This week, I’ve been looking back at a few of the books that have impacted my thinking when it comes to college ministry. In each case, the wisdom of these authors has required a bit of translation for our world of campus ministry; books written for senior pastors or (in today’s case) businesspeople won’t fit as neatly into our plans and programs as we might like, but they still offer much if we pay attention.

Yes, today’s offering comes from a secular marketing book by Seth Godin, Purple Cow. But when I first read this book a few years ago, I knew it had a lot to offer us in college ministry.

No, I don’t believe we should “run our ministries like businesses,” at least in the negative ways many Christians associate with that idea. But I think there’s wisdom to be found here. In this case, it’s wisdom about how we present ourselves to students and encourage students to participate (when they may have a zillion other choices, both secular and religious, every night of the week).

When my family and I were driving through France a few years ago, we were enchanted by the hundreds of storybook cows grazing on picturesque pastures right next to the highway. For dozens of kilometers, we all gazed out the window, marveling about how beautiful everything was.

Then, within twenty minutes, we started ignoring the cows. The new cows were just like the old cows, and what once was amazing was now common. Worse than common. It was boring.

Cows, after you’ve seen them for a while, are boring. They may be perfect cows, attractive cows, cows with great personalities, cows lit by beautiful light, but they’re still boring.

A Purple Cow, though. Now that would be interesting. (For a while.)

The essence of the Purple Cow is that it must be remarkable. …

Something remarkable is worth talking about. Worth noticing. [For college ministers: Worth inviting other students to!] Exceptional. New. Interesting. It’s a Purple Cow. Boring stuff is invisible. It’s a brown cow.

Remarkable marketing is the art of building things worth noticing right into your product or service. Not slapping on marketing [in college ministry, "recruiting" or "spreading the word"] as a last-minute add-on, but understanding that if your offering itself isn’t remarkable, it’s invisible.

That’s right toward the front of Purple Cow, and Godin spends the rest of this (very short) book fleshing out the idea and how to get there.

No, we college ministers don’t need to innovate just for the sake of competition. But at the same time, I’ve seen plenty of college ministries that apparently give students no reason to participate except for “It would be good for you” or “You know some people here.” Surely there’s a middle ground?

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Today I turn to the book Simple Church, a book I found phenomenally useful – even though (like Under the Unpredictable Plant that I discussed earlier this week) this one’s not actually written for college ministries and those who lead them. But it’s easily translatable for our field, as you’ll see with the passage below.

This part is near the front of a chapter on Movement – one of the aspects of college ministry I think receives far too little attention (although certainly some college ministries have grabbed hold of this really well!).

Simple church leaders have designed their simple process with movement in mind. The ministry process moves people to greater levels of commitment – with ever-increasing levels of discipleship. The simple process moves people through the process of spiritual transformation.

Congestion is gone.

Movement occurs naturally. People are not stuck in the same place. There is a plan for transformation. People are challenged to progress through the simple process. Change in the lives of people is expected.

According to our research, there is a significant relationship between the vitality of a local church and the movement of the church’s ministry process. Movement is the sequential steps in the process that causes people to move to greater areas of commitment.

Do you have a simple process that moves people? Or is your [campus ministry] full of congestion?

…If you want your process to move people, your programming must be strategic and sequential. You must also intentionally move people, offer a clear next step, and provide a class for new members.

If your brain just hit the brakes at the thought of that last suggestion, that’s understandable; remember, this is a book written for churches, not college ministers. But the other mandates – strategy, sequence, intentional movement, and clear next steps – certainly apply.

(And you know what? I’m not so sure some sort of “Introduction” to our college ministries wouldn’t add to the levels of community and identity in our ministries, even if we never actually introduce some sort of “membership.”)

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This small pile of ideas, links, and thoughts comes directly from my amazing time with the BASIC College Ministries leaders at their Propel conference this week. I wanted to give everybody those same things, as well as provide an outline of my talk – which obviously provides a whole “pile of ideas” itself!

So here you go. Hope it’s helpful.

• Simple Church. I brought up this great book several times to help college ministers think through the “path of progress” they’re providing for / expecting of their students. Though it’s written about churches, it’s easily “translatable” – and profoundly helpful for us.
• The Books of Daniel and I Peter (and probably Esther, too). These all came up in the context of how campus ministries live “under captivity” (or something like that). How do we work, serve, witness, and thrive within a campus tribe that may be not only indifferent to our message but even concerned about our methods? These books of the Bible answer this question differently than popular Christianity and even some college ministries do.
• The Dip. This came up a couple of times, especially in the context of newly forming college ministries. Are you prepared to do what it takes to establish a long-lasting and long-effective campus mission? And have you considered all the options for the scope of your ministry – including not aiming for a traditional, full-fledged college ministry? This secular (and very short) business book will help you answer those questions.
• CruPress and NavPress both came up multiple times as great places to look for tips on leading small groups (especially the former) and curriculum for small groups (especially the latter).
• Veritas Forum came up multiple times as a great example of an outside group that can be awesome for multiple ministries on a campus to rally around (and thereby unify around). I also discussed Veritas as really helpful for providing Christian forums that can still appeal to a fully secular campus.
• I actually failed (I think) to give most of the group the address for my (free!) ebook. You can find that at www.reachingthecampustribes.com.

Here’s the outline of my two seminars from the weekend. Remember, I was speaking to leaders from multiple church-based college ministries, so these seminars tilt that way. But there’s lots in there that would apply to most of us.

SEMINAR ONE: WHO WE ARE

We Are College Ministers

• we have an awesome and noble calling
• we must be learners (whether our personality tilts that way or not)
• we are missionaries to a specific tribe

We Are Missionaries

• this is difficult
• long-term and short-term strategy is vital
• we should be building toward longevity
• contextualization is fundamental

We Are Part of the Campus Tribe

• we should respect the land we’re called to
• we should love the land we’re called to
• we should connect with life there
• we should connect with and join in with what God’s already been doing there

We Are Sent By a Church

• there are some advantages to being church-based; use them!
• we should share our story and our specific role with our church; help them understand and support us!
• we should help our church own the vision and work toward a long-lasting, fruitful campus mission
• we should consider how we’re shepherding home-grown students – perhaps even first

SEMINAR TWO: (NEW?) IDEAS WORTH PONDERING

• Purpose-based Methods (every time)
• Preparing students for an excellent Transition Out (to the “real world”)
• Don’t be afraid to love your campus
• Don’t be afraid to take a step back and make sure you’re building the best possible College Student Plan
• Don’t be afraid to invent
• Be excited about what you can do
• Learn more about the Millennials (since they’re our mission field right now)
• Don’t be too student-centered (they need adult direction and wisdom)
• Prioritize teaching students to be “great in the basics”
• Get great in the basic skills of college ministry
• What you’re doing – campus ministry – is so very worth it

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I got an email yesterday reminding me that Early Registration for the annual Growing Leaders National Leadership Forum is about to come to a close. While it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to go this year, it’s another chance to remind you about this organization (and their great event).

If you’re unfamiliar with Growing Leaders, I encourage you to change that. Tim Elmore (who heads GL) has probably been one of the three most formative individuals in my own understanding of college ministry – and without a doubt the most influential in my understanding of Millennials. Much of what I’ve written here at the blog about how we interact with the Millennial Generation (like my “Jimmy Fallon and Gen Y” series) comes very directly from what I’ve learned from Tim and Growing Leaders.

Tim’s recently put out a book, Generation iY, that not only looks at this present generation but even acknowledges some of the shifts that have taken place within the generation itself.

Meanwhile, his Habitudes series might be the curricula I hear the most about for small group studies in campus ministries.

For those who bring in speakers for conferences, etc., Tim and other members of his staff are excellent and able to speak on a variety of topics – both for training staff members and for speaking to students. I know two of the arenas in which Tim has been particularly well-received are in the enormous Southern Baptist campus ministry family and in the institutional college ministries at various Christian colleges.

Tim’s also had success in secular environments (like with collegiate sports teams). He and many of his materials are pretty good for that sort of thing – for instance, teaching Leadership to groups at your campus in a way that won’t run afoul of the administration. (Habitudes even has faith-based and values-based versions!)

I got to attend the National Leadership Forum a few years ago and really, really enjoyed it. It’s fun to attend something that very much caters to us as college ministers but is also well populated by other kinds of pastors, college administrators, secular businesspeople, and more.

So it’s worth checking out the forum – for this summer or the future – and it’s definitely worth knowing Growing Leaders.

While that is quite a bummer, a silver lining is that it produces a pretty handy way to recognize the best of the best: by noticing the very few items that do get praised broadly. When something is known and loved broadly in our diverse and disconnected ministry field, it really must be remarkable. (In fact, I just told somebody recently that I can usually only endorse something if I’ve personally seen its value OR it has received acclaim from a broad array of college ministers.)

So today, I want to present two books that seem to have received that acclaim (although I’d love to hear your opinion, too). And then, a bonus: a brand-new book released by an author who has received that sort of broad acclaim before!

Funding Your Ministry

Scott Morton, a longtime staff member of The Navigators (since 1970!), published Funding Your Ministry in 1999 and revised it in 2007. (It’s been translated into Spanish, too!) It’s the product of his personal development of support-raising theology AND practice, and it’s been honed through sharing his thoughts over and over again.

If you have any involvement in raising money (for budget, for ministry, for trips, whatever), this seems to be a widely respected book on the topic!

Daws: A Man Who Trusted God

I’m not intentionally doubling up on The Navigators today, but Daws is probably the most well known biography of a college minister! This bio of Dawson Trotman, founder of The Navigators, was published by Betty Lee Skinner back in 1974… so the book itself has been impacting for Christ even longer than its subject did. Awesome.

And on a personal note, I started reading this one last night. Finally.

Make College Count: A Faithful Guide to Life and Learning

Derek Melleby received this kind of broad acclaim after co-authoring The Outrageous Idea of Academic Faithfulness with Donald Opitz. Now, he’s just released Make College Count, a book that I’m certainly interested in checking out myself. (The book has a whole web page under CPYU here.)

For all of us who are college ministers, this sounds like a potential “win” for our freshmen, for those about to enter college (which we should be striving to help happen well), and even for ourselves – to get ideas for what we teach our students.

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Meatier matter from the College Ministers Cohort and the Catalyst Conference will likely come later this week – not only by me (hopefully), but as I point to others’ learnings, too.

But this blog should also report our successes as a field. And I would honestly say I think the College Ministers Cohort at Catalyst was a helpful experience for the field of College Ministry. We can celebrate that! Plus, as God brought it all together, all kinds of great resources rose to the surface – so I’m linking those below!

(If you want to see our official program from the Cohort, you can download it here.)

by the numbers

• 120ish attended Thursday’s college ministers lunch
• 150ish attended Friday’s college ministers lunch
• 30ish stayed an extra day to attend the College Ministers Debriefing
• college ministers from about 15 different states

By the time we actually got to Catalyst, it looked like we might have that sort of response. But until about two weeks ago, I was guessing we’d have 80 or so attend. So it was thrilling to see just how many college ministers cared about coming together during an already pretty FULL conference, to meet each other, eat together, and view Catalyst through “college ministry lenses.”

by the sponsors

Another encouraging factor was the number of sponsors who made a statement that they want to support the field of College Ministry. Look at these lists:

Financial Sponsors of the Cohort

• International Mission Board (IMB Students)
• Focus on the Family (Young Adults)
• Financial Peace University
• Newchapter
• Future Marriage University

Additional Sponsors of the Cohort (via giveaways)

• IMB Students / OneLife (gave a giveaway satchel)
• Financial Peace University (gave free trials of their online collegiate curriculum)
• Baker Publishing Group (gave copies of The Outrageous Idea of Christian Faithfulness)
• NavPress (gave copies of a few different books)
• CruPress (gave decks of the Perspective Spiritual Conversation Cards)
• Threads Media (gave several different collegiate / young adult Bible studies)
• Moody Publishers (gave copies of Generation Ex-Christian)
• The Hub (gave various DVD Bible studies)
• Growing Leaders (gave various books)
• Focus Leadership Institute (gave bags)
• Hole in the Roof design company (gave water bottles and pens)
• CCO / Jubilee Conference (gave a major conference discount to attendees)

Hospitality Awesomeness came from…

• Catalyst (who from nearly the very beginning offered their support)
• Georgia Baptist Convention (who hosted our Thursday and Friday lunches)
• 12Stone Church (who hosted – and also provided! – our final lunch)

Do you see those three lists? Look how many! Look how many major organizations! It is no small thing that these groups would get involved with a gathering of college ministers – even while many of them already had booths at the larger Catalyst Conference.

You can click on the links to see these groups and the opportunities / giveaways these sponsors presented. Nothing was frivolous; each sponsor gave things that were truly appreciated and that I’d encourage you to learn about.

And if you want to help our field (and help these groups continue to be involved), please let them know you appreciate the support!

by the by

I know that the Catalyst organizers themselves noticed our little ol’ Cohort – particularly because after all was said and done, it wasn’t little after all! Our turnout was apparently larger than at least several of the other cohort-ish lunches, gatherings, etc., dotted throughout the week. And we “did it big” twice! Our Cohort attracted the attention of other Christian organizations besides Catalyst, too.

From everything I could tell, the sponsors seemed genuinely happy to have been a part of this, too. I felt their presentations to our group were spot-on, with college ministers throughout the room recognizing that these sponsor-speakers understood their needs and had something significant to offer. A couple of sponsors (MJ from Future Marriage University and Ian from NewChapter) also took the opportunity to stay for the Saturday debriefing and contributed wonderfully.

Ultimately, I hoped that this Cohort would add value to the Catalyst experience for those in our field. I know it sure added value to my time, and hopefully it did for everybody else. And as I said above, I honestly feel like these sorts of thing help – in their own way – to advance our field as a whole. Hooray!

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Here’s my note:

I do have Shockley’s book but haven’t read it. [My friend had asked me if I'd seen Campus Ministry: The Church Beyond Itself.] The two college ministry “primers” I have read recently I really can’t endorse – and when we’re talking about college ministry missiology, they’re even less helpful.

But here are some thoughts; hopefully they help or at least give you some things to check out!

The most “academic” resource I know of on college ministry is the Christian Education Journal of Spring, 2008 (vol 5, no 1), which had a “mini-theme” of College & Young Adult Ministry.

Certainly, The Blueprint by Ma received some attention and definitely applies a sort of missiology (though many college ministers doubt its true effectiveness).

Young, Restless, and Reformed does some pretty good “anthropological” work, it seems, including looking at collegiate settings (RUF and Passion are both discussed, I think).

Reach the U is the most promising primer I know for missiological discussions, because  it’s put out by Chi Alpha – which sees all their college ministers as Campus Missionaries. (It also has multiple authors; if that’s not a “must,” it’s certainly a Best Practice for college ministry “primers” because of the diversity of our field.)

More anthropological / historical discussion might be found in When God Walked on Campus and the new God on Campus. Campus Aflame, too. I think all three discuss revivals connected to college campuses. So does Revival! by Avant, specifically about the Brownwood (and beyond) revival in 1995. I own a couple of other reflections on revivals that have taken place at Asbury and the one at Wheaton that sprang out of the Brownwood (Howard Payne University) one.

UnChristian would be good for more anthropology, as would Lost and Found.

Ooh – You might check out The College “Y” by Setran for some historical research. And the well-received books Finding God at Harvard and Unlikely Disciple might provide helpful looks at individual campuses.

Also, Religion on Campus seems to be a very cool anthropological look at 4 diverse schools – they used it as a textbook at Beeson Divinity when I taught a lecture down there last year.

Decoding the Campus is Campus Crusade’s look at exegeting a campus.

Other books I’m noticing on my shelf: Souls in Transition by Smith (looks at present “emerging adults” and their spirituality), In Search of a City by Jones (discusses the early history of the International Church of Christ, including their major campus work – which turned out to be quite unhealthy), It’s All about Jesus (apparently a less-friendly-to-Evangelicals take on religion on campus), Campus Ministry by Dickey, Shaping the Spiritual Life of Students by Dunn, Blue Like Jazz (note its chapter on college ministry at Reed College), To Transform the World: Vital United Methodist Campus Ministries, Red Moon Rising, Essential Church?, Fireseeds of Spiritual Awakening, They Like Jesus but not the Church, The Outrageous Idea of Academic Faithfulness (definitely a well-respected book, but may not fit your topic), The College Chaplain by White, University of Destruction, Listening Inside Out (by Kyncl, et al. – Nazarene, written about what they’ve learned listening to 20-somethings), Taking the Cross of Christ to the Campus by Senn (an approach to college ministry from the more fundamentalist strain).

I’ve left some primers out because they don’t seem to fit the present topic, and I can’t guarantee that what I’ve left in does, either! And most of those are anthropological, clearly, but that’s because our field is. We’re not in a place to publish a lot on “theory” yet. (Although for publishers, this is one more place where the early birds could get the worms… if they’re wise.)

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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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This week, Byron released a gigantic list of books focused on ministry to young adults, by which he means the segment past high school. In other words, this is perhaps the most exhaustive annotated list available for books connected to the field of College Ministry!

Here’s how it begins, and you can click the link to see Borger’s impressive list:

Sometimes I like to share with readers some of the lists I generate for customers who inquire.  Just today I did a serious list of commentaries about 1 & 2 Timothy, a brief list about war & peace, a good list of some favorite novels for a church-based reading group, and a bunch of books for a friend who has a seeker at work who may read about a book about Christian faith. Want to see ‘em, such as they are, just give a holla.

Here is another I just finished, at 2 am tonight.  It is for a good friend who is writing a paper on how churches might reach out to young adults, and how to better understand that “missing generation.”  Since we just did that special offer on the Outsider Interviews I figured this might be good to share now.

Please keep in mind it isn’t exhaustive, and was created for a customer I know well.  There could be some others, but this pretty much is just the real list I sent out today.  Thanks for allowing me to send it to you, here, as well.

Keep reading here…

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I promised the attendees some “end notes” on the talk – areas I left out, links to various things, etc. But this should be helpful for anybody, too, both now and if you listen to the audio once it’s posted.

passages

The Scripture passages I quoted include Psalm 127:1, Proverbs 3:6, I Peter 5:2, I Peter 4:11, and I John 3:18.

backwards college ministry

I’ve been posting quite a bit on “Backwards College Ministry,” and that methodology was definitely a key part of the seminar. For more explanation of that, check out the blogs that discuss it (and just so you know, they’re listed in reverse order at that link).

my book…

…can be found (for free!) at www.reachingthecampustribes.com.

something I left out

One point I never got around to was this: One of the important things to remember as you practice determining outcomes before methods is to keep doing it each time. After awhile, it’s easy to “lose the plot,” continuing with fruitful methods from the past and forgetting to keep being purpose-first each time. Don’t forget that a method is only as good as the purposes it fulfills… so as some purposes change semester-to-semester, your methods should change (slightly or extensively), too.

exploring the axes

Meanwhile, the book that most influenced my “Exploring the Axes” brainstorming method was Free Prize Inside by Seth Godin. You might also want to check out its predecessor Purple Cow, which might even be more useful to most college ministers than FPI is. (Seth Godin, by the way, will be one of the speakers at this year’s Catalyst Conference in Atlanta in October.)

speaking of catalyst conference…

If you haven’t heard, I’m organizing a “cohort” for college ministers in the midst of this year’s Catalyst Conference. And Catalyst would certainly be one BIG way to “stretch your quiver” – it’s one of the best ways I know to gather new ideas. Plus, by adding in the College Ministers’ Cohort, we’ll have some great chances to collaborate, “ideate,” and otherwise spur each other on. (For those at the CMU Conference, Wes Woodell recently encouraged people to consider this, too!) I really encourage everybody to check it out, and let me know if you’ve got questions.

the mad libs ebay road trip

I promised everybody a link to info about my Mad Libs eBay Road Trip. So there you go – it’s definitely interesting reading.

49 decisions

I mentioned my post of “49 Decisions You’ve Already Made about Your College Ministry’s Large Group Meeting.” Very surprising stuff.

finally, a few things to remember

1. Creativity has no value in-and-of-itself – only if the creative methods are more effective at accomplishing your God-provided outcomes.
2. Limits are a help to creativity. Necessity is the mother of invention. A tempest in a teacup is more interesting than a tempest out at sea.
3. The more focused and explicit your purposes are, the more help they’ll be to your creativity.
4. Don’t forget: studying college ministries outside your normal circles are more likely to help your creativity, whether or not you adapt the specific ideas you learn.
5. Though I am indeed a big believer in starting with outcomes and then determining methods, sometimes God uses methods to help us realize purposes we should be aiming for.

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