You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘brainstorming & creativity’ category.
I’m in Ohio this week, meeting with some college ministers and church planters looking to impact a campus up here. So fun!
In the course of a chat yesterday, we discussed a principle that fits really well into this whole discussion of Hospitality of College Ministry… but also gives us a bit of a “bonus” reason for practicing hospitality, too.
The principle? As God draws individuals into your ministry, He might use their attributes to help set the course for your ministry. For example, an influx of fraternity students into your ministry this fall might indicate you should explore opportunities within their frat houses. If God brings a student with disabilities, that might be a chance not simply to meet individual needs, but also to pray about how that community might be better reached for Christ. If upperclassmen begin to choose your ministry, it’s worth praying through whether you should begin to recruit among the Juniors and Seniors.
This doesn’t mean that every type of student needs to be met with an entirely new emphasis or niche-based ministry. Instead, the point is that we get to know people enough that we can see ways God might be directing us through whom He brings our way. A party host surely tries to get to know her guests at some level; are we at least offering that same level of hospitality within our ministries? Would we even know if God was bringing 10 people from the same sports team?
—————————————————————————————
[Click to ask questions, comment, or see any comments on this post!]
Yesterday’s post considered how well we recognize and connect with the “pulse” of our campuses. Are you noticing the many opportunities within each semester? Are you taking advantage of those opportunities?
A big key here is, of course, knowing your campus well enough to see what’s taking place. But it’s possible to “know the times” and still not be able to respond to the opportunities presented to us… because our ministry structures don’t offer space for changes.
Some ways this works out (in my mind, at least!):
1. Things that have worked well in the past must still be reevaluated for the present. Once a campus ministry is developed, it’s very easy for its leaders to discover effective, efficient practices… and then stick with them month after month or year after year.
Learning from our successes is great, and traditions can be very valuable. But we run the risk of falling into what so annoys us about some churches: Traditionalism. Traditionalism doesn’t only look like stained glass or 1950s methods; traditionalism can look like taking the same mission trip each year or throwing the same fun event during New Student Orientation each August. If you started from scratch, would you really choose to do this method in this way again?
2. If your full calendar is set a year in advance, your ministry probably isn’t responding to the campus like it should be. Do we need to plan mission trips months or years beforehand? Sure! Does God sometimes reveal our message themes and small group topics well in advance? Of course.
But when it comes to your own children, how many of you consistently map out their exact discipleship routes, fun activities, and “teachable moments” a year in advance? If you did, would that be best for them? The same goes for our students (and the students not yet touched by our ministries).
If we’re loving our campuses well, it should be impossible to determine exactly how we’re going to reach those campuses over the course of a school year. Yes, some planning is valuable and important. But if you’re always deciding in July what students will need to learn next March, then you’re probably “doing college ministry” more than you’re reaching college students.
3. Your activities shouldn’t only be determined by those already in your college ministry. Remember, we’re not only responding to our students’ growth and other changes. The whole campus is our mission field, so in some part the whole campus should inform our agenda. More on this in the next post.
4. Requiring flexibility and leaving space for change will force you to know (and respond to) your campus. If you’ve already decided that a large part of your calendar a couple of months (or a couple of weeks) from now will be determined by the needs of the moment… then you’re going to be more attuned to the needs of the moment. That’s just the way it works!
[The follow-up post can be found right here!]
—————————————————————————————
[Click to ask questions, comment, or see any comments on this post!]
Since I didn’t get to post this last week, a BONUS Fridea to start off this one!
I write every so often about “campus integration,” but often that means dovetailing with certain goals of the administration or with more “official” campus programs (like New Student Orientation or Finals week).
But we should also be looking to the unofficial activities too, the various happenings in the life of our campus tribe. If we’re paying attention, if we “know the times,” we can recognize valuable teaching moments, opportunities for relational connection, or other chances to tie our ministries and message to campus life.
These activities could be regular traditions or recent undertakings; either way, they’re phenomenal opportunities to connect with students. Some examples:
- A recent justice cause has grabbed students’ attention throughout campus. You quickly assemble a panel discussion or change your speaking topics for a couple of weeks to discuss the issue and mobilize impact.
- St. Patrick’s Day has achieved “big event” status on your campus; you pass out green eyeglasses on campus or host a party.
- A significant number of your school’s athletes always gather to watch the NCAA Tourney games; you help set up a watching party at your church or in the student center.
- A recent campus tragedy has rightly evoked emotion on campus; you respond in wisdom and care by providing adults for students to talk to, sharing God’s viewpoint on the issues, or hosting a memorial service at your usual location.
- The new casual sport has broken out rather “virally” on campus; your ministry uses it to advertise, hosts a tournament, or fields an intramural team to compete and build relationships.
The possibilities here are endless. The question is, do you have your ear to the ground? Are you reading the school newspaper and hanging out on campus enough to know what’s happening? Certainly, we want to share “the life that is truly life” – but do we love our campuses enough to care about (and know about) their livelihood?
[How do we make sure we can respond to the "stream"? Read the follow-up post!]
—————————————————————————————
[Click to ask questions, comment, or see any comments on this post!]
A simple (but pretty cool) video today. I saw this yesterday on CBS Sunday Morning, and it brought up two awesome thoughts for college ministers:
- Is your ministry impacting your “campus tribe” (the college you serve) in ways that fit its particularly unique needs and characteristics?
- Have you considered using techniques like the one MIT is using with students, alongside your normal methods of evangelism, discipleship, service, community, etc.?
Tomorrow, my ideas on how ideas like this one can actually help us accomplish important ministry purposes. [Here's the first post.] But I hope you’ll watch the video and ponder on your own today.
(If the video below gives you trouble, watch it at CBS here.)
(You can find my discussion of the first question here, followed by thoughts on the second here!)
—————————————————————————————
[Click to ask questions, comment, or see any comments on this post!]
After posting yesterday on 49 areas college ministries’ Large Group Meetings differ, I figured I would repost this example of a ministry that has made unique choices in several of those areas. I visited Northern Arizona University’s InterVarsity chapter last year on Road Trip 15, and it was a blast seeing college ministry done like this.
While sometimes we don’t realize it, how we “do” our Large Group Meeting is the product of a multitude of choices. So today, I wanted to share the unique aspects I found in ONE visit. In this case, it happens to be the weekly InterVarsity meeting at Northern Arizona U. (Some of these unique characteristics come from this being an IV chapter, but some are probably rare even within that organization.)
Walk with me through the uniquenesses I found at NAU’s IV.
1. Musical marketing. At least an hour before the meeting, the worship team could be heard (warming up, presumably) throughout the South Campus of NAU. Since their meeting takes place in a second-floor ballroom, the windows open onto the campus below – and allow for some major acoustical advertisement.
2. Unique song scheduling. Two songs before the message, three afterwards. (Admittedly, the leader did act like that was different from the usual plan.)
3. MCs. Apparently they have official, every-week emcees – a guy and a girl – for the school year. They did announcements (twice). This use of official announcement-givers isn’t uncommon among some of the campus-based ministries, but not nearly all the rest of us use this device.
4. Summer Camp and a Dance (unique events). I know a “summer week” of some sort is also common among some campus-based groups, but other college ministries don’t do anything like that. Less common, I’d imagine, are formal dances, but they were advertising one last night.
5. They took an offering. This particular offering went toward their upcoming Chapter Camp. As I noted in the list of 49 decisions, some college ministries do allow students to donate in this way.
6. Unique song styling. Worship time had a distinct “world beat,” multi-instrument, diverse feel – including singing one song in Hawaiian (with an electric ukulele accompanying!) and learning a sign language phrase for another. This is not at all uncommon within InterVarsity, but for the rest of us it’s a unique treat.
7. Speaker profile. Not only does IV at NAU appear to use different speakers each week (which doesn’t fit some of our molds), but last night’s speaker was an alumnus AND an introvert (he noted that). In fact, he basically read his talk. And it was very, very good.
None of these aspects are wildly surprising, of course, but it still might be helpful for some of us to consider varying our speaker lineup, varying the types of speakers we rely on, and considering the impactfulness some of our alums could bring.
8. They gave an invitation. Yes, a real-life, do-you-want-to-come-to-Jesus invitation. (A second “invitation” offered a free Bible from the back – if you were willing to read it.) The first song of the post-message worship was even “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus” – doesn’t get any more classic than that. Where else have I seen an invitation? Oh yeah, the InterVarsity group (that’s widely known for seeing lots of students come to Christ) at UCSD.
9. Message length (and entire meeting length). Message lengths vary in college ministry, but this one was 25 minutes… and the entire meeting was over in less than an hour. Like I said, everything was quite good – so I don’t feel the shortness took anything at all away from it… and there are some up-sides to brevity, too.
10. Afterparty. I think the encouragement to go to Starbucks at the meeting’s end was pointing us to an official after-Large Group hangout. This method pops up all over in college ministries, but not nearly “all over” enough for my taste. I’m a fan of encouraging community in this way (if it fits your group and your campus, of course).
—————————————————————————————
[Click to ask questions, comment, or see any comments on this post!]
I’m leading a small gathering of church-based college ministers from around the U.S. later this week! (I’ll blog more about that in the days to come.) One of the tools we’ll probably use is the post below, looking at just how diverse even college ministry’s most basic methods can be. So since it’s a good one (and has been a popular one), I figured I’d repost it for everybody today.
Since most of us have only seen a few different college ministries in action (and sometimes no ministries outside our own circles), we haven’t had the opportunity to learn all the other ways that ministries organize service projects, recruit freshmen, or fundraise. But it’s funny: Once we observe even a few “alternate universes,” we may start to realize how many options are truly available.
Nowhere is this more true than in the staple of college ministry: the Large Group Meeting, the “Sing ‘n Speak” that is the cornerstone for so many. Starting with the decision about whether to have a Large Group Meeting or not (yes, some college ministries have decided not to), you’re making lots of choices… even if you don’t mean to.
But if your choices aren’t conscious decisions, they’re less likely to be as impactful as they could be.
Below is a list of decisions you’ve already made about your college ministry’s Large Group gathering. How do I know you’ve already made these decisions? Because this list is based on actual variations I’ve seen in campus ministries across the country.
Each of these 49 areas differ within U.S. college ministries – so how many did you make a conscious decision about?
Decisions you’ve made about your college ministry’s large group gathering
Schedule, organization, etc.
- Day of the week?
- Time of night (or day)?
- Length? (I’ve seen 30 minutes to 1:30+)
- Number of times in a week / month? (Besides the more standard weekly meeting, some have daily meetings, monthly gatherings, and less-than-monthly gatherings)
- What do we call our Large Group Meeting? (formally and informally)
- Location? (off-campus or on-campus, and then the decision of where beyond that)
- Is the bulk of the meeting organized / run by students or by adults?
- Does the Large Group Meeting involve only one college ministry, or multiple ministries? (multiple could be from the same organization across a city, or from multiple organizations across a campus or city)
- Who is involved in setup and how is that managed?
- Are adults / volunteers (besides staff) present at the meeting?
The Start
- What do students see when they first approach the meeting area?
- What takes place as students wait to start? Congregate and talk? Sit down? Pray / prepare? Eat something?
- What takes place before the start? Music? Announcements on PowerPoint? A countdown video?
- Do students wait inside the room, outside the room, or both?
- Does greeting of members and/or visitors take place before the meeting? Is that greeting organic? Systematic?
- Nametags?
- Start on time? Purposely start late? Accidentally start late?
The Music
- Are songs regularly sung at the Large Group Meeting? (nope, not everybody does)
- How many songs are sung?
- Does the majority of (or all) singing take place before or after the message?
- Is the singing broken up by announcements or other activities?
- Are the worship leader and/or band involved in the college ministry (outside of this meeting)?
- Is the worship leader and/or band required to meet certain spiritual qualifications?
- What is the song choice based on?
- Are there other worship stations (art, prayer, etc.) available during this time?
*of course, some “special gatherings” might involve other variations on the singing – like a whole meeting of only singing, a certain type of music, no music, etc.
The Message
- Standalone message, or part of a series? (and if so, how long is the series? A few weeks? Semester-long?)
- How is the message topic / passage chosen?
- Who gives the message? Does that change week-to-week?
- How long is the message? (I’ve probably seen from 10 minutes to an hour)
- Is there organized group discussion of the message within the meeting time?
- Are suggestions given for further study of the topic (either verbally or on paper)?
- Is there interaction with the audience during the message?
*of course, we could ask a billion more questions about message content, speaking aids, components of a message, etc.. I’m sticking to broader issues here, but those are all important decisions, too.
The More
- Are announcements given? If so, what is their tone and method? Who gives them?
- Are announcements from outside organizations allowed?
- What students / kinds of students are “honored” or placed in front of their peers? (Thanks to Bob Wriedt from the original post’s comments for helping me think through this one.)
- Is there a “greeting of those around you” time?
- Is there a corporate ice breaker and/or skit?
- Is there a set-aside time for prayer in groups and/or an extended time of silent prayer?
- Is an offering taken? (yes, plenty of ministries do this)
- Are visitors pointed out during the meeting?
- Is attendance counted, or are attendees recorded somehow?
- Are the college minister and other leaders identified to attendees?
- Is there an opportunity given to take any sort of next step immediately? (this could be anything from an evangelistic appeal and invitation to a “5-minute party” to share about the ministry afterward)
The After
- Do students congregate afterward? (yes, even this is partly our decision!)
- Is there space / opportunity for students to connect with each other (even casually) after the meeting?
- Are there activities organized after the meeting? Are these for (small-group) discipleship, fellowship, or some other purpose?
- Are sign-ups and/or advertisements available for students at the meeting?
- Do we sell / give away anything (T-shirts, stickers, etc.)?
- Who is involved in “tear-down,” and how is that managed?
Look for the follow-up later this week. But if you want more now, check out the the original follow-up post, which asks whether these should be seen as a bunch of methods – or one “method bundle.”
—————————————————————————————
[Click to ask questions, comment, or see any comments on this post!]
Yesterday I wrote about our need to consider cooperative partnerships (with other organizations, both Christian and secular, or even the school itself) as a valid option for new ministry activities. So for today’s Fridea, I wanted to offer one way you might see partnerships arise between your ministry and other ministries on campus.
The Fridea? Regularly share with other college ministers the NEW opportunities or possibilities that seem to pop up on the radar.
Here’s what I mean: Every once in a while, it’s likely that a potential outlet for future ministry presents itself:
- Key students talk to you about a new passion they have for a certain issue
- You notice several students from a certain niche start coming to your large group meeting
- You begin to notice a possible opportunity for outreach, and as you pray you continue to think about it
- An administrator contacts you about a certain need on campus
- You attend a conference and hear about a method for reaching fraternities that you’d love to try
- …and so on.
However new ideas show up on the radar, what if you made a point to express these possibilities to other ministers? Isn’t it just possible God might be showing them similar things? Plus, sometimes the encouragement they’ll offer – which might just include an invite to partner together – will be the encouragement you need to actually go for this.
If you sent a monthly email to all the other college ministers simply telling them the brainstorming you, your staff, and your student leaders have been doing, you might be shocked to see God use that to build partnerships to accomplish those very things!
—————————————————————————————
[Click to ask questions, comment, or see any comments on this post!]
Last semester, I had the chance to help my church out on our Local and International Service team. And one of the things I really appreciate about those guys is that they have a major partnership bent. Even though our church is big and could do a lot of service activities on its own, instead our M.O. is partnering with those in our community (or overseas) who are already making an impact.
Clearly, lots of churches don’t take that same stance. But the truth is, lots of college ministries don’t, either. In our case, I believe there’s room for a lot more partnership in service activities – as well as other functions of our ministries.
How often do you consider questions like these?:
- Before we launch a Bible study for that sorority, do we know of any other ministries with students in that club?
- Instead of assuming nobody’s already reaching that dorm, have we tried to find out and maybe join them?
- We’ve thought about advertising to that nearby community college – is there a church that might want to help with that outreach?
- Are there any other secular clubs on campus that could partner with us for this campus-wide party?
- Before choosing a new service project, have we considered the ones the campus is already getting behind?
- Instead of having our five students with a passion for _____________ do that on their own, what if they joined forces with similar students from other ministries?
Believe me, I recognize there are sometimes great reasons NOT to partner. But I feel like we’re more often erring on the other side of things, on the side that needlessly recreates wheels and misses opportunities for a little extra unity. We have to be open to considering partnership often.
One more note – When it comes to partnering with other ministries, let me say this: I am by no means a naysayer when it comes to having multiple college ministries on a campus. I understand the role they serve, and I know there are real differences between groups. (It is a misunderstanding of biblical unity to declare that things shouldn’t be this way.) But the fact that there often should be multiple college ministries on one campus doesn’t mean that the next activity can’t be done in unison – whether it’s starting a niche ministry or holding a Service Day downtown.
—————————————————————————————
[Click to ask questions, comment, or see any comments on this post!]
There’s a big difference between the campus ministry with leaders who simply aren’t Learners… and the campus ministry with leaders who actively, regularly learn from others about the work of collegiate ministry.
They will have a better impact. They will better fulfill their ministry. They will create a far better ministry over time, in ways both obvious and non-obvious.
But I’ll go one step further today.
There’s a big difference between the college ministry that looks at other ministries mainly to learn what to do… and the college ministry that discerns what it should do, in its context, and then finds other ministries to learn how to do those things better.
Of course other ministries will always (and should always) give us new ideas for the what. But far too often we find the bulk of our methods in either:
- large, successful college ministries
- our own experiences in college ministries
- or the “ways it’s usually done” in our organization or denomination
The more your methods have arisen from your context and your audience – while regularly looking for others’ wisdom on how to use those methods best – the better you’ll impact. As I’ve noted lots of other times, I think the panorama of college ministries is far, far too homogenous for such diverse mission fields as ours.
—————————————————————————————
[Click to ask questions, comment, or see any comments on this post!]
Recent Comments