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As I noted yesterday, the Faith on Campus blog is hosting another college ministry Blogathon – centered on themes for an upcoming school year!
My contribution, “Pick a Hill to Climb,” went live today, and it’s one of the “bolder” posts I’ve written in awhile. While it may step on some toes, it has to, I suppose (how else can we be serious about improvement?).
The post starts:
Pick a Hill to Climb
How much better will your ministry be in November or March than it is in August?
Ministry improvement should be a year-round endeavor, not just something we tackle in the summer or at an occasional conference. In fact, many avenues for growth are only or primarily available when school’s in session. So hopefully you’re considering how you can move your ministry from a “7″ to a “8″ (or even from a “2″ to a “4″) well before next June.
As we stand at the base of a new semester, we have the choice to keep our ministries here for nine months… or to carry them toward new heights! So as you look at the possibilities for improving your college ministry, consider tackling at least one or two of these hills.
Check out those “five hills” here. You’ll find brief suggestions on five different aspects of improvement, from how you evaluate your ministry to specific actions you can take with student leaders.
Meanwhile, there are nine other posts already up at the Blogathon, as well, covering a wide range of topics. Brian Barela gives five simple but quite consequential ways to tune up our Social Media strategy before school starts. As usual, guys connected with the CCO (Byron Borger and Derek Melleby) point us toward aspects of student discipleship that most college ministers don’t seem to prioritize as much as they should (and give us a couple of book suggestions in the process!) There’s even an interesting look at how we might reach that segment of our campus that’s “attending” online, and Sarah Koutz points us to the vital balance we have to strike as we prepare for the year…
And several more posts worth checking out.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on my post, and I know the rest of the authors would say the same thing! So check out the Blogathon, and learn with us!
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I wish far more college ministry conferences and groups dispersed their training sessions as freely as Campus Ministry United does. Each year, the CMU people upload all kinds of stuff after their annual Campus Ministry Workshop (as well as some of their other gatherings).
And lo and behold, yesterday – less than 36 hours after this year’s Workshop ended – Wes Woodell had the audio up once again.
If you’re looking for a treasure trove of talks about the practice of college ministry, I encourage you to check out this year’s (and past years’) talks. Not everything will fit your group, of course. But I’ve had the chance to attend a couple of Workshops (including speaking at the 2010 Workshop about better ways to brainstorm). And I know that this can be valuable and invigorating stuff.
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Sometimes it’s just helpful to have a pile of ideas or resources to think about in regards to college ministry – especially as we enter the summer and start thinking (or continue thinking) about next school year. (Meanwhile, some of us – including many church-based college ministers – are jumping right into their “second college ministry” with summertime students.)
This small pile of ideas, links, and thoughts comes directly from my amazing time with the BASIC College Ministries leaders at their Propel conference this week. I wanted to give everybody those same things, as well as provide an outline of my talk – which obviously provides a whole “pile of ideas” itself!
So here you go. Hope it’s helpful.
- Simple Church. I brought up this great book several times to help college ministers think through the “path of progress” they’re providing for / expecting of their students. Though it’s written about churches, it’s easily “translatable” – and profoundly helpful for us.
- The Books of Daniel and I Peter (and probably Esther, too). These all came up in the context of how campus ministries live “under captivity” (or something like that). How do we work, serve, witness, and thrive within a campus tribe that may be not only indifferent to our message but even concerned about our methods? These books of the Bible answer this question differently than popular Christianity and even some college ministries do.
- The Dip. This came up a couple of times, especially in the context of newly forming college ministries. Are you prepared to do what it takes to establish a long-lasting and long-effective campus mission? And have you considered all the options for the scope of your ministry – including not aiming for a traditional, full-fledged college ministry? This secular (and very short) business book will help you answer those questions.
- CruPress and NavPress both came up multiple times as great places to look for tips on leading small groups (especially the former) and curriculum for small groups (especially the latter).
- Veritas Forum came up multiple times as a great example of an outside group that can be awesome for multiple ministries on a campus to rally around (and thereby unify around). I also discussed Veritas as really helpful for providing Christian forums that can still appeal to a fully secular campus.
- I actually failed (I think) to give most of the group the address for my (free!) ebook. You can find that at www.reachingthecampustribes.com.
Here’s the outline of my two seminars from the weekend. Remember, I was speaking to leaders from multiple church-based college ministries, so these seminars tilt that way. But there’s lots in there that would apply to most of us.
SEMINAR ONE: WHO WE ARE
We Are College Ministers
- we have an awesome and noble calling
- we must be learners (whether our personality tilts that way or not)
- we are missionaries to a specific tribe
We Are Missionaries
- this is difficult
- long-term and short-term strategy is vital
- we should be building toward longevity
- contextualization is fundamental
We Are Part of the Campus Tribe
- we should respect the land we’re called to
- we should love the land we’re called to
- we should connect with life there
- we should connect with and join in with what God’s already been doing there
We Are Sent By a Church
- there are some advantages to being church-based; use them!
- we should share our story and our specific role with our church; help them understand and support us!
- we should help our church own the vision and work toward a long-lasting, fruitful campus mission
- we should consider how we’re shepherding home-grown students – perhaps even first
SEMINAR TWO: (NEW?) IDEAS WORTH PONDERING
- Purpose-based Methods (every time)
- Preparing students for an excellent Transition Out (to the “real world”)
- Don’t be afraid to love your campus
- Don’t be afraid to take a step back and make sure you’re building the best possible College Student Plan
- Don’t be afraid to invent
- Be excited about what you can do
- Learn more about the Millennials (since they’re our mission field right now)
- Don’t be too student-centered (they need adult direction and wisdom)
- Prioritize teaching students to be “great in the basics”
- Get great in the basic skills of college ministry
- What you’re doing – campus ministry – is so very worth it
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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 got to attend and speak at College Metro in Ft. Worth at the end of last week, and it was a phenomenal time. As usual, I walked with some very cool ideas for any sort of college ministry.
Speaking of which, this week Guy Chmieleski is holding another “blogathon” at his Faith on Campus blog, from Tuesday through Thursday! Be sure to visit and explore with us “the future of campus ministry.” It should be a neat time of cool collaboration from some of the leaders in our field.
Our field isn’t nearly developed enough for all the good ideas to magically “rise to the top” – if that’s what you’re waiting for, you’re really missing out. Instead, we have to “mine,” we have to dig – and conferences are an excellent chance to hear ideas you might be unfamiliar with… but might just be your college ministry’s next great undertaking.
So I wanted to dump some of those here. I might expand on some of these in coming days, but sometimes a random collection of unique ideas can be pretty great. If you have any questions about any of ‘em, let me know.
- Location change: Having your large group meeting occasionally on-campus (if you usually don’t), or otherwise having it in an especially visible location.
- The Power of a “Union”: Purposely involving your entire ministry in other activities on campus, in events that will be buoyed by your presence.
- Fostering Service: Involvement in loving on former foster kids who have “graduated” from the system at age 18, are attending college, and need a very special sort of service. (A chance to work in tandem with the university itself.)
- Expertise meets impact: One minister gets business professionals from a local church involved in mentoring students in the business school – with intentionality toward sharing more than just “business talk.” Of course, this could work for several majors!
- Stuck on you: Using clothespins emblazoned with your ministry’s info – and an encouragement to pass it on! Pass ‘em out to students to clip on friends’ backpacks, etc. Very clever idea.
- Getting their catching up… out: For returning students in the fall (or spring), hold pre-parties or volunteer activities before the first large group meeting or before the freshmen come to campus… so returning students can see each other, catch up, and then be ready to greet and connect with outsiders.
- Explicit next steps: Whenever you have an event, try to use some portion of it to promote the next step – whether that’s your weekly opportunities or the next key event.
- Chalk it up: If you find yourself needing to do similar forms of advertising as the rest of campus, you can stand out by doing it extra well. (The example given was using excellent sidewalk chalk designs on a campus where every organization “chalks.”)
- Coming attractions: Use unique venues to advertise your ministry (the example given was advertising before movies played in the campus movie theater).
- Scheduling social media: If you want to make sure to make use of your blog, Facebook fan page, and other campus ministry social media outlets, consider scheduling it – week-to-week, month-to-month. That way it’ll get done!
- Another reason to “take requests”: Message series based on “hot topics” submitted by students are pretty trendy these days, but one campus minister did point out that taking these suggestions not only gives you a few message topics, but overall it lets you see what your students are dealing with right now!
If you know some church-based college ministers who would benefit from a yearly connection and training with other guys and gals like them, I’d really encourage them to connect with College Metro. It’s solid and unique in its helpfulness for that branch of college ministry.
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My friend Phil is a young adult minister here in Dallas, and we’ve had some cool chances to chat over the past months. While the fields of Young Adult Ministry and College Ministry certainly aren’t the same, there’s enough in common that we both seem to benefit from the mutual wisdom-sharing.
One of the things Phil is doing is starting up a regular gathering of local young adult ministers, and that’s clearly one method that a lot of college ministers try in their settings. It’s pretty common for a campus’s college ministers to come together for prayer, sharing, brainstorming, or to work on projects together.
It’s also pretty common for those gatherings not to achieve quite what everybody hoped they might. My journeys have regularly brought me upon the ruins of recent “unity attempts” of this sort.
Time was short as Phil and I discussed this yesterday, so I just spit out two quick points that are really important for keeping this sort of regular gathering going… AND accomplishing great things:
1. Make the gatherings extremely purposeful.
2. Make sure everybody knows the gatherings are purposeful.
Far too often, we get going on something like this because “it seems like a great thing,” without ever giving much thought to what are actual, explicit goals are. But an activity is truly purposeful only if the purposes determine the methods. What do you want to accomplish with these gathered college ministers over the next months? Only once you’ve got this figured out should you decide what meetings will involve.
And then as the meetings get underway, everybody needs to be reminded that we’re not getting together “just to get together.” Except for those with a certain type of personality, most college ministers just don’t believe that coming together like this is automatically valuable.
And they’re right – it’s not.
So everyone needs to see that this gathering is different. They need to know that real things – both “overtly spiritual” and “practical” things – are being accomplished.
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(On an unrelated note, go Rangers.)
On Thursday, I briefly described the most effective college minister collaboration method I’ve seen. The gist of it is using a whiteboard (or big sheets of paper) to field topics for discussion, then working through those topics as seems best to the moderator or the audience.
In other words, both the topics listed and the topics discussed are “crowdsourced.” And that’s only one of the reasons this method turns out to be really useful.
It’s instructive to reflect on why this method works well – not just so we use it better, but even to realize some subtle truths about the field of college ministry.
1. One college minister doesn’t drive the conversation. College ministry is an area in which it’s very hard to be an expert on somebody else’s ministry. Because our contexts, practices, and levels of experience can be so diverse, you don’t want one dude calling the shots in group collaboration. If you do, you end up with too many topics that only help a narrow portion of the audience.
2. Topics arise that you wouldn’t have thought of. This works out two ways: Sometimes, we respond to a suggested topic with, “I’m surprised I didn’t think of that.” Other times, we respond with, “I never would have thought of that question.” Even the areas college ministers spend time pondering vary, so it’s not just the diversity of answers that helps, it’s the diversity of questions.
3. Diversity of answers. Of course, that diversity of answers does help. Quite a bit. As in yesterday’s Fridea about Social Justice, sometimes it’s far more helpful to walk away with several ideas to ponder / investigate… because later on, we need to determine what’s best for our ministry at this time.
4. Several topics. Because we’re all at different places in our ministries, it’s valuable to keep moving on topics. And not only so we don’t get bogged down with an uninteresting (to you, at least) topic. The really great thing is that it means in our time together, we’ll probably hit several topics in which you can learn something new. And we’ll hit several more in which you get to share your brilliance with the rest of us.
5. “Small” methods are discussed. In other forms of collaboration, we may only get around to talking about supposed “Best Practices” or especially well-established methods. In this method, all those things come up – but so do all sorts of “little” ideas. People are encouraged to speak up, even if they just have a small addition or a questionable ingredient to add to the stew of ideas.
6. “Experts” can learn from newbies. This method allows for a lot of learning from those who are relatively new at the work. Again – our field is diverse. It’s very likely that a newbie has stumbled upon some method he never realized would be valuable to a lifer – until it comes up in this kind of environment. And that happens all the more because of things (like technology) that newer college ministers often understand in better different ways than longtime college ministers do.
College ministry practices, contexts, and philosophies really do differ. It’s comparable to the diversity of foreign missions endeavors around the world. But despite that fact – and even because of that fact – this method may just allow any gathering of college ministers to collaborate in powerful ways.
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http://exploringcollegeministry.com/2010/10/22/social-justice-compassion-frideas/
At the College Ministers Cohort during Catalyst, our Saturday session made use of one method I’ve seen to be extremely effective to help college ministers collaborate – even across lines of region, denomination, organization, and branch of college ministry.
(It’d be easy to skip over this, but it really is a fantastic method for any time you’ve got a bunch of college ministers together.)
At our Saturday session, we had people from several different states, from three different branches – church-based, campus-based, and institutional, and with all sorts of levels of experience. FCA was represented, as was the SBC. Christy Ridings from Belmont’s University Ministries was there, and so were some national leaders from CCO and Impact Campus Ministries. We had “lifers,” and we had recent grads who brought their very (near-)collegiate energy with them. And as expected, they all came from extremely diverse campuses – from Boise State to Penn State.
So how could all these different kinds of college ministers walk away with useful ideas – and at the same time feel like they had some things to offer the rest of us?
It just takes a whiteboard.
This method is simple enough. At the beginning of our 5-hour Saturday session, I asked everybody to help me list ideas (from Catalyst) that could connect with college ministry. What we came up with is in the picture above!
After that, the rest of the day was just working topic-by-topic. Not in order, but choosing the one that seemed like a good next topic. In many cases, the moderator (that was me) picked as seemed best, but the next topic can be crowd-determined, too.
Other settings where I’ve seen this used, the topic list was even less “structured” – we’d put whatever general topics struck our fancies. And throughout the event, we’d add to the list – in the breaks, between sessions, etc.
When a topic comes up, ideas are solicited… from everyone. So if the topic is “Books you’re reading,” anybody with something useful to say gets to add to the discussion. On one topic – perhaps “Using the first 3 weeks well – an attendee might find themselves offering a new idea they just discovered. On the next topic – perhaps “Helping students get involved in local churches” – that same attendee might find themselves furiously writing notes as they listen to the brilliance of several others.
On one topic, a teacher. On the next, a learner. No matter if you’ve been involved in college ministry for two decades or two months.
This is a method that uses the awkward diversity of our contexts and our activities to our advantage. For one thing, it’s a method that recognizes that we don’t have “Best Practices” nearly as much as we have “Good Ideas.” And if you’ll give it a try – the next time you’re around a bunch of college ministers – I bet you find it works wonders.
I’ll probably post a few additional thoughts on this soon. Stay tuned.
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By now, anybody who’s coming to the College Ministers Cohort should have gotten their tickets, and I look forward to seeing you there! If you’re not going to make it to Catalyst this year, you can still join in the fun… Be watching the blog for updates on what we’re doing, what we’re learning, and ways to enjoy Catalyst from afar…
We’ve had 120 or so officially RSVP for the Cohort – and we’ve already got college ministers planning to come “standby,” too. It’s the hottest (free) ticket in town!
And for all of us (whether you’re coming or not), I want to highlight a few groups that are PROVING they care about College Ministry! Please, please, please check out their sites and what they offer – I’m excited that within the huge Catalyst Conference, they’re sponsoring our little ol’ Cohort!
OneLife from IMB Students (unveiling this week!)
They’ve got their very cool-looking site up now: www.onelifematters.com. Check it out!
IMB Students is the Premier Sponsor of the College Ministers Cohort, helping in all sorts of ways. I really, really appreciate all they’ve done – and what they do as missions mobilizers. They are BIG fans of college ministers nationwide (and I know plenty of college ministers are already big fans of them, too!).
Future Marriage University
Michael “MJ” Johnson is pursuing one big thing in our field: Helping college students prepare for marriage like they prepare for their careers! He speaks at various Christian schools and other ministries around the country on these very things, and you can learn more about his ministry at www.futuremarriageuniversity.org.
I met MJ in person recently, and he’s made it clear he wants to know our field even better so he can serve us (and our students) even more. As part of that, he’s hanging out with us at (and sponsoring!) the College Ministers Cohort!
Focus on the Family: Young Adults
As you probably know, there are a whole lot of “parts” to the ministry of Focus on the Family, and a few of those parts connect directly with college students. The Young Adults division includes Boundless, a site I was enjoying way back in college myself! But the Boundless community has grown beyond just a web site and weekly articles to include a blog, podcast, and more!
I’m really excited that Focus has decided to connect directly with college ministers by spending time with us this week… and sponsoring the Cohort!
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A couple of announcements: The first is for everybody, including those who WON’T be able to join us in Atlanta next week. The second is for those who are planning to attend the College Ministers Cohort at Catalyst!
1. Our heroes, proving (once again) they care about college ministry.
Clearly college ministry is not a celebrity cause in the American Church, so it takes a special organization to be willing to pay real money so real college ministers can have a really great event. Even for those not attending the Cohort next week, I want to make sure I let you know about our amazing sponsors.
I’ll alert you to more of these heroes in the days to come, but the first few that stepped up include:
OneLife from IMB Students
This is an exciting program for college students that the International Mission Board is unveiling at Catalyst – making their sponsorship of our Cohort all the more exciting. Since the “launch” is next week, I’ll save details for now. Stay tuned!
IMB Students is actually serving as our premier sponsor of the Cohort. They were the first entity to jump on board, and I’ve long seen their commitment to helping college students and college ministries!
Newchapter
I’ve blogged on these guys before, and once again they’re stepping up to the plate to help campus ministries. That’s what they do on a regular basis: Work to help college ministries thrive in a very unique way. How? By establishing ministry-sponsored Student Living Centers that not only allow for an incredible ministry opportunity with residents, but can also help a ministry run in a self-sustaining way. Learn more here.
Financial Peace: Foundations for Life & Money
One of Catalyst’s biggest sponsors in the last few years has been Dave Ramsey and Financial Peace University. But now that organization has gone a step further and agreed to sponsor our Cohort. Did you know they’ve released a curriculum for college students? It’s true – and you can find it right here.
FPU is one of those sorts of organizations that we need to lend their considerable talents to our field. Hooray for that bridge being built!
2. If you’re coming to the Cohort…
- Please make absolutely sure you’ve RSVP’d as “Attending” at the Event page.
- Please make absolutely sure anyone who’s coming with you has also RSVP’d.
- Watch for VERY important details in the next few days, sent via Facebook to those who have RSVP’d. There will be details you have to see, or you’ll risk not getting in on our free lunches, etc.
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