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As I’m working my way through this series on Hospitality in College Ministry, a vital note:
Perceptions always matter, but even more so in aiming for hospitality.
We’ve all had moments of sadness when we hear that students who visited our ministries didn’t feel welcomed. But we’ve also probably (wisely) learned that sometimes the visitors themselves are at fault – they expected something that wouldn’t have expected in any other venue, for instance, or they unfairly extrapolated after running into somebody who was unfriendly (who might have been a visitor themselves!).
But the danger is that we’d lean too heavily on the excuses (true though they may be) and miss the opportunity to still work on helping these perceptions change. I know “perception is reality” is a cliche (though it’s often important to see the truth there) – but in this case, the act of being hospitable does hinge on people’s feelings – feeling welcome, feeling invited, feeling happy they came.
So how are you (A) discerning visitors’ perceptions, and (B) helping improve them?
We won’t get 100% positive impressions. But if we want to be hospitable, we should probably be trying to get there.
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Here’s one way to gauge our collegiate ministry’s hospitality:
What happens to a new visitor who shows up to your large group meeting this week?
- Can they get into a small group? (Will they even hear about small groups?)
- Will they be greeted and name-tagged as excitedly as they would have been in January? In August?
- Can they find out about leadership opportunities… that they can participate in sooner, rather than later?
- Will someone follow up with them this week?
- Can you tell them about opportunities to connect or stay connected this summer? Do your ministry’s present students know these details, so they can share them with visitors (and friends)?
- Will the general “tone of welcome” make these students feel like you’re excited they’re here?
Lots of college ministries have first-time visitors in April. They may not have as many as in August, but they still have them. This is a chance for a gut-check: Are we only being hospitable when it’s most “efficient”? Or are we being hospitable because we care about hospitality?
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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).
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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.”
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Every college ministry has “pillars” – those areas its leaders feel are essential for the mission they’re called to, the methods and themes that it’s most important to do well and get right. Often one college ministry’s pillars will be different from those claimed by other ministries (including other ministries on the same campus); they’re the main aspects of a ministry’s “DNA.” Deciding your ministry’s “pillars” usually involves both discernment up-front and observation over time.
After writing a bit about pillars yesterday, I wanted to address three important ways these pillars should be used in any campus ministry (although sadly, these steps are far too often avoided). In other words, these are pillars for your pillars.
In a college ministry, your pillars should be:
- Taught. The why of our pillars must be taught, and it must be taught ministry-wide. If Service is a pillar of a college ministry, then just offering service opportunities isn’t enough; if Evangelism is our focus, then it should be the focus of some of our teaching, too.
- Accessible. If Leadership Opportunities are a pillar of your ministry, is the road to leadership obvious and available to anybody (even if they aren’t in some evasive “inner circle”)? And if Small Group Involvement is a pillar, then group sign-ups shouldn’t only be available in the first few weeks of the school year… right?
- Repeated often. Along the lines of yesterday’s post, our pillars should be regularly spoken, among our student leaders and all the students. Can it be as explicit as having everybody repeat the pillars of your ministry, out-loud, on a regular basis? Sure it can, as long as you aren’t creepy about it. And whenever the opportunity arises, slip in a comment: “We’re donating to a Microfinance ministry, because International Involvement is one of the focuses of our club.”
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If they haven’t spent 3 hours combing through your ministry’s web page, what details are new visitors discovering that encourage them to continue coming? If students didn’t make your annual “vision-casting” message at the start of the school year, how clear are your ministry’s main themes, activities, and purposes?
We college ministers – along with our student leaders – know everything there is to know about our campus ministry. We know its strengths, we know our “pillars” (Bible study, Justice, Evangelism, Leadership, Discipleship, Local Service, or whatever), we know what events we do on a weekly, regular, or annual basis.
But will this week’s visitors all hear about those things?
If a non-Christian visitor, for instance, has a personal love for foreign aid, will she hear that your ministry sends students each summer to be involved in helping end sex slavery in Africa?
Will another visitor who’s never really seen Christians have fun hear about the parties you plan to throw?
Will the future seminarian find out that serious Bible study is common in your ministry (even if you happen to be a very practical Dating series right now)?
We don’t always do a good job of putting much out there about our ministries that visitors might want to know. Hopefully we’re great at being friendly, welcoming, and rallying, but students nowadays are often going to make choices on much more than that. I don’t know how – in your ministry’s case – this needs to happen. But the more reasons we can give different kinds of people to keep checkin’ us out… the better!
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It seems to me that true Hospitality is characterized by – among other things – a recognition of all, not just many.
When I’m thinking about Hospitality (in college ministry, churches, or otherwise), it helps me to consider how the perfect party host handles her soirees. Does she aim to host the bulk of her crowd, or all of her crowd?
I think she considers the All.
That doesn’t mean she acts the same to all (in fact, Hospitality recognizes that people need to be treated differently). And she doesn’t give in to every single expectation of each person, either.
But she thinks of all, she acknowledges all, she does what she can to host everyone at the party.
I would never say that a college ministry needs to (necessarily) target all students, cater equally to all students, or involve all students in the same way. But it seems to me… I think… that a Hospitable college ministry will indeed consider all students who make their way into it, for a day or a semester or longer.
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And… we’re back!
Over my break, I’ve been working on a possible book – only this one’s not about college ministry, it’s about the weird, intriguing, magnificent time I spent visiting 165 weekend church services during my yearlong road trip. Yes, the main purposes of that trip – and by far most of the hours spent – were all about exploring American college ministry. But I’m kind of a church geek, so I took the chance to visit a jillion churches on the weekends. It was pretty stinkin’ interesting, to say the least.
Anyway… a real focus of that book is how churches think about hospitality toward visitors (whether newcomers or longtime attenders). And that’s something that needs to be thought about constantly within our field, Collegiate Ministry, too.
So since I’ve been mulling those sorts of thoughts, I figured I’d make a blog series out of them; the start of a semester or quarter is a great time to think about Hospitality anyway. And since this is the first entry, that’s actually what I wanted to ask: How much have you thought about hospitality lately?
Sure, I imagine you’ve got some “plays” designed to welcome guests, and you designed some other things (maybe awhile back) to make your Large Group Meeting fun and inviting. But when’s the last time you really thought about how well it was accomplishing those purposes – and all the other purposes that make up true “hospitality”? Can you even list out what a truly “hospitable” college ministry might look like in your context?
Or what about your small groups? Do the leaders there think regularly about hospitality?
Have you identified students and leaders within your ministry with the spiritual gift of Hospitality? What roles do they play in your ministry?
In the days to come, I’ll be looking closer at some of these areas – and I’m sure a few more, as well. But for today, I’d encourage you to ponder (and even pray about) what role Hospitality – as a disciplined, purposeful pursuit – has played in your campus ministry… and what role you want it to play in the future!
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