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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.
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You’re probably well aware of all the turmoil that has taken place over the last few months surrounding the Penn State football program, coaches, and campus: allegations of sexual abuse, firings of coaches and the president, student protests, talk show fodder, and the death of Joe Paterno. Whatever other emotions are justified, I’ve been heartbroken by the pain of it all for that campus.
I realize that there were (and still are) many emotions surrounding those situations. And everybody’s personal response, of course, varies.
But I have two questions for you to consider about your own love for your campus – as opposed to (simply) loving your ministry to that campus:
- Do you love your campus enough that you would be emotional – even devastated – if such things happened in your own backyard? Even if they had no direct connections to your ministry
- Do you love campuses enough that you can weep with the college ministers and students of Penn State?
I realize each person’s take on #2 might vary; while I’d love to see every college minister care about others’ mission fields, our experiences and “wiring” are all different here.
But I think #1 is a non-negotiable for good campus ministry, and it’s a great assessment of how well we’ve really come to adore the field God’s given us to tend. I hope we’re all weeping with those who weep in our own campus tribes.
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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.
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I’ve had a lot of fun with this “Going for Broke” series, looking at “big” moves that might be right for a few college ministries out there – and pondering them can also be impactful for the rest of us! So I figured I’d extend the series into this week!
For some college ministries (especially denominational campus-based ministries), having a building next to (or even on!) campus is a longstanding tradition. For others, it’s part of their history that they willingly – or for lack of funds – gave up a while back.
Some of the latter group – and others who have never had a building – would say they’re glad to be free of the trickiness of running the building, of the isolation of “housing” off-campus, etc.
But for some college ministries, the best “big move” they could make would be finding some sort of building.
Remember, college ministry is perhaps the most contextual field of ministry there is. So while this might be a terrible idea for plenty of campuses and ministries, other campuses could be highly impacted through a ministry building, a local hang-out house, a converted church, rented office space, or another established presence on the edges of the campus grounds. Even the variety of “spaces” alludes to the potential purposes that could be fulfilled here.
What might a “house” do for your ministry?
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Short and simple today, but it’s still a chance for brave, strategic college ministries to “go for broke”:
Start a (school-serving) tradition on your campus.
Believe it or not, your ministry would be far from the first to begin something that a campus tribe rallies around. There are instances of Orientation Week events that have been adopted by the school itself, T-shirts that have “made it big,” campus-wide games that have caught on far beyond the ministry’s normal circle, and so on.
And when this works, it has the potential to serve students – or even the campus and its long-term aims. There may be a strong recruiting or evangelism angle to some new traditions, whether through direct contact or through building bridges from the tradition to those things. Maybe certain traditions could help bring some needed funds to your ministry (like through T-shirt or other sales), or maybe by building this tradition with other organizations (Christian or otherwise), you’ll grow some amazing connections!
There’s no way I can wade into all the possibilities, though, because traditions are possibly the most contextual of all the characteristics of the campus tribes. So coming up with new traditions is a contextual art – and it’s also an area that would be really easy to fail in.
But that’s the idea of this “Going for Broke” series: Offering ideas that require a lot of wisdom and skill, but that might just be worth considering!
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You want a Fridea that fits this “Going for Broke” series?
What if your college ministry started a business?
Laundromat. Laundry service. Restaurant. Coffee shop. Bookstore. Textbook store. Clothing store. Vintage clothing store. Event photography. Graphic design. Rentals.
And those are just ones with a campus-orientation that came to mind in one minute (although I’ve definitely pondered some of them before). It wouldn’t have to connect directly to the campus, and God’s far more creative than me…
If God grants that I get to continue helping advance the field of Collegiate Ministry, I’d love to be involved in helping alternative funding opportunities become widespread. I myself was supported through a textbook store, and I think there’s a lot of potential in this area.
It’s a HUGE idea, but it could bear HUGE fruit for the ministries that did it wisely, strategically, and excellently. And the fruit wouldn’t just be in funds (in fact, for some that might be pretty low on the list of purposes). Connections with students and serving a campus could be enormous outcomes here.
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You may have heard: My Texas Rangers once again made the World Series. They’ll play the St. Louis Cardinals, starting this Wednesday.
But that leads me to a simple question: How often do you call audibles in your campus ministry? How often do you scrap the normal schedule to better fit something happening on campus, in your town, or among your students?
The local college ministry I volunteer in holds its weekly Large Group Meeting on Wednesdays, you see. Now, of course, the leaders may decide to go ahead and stick with the norm – and that may absolutely be the right decision. But I also know those guys, and I know they’re willing to adjust things like this – despite spending hours back during the summer figuring out the schedule for this semester.
It’s not wrong to hold a game-watching party instead of a Large Group Meeting on occasion.
Sometimes it’s best to switch your planned message to a topic that’s come up on campus this week.
The small groups may need to focus simply on fellowship this week, if that’s the need of the hour. Or give a week for prayer. Or for looking at what the Bible says about that topic that came up on campus this week!
A last-minute road trip to serve a town hit by a natural disaster could be an amazing way for God to use (and impact) your college ministry… if you’re willing to ditch the dodgeball tournament. And your yearly mission trip to Brazil might be awesome… but what if God’s been causing you to consider helping closer to home this year? Are you willing – on occasion – to get away from the normal plans?
I’m not saying audibles should be the norm. Planning is good and right and strategic. But I also know the world we live in – the ever-changing, pulsating, crazy campus world. Audibles should happen on occasion, because we’re serving tribes that need responsive ministry – far more than they need our message series to end in five weeks rather than six!
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I’m moving to a new house here in Dallas this week, so a Fridea springs to mind:
Serve students by helping them move (in or out) at times other than the start of school… and even in places other than the dorms!
I recognize “Move-in” is a widely used, classic method for service and recruitment each Fall. But students can be served at other times, too – like when they’re moving out of their dorms at Christmas or Summer Break. They need help moving back in after Christmas, too, and sometimes summer students could use some help, too!
Further, it’s not just dorm-living students who have to move stuff. While it may look a little different, it’s probably not too hard to get a crew of students to look for moving trucks (and then offer to help) at student-oriented apartment complexes.
Like a lot of our methods, we can often accomplish new purposes (or old purposes better) simply by thinking creatively about the classic methods that we’re already using (like start-of-school Move-in)!
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There are some college ministries out there – campus-based, church-based, and otherwise – that have asked themselves today’s question, answered it well, and used the answer to create a better ministry.
But for many of us, its answer is less clarified than we’d like.
The question: Within the campus community, how is your campus ministry identified?
In other words, how is your college ministry known… or what’s the one-sentence reputation of your ministry… among both the secular and Christian members of your campus community? (This includes administration members, faculty, other college ministries, student organizations, and anybody else.)
Have you discerned a concrete – and accurate – answer to that question?
I could follow up with plenty of other questions: Are you happy with that reputation? Are you even “identified” at all? Is there good reason for any disdain? Is there actually good reason for any appreciation? What could change your reputation for the better? Do you care? …and so on.
But you can ask all those questions and plenty more yourself. So I’ll stick with the one question: What’s your college ministry’s identity, externally?
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