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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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Yesterday, I wrote about one way a college ministry can take a “big leap” (which is the point of this “Going for Broke” series). That idea involved launching a new ministry effort – or even a truly new ministry altogether – to reach an underreached segment of your campus.
Honestly, there are probably several ways to “go for broke” that involve reaching out to niches at your school – or maybe even at other schools? (We’re thinking big this week, remember.) But as I’ve traveled the country and otherwise connected with hundreds of college ministries in the last several years, I’ve gained some wisdom (I hope) on taking this plunge. So here are some scattered thoughts on the Who of a niche-based leap for your college ministry.
- Not every characteristic provides a true niche. I’ve seen some attempts to identify reachable segments that don’t seem to connect to students’ actual experience. Not every dorm, section of campus, major, etc., needs to be targeted in a specialized way. If there’s not a true “identity” shared by members of the group, then they’re not that sort of niche… even if they happen to belong to the same honor society.
- Think like a student, not a city planner. Personally, I’d prefer that campuses be easily “mapped” for strategic outreach… but it doesn’t work that way. Students don’t congregate or self-identify around the lines an outsider might draw. Instead, it’s important to look at the actual reality on the ground. What interests, areas, activities, or other aspects have created actual student niches? Could / should any of them be reached in a special way? (Truthfully, your own students may have an easier time identifying these than you might!)
- Be willing to think small. Don’t assume a niche worthy of a unique ministry effort has to be a big niche. There may be a group of 10 or 50 individuals who remain “unreached” by previous ministry attempts. Be open to the call to reach them, and realize they could be harder to find because of their size.
- Be willing to think big. On the other hand, it’s possible to miss a potential niche because it seems so big. Maybe it’s the entire Greek system (and specialized efforts there have worked well on countless campuses). Maybe at your school, an entire class year – Sophomores? Fifth-year Seniors? – could use a tailored effort. Maybe there’s a need to reach men through a new ministry. Don’t overlook enormous opportunities just because they’re… enormous.
- Consider whom God has already brought. To me, this is one of the clearest signs of a potential niche to reach (whether in small ways or in the large-scale way I’m talking about here). Has God brought your ministry students who clearly identify with a niche that is generally underreached? Might he want to use those students to lead an effort, or at least to provide insight into what’s needed to reach their segment?
- Be strategic and thoughtful. Recognizing need isn’t the same as hearing God’s call, no matter how much we’d like for it to be. While noticing that the Arts crowd isn’t being reached may be the beginning of this process, it’s not an automatic call to establish a new work among them. It’s vital that we be thoughtful and strategic, and in the end, the call may be somebody else’s, or the need may be met in some other way.
- Be creative. On the other hand, noticing that kind of need could indeed lead to a new ministry eventually. So if this niche-based work is a possibility for your campus ministry, it’s worth looking high and low for ideas of groups to reach. Poll your students. Look through the list of student organizations. Pray like crazy – and then watch for unique ways God might answer. Ask your ministry’s alumni. Ask the administration.
- Consider service, not only outreach. As you’re thinking about whom you might reach, you might stumble upon the Who of a new niche ministry by thinking about whom to serve, not simply whom to recruit. Look at your campus through recruiting and evangelism eyes, and God may show you some niches. Look through the lens of “Who could really use our service?,” and He may provide you with some others. And on this score especially, campus administration may actually be a help – and then if you begin serving groups they’ve identified, all sorts of benefits may arise from that.
This is enough for now, but hopefully this is at least a start toward thinking about the Who of new niche-based efforts!
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The other day, I heard about some missionaries who were working really hard to reach some Japanese people for Christ in a particular city…
…in Australia!
After seeing the wide variety of college ministries around the country (and thinking about college ministry in terms of missions for so long), I honestly believe some of our best potential growth is in the area of niche-based ministry. Within the larger “campus tribe” each of us seeks to reach, there are likely numerous smaller niches that would benefit from particular outreach.
So how could some campus ministries “go for broke” to better reach their campuses? By launching extensive new outreaches – perhaps entire new ministries – to reach particular niches.
On many campuses, multiple college ministries seem to be largely attracting the same type of students. While today’s suggestion for “going for broke” doesn’t mean jettisoning your present ministry, your mission – if you choose to accept it – would involve establishing a major “beachhead” among groups that aren’t already being reached well.
We’re not just talking about beginning to invite such students to your present activities – although, of course, that’s always something worth considering. It’s just not today’s idea. The idea of this “Going for Broke” series is to throw out some major possibilities – in this case, perhaps even creating a whole new “spin-off” ministry quite different from your present forms. For many niches, this may be what’s needed if they’re going to be reached.
Through this, you might have the chance to better reach one of the “classic” niches that college ministries have found so much success in reaching already: International students. Athletes. Various ethnicities.
Your new ministry / major new outreach might connect with a group whose schedule, identity, geography, etc., indicate it could use this sort of effort: Engineering majors. Gamers. Those who spend almost all their time on South Campus. Commuters. Transfer students. A very specific minority group.
It might be even a group that rallies around a lifestyle or philosophy: The LBGT community. Thursday night partiers. Campus Republicans. Environmentalists. Mormons.
Tomorrow, I’ll post thoughts on finding / choosing a true “niche” of students to reach. Not all niches need a separate effort, and some college ministry work has “overshot” in this area. But if you look around at your campus, it’s likely you’ll see some group – even if it’s a small group – that you realize won’t likely ever be reached well by your present small groups, Large Group Meeting, or other activities.
Maybe some other college ministry will be called to reach them. But maybe yours is.
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Sorry that this Fridea is coming kinda late, but it could at least help toward planning how you’ll respond to next year’s Halloween!
I do recognize that October 31st is “celebrated” differently campus-to-campus, and many schools may not see much when it comes to this weekend or the night of Halloween. But other schools see quite a bit – it’s the moment when everybody drinks, perhaps, or when the costumes come out (and not unto holiness), or when debauchery is otherwise at its worst.
So my Fridea and encouragement this week is to respond as God leads you and your ministry. The subject line offers some thoughts on that:
- View what takes place, like a missionary would / should. Let it break your heart. Let it open your eyes and your students’ eyes. Let God use what’s actually happening – not just what you assume is – to provide ministry ideas for next year. (I’ll likely prayer-drive through the “scene” myself tonight or tomorrow.)
- Serve students. Like Spring Break mission trips or finals week, your campus might respond well to free midnight pancakes or van rides. Yes, you’ll need to work through what’s best (and what might only encourage more problems), but it’s worth considering how you can serve – and build relational bridges to – students.
- Think long and hard about how you can best serve, impact, and encounter your campus at the Halloweens to come.
- Pray. Pray as you view, with your students, or otherwise. This might be a night for all-night prayer, or it might be something you intercede about regularly, leading up to next year’s Halloween.
- Teach. The issues raised by Halloween – and not just the occult issues, though those are real, too – are worth discipling about, right? Why shouldn’t a girl “dress to impress”? Why wouldn’t a college student drink to excess? What’s so wrong with a night or weekend of debauchery? How can we serve our peers when they’re wrapped up in these things? Have you taught even your Christian students this stuff?
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Today’s my spiritual birthday. It’s always a neat day to remember what Christ has done in my life (both before and after I acknowledged it!). I realize theologies differ on exactly when conversion happens, but as best I can figure, it was on August 25th many years ago that I entered a personal relationship with God through Jesus.
In light of my own lil’ holiday AND as you face a new school year, I wanted to repost one of six ways I suggested we could energize evangelism in our campus ministries:
Commemorate spiritual birthdays (the first one and later ones). If we believe that there really was a moment in every Christian’s life when he or she went from death to life, then that’s a big deal! So yes, celebrate when people come to Christ, but it’s also quite fitting to celebrate the date people came to Christ – last year or last decade! (See the other five suggestions here.)
I later expanded on this idea (including 12 ways to accomplish this celebration!):
In my family, my parents would treat my spiritual birthday (like my sister’s) like another holiday in our year. So every August 25th, I’d get a card and a congrats. Later on, I have often taken that day as a special day to seek the Lord, review His work in my life over the past year, and celebrate His salvation.
I s’pose our attention on “spiritual birthdays” as a family made me think about celebrating them within my first college ministry experience. So as I made the info forms for our Upstream Freshman Bible Study group, I (1) put a “Spiritual Birthday” line on those forms. (I either did it then or later, in my second Freshman Bible study. Either way…)
Not only did that provide a helpful gauge for whether or not people claimed to be Christians, but it gave us something to celebrate within the year! This is a very easy way to get this info; you could, of course, (2) simply ask individuals you’re discipling. Or perhaps you could (3) encourage your students to put it on their Facebook pages - that could actually be a phenomenal witness, couldn’t it?
Then what do we do with the info? Honestly, whatever you do for physical birthdays could probably be done for spiritual birthdays, too: Perhaps (4) an announcement, (5) birthday treats or a cake, (6) listing it in the weekly email, (7) sending a Facebook message, (8) putting it in the “program,” (9) giving a little present in Large Group.
You might consider (10) something special for the first anniversary of people’s conversions, too. That highlights students coming to Christ at this age, and I bet it’s pretty encouraging for those newer believers.
And for everybody, you might indeed (11) encourage them to make that day a personal spiritual holiday. Take it from me, that can be pretty awesome.
Lastly, it’s important to (12) realize that not all Christian students will know their spiritual birthdays. So we gotta work that in somehow. You can find some thoughts on doing that here.
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Easter and Christmas, THE two biggest “liturgies” among us Protestants, are both widely ignored in the context of college ministry. Students are often home at Easter and pretty much always home at Christmas. Students who happen to stay in town (or live locally) aren’t going to celebrate these holidays with us.
But that’s kind of a shame, isn’t it? Because not only should we help our Jesus-following students better comprehend and celebrate the magnitude of the Christmas and Easter stories, but the non-Christian and “de-churched” students around us might be more likely to reflect in these moments than any others.
Easter, clearly, is over for 2011. But even now there might be some things worth considering:
1. Let students share. How often do we ask students to share the growth they gained away from our ministries? Yet some of your students probably did reflect on Easter, celebrate Easter, and grow in the context of Easter in awesome ways. Shouldn’t they share that with you, their college minister? Couldn’t they share that with the whole group?
2. Don’t let this pass by ’til you’ve fulfilled your ministry. Sometimes we’re so interested in putting on a good “show” that we wouldn’t dare do something silly like talk about Easter after Easter! But if there’s something (or there are lots of things) God wants you to share about Easter… you need to do that. Even this week. Even after Easter. (Your students won’t care; in fact, it might make it “stick” better.)
3. What are you going to do for Christmas? Start pondering now.
4. Ponder what next year’s Easter will look like. It makes sense to consider your Easter and “Resurrection Week” activities for 2012 now. You don’t have to decide everything, but you should
- analyze how well this year’s activities (if you had some) accomplished your purposes
- contemplate what you might want to do next year (while we’re still “in the moment”)
- write down any worthy thoughts – and maybe set a reminder to make sure you look at ‘em in 11 months.
Easter 2012 falls on April 8th!
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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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