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ChurchLeaders.com posted an article the other day by Catalyst’s head, Brad Lomenick, entitled “20 Points on Leading Millennials.” Obviously, this is our audience – and will continue to be for awhile – so being good college ministers requires learning the Millennials.
What I particularly like about this article, though, is that it’s pretty informal – clearly just Lomenick’s quick-take on what he’s learned in his various ministry roles – as well as from picking the brains of some of his staff members. (Below is the start of the article and some of the most interesting ones, but click here to read the whole thing – as well as people’s comments.)
A good friend asked me the other day my thoughts on how to lead the millennial generation, basically those born after 1980. We gather thousands of leaders who fit this category on an annual basis, and most of our Catalyst staff are under the age of 30.
I have to admit- I don’t always get this right. As a 100% Gen X’er, my tendency is to lean away from several of these points, and lead how I’ve been led over the years by Boomer and Busters. But I’m working on it….
So with that said, here you go, thoughts on leading millenials:
1. Give them freedom with their schedule. I’ll admit, this one is tough for me.
7. Lead each person uniquely. Don’t create standards or rules that apply to everyone. Customize your approach. (I’ll admit, this one is difficult too!)
8. Make authenticity and honesty the standard for your corporate culture. Millenials are cynical at their core, and don’t trust someone just because they are in charge.
13. Not about working for a personality. Not interested in laboring long hours to build a temporal kingdom for one person. But will work their guts out for a cause and vision bigger than themselves.
14. Deeply desire mentoring, learning and discipleship. Many older leaders think millenials aren’t interested in generational wisdom transfer. Not true at all. Younger leaders are hungry for mentoring and discipleship, so build it into your organizational environment.
18. They’ve been exposed to just about everything, so the sky is the limit in their minds. Older leaders have to understand younger leaders have a much broader and global perspective, which makes wowing Millenials much more difficult.
And again, I’d encourage you to click here to read the whole thing – along with people’s comments!
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As I noted yesterday, the Faith on Campus blog is hosting another college ministry Blogathon – centered on themes for an upcoming school year!
My contribution, “Pick a Hill to Climb,” went live today, and it’s one of the “bolder” posts I’ve written in awhile. While it may step on some toes, it has to, I suppose (how else can we be serious about improvement?).
The post starts:
Pick a Hill to Climb
How much better will your ministry be in November or March than it is in August?
Ministry improvement should be a year-round endeavor, not just something we tackle in the summer or at an occasional conference. In fact, many avenues for growth are only or primarily available when school’s in session. So hopefully you’re considering how you can move your ministry from a “7″ to a “8″ (or even from a “2″ to a “4″) well before next June.
As we stand at the base of a new semester, we have the choice to keep our ministries here for nine months… or to carry them toward new heights! So as you look at the possibilities for improving your college ministry, consider tackling at least one or two of these hills.
Check out those “five hills” here. You’ll find brief suggestions on five different aspects of improvement, from how you evaluate your ministry to specific actions you can take with student leaders.
Meanwhile, there are nine other posts already up at the Blogathon, as well, covering a wide range of topics. Brian Barela gives five simple but quite consequential ways to tune up our Social Media strategy before school starts. As usual, guys connected with the CCO (Byron Borger and Derek Melleby) point us toward aspects of student discipleship that most college ministers don’t seem to prioritize as much as they should (and give us a couple of book suggestions in the process!) There’s even an interesting look at how we might reach that segment of our campus that’s “attending” online, and Sarah Koutz points us to the vital balance we have to strike as we prepare for the year…
And several more posts worth checking out.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on my post, and I know the rest of the authors would say the same thing! So check out the Blogathon, and learn with us!
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From today through Thursday, Guy Chmieleski is hosting his newest Campus Ministry Blogathon, with a very fitting Back-to-School theme! The posts on applicable topics come from a broad selection of college ministers and others with something for our field!
I got the chance to write a post for this year’s Blogathon – not sure when it’ll be posted, but I’ll let you know. My topic? Five ways you can build a stronger ministry between September and May!
Jump into all the great reading and discussions here: faithoncampus.com/archives/blog-a-thons/back-to-school
And be sure to notice that underneath the list of this year’s contributors, you can find all the posts from LAST year’s Back-to-School Blogathon. I had the chance to write back then on one of my favorite topics for this time of year: Making even our recruiting an act of student discipleship!
So… I’ll see you at the Blogathon! And as I see what unfolds over there, I might have the chance to write some follow-up comments and thoughts on this blog.
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One of the groups connected to our work that is worth paying attention to is Soulforce, a pro-GLBT organization that has worked hard to visit lots of Christian campuses (among other places) in the last few years. I remember discussing a Soulforce visit with at least one institutional college minister, a university ministries director at a major Christian college. If I’m remembering correctly, he described the visit as awkward – and not because of the university community’s response, but because of the visitors and their unpreparedness for actual dialogue.
While I certainly disagree with the theology of Soulforce, it is absolutely vital for us to recognize that the students this organization seeks to serve do feel as if we – those on “the other side” of this issue – have belittled, defamed, and detested them. We do not seem to have been successful, by and large, with expressing well what we actually possess.
So this organization and the many issues surrounding the GLBT (and other initials, depending on your campus) community are clearly important to our field. And I haven’t personally heard of any major efforts from Evangelical Christian college ministries on this front – let me know if you’ve heard of some.
Since the co-founder of this organization is retiring, he took the opportunity to share a detailed history of the efforts and perceived successes in the group’s twelve years. The letter seems to have been cobbled together a bit (for instance, it refers to Jerry Falwell as if he’s still alive) and seems to make some leaps in its correlations of Soulforce activity and certain outcomes. But it’s still helpful for understanding this organization from the inside… and not just their history, but their views, hurts, anger, and concerns.
You can download a copy of the letter here.
And since it connects closely to this issue, I also wanted to point you to Gabe Lyons’s recent Headline News interview. Gabe is one of the authors of unChristian, which has been widely received by college ministers throughout our country. He has a new book out – The Next Christians – which continues his discussion of how Christians can present our views and “the life that is truly life” really well in the present day. It’s a brief interview, but it might get you interested in the book OR provide a great lead-in for a campus ministry talk / discussion.
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As I occasionally do, I’ve built up a handful of college ministry-related articles from around the interwebs. So hopefully you’ll find some good Sunday (or Monday, or Tuesday) reading that helps you in your ministry!
(And if you ever come across articles you think might be interesting for others, send ‘em my way, and I’ll check ‘em out! I’d love to pass good stuff along.)
Something to talk about with your Catholic college minister friends: Part of the Pope’s visit to the U.K. last week involved overseeing the beatification of John Henry Newman, for which the Newman Centers are named. “Newman Centers” (or similarly-named groups) serve Catholic students at non-Catholic universities. Beatification means they’re working on naming him a Saint; you can find more about Cardinal Newman right here. But again, it might just be fun to chat with your local Newman Center director about!
Top 5 books on the Problem of Evil: John Stackhouse lists his faves (including both C.S. Lewis books on the topic) for Christianity Today.
An argument against “settling down”: A solid (brief) critique of many Christians’ calls for emerging adults to get married, etc. At least good thoughts for the other side of the story, whichever way you lean with your college students.
The wisdom of abstinence: I found this article by comedian Steven Crowder pretty interesting, and it does a pretty great job pointing out the wisdom (from, as far as I can tell, a secular perspective) of abstaining from sex. Might be worth passing along to students (but make sure you read it first and decide); better yet, it might just give you some new ideas for talking about an always-important topic.
KFC advertising on college girls’ rear ends: Not sure how this might be usable, but this USA Today article is – at the very least – a discussion-starter.
Greek InterVarsity and the Utes: It’s always fun when college ministries are highlighted by the campus newspaper.
Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, & a political season: Your campus may or may not be tuning into this political season, and you may or may not have decided to talk about the Jesus connections yet (I wrote about that here). But if it is a topic of importance, you should notice what two of the foremost politicos for the collegiate crowd are up to.
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If you couldn’t tell from my Tweets, Collegiate Week was a great week gathered with some 18 or 1900 people – and I’d guess 200 or more were college ministers (including spouses). I figured I’d spend a post on a few items you might find interesting from the week, including some speakers / authors worth checking out and other helpful tidbits.
excellence in the first month
First, I told some of the college ministers I was hanging out with that I’d post links to the articles on using the First Weeks well. You can find Linda Osborne’s and Brian Barela’s articles here, and mine here.
solid speakers
The “biggest” speaker of the week was David Platt, a young pastor (and former seminary prof) who has become quite well known in some circles. He’s one of the most incredible speakers-to-college-students I’ve heard, and apparently students (and others) are already reading and spreading his new book, Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream. And his messages are quite podcast-worthy indeed.
But the other platform speaker, Mike Satterfield, was also very good. Either would be worth checking out for use in your own speaking venues; you can link to Platt above or Mike’s info right here.
recommended reads
The book suggestions given by rather veteran campus-based college ministers included… The Unlikely Disciple, Seven Practices of Effective Ministry, Complete Book of Discipleship (Hull), The Trophy Kids Grow Up, Give Me a Dr. Pepper Please, Religion Saves & Nine Misconceptions, Your God is Too Small
c.s. lewis & apologetics / evangelism
As I tweeted the other day, Dr. Bob Stewart of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary presented a seminar discussing “Apologetic & Evangelistic Tips from C.S. Lewis.” It was the only student-focused seminar I attended, but it was quite amazing (and very good for leaders, too). It also proved something I’ve found to be true – seminary professors are regularly “wins” when it comes to seminar speakers.
And here’s the amazing thing: Dr. Stewart has made his PowerPoints from all FOUR of his seminars available. Find them right here (some may have yet to be uploaded).
threads
If you’re unfamiliar with the organizers of this conference, Threads Media, they really are a group that’s worth getting to know. They publish lots of “curriculum,” Bible study resources, and other materials for students and to use with students. While their focus has mostly been college students and young adults, it’s worth checking out and testing out their stuff as you look for small group materials or teaching guides!
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As the 2010-2011 school year comes closer and closer, ideas for excellence – especially in Month One – are much appreciated. So for this week’s Fridea, I wanted to link you to the two posts from this week’s College Ministry Blog-a-Thon that provided methods most directly.
Most of all, I wanted to make sure nobody missed these posts, penned by campus ministry all-stars Brian Barela (of national Campus Crusade leadership) and Linda Osborne (of national Baptist Collegiate Ministry leadership).
Descriptions immediately below, or you can go ahead and jump to Linda’s post or Brian’s post.
Linda’s post, “Making the Most of the 1st Month of the University Year,” offers 17 superb ideas centered around four key Tasks every college minister should take into consideration. As I commented there, Linda’s post offers wisdom on being great in the basics of solid college ministry in a way that few – because they lack her breadth of experience – can offer. She introduces those tasks by writing,
Collegiate Ministries have a key window of opportunity to enter into a student’s life during the first month of the year. Consider the following tasks for making the most of the first month…
Click here to read her outstanding post.
Brian’s brilliantly titled post, “4000 Ways to Maximize the First Four Weeks on Campus,” obviously deals with much the same focus. But like usual, Barela cuts to the chase with direct, practical, and unromantic observations about what will actually work. And also as he often does, his post inspired some outstanding Q&A in the comments, so be sure to check that out.
Brian begins his post by observing a problem in many college ministries:
I’ve been doing campus ministry for over seven years with Campus Crusade for Christ and I have never seen a ministry grow significantly larger than the size of the first official meeting. Yet ministries often treat the first day, week, and month the same as every other week, except with a larger amount of excitement and anticipation.
Click here to read the ways Brian suggests we engage the first weeks not only with gusto but with effectiveness.
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First off, an important announcement about activity in the College Ministry Blogosphere:
Tomorrow through Thursday, Guy Chmieleski is hosting a “Back to School Blog-a-Thon,” bringing together quite a few people to talk about Back-to-School thoughts. My post – about an important aspect we shouldn’t forget in the first weeks – will probably go up on Tuesday.
I encourage you to read the posts and participate in the discussion! You can find it here, starting Tuesday: www.faithoncampus.com.
Meanwhile, I’ve found myself deluged with some interesting / important / helpful resources for us in the world of College Ministry, so I figured it was high time for a potpourri post. Enjoy!
Audio from a College Ministry Conf: I’ll likely post more on this later, but it’s high time I linked to the audio from the recent Campus Ministry United conference. How great is it that they tape everything? How great is it that they let us have it for free?!
Tips for Incoming Students: Fuller Youth Institute posts some tips for freshmen, written from the perspective of the church sending them out. It’s a cool list.
Reaching Freshmen: The guru of To-College Transitions for Southern Baptist college ministries is Steve Masters. In this post, he discusses ways to involve freshmen in your ministry – not only once they arrive, but even right now!
International Students: In that same monthly email from the world of Baptist Collegiate Ministry, I was pointed to a post on preparing “Welcome Bags” for incoming international students. A great, practical list.
The Email List: While I’m at it, I might as well note that you can subscribe to that Baptist Collegiate Ministry mailing list at the bottom of this page. The quarterly newsletter does provide some helpful ideas and thoughts!
Methods for the Start of School: If you missed it, last Friday I posted links to several methods for the new year! Oldies but (hopefully) goodies!
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