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I have been asked on occasion what has surprised me as I’ve trekked around the country researching college ministry. So though I’ve mentioned things along the way, I figured I’d post a better list of some such surprises. Maybe these things will surprise you; maybe they won’t! But my hope is that more and more, we’d all become further familiar with our field – beyond just our own portions, areas, and organizations.
The existence of major college ministries I was unfamiliar with.
Remember, I had been involved in doing college ministry for 8 years and had attended maybe a dozen college ministry conferences before starting my cross-country research. So I was pleasantly surprised to find college ministries I’d never heard of.
The most prominent of those were probably Coalition for Christian Outreach, which I first heard about from Greg Carmer, the Dean of the Chapel at Gordon College, and Campus Outreach, which I first heard about from College Church Wheaton’s College Pastor, Jay Thomas. Funny how you remember that stuff. I’m not sure when I first heard about Great Commission Ministries and their network of collegiate churches, but that’s another prominent one I discovered.
The missional activity taking place in college ministries all over.
Though I wouldn’t necessarily have used the word “missional” at the time, I was encouraged by how often I did indeed run into missional activity taking place through college ministries and/or their students. As I wrote last week, there are indeed ministries out there that seemed to have reached a sort of “culture” that encourages such things, and it was always exciting to find.
The “turbulent ten years” and churches’ perennial difficulties.
I wasn’t surprised that churches struggle to build successful, long-lasting college ministries, since I myself had been involved in church-based college ministry for those 8 years. (In my last gig, I was hired as the fourth college minister in – you guessed it – four years.)
Don’t get me wrong – there are quite a few really strong church-based college ministries out there. But I have been a little surprised by the number of churches that have perpetual difficulties. And even while making few changes, many just hope that this time is going to work. As I’ve argued a’plenty, there has to be a better route for churches to develop successful College Student Plans, because the track record for our present attempts isn’t so hot.
(The pic of the George Mason University fountain at the top symbolizes the ups-and-downs of churches’ experiences in college ministry. It’s what I used for this point in my recent seminar at the EV Free churches’ annual conference.)
The preponderance of collegiate churches.
Though they compose the smallest branch of college ministry, collegiate churches are by no means rare. I mentioned GCM above, but there are plenty of other campus churches, as well, dotted all over the landscape but not all that obvious unless you’re looking for them… or unless you’re on that campus. In fact, several collegiate churches draw hundreds of students.
Our (incorrect) extrapolations about college ministries.
I was surprised to realize how much I’d innocently presumed based on my own semi-limited experience. And then I ran into this same sort of extrapolating throughout my visits. College ministers regularly mentioned things like, “Nobody’s doing X” (but I knew of several ministries that were, in fact, doing X); “That’s probably the biggest ministry of its kind” (but I’d seen several larger); “This is really unique” (but I knew how common it was); and so on.
I can’t really blame those guys and gals; I was the same way, even after 8 years of college ministry work. But it’s healthy to realize how often we extrapolate based on our own region, or what we’ve heard, or what we’ve seen.
Here’s the key principle for all of us: In an ultra-diverse field like ours, our broad statements only have validity if we’ve observed an enormous number of ministries. So even after I’ve gotten to see hundreds of ministries, I’ve learned to be very careful about what I “declare.” Honesty requires it.
There are more surprises, but that’s good for now. Questions? Comments?
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A weird but simple question:
What should campus ministries’ responses be to student “protest actions”?
I recognize such things aren’t as common as they were back in the 70s, but at some schools
(like Berkeley) and on some occasions, they still occur. While we were in Brazil, in fact, a protest seemed to be taking place daily at the University of São Paulo’s Law School. Apparently the head of the school had moved the law library to a building the students didn’t feel was suitable. (That’s pictured below and to the right.)
I’ve personally seen protests over worker wages a couple of times, I think (like at UC Santa Cruz, above). And I did indeed get to see a tree-sitter in Berkeley. Not sure what he was protesting, but I appreciated the opportunity to have the full Golden Bears-tribe experience.
I imagine nearly all Evangelical ministries stay out of such protests, and I think that’s where most of us would lean as far as the counsel we’d give. But with a generation that does lean more strongly toward activism than their Gen X-cestors… and with some causes that certainly might be worth supporting… and with a heart for students… but also a heart for integration with the campus as a whole… it’s just something worth wondering.
Any thoughts? Would involvement in student activism ever be right, good, wise, best?
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Several of the blogs I read (and others linked on Twitter) have been posting on the topic of “New Year’s Resolutions,” or its cousin, “Goals for 2010.” This is not that kind of post, because at present, my adventurous sojourn makes forward-looking a little tricky.
Fortunately, I continue to know my calling: To help further the field of College Ministry. While the steps involved in that are a bit hazy, God continues to be clear on next steps – which is all I really need.
God has continued to develop my understanding of that calling and the activities I should and shouldn’t pursue, and I thought I’d share a bit of wisdom He has used to shape me in the last few years. It directly relates to ideas like “resolutions,” “goal-setting,” and even understanding God’s will. I figured now would be a good time to offer it – both for you and potentially for your students, who likely need this wisdom more than anyone else in the whole world.
That piece of (what I consider) enormous wisdom?
Don’t start something if you can’t push through the Dip.
If you’ve been reading for awhile, you know I’m a Seth Godin fan, but it might surprise you that one of his works is actually one of my very favorite books of all time. That short book – which I’ve read four times in the past two years – is The Dip.
The title theme, the infamous “dip,” refers to “the long slog between starting and mastery” (page 17). The claims of the 2-part book, then, include:
“Extraordinary benefits accrue to the tiny majority of people who are able to push through a tiny bit longer than most.”
BUT ALSO…
“Extraordinary benefits also accrue to the tiny majority with the guts to quit early and refocus their efforts on something new” (both quotes from p. 4).
In other words, the book urges,
Quit the wrong stuff.
Stick with the right stuff.
Have the guts to do one or the other (also p. 4).
And I believe this is wisdom: For those starting a college ministry. For those starting a new initiative within their campus ministry. For new bloggers. For those hoping to write a book (which I’ve heard lots of people talking about lately). For planting a church. For lots of other things that we college ministers are likely to begin sometime soon.
And it’s wisdom college students need, too – that they might understand that following a new passion or a new idea each week isn’t God’s desire for their lives, now or later.
If they (or we) can’t push through “the Dip” to completion or mastery, they (or we) probably shouldn’t begin. And our question, as Christians, is not only “Can we?” but “Should we?”
No, The Dip is not a Christian book. But it contextualizes a principle that seems to be the thrust of I Corinthians 9:26-27:
So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. (ESV)
“Beating the air,” the commentators note, probably doesn’t refer to “shadow boxing” (even if that is the popular exposition). It refers, instead, to missed punches in an actual fight – “air punches,” akin to the much-mocked “air ball” in basketball. The idea is parallel to the one that precedes it: Wandering from one’s own lane during a race.
We – and our students – are meant to run with aim and consistently “land our punches” (or, to use Jesus-analogies, to finish our buildings and win our wars). I don’t mean that there will never be something like “trial and error,” but biblically it’s not commended as standard operating procedure. If we are really going to “make the most of every opportunity,” we celebrate the fact that God has not called us to all things – and He has not called us even to all the things we desire to do, hope to do, or recognize would be valuable. He’s got for us “good works prepared beforehand,” and that portion is beautiful enough.
So if you need help deciding what those “works” might be, and if you believe wisdom can come in small, secular packages, you might find some counsel in the book fully titled, The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (And When to Stick). I can’t encourage you more to get – and read – this book, particularly if you’re considering any sort of new endeavor like the ones I mentioned above. It’s 80 pages, and the pages are small.
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I had the phenomenal chance to attend my grandfather’s memorial service last night. He passed away last Sunday after a fairly lengthy decline in health. While we are saddened at this loss, the whole family is excited that those issues are now past and Bob Hines is now in the presence of Jesus. I even had the chance to read at the memorial, from the profound last paragraph of his great-great-grandfather’s autobiography.
(My g-g-g-g-gf was Elder Samuel Rogers, a circuit-riding preacher – a.k.a. road-tripper – connected with the early Restoration Movement. So all of my Church of Christ, Christian Church, and Disciples of Christ buddies should be especially excited about that!)
As I considered today’s blog post after last night’s events, I was reminded of how rarely college ministers perform or attend funerals – at least funerals that are in any way directly connected to our ministries. Many of us attend (or even officiate) plenty of weddings, though!
And doesn’t that dichotomy pretty well characterize one major aspect of the work of College Ministry? For all our ups and downs, struggles and heartaches, we still perpetually deal with life at its prime – and we do it in locations that are, indeed, pretty happy sorts of places. Though our ministries of course have moments of suffering, our environments are rarely characterized that way.
Maybe that’s not completely beneficial.
“It is better to go to a house of mourning,” Ecclesiastes 9 (ESV) says, “than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart.”
“Sorrow is better than laughter,” it continues, and “The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.”
There may be no literal way to undertake a “regiment of funerals” in our college ministry lives, nor can we force that upon our students. But it’s clear that we and our students are ensconced in mirth, pitching our tents in houses of feasting, participating far more often in the “beginning of a thing” than its end – and yet the end is the crux of the matter, verse 8 tells us. The problem is, our happy estate simply does not aid in the growth of wisdom. In fact, it might even thwart it. (We see this pretty clearly in our students’ lives, as even the atmosphere of the college campus disciples them in foolishness at times…)
How do we gain wisdom, then? And how do we help our students get wisdom?
Two broad solutions come to mind for filling the gap in wisdom left by immersion in the “house of feasting.”
- Import (wisdom)
- Export (ourselves)
…in the same way a vital resource might be gained by any other homeland.
What might this look like in your life? What might this look like in your students’ lives?
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In two separate conversations with two professors recently, I Peter 3:15 was brought up in the context of how college ministry does (or doesn’t) offer students collegiate-level answers to their faith-questions.
First, the verse:
but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect (I Pet. 3:15 ESV)
You may, like me, be more familiar with the translation that commands us to be ready to “give an answer,” but the exact wording here isn’t really the issue. (Though if the ESV reading is best, then it argues my point all the more, as you’ll see.)
In my discussions with those profs, both were concerned that college ministry by and large doesn’t know how to deal with students (or others in the college community) who ask the hard, academic, complex questions about Christianity. In other words, we don’t always offer our students a way to get answers that accord with the questions raised within the very setting in which we serve.
These professors’ concern is a concern worth hearing, especially because it comes from Christians who operate in that same world – and yet are uniquely suited to understanding the kind of answers needed within the university setting.
The author of the recent “Missional Campus Ministry” series at the Jesus Creed blog recently noted the same concern:
The university or college campus is a mission field in many ways – and the pressures on eager undergraduates on their own for the first time are immense. … The broad middle of the student population is a group in need of attention – and I appreciate the hard work that goes into evangelism, relationship, and discipleship in a wide range of active campus ministries.
But we need more than this as well…
We need to be able to ‘meet the university on its own terms: discussion of issues that matter in a way that meets the university’s own ideal standards of engagement, standards of both courteous respect and intellectual rigour.‘” [that last bit quoted from a post by John Stackhouse]
I happen to be somebody who has always been academically strong, and I know the loneliness of not knowing who – if anyone – might be able to help me navigate through the more complex issues that arise in our faith. Had my major or circumstances been even slightly different, it would have been quite easy for despair to set in – or worse. Because for all the greatness of the college ministry experience I had at Texas A&M, spiritual support for “smarties” wasn’t obvious at all.
Those two posts – on Jesus Creed and on John Stackhouse’s blog – go further into this and better into this. So I urge you to take a look.
The answers to this vital concern don’t require all college ministers to be bookworms or to be brilliant. But obeying – and helping our students obey – I Peter 3:15 will probably require a different preparation than if we were serving elsewhere.
All missionaries have to study answers to the questions of their unique tribe, right?
written from some Motel 6 in Eastern Ohio…
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Road Trip 13: Days 38 & 39 recap
recap: finished out my time at the college ministers’ conference, then flew back to Ohio to pick up my car and head eastward! (see all explorations so far)
T-shirts: the Eagle tribe of Emory, and the Hardrockers (!) of South Dakota School of Mines
thursday: on to Pittsburgh (and beyond), including connecting with Coalition for Christian Outreach national office people
My friend Wes recently described the effort he and his wife have given to try to enroll in classes at San Francisco State University. The Woodells are helping replant a church and hoping to connect to the nearby SFSU campus, and they feel this could be a powerful way to begin connecting. But sadly, the California budget crisis has erected barriers to enrollment – so after attempting this for a couple of semesters, they still can’t get in.
Wes’s post sums it up:
We must spend time with students, and nothing would validate our presence on campus better than being in classes with them. I’m confident we’ll get around this somehow, but this budget thing is definitely a bump in the road.
Meanwhile, on roughly that same side of the Northern Hemisphere, Nick Melazzo has been experiencing his own adventure. Last week Nick described his “cannonball run” to the border of Alberta, Canada, to file papers simply so he can stay in the country where he has resided for the past 5 years – and keep serving the students of the University of Calgary.
(See his quick post about that trip here, or see how things turned out here.)
Striving hard to overcome persistent obstacles to attending classes on campus?
Striving hard to stay in the country and continue to serve students?
Most of us don’t have to work hard to do either of those things.
But sometimes it’s inspiring (or convicting) to read of those who face obstacles, challenges, and requirements we don’t – and who choose to strive hard and fight the fight. So today, a double challenge for us to go to whatever lengths we’re called in order to reach (and impact) the campus tribes.
written from Holiday Inn, Cedar Falls, IA
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Road Trip 13: Day 37 recap
recap: first day at my second college ministry conference of this trip! (see all explorations so far)
new state: Iowa (#17)
T-shirt: the Quaker tribe of Penn
tuesday: day two with a conference of college ministers!
This post was suggested by a Facebook message I received recently. I’m always on the lookout for helpful topics, so feel free to suggest one!
How should college ministers respond to harmful ministries on campus?
This is an issue that has come up multiple times during this trip, and it’s one I freely admit I struggle to get my head around. I haven’t personally been involved in standing up to an unhealthy ministry. So I would love any wisdom you’ve got, or suggestions for who might have good wisdom for this area.
The history of campus cults and other ministries that harm students runs pretty deep. College campuses naturally draw and nurture errant people and groups. Sadly, the first entity to stand up against harmful ministries might be a campus’s (secular) administration, once they see the emotional harm it brings.
Shouldn’t college ministries to some extent, as shepherds, help protect students from harmful groups – even when those groups seem to come from within our ranks? But what does that look like?
This is a tricky issue from a lot of angles.
First, there’s the question of how we define / discern unhealthy ministry. That’s not the point of today’s question, but it certainly matters. Before a college minister “does something about” a ministry they believe is harmful, they had better be clear on their concerns (On the difficulty of determining what’s truly unhealthy – and Christians’ ever-present ability to misjudge this characteristic, be sure to read Adam Ratliff’s solid comments on my post here.)
Second, some ministries with past errors have repented or simply become healthier. We need to make sure our understanding of a local or national ministry is current. (It would also be helpful for us to be aware of the histories of campus cult-like activity. I fear we are doomed to repeat our difficult history because we aren’t aware of the problems of the past.)
Third, national ministries always vary chapter-to-chapter. College ministries are generally quite autonomous, even when they’re tied by organization, denomination, or other affiliation. So we need to be extremely hesitant to make generalizations just because we’ve seen problems locally. (That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t deal with the local problems, but in fact a national organization may be an ally in helping with local ministries gone awry.)
All that being said, I still think we need basic ideas on what to do if this situation arises. But I don’t know if I’ve ever heard a college minister discuss how they have handled campus cults or other clearly unhealthy ministries. I think we could all really use some wisdom on this, because our need to employ it could be just around the corner.
I would love to hear any thoughts you have, ways you’ve handled this, or examples of how others have handled these issues. (As always, just be wise about how you refer to groups, please.)
written from Motel 6, Madison, WI
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Road Trip 13: Day 30 recap
recap: a whole lot of catching up… though it never really ends…
T-shirt: the Rebel tribe of UNLV
tuesday: a little exploration around Madison, then on to Chicagoland! (see all explorations so far)
Fifty-two.
That’s how many of Outreach Magazine‘s 2009 100 largest churches I’ve gotten to visit for a weekend service in the last TWO years. And that’s only a fraction of my total church visits, which number around 250 different churches I’ve attended – for a weekly worship service – since August 2007. Many of those churches have likewise been quite famous, extremely influential, or on similar “lists” within the past several years.
You can see most of those churches right here (though the list is only updated through 2008 right now).
Attending worship services has certainly been one highlight of my road trips around the U.S. Every church I visit – small or big, famous or little-known – provides the chance to see “living Christian history.” It’s also a unique experience as a Church Visitor to-the-extreme – an experience that I imagine few, if any, have ever duplicated in such a short time. There’s plenty you start to notice, get the chance to ponder, and begin to imagine in hundreds of visits all crammed into a couple of years.
But though I’d love to share all those things someday, this is a college ministry blog.
Yesterday I announced the beginning of a new semi-regular series, “College Ministry Poles,” looking at key collegiate ministry issues that are often fleshed out between two extremes. My hope is to stretch our thinking, especially as we realize that in many cases, a large number of college ministers have chosen – and found success with – methods from across each spectrum.
We begin with a big issue that unites and divides college ministries “on the ground”: Cooperation vs. Independence.
For heavy cooperation between ministries
I’ve heard it argued that various college ministers at a single campus could/should function as “elders” over the campus, ultimately comparing calendars, avoiding overlapping segments of campus, and nearly meshing ministries. Clearly, this model is one “pole” along this continuum.
Not quite as polar but still on this side of the spectrum are ministries that have fleshed out cooperation in various forms:
- Direct partnership in regular ministry activities
- A college ministry taking a purposely complementary approach
- A ministry purposefly focusing on a niche not already reached
- Direct cooperation in single events / efforts on campus
There are some obvious positives here – like not duplicating ministry activity, revealing Christian unity to a watching campus, gaining wisdom from “many counselors,” increasing group size, helping disciple students in diversity / unity, and so on.
For clear independence from other ministries
While I don’t necessarily hear it argued too often, it’s clear that many other ministries have placed a low priority on intentional cooperation or partnership. Instead, these ministers’ focus is impacting students through their organization as best as they possibly can. In the more extreme cases, there is little or no contact between leaders of these ministries and other leaders in town.
But before the more collaborative-minded blame those who seem isolationist, realize that there are clearly good reasons to take a stance somewhere on this side of the continuum:
- All of us have chosen our ministry organizations for real reasons, presumably; cooperation and partnership often take us away from (or at least water down) our ministry’s own distinctives – both methodological and theological.
- Supporters and overseers expect ministers to practice ministry according to these sorts of distinctives, too.
- We all know college ministry is time-consuming and difficult. Collaboration – to any degree – always takes time and energy, while always producing messiness. It makes a lot of sense to focus on what we’re best at.
- In some cases, past cooperative attempts might not have produced hoped-for results, might have been championed by ineffective people, or might never have had well-defined purposes to begin with.
Between the poles and other questions
My guess is that most college ministries in the country believe in being somewhere on the cooperative of the spectrum, but that most function pretty far to the right side of the spectrum (even by default). Hmmm…
Remember, every aspect of a college ministry has been chosen, even if we don’t realize it.
Thoughts to ponder (on your own, or in the comments):
- What’s your stance? Are either of the poles necessarily wrong? Is being “somewhere in the middle” necessarily right?
- Are there any good keys for choosing cooperation vs. independence?
- How could a ministry functioning on one side of the spectrum possibly move toward the other side?
- What are some Best Practices for more cooperative college ministry styles? What about for more independent college ministry styles?
Remember… Day 30 of College Union’s 40 Days of Prayer for Campus Ministry!
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Today and tomorrow will probably wrap up the start-of-school series on what I learned during my first year of college ministry. But if it’s helpful, you can always point student leaders, adult volunteers, etc., to the whole series anytime at http://exploringcollegeministry.com/category/leadership-nuggets/.
You might have noticed yesterday that my first year of college ministry was pretty demanding – especially because I was taking a full load of college classes at the time. The requirements:
- Leading and teaching at the Thursday night Bible study each week
- One outside fellowship activity with our group each week
- A training meeting each week
- At least one meeting with my co-leader to plan for Thursday night
- Solo preparation
- Planning and participating in occasional “big” activities with our group
- And skipping meetings – except for class or real emergencies – wasn’t an option
Not to mention the concern for the students – serving on their behalf in person, in prayer, and in whatever power the Lord provided.
I learned my very first year that the work of college ministry will often be – and should often be – hard work.
The very nature of most college ministry activity pushes our required toil to the maximum. We are, as I’ve argued, missionaries – with a strategic component and a recruiting component and an outreach component and a contextualization component not shared with most other areas of Christian ministry.
Those required elements for getting most college ministry activity “off the ground” can be a surprise to a student leader, and they can be a surprise to older college ministers, too. But the hard work is so, so worth it. And it’s worth calling students to this kind of hard work. Yes, we must respect their schedules and recognize their limitations. It also might take years to build a culture that supports asking for this level of commitment. (Texas A&M was and is rather freakish in this respect.)
But it’s worth working hard now and aiming for an environment where hard work is the norm – just as it’s already the norm for students serving in secular clubs or fraternities or sports teams or student government or romantic relationships or all the other places students are willing to commit to the toil.
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