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I’ve been talking about niche-based and complementary campus ministry for the last couple of days, largely because they were discussed a few times with the Ohio ministers who brought me up there last week.
After offering a sort of primer on the two paths yesterday, I wanted to offer the first of some random thoughts. There’s no real organization here; it’s simply a collection of some of the things I’ve noticed, wondered, or imagined for these two areas.
Gamers. One of the campus niches that seems like a really good example of a new, fairly well-defined niche is the Gamer Culture. I’ve heard of at least one ministry reaching out to that group, too.
Niches that seem obvious. Besides athletes, international students, and ethnic-specific ministries (which I mentioned yesterday and are fairly well established in our field), several others come to mind as strong candidates for niche-based ministry at many campuses. These include academic / honors students, apartment-dwellers, specific majors that have particularly stringent workloads (like Architecture), students drawn to or studying the arts, individuals from specific countries (rather than simply working with all internationals), and Christians considering going into ministry.
Niche ministries you should know. Though less well-known, it’s been fun for me to learn about Lifelines, a niche ministry of Cru focused largely on outdoors-lovers, and the Christian Medical and Dental Association, which is active on many campuses for those entering those fields.
Complementary options. While any strength (of a particular minister or an entire ministry) could eventually be used to complement other ministry work taking place in town, some opportunities seem more widespread than others. I wish we’d see more ministries helping with Leadership Training, campus-wide Service, Preparation for life after college, Missions Mobilization, and supporting the particularly academic students – just to name a few options!
Spin-off style. For both complementary and niche-based endeavors that start within a present, full-fledged college ministry, it’s always worth considering whether those efforts should eventually spin off into their own ministries. That’s not always the best plan, but it’s a valid – and sometimes better – option.
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I’m in Ohio this week, meeting with some college ministers and church planters looking to impact a campus up here. So fun!
In the course of a chat yesterday, we discussed a principle that fits really well into this whole discussion of Hospitality of College Ministry… but also gives us a bit of a “bonus” reason for practicing hospitality, too.
The principle? As God draws individuals into your ministry, He might use their attributes to help set the course for your ministry. For example, an influx of fraternity students into your ministry this fall might indicate you should explore opportunities within their frat houses. If God brings a student with disabilities, that might be a chance not simply to meet individual needs, but also to pray about how that community might be better reached for Christ. If upperclassmen begin to choose your ministry, it’s worth praying through whether you should begin to recruit among the Juniors and Seniors.
This doesn’t mean that every type of student needs to be met with an entirely new emphasis or niche-based ministry. Instead, the point is that we get to know people enough that we can see ways God might be directing us through whom He brings our way. A party host surely tries to get to know her guests at some level; are we at least offering that same level of hospitality within our ministries? Would we even know if God was bringing 10 people from the same sports team?
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I’ve been working on a book about my visits to churches around the country (165 of ‘em in a year), so I think a lot about Hospitality these days. Early this year, I wrote a 6-part series on Hospitality in College Ministry – and this week, I wanted to continue that series.
The posts will be short – it seems like that kind of week, for many of you and for me. But hopefully they’ll be helpful as you ponder Hospitality for this summer or Fall 2012!
the solid… but ignored
I recognize that there’s a lot of merit in college ministries (and churches) focusing on the unsaved and immature. We rightly work hard to cater to them, draw them, welcome them, share Christ with them, and disciple them in the basics of faith.
But in the midst of all that, it’s easy to ignore some of your more solid, faithful, long-present students. We don’t seek out the mature Christians within our ministries, even though God has been building them to use them. Nor do focus often enough on helping them “excel still more” in their walks with Christ; how many of your Bible studies or talks would actually stretch someone who’s been a growing Christian for 12 years?
Many of your students have been growing Christians for 12 years.
So for the sake of Hospitality – at the very least – I urge us to a better “both-and” approach here. I know it’s a little messier and a little harder and a little less exciting. But shouldn’t we seek to impact everybody God brings to us?
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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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A while ago, I had the opportunity to guest-blog at the BASIC Concepts for Campuses blog. In case you missed it (or need a refresher), I wanted to post it here, too!
There’s a big problem with making a list like this: There are plenty of other items that could end up on it.
That being said, here are some of the areas your college ministry might want to rethink – or consider in the first place! Each of them has the potential to take a ministry to its next level of impact, so hopefully two or three of them (at least) will give you some pondering-fodder in the months ahead!
1. Get smaller. What would happen if you devoted a heavy portion of energy to impacting one particular “people group” on campus – the Theater club, for instance, or one dorm floor where a few of your ministry’s students already live? This is niche-based college ministry, and it’s one strategy always worth considering. If (by God’s leading) you put disproportionate effort into reaching deeply into one campus segment, you may find that you actually reach more students that way… and more non-Christians, too.
2. Learn the tribe. How much time have you, as college minister or student leader, put into “learning your tribe”? Any missionary would likely spend months observing, studying, and discussing his particular mission field. Do you know your campus’s demographics? Do you know the goals of the administration for the next 24 months? What segments of campus are other college ministries reaching well? What’s the history of your mission field? If you don’t know the answers to these and other questions, you’re not making the impact you could.
3. Prepare for success. College ministers should be evaluated on how well their graduates are doing two years beyond college. (That’s not the only measure of success, but it’s a big one.) How well is your ministry doing at preparing students for “the real world”? While this should be a purpose throughout the college years, it should receive special attention as students near graduation. How are seniors being discipled in choosing a church, handling money, finding community, dating, being a Christian employee, and the many other struggles of life beyond college?
4. Share whys, not just whats. How often do you encourage students to do something without helping them understand why? It’s easy to push students to service opportunities, invite them into community, or urge them to excel in their studies without once teaching them what the Bible has to say about these things. (And students probably won’t argue that they’re each important.) But giving instructions without biblical motivation is legalism, and it makes us no different from their fraternities and service clubs when it comes to encouraging “good behavior.” A quick test: For each aspect you consider to be a “pillar” of your college ministry, have you engaged in ministry-wide discipleship on that topic?
5. Evaluate. When you really think about it, do you know that your ministry is making an impact? How do you know? One of the trickiest things about college ministry is figuring out how to evaluate our work, but it’s still worth attempting to do. Are students remembering (and applying) your weekly talks? Are small group leaders communicating well? Is your annual on-campus service project accomplishing what you hoped? Are students actually succeeding spiritually in the years beyond college? Are visitors feeling welcomed and getting the information they should? If you don’t have regular and effective means of evaluating your activities, it’s time to develop some!
Have you considered these areas in your ministry? What other areas in your ministry have you realized needed to be reconsidered?
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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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