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!

  1. A Finals study day (with food), like Blackhawk Church in Madison does.
  2. 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!)
  3. Serving your campus’s students: anything from food to free Scantrons to free tutoring to free massages…
  4. A few-hour Study Break (with food & games & other fun)
  5. Prayer – for, with, about
  6. Holding an on-campus or off-campus respite spot all week long, open ’round the clock
  7. 15-minute Worship breaks within the day, held on-campus…
  8. …or even mid-day “chapel services” held on campus
  9. Simply cancel some or all of your regular activities, if that helps students most
  10. Prepare an awesome devotional guide or other “plan” to give students as they leave or send students two weeks into summer
  11. Quick road trip – to study (in a cool location) or not to study
  12. Print a handout on the spiritual aspects of finishing strong, studying hard, etc.
  13. Give students something to serve their fellow classmates with (candy? extra Scantrons?)
  14. Hang out with other college ministers (while the mice are away, the cats will play?)
  15. Cheer academic excellence in obvious ways
  16. Midnight stress relievers (B-Movies? Campus golf?)
  17. Camping on campus
  18. Collect mailing addresses of the students who are headed home
  19. Spend the week getting to know some of the faculty, administration, and staff
  20. Spend some time serving some of the faculty, administration, and staff
  21. Remind students to (and how to) stay healthy
  22. Brainstorm how you’re going to impact local college students during the summer (even if you’re a campus-based college ministry!)
  23. Prepare for the most amazing Senior send-off ever
  24. 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
  25. Prepare to host parents, families, and others well when they come for graduation
  26. Love on specific groups on campus in some of the above ways
  27. Moving-out help
  28. Tour high schoolers around campus
  29. 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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