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This idea popped up as a Fridea a couple of years ago, but it seemed fitting for the “Going for Broke” series. This series offers some rather drastic ideas – they won’t fit every campus ministry, but they’re still worth thinking about!
When the new semester comes around, what if you took a week off to let student leaders absolutely “run things” all week – whatever “things” happen to compose your ministry?
I think that idea’s self-explanatory enough, but here are some thoughts if you need ‘em:
- Leader qualifications still apply; students who wouldn’t shepherd other students when you’re present certainly shouldn’t while you’re absent.
- Your “absence” is a relative idea. Some of you might give students the reins but keep a present, watchful eye. Others may choose to step out completely – to “go for broke” – and simply be “on call” all week.
- Of course, it doesn’t have to be a full week OR you don’t have to be absent from everything. It’s your call.
- Of course, this could also be longer than a week. It’s your call.
- Be sure to prepare your students.
- Be sure to debrief your students when it’s all done.
- Prepare yourself: for a weird ministry week… and for a few great new methods that you’d never thought of.
Oh, and one more:
- Don’t smile too much at your students’ challenges, and repeat after me: this isn’t revenge, it’s discipleship!
As always, we start with purposes, not with a “cool idea” that we then make up “purposes” for. If this method doesn’t match what God desires to accomplish now in your students and in your ministry, shelve it; it might come in handy later on. If you do give this sort of thing a try, don’t forget that it won’t only disciple your students, but it will give you the chance to assess how well you’re raising them up. (Scary, huh?)
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Before Thanksgiving Break, I wrote plenty about the need to prepare our students for the Break. And, whether we had the chance to do that or not, I encouraged us to work strategically to ready collegians for the long Christmas Break.
But there’s another important step a friend helped me realize last night: Debriefing.
What if this week’s small groups or Large Group Meeting was dedicated to talking through the good, the bad, and the ugly of your students’ Thanksgiving Breaks? Or what if you offered the opportunity at a special lunch or online forum? If you can’t take those steps, what if you at least encouraged students to talk to you, other adults, or student leaders about what they faced at home?
Some of your students feel like a semester’s worth of spiritual growth was unraveled in just a few days, and they’re wondering what that means or how in the world they’re going to handle Christmas. Some feel a tinge of homesickness now that they’ve returned – maybe for the first time this semester. Others were reminded – deeply – of all the reasons they were so glad to leave home for college. Some feel like they missed some opportunities to impact their friends or family.
Others had really neat times at home – and their stories would be great for other students to hear. (And some made mistakes that they can help others not repeat.)
There are all sorts of reasons why a post-break Debrief makes enormous sense. Yes, if you can’t get that together this week, then I’d definitely encourage starting that tradition in January. But as my friend pointed out, debriefing Thanksgiving is one more GREAT way to prepare students for the Christmas Break that’s coming soon.
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The last couple of posts have dealt with the idea of college students stepping up as (even) more than normal Student Leaders – seeing themselves as your fellow College Ministers, indigenous missionaries to their own campuses.
If you can get your students to that point, then spending time brainstorming with them only makes sense. Yes, they’ll need direction. Yes, they’ll probably have to hear some “Nos” to their Big Ideas – although couching that response in “we’ll have to see if it works out” terms may be good. (Better, help your newly-fellow college ministers see why lots of ideas, though “good,” aren’t best.)
What if this sort of brainstorming became the focus of a special night – or even a college student (or leadership team) retreat?
“Brainstorming Brouhaha?” “Conspire Camp?” “Rack-our-brains Retreat?” Whatever you call it, if it’s done well, letting students brainstorm about specific areas and possibilities could unleash all sorts of great new ideas. They are, after all, the indigenous leaders – there’s a reason foreign missionaries try to raise them up to impact their own tribes.
Like I noted yesterday, that’s what we saw at the retreat I spoke at last weekend: several Stanford and/or Santa Clara students considering new outreach they might engage in on a local community college campus. It was exciting, and it was new.
One tip for making this great
Before I close out this Fridea, I want to point back to a principle that will make-or-break this experience for your ministry: learning to build forms around purposes, not vice versa. (I call it Backwards College Ministry, and you can read about it here.) Teach your students that stuff first, and this activity really could generate some fantastic next steps for your campus ministry.
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I shared the other day about having the chance to teach some students last weekend about seeing themselves as true “missionaries to their own campuses.” But how we got there in the context of this particular retreat is kind of interesting.
The focus of the weekend wasn’t simply encouraging these guys and gals to impact others. Instead, I started with a focus on students’ own walks with Jesus (in the first couple of messages). Then, I turned the corner in the final message, looking at how they might minister on their campuses. We called the overall theme, “Satisfied and Sent.”
The interesting thing? I used the same entire passage for each side of that theme! We camped out the whole weekend in Isaiah 55 – working through the entire chapter in the first two messages, then walking back through the entire passage once more in the final session.
If you check out that passage, you might notice how it could fit both the “finding satisfaction in the Lord” and “helping others find satisfaction in the Lord” topics. All I really did was have students – who (hopefully) had been impacted by Isaiah 55 in the first 24 hours – put on their “ministry glasses” when we viewed it again.
Suddenly, the great invitation of verses 1 and 2 became an invitation they can offer others.
The revelation of a God who can raise up David as a “witness,” “leader,” and “commander” became personally encouraging for those hoping He’d lift them up to impact, too.
The vital idea that God has heavens-higher ways and thoughts became instructive not simply for personal walks – but through the lens of a ministry calling, it helped them realize God may call us to places and methods that don’t “fit” our personalities or our plans.
And with ministry glasses on, the revelation of a God whose word (in Isaiah 55, it means his promises, commands, etc.) won’t return void reminded them that obedience to God’s sending command is guaranteed to bear the fruit He intends.
By exploring Isaiah 55′s specific applications for impacting others – after first examining the applications for personal spiritual journeys – students had the chance to do what we college ministers do all the time. If you want to raise up your students to serve as a true type of college minister now, then helping them read the Bible through the lens of that calling can be a great start!
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I had the awesome chance to speak last weekend for the college ministry retreat of Peninsula Bible Church in Palo Alto. A great group of students (from Stanford, Santa Clara U, and a few other schools) and their college ministers gathered in a cool little retreat spot, and we got to hang out Friday through Sunday.
And as always, I tried to notice what I was learning or being reminded of for our work as a whole.
Since taking my yearlong road trip and better developing my view of “campus ministry as missions,” I haven’t had too many opportunities to share this idea directly with students. (This view is best laid out in my ebook, Reaching the Campus Tribes.)
But every once in awhile, I’ve had the chance to speak either to a college ministry’s student leadership team or – in this case, at least – the ministry as a whole. And what I’ve noticed is that college students are able and willing to rise to the challenge as “college ministers” themselves. Even though they are in the throes of the college experience themselves, like the “indigenous” leaders raised up within foreign missions, students can get excited about serving as “missionaries to their own tribe.”
This is more than just asking them to serve as Student Leaders within the college ministry we (as college ministers) are directing. This is empowering them and encouraging them to take the added step of taking responsibility for the reaching of their campus. Yes, it’s still often best for them to have direction or oversight from somebody a little bit older. But there’s a difference in how much ownership they assume.
When I called the students to this – and encouraged them therefore to be open to ALL the ways God might direct their “missions” – they ran with it! For example, several students apparently stayed up late one night conspiring to reach a local community college with a Bible study (even though only one of those students actually attends that school).
In the days to come, I’ll share some of the points I used this weekend to push this idea. Hopefully those will help you do the same! But for now, my point is this: College students can rise to the challenge of a high level of “ownership” in your mission to the campus. How much do your students “own” the mission right now? Have they taken on the role of missionaries to their own campuses?
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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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I wrote Tuesday on the need for us to consider those who have, up until this semester, been a part of our community. Maybe they graduated in the Spring or Summer, or maybe they’re just temporarily gone – on an internship, perhaps, or studying abroad.
If we’re willing to consider doing this – and I beg you to consider doing this – I would also encourage a strategy, like a program or a team, to get this done.
Because while we love to think that our students will receive that kind of encouragement and exhortation “organically,” it’s tough. Honestly, we can’t really expect people thrown into the “real world” (whether permanently or temporarily) for the first time to be good at navigating this, can we? They haven’t had to navigate this world before, so they’re unlikely to seek out all the community they need. And their friends are either in the same boat (if they, too, have left college behind) or those friends don’t know how to deal with people who aren’t still in their world.
And we’d like to think we – their college ministers – will be good – naturally, organically – at contacting those students who have left our community. Chances are, the realities of our local ministry will override the desire to shepherd those away from us.
Unless we plan for it. Unless we plan for helping these students, either directly or by organizing others to do it.
And we can, right?
- We can calendar it.
- We can train students for post-college spirituality before they leave.
- We can train other students to be good friends to those who leave.
- We can help parents who – like their students – are figuring out something new.
- We can organize a student ministry team – for real – meant to help all of this happen better.
What else?
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How are you ministering to the students who were in your community last semester but aren’t at school this semester?
They might be studying abroad.
They might be taking a semester or year off.
They might have a missions opportunity, an internship, or a co-op.
They might have graduated in May or August, and they’re now eking out their new existence in the “real world.”
Whatever the case, it’s likely you’re the main Christian community they’ve had up until now. You and/or your students are those who have known them and have been known by them.
So there’s no way “Out of sight, out of mind” should be our guiding principle here. If we don’t shepherd them now, who will? And yet an expectation (on either side) of “everything staying the same” for distant or graduated students wouldn’t be wise, either (or healthy for the student).
More on this to come, I imagine. It’s been on my mind.
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Yesterday, I wrote (in passing) about gleaning college ministry learning from the broader teaching we get to hear. One of the guys at last week’s College Ministers Cohort, Seth Caddell, did just that. I asked him to provide a guest post based on something he got from the Catalyst Conference. (Seth’s blog is at www.lifeasexperienced.com.)
In his opening message, Andy Stanley addressed a difficulty lots of ministers face: The more successful we become, the less accessible we become. Instead of bemoaning this reality, he encouraged us to respond in one key way… as Seth describes (and applies to our field) below.
The number one temptation every minister faces is to do as much as you can for as many as you can. We can’t help but want to help. We want to hear each problem; we want to care for each student. But we can’t. We wish there was enough time to work with everyone, and often we try. We spend 30 minutes here and maybe 15 minutes there, hoping to impact as many as possible. Yet that doesn’t really work.
Sure, we could continue investing little bits of time and making our ministries as wide as possible. Sure, it’s cool when lots of students know our names and when we feel like we are having lots of “great conversations.” But this last week at Catalyst, Andy Stanley offered a game-changer.
What if we went deep rather than wide? What if we did for a few what we wish we could do for all our students? What if we invested hours upon hours in a couple students instead of spreading that time over 50 students?
We would begin to make disciples – that’s what would happen!
Obviously, many of us would be unemployed if we totally rejected all but 2 or 3 students. But we also hinder our impact when we spread our time so thin. We have to find a balance between hours with a few and minutes with many.
Maybe we need to rethink the way we are doing discipleship. Perhaps many of us who are Lone Ranger types need to start recruiting some help. Maybe we need to empower our students to pour into other students while we pour into them.
Regardless of what solution you find, I’d challenge you to start thinking of a few students you have the opportunity to impact in the ways you wish you could impact everybody!
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