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Last year, my college ministry-thinkin’ buddy Mark Warrington and I brainstormed a big list of ideas for college ministries during Finals week. I figured I’d repost that list (with several additions!) today.
For many campuses, the last week of the semester or quarter could be the PERFECT time to add something to the calendar. Have you thought about it? Even if you didn’t put it on the calendar yet? (Why do we try to plan so far ahead in college ministry, anyway?)
If you know your campus, you can figure out what will help accomplish your purposes during Finals week. Maybe some of this will fit, or maybe it’ll help you brainstorm for your own campus tribe!
- A Finals study day (with food), like Blackhawk Church in Madison does.
- A perpetual game marathon. As students need to leave, new students step in. Remember your color or your team, and we’ll announce the winning team at the end of the week. (I’ve always wanted to do this!)
- Serving your campus’s students: anything from food to free Scantrons to free tutoring to free massages…
- A few-hour Study Break (with food & games & other fun)
- Prayer – for, with, about
- Holding an on-campus or off-campus respite spot all week long, open ’round the clock
- 15-minute Worship breaks within the day, held on-campus…
- …or even mid-day “chapel services” held on campus
- Simply cancel some or all of your regular activities, if that helps students most
- Prepare an awesome devotional guide or other “plan” to give students as they leave or send students two weeks into summer
- Quick road trip – to study (in a cool location) or not to study
- Print a handout on the spiritual aspects of finishing strong, studying hard, etc.
- Give students something to serve their fellow classmates with (candy? extra Scantrons?)
- Hang out with other college ministers (while the mice are away, the cats will play?)
- Cheer academic excellence in obvious ways
- Midnight stress relievers (B-Movies? Campus golf?)
- Camping on campus
- Collect mailing addresses of the students who are headed home
- Spend the week getting to know some of the faculty, administration, and staff
- Spend some time serving some of the faculty, administration, and staff
- Remind students to (and how to) stay healthy
- Brainstorm how you’re going to impact local college students during the summer (even if you’re a campus-based college ministry!)
- Prepare for the most amazing Senior send-off ever
- Organize a team of all your students who don’t have Finals (or whose Finals end early in the week) – either to have fun together OR to serve
- Prepare to host parents, families, and others well when they come for graduation
- Love on specific groups on campus in some of the above ways
- Moving-out help
- Tour high schoolers around campus
- Bring to campus: Local pastors, parents, youth pastors, and others who need to care more about the campus tribes. Offer a “vision experience” where they look to these busy-hurried-anxious-energetic mission fields, notice they’re white unto harvest, and help the labor to increase.
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College campuses occasionally experience large hardships and true tragedies, even ones extreme enough to make national newscasts. Four years ago this month, Virginia Tech experienced a terrible shooting; not long after another deadly shooting darkened the Husky tribe of Northern Illinois. While I was attending Texas A&M, twelve students were killed in the bonfire accident on campus.
Other hardships are less deadly but still make the news; I remember Union University, for instance, getting torn up by a tornado a few years ago.
This week (and especially last night), storms have been leaving destruction in their wake. I tweeted last night about the damage in Tuscaloosa, home to University of Alabama and several other schools. (UA is reporting on the damage here.) While I haven’t specifically read about college students losing their lives, over 150 people have died from this week’s storms in the South – so we need to be praying.
In times of these kinds of hardships, it’s natural for many outsiders to want to help – and of course, that’s awesome. Maybe your college ministry might even consider loving on the campuses or other places hurt by this week’s weather activities.
But if and as you do, I urge you to remember that not all help… helps. I wrote about this way back on the yearlong trip, after exploring Virginia Tech and Boston – both recipients of much Christian help through the years. I wrote,
In Boston, it’s a bit of an inside joke to mention the large amount of service that has come from elsewhere in the past few years; while plenty of “mission trips” or “service teams” have truly helped, several have been a little bit of a hassle, too. At Virginia Tech, likewise, there are occasional smiles-and-groans when reminiscing about some of the outside service received [following the shooting]. These ministers aren’t “looking a gift-horse in the mouth.” They’re just rightly recognizing that intention doesn’t always equal production – even in the realm of service. We can learn from their realizations.
We can learn from their realizations. I encourage you weigh carefully all of the ways you serve – locally, on mission trips, and in other forms of service. These posts might help:
Help and Help are Not the Same Thing
Of Moon Bounces and Granola Bars
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While I’m definitely a fan of the group I’m posting about today, I promise they’re not paying me to write any of this! If you’re a college minister, it really is just an organization you need to be familiar with – and an event you should consider.
I got an email yesterday reminding me that Early Registration for the annual Growing Leaders National Leadership Forum is about to come to a close. While it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to go this year, it’s another chance to remind you about this organization (and their great event).
If you’re unfamiliar with Growing Leaders, I encourage you to change that. Tim Elmore (who heads GL) has probably been one of the three most formative individuals in my own understanding of college ministry – and without a doubt the most influential in my understanding of Millennials. Much of what I’ve written here at the blog about how we interact with the Millennial Generation (like my “Jimmy Fallon and Gen Y” series) comes very directly from what I’ve learned from Tim and Growing Leaders.
Tim’s recently put out a book, Generation iY, that not only looks at this present generation but even acknowledges some of the shifts that have taken place within the generation itself.
Meanwhile, his Habitudes series might be the curricula I hear the most about for small group studies in campus ministries.
For those who bring in speakers for conferences, etc., Tim and other members of his staff are excellent and able to speak on a variety of topics – both for training staff members and for speaking to students. I know two of the arenas in which Tim has been particularly well-received are in the enormous Southern Baptist campus ministry family and in the institutional college ministries at various Christian colleges.
Tim’s also had success in secular environments (like with collegiate sports teams). He and many of his materials are pretty good for that sort of thing – for instance, teaching Leadership to groups at your campus in a way that won’t run afoul of the administration. (Habitudes even has faith-based and values-based versions!)
I got to attend the National Leadership Forum a few years ago and really, really enjoyed it. It’s fun to attend something that very much caters to us as college ministers but is also well populated by other kinds of pastors, college administrators, secular businesspeople, and more.
So it’s worth checking out the forum – for this summer or the future – and it’s definitely worth knowing Growing Leaders.
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I’m going to make an odd sort of request: If you’ve been helped by my ministry, I’d ask that you read this and give it a little thought. Could your college ministry – or any other campus ministries – make use of this?
The cool thing is, the more this BIG idea helps others, the more it helps fuel my ministry, too.
Have you ever noticed how much money gets traded between students and the bookstore each semester? Wouldn’t it be great if some of those funds got used more directly for the Kingdom?
Books-to-Impact is my newest project for serving college ministries. It turns textbooks donated by students into funds – for any cause you want, whether outside or inside your ministry.
Remember, I know the world of college ministry. I know how much we need funds (for our ministry work or for our favorite causes). But I also know there are lots of support raising tools that just won’t work. Here’s why this one’s different:
- Thousands of dollars. We’re not talking a few hundred bucks from collecting change. It’s likely some ministries will be able to pull in ten or fifteen thousand dollars a year (or more!). And smaller efforts will likely still draw a thousand or two each semester.
- Choose your effort. You can choose how much effort to expend – and this whole project is actually perfect for delegating to students. Even a small amount of involvement can easily bring in enough money for this to be truly “worth it.”
- Low time requirements. This isn’t something you’ve got to spend all semester on; in fact, most won’t spend more than a week or so each semester.
- Start when you want, end when you want. If you give this a try, you’re not “committing” to anything. Use this project to raise funds for one semester or for the next decade… and I’ll be glad to keep sending you money!
- Choose your cause. YOU get the funds. YOU decide what to do with ‘em.
- You’re also helping my ministry. Which helps your ministry. The small portion of the proceeds I keep goes right into helping me keep serving the world of college ministry. So not only am I helping you through this project… this project is helping me help you even more. Weird. But true.
Want more info? Contact me, and I’ll send you the full details. If you’re going to try this (even as a Trial Run) this semester, you’ll need to start preparing a little right now.
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Easter and Christmas, THE two biggest “liturgies” among us Protestants, are both widely ignored in the context of college ministry. Students are often home at Easter and pretty much always home at Christmas. Students who happen to stay in town (or live locally) aren’t going to celebrate these holidays with us.
But that’s kind of a shame, isn’t it? Because not only should we help our Jesus-following students better comprehend and celebrate the magnitude of the Christmas and Easter stories, but the non-Christian and “de-churched” students around us might be more likely to reflect in these moments than any others.
Easter, clearly, is over for 2011. But even now there might be some things worth considering:
1. Let students share. How often do we ask students to share the growth they gained away from our ministries? Yet some of your students probably did reflect on Easter, celebrate Easter, and grow in the context of Easter in awesome ways. Shouldn’t they share that with you, their college minister? Couldn’t they share that with the whole group?
2. Don’t let this pass by ’til you’ve fulfilled your ministry. Sometimes we’re so interested in putting on a good “show” that we wouldn’t dare do something silly like talk about Easter after Easter! But if there’s something (or there are lots of things) God wants you to share about Easter… you need to do that. Even this week. Even after Easter. (Your students won’t care; in fact, it might make it “stick” better.)
3. What are you going to do for Christmas? Start pondering now.
4. Ponder what next year’s Easter will look like. It makes sense to consider your Easter and “Resurrection Week” activities for 2012 now. You don’t have to decide everything, but you should
- analyze how well this year’s activities (if you had some) accomplished your purposes
- contemplate what you might want to do next year (while we’re still “in the moment”)
- write down any worthy thoughts – and maybe set a reminder to make sure you look at ‘em in 11 months.
Easter 2012 falls on April 8th!
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This spring, after the annual “pollen plague” hit their region of South Carolina, the Campus Ministries at Anderson University offered a campus-wide car wash – and apparently this small act of much-needed charity went over really well.
Your campus may not have a preposterous plethora of pollen spores (although if you do, then there’s a bonus Fridea!). But this project reminded me of a service that will almost definitely apply to your school as the semester winds down.
That Fridea? Offer automobile “check-ups” for students who have to drive a long way to get home.
I’ve seen groups do this; in the example I’m remembering, I think a bunch of guys did this for any girl who wanted it. But it could easily apply to anybody’s car.
Fluid levels, oil check, battery check (if you have that device), air filter… I don’t know how far you’d want to take this, but some of that is pretty easy. And even the stuff that isn’t easy might be an awesome way for certain guys (or ladies!) in your ministry to use their specific knowledge and skills to serve others in a way that is truly important.
Easy enough, right? But it’s also easy to envision a line of cars stretching back a ways… students waiting happily for your extra service… your ministry making some great friends during Finals Week or as students head out of town.
Thanks to my dad, Mark Hines, for letting me know about the Anderson University project!
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Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. (Rom. 14:13 NIV2011)
For if your brother is hurt by what you eat, you are no longer walking according to love. By what you eat, do not destroy that one for whom Christ died. (v. 15 HCSB)
For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself… (v. 7 NASB)
But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. (v. 23 ESV)
I mentioned a few weeks ago that there are quite a few “topics worth the tussle” in the later chapters of Romans – the portions that more theologically minded collegians might wrongly consider “more shallow.” But I wanted to return again to one chapter – chapter 14 – which I believe has some of the biggest potential for impacting our students of any chapter in the Bible.
Really.
So whether you teach on Romans 14 or just use it to evaluate your ministry, I do encourage you to consider how well your college ministry’s members (and you yourself!) live out this chapter. Its demands are difficult and even surprising, but Paul here also makes it very clear that he saw this as rather central to BOTH glorifying God and living in Christian community… and those are probably our top two priorities for our college ministries, right?
[Click here to see all the "Topics Worth the Tussle."]
Three little notes to get you started on Romans 14:
1. Walk slowly through this passage. If you only observe the overarching theme (Dealing with Disputable Matters) through a normal skimming, you’ll miss the profundity of many of the individual commands and comments. By paying close attention, too, you quickly realize that “faith” here means “conviction” or “confidence” more than general “trust in God” – a key to understanding the whole chapter.
2. Compare with Corinthians. I Corinthians 8 and 10 parallel this far too closely to be ignored, and they even provide more concrete examples.
2. Recognize the many applications. On that note, I count at least five applications that can turn our lives (and our students’ lives) upside-down. (One verse for each appears above, although there are several for each scattered throughout Romans 14.)
- Handling disputable matters well. This is the main topic, obviously, but what Paul writes isn’t “obvious” at all. Read it in concert with I Corinthians 8 and 10, and Paul’s awkward demands become impossible to deny.
- Love bends over backwards. If this is love, it’s a much more dramatic version than we usually see. This isn’t just noble sacrifice but – in a sense – ignoble sacrifice.
- We’re supposed to strive to please people(!). Most vividly, this is prescribed in Romans 14:18-19 and the first two verses of chapter 15 (there weren’t chapters in the original, remember!). Of course, this isn’t an unqualified command…
- “Do all for the glory of God.” It’s no coincidence that I Cor. 10:31 and Rom. 14:7-12 both occur in discussions of how we eat. If we’re supposed to glorify God in everything, then that means glorifying Him in the necessary, the daily, the very very normal.
- All actions from conviction. Romans 14 knows nothing of “I can do it unless God shows me it’s wrong.” Perhaps the most counter-Christian-cultural application of all comes when we realize that Romans 14 actually demands the opposite – even down to the final verse.
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Earlier this month, I had the chance to “present” at Guy Chmieleski’s blogathon – with this round’s theme “The Future of College Ministry.” When I write at other sites not everybody might get a chance to click over, and others might just have missed it.
Following Road Trip 15, the issue I address seems all the more pertinent to where we are as a field – and where lots of individual campus ministries are, too. So I really do encourage you to read and ponder this idea!
Further In: A Future of Deeper
The brightest future for any individual college ministry might be found in going deeper, not simply wider. And coincidentally, this could just be one of the most exciting paths forward for our field as a whole, too.
After exploring the wide world of American college ministry over the last four years, I’m occasionally asked about anything that I’ve found disappointing. One of my common responses: “It all seems too similar.” I’ve seen hundreds of ministries in action (in all four branches of college ministry), and while I’m quite excited about what they’re doing, it’s still rare to find ones that seem, well, all that different.
Of course, I’m not saying ministries are identical. But it’s far too rare to find college ministries (or even aspects of ministries) that don’t pretty closely fit a common mold (whether their leaders realize it or not).
the difference is real
College campuses differ in plenty of ways. Sure, we can paint schools with broad strokes: “big state universities,” “private Christian schools,” “liberal northeastern schools,” etc.. But only a moment of reflection reveals that those generalizations work about as well as “African tribes” or “North American neighborhoods.”
And if we approach them in generalized ways, we’ll get “generally good” results! I want more.
It’s no secret that I view college ministry through the lens of Missions, and this is perhaps the biggest reason: College campuses differ. Widely. They’ve been structured that way, with all sorts of factors affecting demographics and sociology: a school’s region, its size, what kinds of students it chooses, what kinds of students choose it, its academic foci, its history, its religious climate, its faculty and administration, and on and on.
If the four colleges (of any kind) nearest to you vary as much as they do (and I bet they do!), then isn’t it possible that we’re better off approaching every campus on its own terms?
the difference should make a difference
So that takes me back to the point of this post. If colleges truly are different – at least past the thinnest of surface impressions – then shouldn’t there be pervasive “different-ness” within our field, too?
But the questions might make us cringe: How contextualized have I made my mission to this campus? What are we doing only because this campus is the way it is? What are we doing that would be unlikely to work at most other campuses?
When I impact another person, my greatest effectiveness comes when I know his needs, know his wants, and otherwise know him – and tailor my approach to reaching him as a person…
The same is true for an entire campus. We should be learning these places, falling in love with these places, and begging God for approaches that will fit them best. As we do, deep contextualization may lead to adjustments to present forms, entirely new initiatives, or even entirely new ministries.
- A future of contextualization would mean refusing any sense of “manifest destiny,” instead diligently exegeting each context before I, my national organization, or my church decides to reach it.
- For places we are called to reach, this means digging down into what makes each campus unique – and only determining our methods afterward.
- This could very likely lead to many additional niche ministries (efforts that reach specific groups of people) and complementary ministries (efforts that focus on one piece of students’ discipleship). Some of these forms will come from within present college ministries, some will spin off from present ministries, and some will start from scratch.
- And when it comes to training each other, we must leave behind senseless extrapolation. What has worked well in one or two places is rarely the prescription for most. We should definitely be sharing what we’ve learned, but much more often as theories and possibilities than as blueprints or patterns.
I genuinely love what God and His people are doing in college ministry. It’s exciting and impactful. But when I think about the future, I’m hopeful we’ll get to know our campuses, come to love our campuses, and reach our campuses on an even deeper level – both in individual campus missions and in regional and national efforts.
I really do envision a day when we see a wide variety of college ministry efforts and practices – many that would be unrecognizable to us today!
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One of the simple but very, very important things I was reminded of on Road Trip 15 was the difference in what “success” might look like campus to campus. It’s important to realize that our “percentage of the student body reached” formulas (formal or informal) are at best only guidelines.
Sometimes a great ministry – well-established, well-run, full of Spirit and truth – won’t draw the number of students we “think it should.” In fact, one campus may be populated by several ministries like this and still not see nearly as many students reached as some less effective, less efficient ministries somewhere else.
Sure, I hope we see inroads and dramatic revival and even new, God-revealed methods that help grow our impact on campuses formerly thought to be quite difficult. We can’t use Hard Soil as an outright excuse (and I don’t meant it to be one here). But we should recognize it as reality.
- So we celebrate the victories we see, including every life we see changed.
- So we determine to push and tug until our ministry is the very best it can be.
- So for us not already on a certain campus, we’re careful not to encroach on what God is already doing in tough places. We refuse to assume that our college ministry efforts would be helpful. Maybe they would be. But maybe not. Maybe the soil’s just hard, but there are enough campus ministries.
And we who are in Easier Soil settings must beware that we not assume we’re fulfilling our ministries just because we’ve got a lot of people or saw a lot of lives changed last year. It’s a bigger temptation to be mediocre when you can still draw a hundred…
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My eight-day Road Trip 15 ended yesterday, but of course I have lots to share about what I learned and explored. (See the trip’s itinerary and explorations right here.)
At least twice on Road Trip 15 – maybe more – college ministers mentioned the changes in students since they graduated. And in both cases I’m thinking of, I was talking to campus ministers serving at their alma maters.
In the space of only a handful of years, the climate had changed. Not completely, of course. But enough to matter. (I believe in both those cases, the minister had gone elsewhere between graduation and returning to the school as a minister. I’m sure that helped them notice the differences.)
This reminds me that we all need to regularly update our understanding of students and our campus. They aren’t the same as they were a few years ago. They probably aren’t utterly the same as last semester. Yet I think it’s easy for us to “lock in” to certain moments – maybe what students were like when we were in college, maybe the climate during our first year as a college minister.
If our ministry is perfect for reaching students from 2009, then we’re not fulfilling our ministry in 2011.
Written from home in good ol’ Dallas, TX
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