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I think college ministers should rely much more than they do on outside expertise.
There, I said it.
Yesterday I sat down with some staff members of a local church. They’re considering taking one of the programs they do particularly well, and offering it in a different form to college students.
In the course of our discussion, I noted that need: for college ministries to regularly make use of experts from outside their ministry (and outside collegiate ministry altogether). We college ministers don’t have to be one-man-shows – but so many of us act as though we should be experts on dating relationships, on apologetics, on any biblical passage we share with our students, on handling time and money well, and so on.
But God has positioned other people to be far better than you at each of these. Right?
Sure, God may indeed want to use many of us as the primary teachers in our college ministries (though that’s far from being a “given”). But we should still be willing to bring in expertise – through other teachers, videos, studies, or other means – or point our students to other opportunities – retreats, other ministries’ teaching venues, seminars, conferences, etc..
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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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As you’re thinking about ministry this summer or next fall, have you considered making use of (more) adult volunteers?
I know this isn’t real common in campus-based college ministry. And even the other branches – church-based, Christian colleges, and collegiate churches – don’t always pull in many volunteers.
But there are people in your town, your own small group at church, or in that other church who would have a profound impact on your students. And there are adults who would be really impacted by being around college students, too. Students need to be around adults who aren’t paid to do college ministry, and we need more Christians to be exposed to the work of college ministry.
And you could probably benefit from the extra help (that is occasionally more reliable than student leaders and offers something they can’t).
Yes, I know there’s some trickiness here, some messiness. Not nearly every adult is qualified, and many others aren’t… a fit.
But just think about it. Pray about it. Consider getting out of your comfort zone on this one.
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This is a Fridea that I know some of you already do. But others don’t, and it’s cool enough that I wanted to make sure you’ve thought about it.
The Fridea? Honor and bless the students who are graduating from your ministry.
How can you honor and bless students?
- Have them share testimonies of their time and learnings in college
- Have them give a public “charge” to the remaining students – in-person or on video
- Give them public praise (by other students or by staff members)
- Provide contact info so students can write encouragements
- Have students provide a collection of notes and memories, either “hard copies” or through video or other means
- Offer a gift that will be meaningful (even for a lifetime): a quality study Bible, for instance, or an option of a few graduation gifts
What else can you do? Are you doing anything?
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I’m in an 8-week class at my church, and last night I had the chance to ask one of the directors a question that had arisen while I was doing my “homework.” It hadn’t been discussed in the lesson, but I got to thinking about it.
I realized just how much I appreciated being able to ask that question. And I realized it meant I was working my own way through the material – not simply letting them feed me without doing extra processing myself.
So…
How regularly do you see students process what they’re being taught in your college ministry? How often do they ask questions, mull things over, try to figure out how to apply principles to specific life scenarios? Do they sit and take what you give them, without much interrogation? Or are they listening and following up?
Whatever your answer is to that question, what do you think it means about how (and how much) they’re learning?
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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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I’m not sure if today’s Fridea is useful for every student, but I know it would have impacted me (and still would!).
Oftentimes, we disciple students with a pretty rapid sequence – whether we’re teaching through a series, meeting with a small group, or discipling one-on-one. A study on the Attributes of God, for instance, might hit a new theme each week – “God is Love,” “God is Sovereign,” etc.. Maybe we talk about Relationships for a few weeks, but it’s probably still not a thorough discussion of any one topic under that broad theme.
But what if we occasionally did things differently? What if we pushed students toward fully digesting particular areas? I’m not sure if this idea would work for Large Group Meetings, but a small group, single disciplee, or even a group of student leaders might be impacted pretty well through this.
The Fridea? Have students thoroughly digest a spiritual theme, using classic works, research, writing, and any other method to ground them in that discussion.
For instance, what if a student spent an entire month studying the issue of Justice? They might read Gary Haugen’s Good News about Injustice and Keller’s Generous Justice, study some of the specific theological issues and controversies, prepare a summary of the biblical content, and write a short paper on the topic. They could also participate in a local justice-oriented activity.
But what’s more, that would student could now serve as “expert in the ministry” – someone who can plan (in this case) justice-oriented ministry events, disciple others on this theme, prepare a “value statement” on the topic, or even teach the large group meeting.
Think about the profit to your college ministry – and to your students – if you helped them grow in this way? Not only will they grow in this single area, but they’ll learn about the process of digesting a major spiritual theme.
Sure, there are lots of themes we want to impact students with during the short time we have them, and rapid-fire training isn’t a bad thing. But if we mixed in some deeper digestion with their regular diet, we might bear some exciting, different fruit.
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I last posted this over a year ago, but I was thinking again about the topic yesterday – and it’s something I think we need to consider a lot more often. And this may be perfect for some of you as you plan Spring Quarter, Summer, or Fall teaching series!
How often do we show our students how to apply the Bible and the Gospel in their actual everyday existence? That’s this week’s Fridea: Teaching our students to live beautifully within the natural, daily elements of their lives.
I Corinthians 10:31 is of course a key verse here:
“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (ESV)
Paul’s final summing-up of I Corinthians 10 is honestly a little unnatural. The whole chapter has been, to this point, a deep theological discussion that dives into complex places (discussions modern, freedom-loving Christians aren’t too comfortable with). The chapter reveals a hard, very specific way to love others (temporarily setting aside our Christ-given freedoms for the sake of our witness).
So it might have been expected for Paul to close out the chapter with a summing-up statement: “And that’s one big way to love others: laying down our own freedom for their sake.” That would have captured the essence of the passage.
Instead, Paul decides to take things a step further. Instead of summing up, he reveals that this (watching what we eat or drink when it affects others) is just ONE of the crazy ways that we get to glorify God:
“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
How often do we actually teach students how to live out this command? I can’t remember ever hearing an “eating-to-the-glory-of-God” message in church or any other ministry – even though that one thing takes up hours of my week. Even though there’s plenty of biblical wisdom on, or connected to, the topic of eating.
What about the other areas of our lives?
Personally, I’d rather have college students who have truly given Christ Lordship over their eating, their driving, or their stewardship of time, than ones who are trained in apologetics or can quote large sections of Scripture. (Though of course, it’s great if all these things are true!)
Have you taught your collegians to glorify God in their
- Eating
- Driving
- Sleeping
- Studying
- Time Management
- Co-existence with roommates
- Co-existence with classmates
- Casual (and other) Conversation
- Multi-tasking
- Clothing
- Social Event-attending
- and other “common” events in the life of an American college student?
A teaching series? Small group topic? One-on-one discipleship material? “Position papers” available to your students? A database of verses and wisdom on your college blog? A message series you advertise to the campus at large?
If, on the other hand, we (accidentally) teach students that biblical truth, prayer, and the counsel of wise Christians are only pertinent to BIG theological questions and BIG life choices, then we can’t complain much about segmentation or cafeteria-style Christianity. Right?
But provide a Theology of Party Attendance or a Theology of Sleep, and your students (or the whole campus tribe) might just realize what this Lordship thing is all about… and just how deeply abundant life can flow within their lives!
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Chances are, some of your students are in – or will soon be in – that “seriously dating” stage of their romantic relationships. Even with the movement of the average marriage age, plenty of collegians are still there well before they hit graduation.
While I know that the Dating & Relationships topic is often one of the most-used arrows within a college ministry’s quiver, those messages (at least in Large Group Meetings) are usually presented to help a diverse audience, including
- those who have dated very little (or none)
- those not presently dating,
- those presently dating,
- and/or those seriously dating or engaged.
But it’s that last group I’ve been wondering about this week: Are you facilitating their deeper training?
Are you providing (or pointing them to) training on conflict and communication, household finances, purity and (eventually) sexual intimacy, handling each others’ families, and so on? Are they hearing marriage theology and not only dating theology?
If this sounds like the classic “Pre-marital Class,” then you’re right – except that it’s vital that we recognize that much of this discussion happens best before engagement. (And some would argue that such topics should be shared with singles and the newly dating, too!)
So how are students in your ministry finding training beyond the three-week series you offered last semester?
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