the case of cheering on the marathon, I fully recognize that sometimes those around me don’t understand the… vigor with which I encourage the runners. I’m yelling loudly (enough to get through headphones) and personally, calling individuals’ names and often pointing or otherwise gesturing wildly. But this is what’s needed (and happily this year, my methods seem to “rub off” on many of the strangers around me). Despite looking foolish (frightening?) on occasion, I’m cheering for the runners, so I’ll offer whatever seems to help them most.
Our students’ service will sometimes look strange to those around them… even, on occasion, to the very people they’re serving (at least for a little bit). They need to be okay with that.
3. Unnatural service
But… the truth is, that kind of “vigor” isn’t natural for me. At a basketball game, I would only rarely yell like that; at the marathon, it’s 5 hours straight of that kind of extroversion. I’m not particularly great with strangers, but during the marathon I get fairly personal with strangers in Mile 25 of their really crazy mid-morning adventure. All because that’s what’s needed; they don’t need my natural introversion at that moment.
Are we training our students not only to set aside their dignity (when needed) to serve effectively, but even to set aside their personalities (when needed) to serve effectively?
4. Delegated service
Occasionally I try to get in on passing out water or Gatorade, but generally I just focus on cheering the runners. Why? While passing out Gatorade to these flagging marathoners is actually pretty thrilling, my best role is the cheering one. Plenty of other volunteers are passing out drinks. Some are filling the cups to be passed out. In the past, some volunteers have cooked breakfast for the rest of us. And still others need to focus on overseeing our large task, keeping everything running smoothly. Many service projects will be best handled through delegation – but, lo and behold, that means not every student will get to do everything… or everything they want.
5. Focused and personal service
A big rule of thumb for cheering the marathon is to focus on individuals. While some level of general rah-rah cheering is exciting, the runners are most encouraged when you call their first name (shown on their placard) or otherwise identify them (“You’ve got this, Wildcat!,” “C’mon, Bank of America!”).
The same principle holds for lots of other service opportunities, too: If our service doesn’t impact actual people (whether as individuals or in groups), then who’s it really helping? Students (and we) can focus too much on vague goals – “changing the world,” “helping our campus”; service often becomes more real when it gets more focused and more personal.
When it comes down to it, we’ve got to help our students be “servee-centric” at every step of their service endeavors. While focusing on actual people’s actual needs seems like common sense, it’s not necessarily common practice when our students serve. In the marathon, servee-centeredness is why filling cups only halfway matters, why yelling loud enough to be heard through headphones matters, and why knowing the impact we’re aiming for matters.
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I started this week talking about my annual experience serving the runners of the White Rock Marathon. That always gets me thinking about service, and how we college ministers produce servants rather than just service projects.
If we’re willing to shepherd our students’ service, we wanna help them avoid some of the common (very common) pitfalls in Christian service. My help at the marathon has highlighted for me some of the things to avoid, and others come to mind as I consider what we’re trying to accomplish.
Hopefully as you shepherd students’ service, this will serve you as a helpful checklist.
1. Selfish service
When supporting a marathon, it’s not uncommon for volunteers to get so excited about handing a runner a cup of Gatorade that they actually get in the way of the race to accomplish that “service.” In the same way, the effectiveness of our students’ service is often watered down as they follow the dictates of desire – whether those desires involve who they want to hang out with while they serve, how physically uncomfortable they’re willing to be, how much a project or a role “fits” them, or other wants.
2. A focus on enjoyment
Along the same lines, it’s tempting to let enjoyment both motivate me to serve and direct me as I serve. And that’s tempting for our students, too. While drawing students to service opportunities may in fact involve some appeal to the enjoyment involved, we should remember to balance that motivation for our students (or, perhaps better, help them enjoy because of the impact and not just the fun they’re having). If our students only serve when and how it happens to be “fun,” something is terribly wrong.
3. Unskilled service
Other times, service suffers because volunteers don’t know how to do it best. In the past at the Marathon aid station, I’ve forgotten to fill the water cups only halfway (which is more helpful to the runners). Last Sunday, I got the chance to share with another volunteer the best way to hold the cup for runner to grab it – in your palm, fingers flat. (He replied that he preferred to hold it the other way…) Somebody else – apparently with some background in running – let me know that even at Mile 25, some runners get annoyed when we shout, “You’re almost there” – so even after four years, I’m tweaking my approach.
These are small details, but their importance is found in whether they help, not how “big” they seem. While there is room for some “merciful elasticity” as we help our students serve, we shouldn’t act like excellence isn’t worth aiming for. If we’ve taught students that it’s the “thought that counts” when it comes to their service, we’ve taught them to be bad servants.
4. Unprepared service
The cousin of unskilled service is unprepared service. If someone sets out to serve but doesn’t do the legwork necessary beforehand to be as effective as possible, then selfishness, laziness, or some other problem is limiting our service mightily.
As we’re helping college students serve, this may be one reason to mix in service projects that require preparation and research. If the only projects we participate in are ready-made – whether it’s bringing non-perishable food items or building a house – then we’ve never taught them about the wonders of serving “from the ground up.” I’m a big fan of those ready-made methods, to be sure. But it might be worth pondering how you can also teach collegians about the whole spectrum of service “from the need to the deed.”
Tomorrow, some of the aspects of service we WANT to instill…
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I find it a little… confusing… that many campus ministries seem to plan their entire programs on a year-to-year basis. I’m not sure we can know where our ministries are headed or what our students are going to be up to next week – let alone nine months from now. We’ve got all sort of new students coming through semester-by-semester, ideas that pop up that we need to run with, new issues to deal with directly, changes on campus, and even whole ministry identity-shifts every once in a while.
The truth is, I believe your ministry and your campus are both too exciting to plan a whole year at a time.
If you did “master plan” back in the summer, let me encourage you to consider what (or whom) should be added, subtracted, tweaked, spun off, reined in, increased, decreased, encouraged, discouraged, confronted, or otherwise changed.
In a few areas, you might consider “re-upping,” strategically reinvesting in some of the systems and opportunities you already have in place. So that happy note is our College Ministry Fridea for the week, and here are some examples:
Your leadership team: Depending on how you do student leadership, it’s likely some new potential leaders have arisen. Have you considered re-upping your commitment to involving students by opening the leadership application process once again?
Your small groups: If small groups are part of the DNA of your campus ministry, why oh why would you only have a “push” at the beginning of the school year? Some students have matured, others have become intrigued by hearing about the groups, and some are simply new. Re-up your commitment to small group discipleship by opening present groups – or forming new ones – for next semester or quarter.
Your vision and values: Students have short attention spans, and a good chunk of next semester’s group probably wasn’t around when you shared your vision and values last semester, anyway. Re-up.
Your recruitment: It’s crazy to think that students are only going to join in the first few weeks. And besides, there are students out there who have wandered from your college ministry or others… and they need to find a new community LONG before next August. (Plus, you won’t have nearly as much competition recruiting in January or February!)
Your programs or teams: There’s no way every good service idea, ministry team, or other ongoing program needs to wait ’til August. Are there some “new institutions” you can start in January? (Hey, it’s the perfect time to start slow, too, and gear up for the Fall…)
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Earlier this week, I reflected on the need for us to avoid the easy road of just “doing service” with our students, even though we’re in a climate when volunteerism, social justice, and compassionate concern are all the rage. Let’s tie into that cultural fad, to be sure, but let’s make sure we couple doing service with shepherding.
What does this look like? I can think of two biggie principles I’d at least want to make sure to focus on.
Shepherding means pointing students to the biblical motivations for service.
Why?
That’s the question we’ve got to answer before it’s asked, because it’ll be rare for today’s students to even ask it! But doing service without a biblical motivation is, at best, simply secular – and pretty easily tiptoes into the low-grade legalism our students are extremely susceptible to.
If we’ve ordained that Service, Social Justice, or some similar theme will be part of the “DNA” of our ministry and yet we haven’t made this a ministry-wide teaching point, I honestly believe we’re doing a grave disservice to our students. Without the biblical whys, they’re either “doing good just ’cause,” they’ll quit doing good after awhile, or both.
Shepherding means training students in serving well.
If you’ve got to pick one, choose the above thing. Biblical motivations will likely lead to pretty impactful service all by themselves.
But in our role as shepherds, we have the chance to raise up servants who are actually really good at serving. It’s that whole “loving in deed and truth” thing. It’s serving “with the strength God supplies.” It’s serving in ways not like somebody “running aimlessly” or “beating the air.” Instead, we shepherd servants who more and more land their punches, actually impacting the people and groups and world they’re aiming to impact.
I think this sort of shepherding – shepherding the how of service – will take two courses, and they’re both important. We’ll give our students all sorts of biblical principles for creating a giant impact in the world. And we’ll also offer them all the wisdom we – and plenty of others – have on the practical skills of service.
Of course, love covers over a multitude of sins, and really loving the people we serve has a way of working out the kinks in our service. But still we’re commanded to love in deed and truth and not just word or tongue. If we really examined the servanthood of our college students, what percentage of their service really exemplifies the “deed and truth” variety?
More thoughts to come. [Find the next post in this thought-train, on things we need to shepherd students away from, right here.]
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This post is kind of a tease. Sorry about that. But I really am posting it for good reason. Three good reasons, in fact.
I wanted to let you know that I’ve undertaken a new college ministry advancement project. It’s in the Trial Run phase right now, and a few brave college ministries (including both church-based and campus-based ministries) are participating. Only two of these are outside North Texas (proximity is a help for this trial run), but I’m pleased that – even with late notice – these ministries are able to give this a go as the semester wraps up.
I need to keep the details quiet for now. However, the purpose of this project is to raise funds for college ministries, either for their budgets or for any particular cause – inside their ministry (like a mission trip) or outside their ministry – they’d like to support.
So why bring this up if I can fill you in? Three good reasons, as I said:
1. You can pray for it. If you consider yourself a fan of this blog or a fan of campus ministries or both, I’d ask that you pray this Trial Run accomplishes everything it’s supposed to. You can pray that, even without knowing the details, right?
2. I’m fighting for our success. I’m glad to have the opportunity to let you know that I’m still fully invested in fighting to advance our field in any and every way I can. When this Project came across my mind grapes, I prayed it through and thought it through and ultimately jumped on it. I’ll be thrilled if it works out, thrilled if this Project leads to dozens or hundreds of college ministries finding some additional financial support for their own ministry work or another effort they want to contribute to.
I am absolutely devoted to serving you, as you serve college students. Whether in public or in secret, that’s how I’m living my life.
(And right now, the question doesn’t seem to be whether this Project will work, but simply how well it’s going to work, how much money college ministries might be able to bring in. We’ll see.)
3.You can let me know if you might be interested in joining up in the future. I am not asking for anybody to commit to anything “sight unseen.” But depending on how this trial run goes, I’ll probably need to have some sort of application process. So if you’d like to be included in the original notification (assuming I decide to move forward in the spring), simply let me know via email or Facebook.
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