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At the College Ministers Cohort during Catalyst, our Saturday session made use of one method I’ve seen to be extremely effective to help college ministers collaborate – even across lines of region, denomination, organization, and branch of college ministry.
(It’d be easy to skip over this, but it really is a fantastic method for any time you’ve got a bunch of college ministers together.)
At our Saturday session, we had people from several different states, from three different branches – church-based, campus-based, and institutional, and with all sorts of levels of experience. FCA was represented, as was the SBC. Christy Ridings from Belmont’s University Ministries was there, and so were some national leaders from CCO and Impact Campus Ministries. We had “lifers,” and we had recent grads who brought their very (near-)collegiate energy with them. And as expected, they all came from extremely diverse campuses – from Boise State to Penn State.
So how could all these different kinds of college ministers walk away with useful ideas – and at the same time feel like they had some things to offer the rest of us?
It just takes a whiteboard.
This method is simple enough. At the beginning of our 5-hour Saturday session, I asked everybody to help me list ideas (from Catalyst) that could connect with college ministry. What we came up with is in the picture above!
After that, the rest of the day was just working topic-by-topic. Not in order, but choosing the one that seemed like a good next topic. In many cases, the moderator (that was me) picked as seemed best, but the next topic can be crowd-determined, too.
Other settings where I’ve seen this used, the topic list was even less “structured” – we’d put whatever general topics struck our fancies. And throughout the event, we’d add to the list – in the breaks, between sessions, etc.
When a topic comes up, ideas are solicited… from everyone. So if the topic is “Books you’re reading,” anybody with something useful to say gets to add to the discussion. On one topic – perhaps “Using the first 3 weeks well – an attendee might find themselves offering a new idea they just discovered. On the next topic – perhaps “Helping students get involved in local churches” – that same attendee might find themselves furiously writing notes as they listen to the brilliance of several others.
On one topic, a teacher. On the next, a learner. No matter if you’ve been involved in college ministry for two decades or two months.
This is a method that uses the awkward diversity of our contexts and our activities to our advantage. For one thing, it’s a method that recognizes that we don’t have “Best Practices” nearly as much as we have “Good Ideas.” And if you’ll give it a try – the next time you’re around a bunch of college ministers – I bet you find it works wonders.
I’ll probably post a few additional thoughts on this soon. Stay tuned.
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I want to publicize others’ observations on the Catalyst Conference (including the College Ministers Cohort), as they’ve examined those things specifically in light of our calling! So if you know of others to add to this list, please let me know.
For now, here’s what I’ve got:
Ian Clark: a quick synopsis of the College Ministers Cohort, with a short video showing a bit of the craziness!
Chris Bean: a look at the major Catalyst theme and its intersection with campus ministry
Steve Lutz: three posts so far, rising from Catalyst themes as he looks at different to-be-managed tensions in the world of college ministry (post one, post two, post three)
And if you’ve missed any of my posts during or after Catalyst, you can find related posts in the Catalyst Cohort 2010 category.
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Something I touched on yesterday (because it came up at the Cohort) is something that has been near and dear to my heart since the yearlong road trip, after observing all kinds of college ministry activity around the country.
It’s the concept that without connecting our ministry’s emphases to spiritual truth, we create legalists.
On Saturday, we talked for awhile about social justice / compassion ministry, which is obviously something that many college ministries are now incorporating in a major way.
My comment was that if we avoid truth-teaching at this juncture, if we just treat this activity as “obviously right” or “something we do because it’s clearly good” and never point to the biblical whys and underlying spiritual ideas here, then we’re simply teaching students the same non-theistic morality they’d learn in their fraternities or the Kiwanis Club.
The same goes with anything we promote – and especially those things we hope to make “pillars” or the “DNA” of our college ministries. If we want a theme to spread throughout the ministry and its students, then we surely have to teach its biblical foundations in a ministry-wide, comprehensive way. This probably means from the stage of the Large Group Meeting, or throughout your small groups. And it probably means more than once. And it probably means somewhat repeatedly.
If we don’t, then we’re not teaching godly grounds for good works. And that produces a form of legalism, right?
I’ve hinted at this principle on occasion, but the last time I really expounded on the thought was a year and a half ago. So if you really want to wrestle with this concept, I’d encourage you to read those two posts – the first, about connecting students with the biblical whys, and the second about the dangers when we don’t.
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The theme of this year’s Catalyst Conference was “The Tension is Good.” And while certainly not every speaker aimed directly for the heart of the theme (because that would have been annoying), it was woven throughout – and capped off by some excellent practical instruction by Andy Stanley.
The crux of that Catalyst finale was the idea that not all tensions should be ultimately resolved. Some tensions are meant only to be managed, left purposely “tensioned” because they represent not good vs. evil or even good vs. best, but good vs. good. Successful ministry will mean doing what wisely needs to be done this time… while leaving “unresolved” the tensions that will continue to instruct our future plans. (I’d encourage you to get the recording if you can.)
In the final gathering of our College Ministers Cohort (an update on how that went is here), a few dozen of us looked at several Catalyst-introduced ideas through the lens of our calling as college ministers. So we often found ourselves recognizing “tensions to manage” in college ministry.
Today, I simply wanted to list the tensions I heard during our time. But what’s important not to miss – indeed, the radical idea hiding within this simple list – is that these particular tensions are not to be resolved (at least in my view). In some way or another, we are each likely to face a give-and-take, back-and-forth, on-the-one-hand-on-the-other-hand tug for as long as we minister to college students.
Of course, if you disagree – if you feel that there is a definite way to lean for any of these – I’d love to hear about it. And if you have other tensions to add, please do that, too. I’m just listing the ones we talked about that morning, but there are plenty more in the messy practice of campus ministry.
(An extra thanks to Steve Lutz, who explicitly articulated several of these during our time on Saturday.)
1. College ministry involvement AND “significant involvement” in a local church. Applies for both campus-based and church-based ministries. As I noted Saturday, we haven’t done a good job of recognizing what everybody else believes “significant involvement” means… or done much of the hard work of ecclesiology to figure out what we each think it means, either.
2. Being “on mission” AND impacting those already present.
3. Discipling students for their “now” AND discipling for their “later.” Right now, we seem to skew heavily toward the former.
4. Discipling the immature or unchurched AND discipling the churched / mature. Besides evangelistic outreaches, it’s rare to see either group addressed individually. Not that there’s a clear line, either.
5. Students’ “spiritual” / ministry life AND their classroom life. Clearly, college ministry is famous for skewing toward the former.
6. At Christian colleges: Discipling students via college ministry principles AND appreciating how Christian faculty impact them. You think there’s ministry diversity on your campus? There’s probably no setting with more “styles” or different attempts at discipleship than the Christian college campus… And yet some office often is charged with being the “point people” for this impact.
7. Cooperating with other college ministries AND getting our own ministry goals accomplished. While I hear more complaints about ministries skewing toward the latter, it’s very possible to lean too heavily the other way, too…
8. Autonomy of students AND adult / staff direction.
9. Practicing social justice / compassion ministry AND helping students understand these things biblically. If we don’t do the latter, we’re happily creating legalists.
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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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This is one of two articles I’m including in our program at this week’s College Ministers Cohort during the Catalyst Conference. It’s a revamp of a blog post from about a year ago, and it’s something great for all of us to think about!
To stay connected with the joys of Catalyst (and the Cohort) this week, tune in to the blog or – for even more – keep an eye on my Twitter feed.
The widely-recognized lack of college ministry training resources doesn’t let us off the hook when it comes to advancing our understanding of our calling. We can still learn from plenty of sources, if we choose to.
For as long as I’m a college minister, I hope I’ll always work to apply great ideas and great training to my work as a college minister. It’s not enough simply to learn great “general ministry” thoughts that are cool to blog about but don’t affect my day-to-day work.
I want to challenge all of us… to a little more one-track-mindedness. When you attend a ministry conference, consider analyzing its value for your present work. When you read a book, why not read it with college-ministry-colored glasses? When you have extra time, don’t just read “cool Christian blogs,” but look for blogs and articles and other sources that might be applied—however tangentially—to college ministry. This won’t always feel natural and certainly isn’t always easy. But it keeps each of us from being “a jack of all trades, and master of none.”
Very often
we dabble in every area in which we have an interest
rather than
especially focusing on the area that already has our investment.
And more importantly, it’s the area to which we are called.
A while back, a Campus Crusade friend described how he had learned some college ministry principles… from a church-planting conference. In that same conversation, I described a major college ministry brainstorming tool I gained from Seth Godin’s secular book, Free Prize Inside. And I’ll never forget how one church-based college minister described using the ads and articles in ESPN Magazine to find design ideas.
If you follow my blog, you know I’ve found college ministry principles in Jimmy Fallon’s show, the musical Wicked, the teaching at the Catalyst Conference and other non-college ministry conferences, secular and Christian books, and on and on.
Certainly, God has other things to teach us that apply to other parts of our lives. But if our vocation—our calling—is college ministry, it’s very possible that God wants to teach us lots more about our field. Even when He ships that wisdom in odd-looking packages.
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By now, anybody who’s coming to the College Ministers Cohort should have gotten their tickets, and I look forward to seeing you there! If you’re not going to make it to Catalyst this year, you can still join in the fun… Be watching the blog for updates on what we’re doing, what we’re learning, and ways to enjoy Catalyst from afar…
We’ve had 120 or so officially RSVP for the Cohort – and we’ve already got college ministers planning to come “standby,” too. It’s the hottest (free) ticket in town!
And for all of us (whether you’re coming or not), I want to highlight a few groups that are PROVING they care about College Ministry! Please, please, please check out their sites and what they offer – I’m excited that within the huge Catalyst Conference, they’re sponsoring our little ol’ Cohort!
OneLife from IMB Students (unveiling this week!)
They’ve got their very cool-looking site up now: www.onelifematters.com. Check it out!
IMB Students is the Premier Sponsor of the College Ministers Cohort, helping in all sorts of ways. I really, really appreciate all they’ve done – and what they do as missions mobilizers. They are BIG fans of college ministers nationwide (and I know plenty of college ministers are already big fans of them, too!).
Future Marriage University
Michael “MJ” Johnson is pursuing one big thing in our field: Helping college students prepare for marriage like they prepare for their careers! He speaks at various Christian schools and other ministries around the country on these very things, and you can learn more about his ministry at www.futuremarriageuniversity.org.
I met MJ in person recently, and he’s made it clear he wants to know our field even better so he can serve us (and our students) even more. As part of that, he’s hanging out with us at (and sponsoring!) the College Ministers Cohort!
Focus on the Family: Young Adults
As you probably know, there are a whole lot of “parts” to the ministry of Focus on the Family, and a few of those parts connect directly with college students. The Young Adults division includes Boundless, a site I was enjoying way back in college myself! But the Boundless community has grown beyond just a web site and weekly articles to include a blog, podcast, and more!
I’m really excited that Focus has decided to connect directly with college ministers by spending time with us this week… and sponsoring the Cohort!
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A couple of announcements: The first is for everybody, including those who WON’T be able to join us in Atlanta next week. The second is for those who are planning to attend the College Ministers Cohort at Catalyst!
1. Our heroes, proving (once again) they care about college ministry.
Clearly college ministry is not a celebrity cause in the American Church, so it takes a special organization to be willing to pay real money so real college ministers can have a really great event. Even for those not attending the Cohort next week, I want to make sure I let you know about our amazing sponsors.
I’ll alert you to more of these heroes in the days to come, but the first few that stepped up include:
OneLife from IMB Students
This is an exciting program for college students that the International Mission Board is unveiling at Catalyst – making their sponsorship of our Cohort all the more exciting. Since the “launch” is next week, I’ll save details for now. Stay tuned!
IMB Students is actually serving as our premier sponsor of the Cohort. They were the first entity to jump on board, and I’ve long seen their commitment to helping college students and college ministries!
Newchapter
I’ve blogged on these guys before, and once again they’re stepping up to the plate to help campus ministries. That’s what they do on a regular basis: Work to help college ministries thrive in a very unique way. How? By establishing ministry-sponsored Student Living Centers that not only allow for an incredible ministry opportunity with residents, but can also help a ministry run in a self-sustaining way. Learn more here.
Financial Peace: Foundations for Life & Money
One of Catalyst’s biggest sponsors in the last few years has been Dave Ramsey and Financial Peace University. But now that organization has gone a step further and agreed to sponsor our Cohort. Did you know they’ve released a curriculum for college students? It’s true – and you can find it right here.
FPU is one of those sorts of organizations that we need to lend their considerable talents to our field. Hooray for that bridge being built!
2. If you’re coming to the Cohort…
- Please make absolutely sure you’ve RSVP’d as “Attending” at the Event page.
- Please make absolutely sure anyone who’s coming with you has also RSVP’d.
- Watch for VERY important details in the next few days, sent via Facebook to those who have RSVP’d. There will be details you have to see, or you’ll risk not getting in on our free lunches, etc.
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If you’re already joining us, who could you invite? Send ‘em to this address: http://bit.ly/cmcohort (the Facebook Event page) or have them read this post!
And for all of us: C’mon, everybody! It’s planning time! This would be a great addition to your Fall sched!
the basics:
- THE Christian leadership conference in our country
- connecting with dozens of college ministers from all kinds of settings and with all kinds of experience (See the list of those already signed up on the Facebook Event!)
- perks! (We’re in talks with multiple orgs to get meals, resources, and other freebies!)
- top-notch training for your student leaders (if you wanna bring ‘em)
a little more detail:
Catalyst Conference is THE premier Christian leadership training event in the U.S.. Twelve thousand mostly younger leaders will join together in Atlanta October 7th & 8th. Some will come a day before for the Catalyst Labs, as well. This is a phenomenal leadership training event, so it’s perfect for you… and even for your student leaders!
Craig Groeschel. Francis Chan. Seth Godin. Tim Elmore. Jon Acuff. Seth Godin. Beth Moore. Andy Stanley. Alan Hirsch. Reggie Joiner. And only thirty-five more in the Labs and on the Main Stage.
But to add value to something already valuable, we’ve got a College Ministers’ Cohort. Really.
We’ll be gathering in the breaks during Catalyst (like for meals). It’s a chance to meet others who do what we do, from all over the country. I’ve met several of those early birds who have already signed up – and I know who several others are. These are some incredible college ministers. And we’re hoping for FREEbies (including free meals, books, resources, and more).
If that wasn’t enough, we’ll spend an additional day together on Saturday! We’ll be brainstorming together about applying what we learn from the amazing Catalyst speakers directly to college ministry. This isn’t only a chance to learn for your ministry (from great college ministry thinkers from around the country), it’s a chance to help others shape college ministry. Really. You’ll be a part of something big.
And the Cohort is FREE, the Catalyst Conference is only $219 with our group code, and you can buy an airplane ticket right now for pretty cheap. Or… road trip to Atlanta!
Sound good? Sign up as Maybe or Attending at the Cohort event page. I’ll send out the group code again this weekend!
But that’s not all! (There’s stuff for your students!)
Catalyst holds a very cool event within its conference each year called Catalyst University. It’s a chance for your students to attend the amazing leadership training of Catalyst and even an additional Saturday training with some top-notch people.
And they can earn college credit. Really.
That’s right – those ten speakers above (and another 35) could train your student leaders. Live. Students attend Catalyst with you; then, if they’re signed up for the 3-credit-hour option, they do their thing on Saturday while you’re hanging with us at the Cohort!
Sound good? More on Catalyst University right here.
So what are you waiting for? If you’re interested at all, sign up as a Maybe on the Cohort event page so we know you’re a Maybe. And if you are indeed ready to take the plunge, make sure you – and any college ministers coming with you – let us know by RSVPing!
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Come join the 120 who are considering or planning on being a part of the Casual Catalyst Conference College Ministers Cohort! But if I haven’t been able to convince you to take part… maybe college minister Ashley Williams, now a Catalyst intern, can – with one of the coolest opportunities to strengthen your college student leaders!
Catalyst University is an AMAZING opportunity that I feel goes unnoticed by many college students AND collegiate ministers. College students can earn 1, 2, or 3 credit hour through the University of Mobile, an accredited four-year Christian university – and very inexpensively, too.
This is an opportunity for your students to get leadership training from the BEST in their field. I first went to Catalyst as a college student, and it changed my life. I came away being more confident in who I was in Christ and how to best use my gifts and talents to further the Kingdom of God.
Students can transfer these credits as a Psychology credits or as a free elective.
There’s three options, too:
1 Semester Hour
Cost is $150. Students must attend the Catalyst conference on Thursday and Friday as well as complete the assignments outlined in the syllabus. The $150 covers the application fee and one official transcript fee, but does NOT include the cost of Catalyst Conference.
2 Semester Hours
Cost is $250. Students must attend the Catalyst Labs on Wednesday, Conference on Thursday and Friday, as well as complete the assignments outlined in the syllabus. The $250 covers the application fee and one official transcript fee, but does NOT include the cost of the Catalyst Labs and Conference.
3 Semester Hours (with a Saturday component – perfect if you’re planning on attending the Saturday forum as part of the College Ministers Cohort!)
The cost is $615. Students must attend the Catalyst Labs on Wednesday, Conference on Thursday and Friday, and University Workshop on Saturday, as well as complete the assignments outlined in the syllabus. This cost covers the Labs, Conference, Workshop, application fee and one official transcript fee.
So what can your students do to set this up? They’ll want to check out the site (www.catalystconference.com/university), and then send the application, tuition, and registration to Catalyst. The application deadline is Friday, September, 24.
If you have ANY questions about registering students, registering college ministers, Catalyst University, etc., please feel freedom to contact me via email at ashley.williams [at] catalystspace.com, or call my direct line at 678-225-3101. I would love to chat with you and help you out.
Remember the present student rate ($159) and present college ministers rate ($199) ends June 24th, 2010! [If you don't register through Ashley, be sure to ask her or me, Benson, for the Group Code. If you're listed as Attending or Maybe on the College Ministers Cohort Facebook event, you'll get the code every once in awhile.]
I am SO honored and appreciative of Benson for letting me take some space on his blog. I am by no means an “expert” in the field of college ministry. BUT I have a huge heart and passion for our field. -Ashley, whose blog can be found here
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