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Whether you are based in a church, directly supported to work on campus, or otherwise in this field called Collegiate Ministry, it’s likely that at least some of your students won’t be around this summer. Some of us will be spending the summer with students on a Summer Project of some sort; others will have a new batch of in-town students, home from their far-away colleges.
But still, many of the students attending our ministries right now won’t be living nearby, won’t be on a Project, and won’t be in any sort of “official” ministry activity at all – like Camp or a missions experience. Instead, they’ll likely be at home, far away from you and your ministry – and likely not being discipled in any sort of college ministry environment at all.
So what have you begun to do to prepare for their discipleship over the summer?
It’s important that we see ourselves as the primary shepherd of the people who are under our care for eight or nine months out of the year… even during the “off months.” Sure, they might have a college minister back at their home church (though that’s pretty rare). But even so, we are more likely to have an ongoing relationship with that student, to know the impact they’ve been exposed to recently, and to know how we hope to continue impacting them in the Fall Semester.
So why wouldn’t we make some effort to help them grow over the summer? How would you honestly answer this question?:
Will the students who attend your college ministry this week receive enough discipleship over the summer? Whose responsibility should that be?
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Lest we forget, another Presidential Election year is upon us. (Which also means Leap Year and a Summer Olympics, of course.) And that means we have one of the best possible teachable moments available for our students, to shepherd them:
- in what it means to be a citizen
- to care about social and political issues
- to wisely discern their own involvement
- to prioritize God’s ways (and kingdom) over man’s
- to bridge politics into Gospel conversations
- to be wise and not simply zealous
- to be not conformed to peers and other components of the world around them
Many (if not all) of the students in your campus ministry will be shepherded by somebody this year – do you really want professors, FoxNews, Ron Paul devotees, parents, the student newspaper, NPR, or the student president of the Socialist Club to be the only lens they use? Or will you help them walk first and foremost as a Christian through a very political eight months, with all the decision-making, disagreements, stance-discernment, and dialogue it will naturally inspire?
So that’s this week’s Fridea: Consider your action plan for shepherding in this teachable moment. And get started shepherding before the summer hits.
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I’m throwing out some Spring Break thoughts this week – see Monday’s for thoughts on Spring Break traditions, and Tuesday for the crazy Mad Libs eBay Road Trip idea.
Today, a simple question: Have you thought about impacting those who will stay in town?
“In town” means different things for different campus contexts. But for many of us, there might be an opportunity for short-term, high-impact discipleship. Maybe a one-week book club? Perhaps a few-night topical small group? What if you and a few student leaders spent a chunk of the week brainstorming? What if you did something for students well beyond your own ministry?
It could mean a lot of different things, of course, and for many it’s not a doable idea. But the question – especially in light of my encouragement Monday – is, Have you thought about it?
And one last thing: There are few better times to think about impacting international students. They’ll likely be around, even if nobody else is! What homes and/or hospitality will they find in a lonely week?
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Last semester, I had the chance to help my church out on our Local and International Service team. And one of the things I really appreciate about those guys is that they have a major partnership bent. Even though our church is big and could do a lot of service activities on its own, instead our M.O. is partnering with those in our community (or overseas) who are already making an impact.
Clearly, lots of churches don’t take that same stance. But the truth is, lots of college ministries don’t, either. In our case, I believe there’s room for a lot more partnership in service activities – as well as other functions of our ministries.
How often do you consider questions like these?:
- Before we launch a Bible study for that sorority, do we know of any other ministries with students in that club?
- Instead of assuming nobody’s already reaching that dorm, have we tried to find out and maybe join them?
- We’ve thought about advertising to that nearby community college – is there a church that might want to help with that outreach?
- Are there any other secular clubs on campus that could partner with us for this campus-wide party?
- Before choosing a new service project, have we considered the ones the campus is already getting behind?
- Instead of having our five students with a passion for _____________ do that on their own, what if they joined forces with similar students from other ministries?
Believe me, I recognize there are sometimes great reasons NOT to partner. But I feel like we’re more often erring on the other side of things, on the side that needlessly recreates wheels and misses opportunities for a little extra unity. We have to be open to considering partnership often.
One more note – When it comes to partnering with other ministries, let me say this: I am by no means a naysayer when it comes to having multiple college ministries on a campus. I understand the role they serve, and I know there are real differences between groups. (It is a misunderstanding of biblical unity to declare that things shouldn’t be this way.) But the fact that there often should be multiple college ministries on one campus doesn’t mean that the next activity can’t be done in unison – whether it’s starting a niche ministry or holding a Service Day downtown.
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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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