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It’s a testimony to the craziness of my recent road-tripping history that Road Trip 12 could be deemed “short,” but this recent 10-day trip was possibly the shortest of the twelve multi-state, college-exploring road trips I’ve taken since 2004.
Yet it’s a happy fact that this trip was still really, really good. It’s amazing to watch God use both planning and surprises to continue to use these road trips to enhance my understanding of the national college ministry scene and allow opportunities to encourage, teach, and otherwise push in our field.
As I look back, here are some highlights from this short-but-sweet excursion:
a surprise start
One of the really unique characteristics of Road Trip 12 was that it completely caught me by surprise. It wasn’t until Thursday the 30th that I planned to go, with a launch date only two days later. (Read the post I wrote at the time.)
two national college ministry groups
One major aspect of this trip was exploring the “national scene” of college ministries from two major church-fellowships (neither of which consider themselves “denominations”).
First I attended the National Student Conference of the National Association of Christian Campus Ministries. Not only did a get a great feel for their national work, but my time with those leaders from the minstries of the Independent Christian Churches provided one of the coolest opportunities to experience “college minister community” I’ve had. (For my intro to this national college ministry, click here.)
Then in Nashville, I got to sit down with Morgan Stephens, National Director of the college ministries of the Every Nation movement (a group of churches formerly known as Morning Star). He provided a fantastic introduction to their college ministry, which has about 50 chapters around the country.
two phenomenal mascots
If you watched my Twitter updates, you know that I got especially excited about two campus visits because of those schools’ phenomenally unique mascots.
First came the University of Evansville Purple Aces. Then came the Arkansas Tech Wonder Boys (the girls, incidentally, are known as the Golden Suns). Yes, I picked up T-shirts from both campuses.
and more highlights
The trip began with a straight 12-hour drive to Southern Indiana – after only 4 hours of sleep, and with enough rain that I had to stop twice to wait for it to slow down. Even for a pro-road-tripper, that was a memorable drive.
Getting “drafted” for an hour-and-a-half Q&A with the Christian Church guys was awesome, as was connecting with so many great people: ministers I’d met before, ministers I’d only met via Twitter, and brand-new friends.
While I loved meeting with every minister who gave of their time to connect, two particularly cool memories include connecting with the founder of Indelible Grace Music (which has impacted RUF nationally) and chatting (productively, it turned out) with Guy Chmieleski about the need for college ministry bloggers. (I blogged about Indelible Grace here, and Guy’s brand new campus ministry blog can be found here – I’ll be posting more on that soon.)
Across those 10 days I saw 8 states, drove 1960 miles, attended 5 weekend church services, interviewed 11 ministers from all three branches of college ministry (and connected with dozens more at the conference), visited 6 college campuses, and slept in 1 University of Southern Indiana dorm room and 4 motel rooms.
You can also see a detailed list of the 20-or-so explorations from Road Trip 12.
what’s next?
My next scheduled major trip is an October trip to Southern California to speak at the College Leader Conference. But who knows what other trips might pop up? October is a long way off!
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I had the neat chance yesterday to meet with Kevin Twit and Syneva Colle, staff members of the RUF chapter at Belmont University. Kevin is the 14-year director of the ministry.
But aside from the fact that all college ministries are worth getting to know, this one has a particular claim to fame. It’s the home base for Indelible Grace.
Indelible Grace Music is dedicated to pairing old hymns (and Scripture) with more contemporary music. As Kevin writes on their site,
Our hope is to help the church recover the tradition of putting old hymns to new music for each generation, and to enrich our worship with a huge view of God and His indelible grace.
Indelible Grace Music grew out of ministering to college students, primarily through Reformed University Fellowship (RUF). We saw many touched by the gospel, and gripped by the rich theology and great poetry of the hymns of the Church. As these students began to taste more of the depth of the gospel and the richness of the hymn tradition, many began to join the music of their culture with the words of our forefathers (and mothers!), and a movement was born.
(Read the whole IDM philosophy here.)
Indelible Grace’s music has been widely distributed, apparently; not only have they sold 50,000 CDs but the songs make up the official “RUF Hymnbook,” and their lyrics/music are available for free online. There’s more – including a touring band that I believe has led worship at multiple Ivy Jungle conferences.
In other words, from the efforts and talents of one ministry arose innovation that helped RUFs throughout the country – and other ministries, too.
It’s probably no surprise that this particular innovation arose from
- A school dedicated to Music and Music Business education
- A ministry situated in the middle of Nashville
- A campus minister with a Music and Music Business background
- Ministry years that just happened to include participation by the Jars of Clay guys, Sandra McCracken, and other future music notables.
But I would argue that innovative practices or resources that have nationwide impact should REGULARLY come forth from
- College ministries.
Clearly, what Indelible Grace has done is awesome, and I don’t mean to diminish that at all. But we who serve college campuses are on the frontlines of new generations, on the frontlines of culture, and in situations that (should) force radical creativity and (should) promote radical community and cooperation. It seems that we should see examples of this kind of advancement pop up here and there, time after time, from developed college ministries all over the country. Not 100 a year, obviously. But I figure we should see this kind of thing more.
Just a thought.
Written from Motel 6, Brentwood, TN
Road Trip #12 update (Day 8)
Yesterday’s T-shirt: Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania
All the explorations of this trip (so far) can be seen here.
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All of college ministry benefits as we get to know each other better!
So after a great conference with 300 students and leaders from the NACCM college ministries, it’s high time I introduce you to this major, national, Evangelical group of college ministries. There’s actually a good chance there’s an associated ministry on your campus and a great chance there are a few in your state; with well over 100 campus-based ministries around the U.S., they’re roughly as widespread (or even moreso) than RUF.
(As I noted yesterday, the NACCM is actually changing its name. The new name appears to be “Association of Collegiate Ministries.” The national name really matters most only to members, since each local ministry has its own name.)
One of the reasons it took me a while to get familiar with NACCM ministries is that their local names vary quite widely. But I think I’m getting a handle on it! Here are the fruits of my labor in that regard! (Of course, if you’re “in the know,” please note any additions or corrections to this material in the comments!)
mostly campus-based ministries (but not parachurch)
Most of the NACCM college ministries are campus-based ministries, generally supported by Independent Christian Churches and/or their members. So these ministries aren’t fully “parachurch” but function much like various denominational campus-based ministries (Baptist Collegiate Ministries, RUF, Chi Alpha, etc.).
(As you may remember from my post last week, the Christian Churches do not consider themselves a denomination since their local churches are fully autonomous. “Fellowship of churches” is the kind of language I tend to use.)
The NACCM does include church-based and Christian-college ministries, as well, and those connections could increase in years to come.
If you’re unfamiliar with the Independent Christian Churches altogether, you can start here. They are part of the Restoration Movement which historically includes Disciples of Christ and Churches of Christ. The most famous U.S. Christian Churches include Seacoast Church, Community Christian Church, and Southeast Christian Church.
on your campus? look for “Christian,” “Fellowship,” and/or “House” – maybe
As I noted above, the NACCM ministries have a wide assortment of names, so they face the same branding issues that I discussed in regards to the Baptist Collegiate Ministries. In the case of NACCM ministries, their most common names appear to be “Christian Student Fellowship,” “Campus Christian Fellowship,” “Christian Campus House,” or some similar names with the words simply switched around! “His House” shows up throughout Michigan, and there are plenty of other names. You can see a list of NACCM ministries – by state – here.
otherwise…
Some other things I’ve learned:
- Like many campus-based ministries, NACCM ministries often draw and relate to students from a wide range of denominations and other Evangelical fellowships.
- Their “flagship” ministries appear to include Purdue Christian Campus House, Georgia Tech’s Christian Campus Fellowship, and Eastern Illinois’s Christian Campus House. (Are there others?)
- Like most college ministries, these ministries vary widely in size, history, leadership, etc. There are places it’s “the big ministry,” places it’s small and/or struggling, and others where it’s somewhere in-between. Reportedly Purdue’s and Georgia Tech’s ministries are quite huge.
Two particularly attractive distinctives that I think I’ve picked up:
- The NACCM leaders seem fairly well connected to each other, which I believe is a definite positive for the ministries within any movement
- More than I’ve heard from many other ministries, the NACCM guys seem to have a penchant for planting campus ministries out of established ministries. While it doesn’t happen nearly everywhere, it’s exciting to find that some NACCM efforts have taken it upon themselves to help form ministries on other campuses.
And lastly, NACCMers can be really hospitable to outsiders. That’s a fact I can personally attest to.
For more on the NACCM ministries “from the horse’s mouth,” click here.
Road Trip #12 update (Day 6)
Yesterday’s T-shirt: the Warhawk tribe of University of Louisiana Monroe
New campus: University of Evansville (home of the Purple Aces! awesome!)
Mileage so far: 759
Headed today to the Nashville / Murfreesboro, TN area for at least a couple of days. Be sure to watch my Twitter feed, watch my Facebook status, or join Facebook group to stay on top of the itinerary!
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I have, without a doubt, had a phenomenal time this week at the National Student Conference of the NACCM (who, incidentally, are changing their national name, but I’ll wait and let them fill everybody in on that). They have welcomed me, taught me, and even let me share what I’ve learned. (It’s so encouraging to know that these last two years really have produced something that can help my fellow college ministers.)
Before the conference ends this morning, I figured it might be a good time to make a plea for you to consider prioritizing college minister conferences for your own development as a college minister. I don’t simply mean student conferences, where your students are impacted and you’re along for the ride. I mean conferences – whether students also attend or not – that have a strong aspect of college minister connection and training.
I think I’ve now attended over twenty such conferences in a span of only 9 years. So if anybody was gonna be sick of them… But I can not think of a better way to be immersed – explicitly and implicitly – into college ministry excellence. So I’ll keep right on attending.
Why do they help in a way perhaps nothing else can?
Explicitly: Conference attendees have the option of picking relevant breakout sessions, chatting one-on-one with fellow college ministers, and hearing from speakers chosen for their know-how in our profession. Even organic opportunities may arise throughout a conference, when like-minded ministers gather in the hallways or at Denny’s and trade know-how. Wisdom at many of these conferences comes hard and fast.
This is the obvious (explicit) opportunity presented by conferences, and that alone is reason to attend.
Implicitly: But college ministry conferences provide a sneakier sort of training, too – an implicit preparation that might even “make you a college minister” in a more fundamental sense than all that explicit training does. Because conferences surround us with “collegeministryness,” so a sort of osmosis occurs in which we come to understand college ministry far better than reading it in a book or trading thoughts in emails.
It’s around so many others that questions are answered that we didn’t even know to ask. We find out – even indirectly – that there might be dozens of scenarios quite unlike our own, college ministers who view things or run things quite differently, or topics and trends that weren’t even on our radar. And something particularly special happens as we breathe the same air as college ministry lifers and other experts, whose experience has taught them in ways only experience can… and yet, while that remains true, some portion somehow rubs off on us just the same.
If you’ve never attended a college ministers’ conference, I urge you to find one. Inside your denomination/group/circles/region or with another group entirely. Organized for members of your “branch” (campus-based, church-based, Christian-college) or for a different branch altogether. I promise, if you go in with the right mindset, you can learn from others – any others – in our field.
(And those who organize, plan, lead, teach at, and support these conferences… thank you.)
Written from University of Southern Indiana
Road Trip #12 update (Day 5)
yesterday’s T-shirt: the Bulldog tribe of Gonzaga
I think today’s going to be a catch-up day, then we’ll see what’s next. Please keep praying for that, and I’ll keep you posted!
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I got a pretty common question the other night during the Q&A here at the National Student Conference: “What kinds of campus ministry creativity have you seen?” As a result, we got to discuss one interesting way to generate creativity in our local ministries: occasionally aiming for less-common purposes.
Sadly, I have seen far less creativity within college ministry around the U.S. than I would hope to see. (I discuss that issue in Chapter 4 of RTCT.) But the creative methods I have seen often result from trying to achieve purposes that aren’t part of the “traditional,” everyday college ministry aims. For example, ministry activities with stated purposes of…
- Helping the university itself achieve its own goals,
- Creating dialog between non-Christians and Christians,
- Discipling students toward really specific attributes (like accepting the adventures God throws their way),
- Presenting a counter-cultural aspect of Christianity to the campus,
- Teaching Christian students something they wouldn’t normally be open to hearing,
- Reaching a largely unreached segment of campus,
- or anything else we don’t see regularly in college ministry
…might result in some pretty creative methods. Why? Because unlike our normal (but clearly valuable) purposes – providing community, facilitating worship opportunities, certain evangelism and discipleship aims, etc. – there aren’t widely known “templates” for these kinds of unique purposes (yet).
So in the vacuum created by lacking common methods for achieving our purposes, ministers are forced to create from scratch. (Just make sure you share the results with the rest of us!)
I don’t intend to advocate “creativity” as an end in itself. While there are other ways to encourage creativity – and plenty of times where we don’t need to be “innovative” at all – it’s helpful to understand that unique purposes are a simple catalyst for unique practices. So if you do desire to be more creative, don’t make creativity your aim – but ask yourself if you’ve been open to unique (and even very specific) purposes God might have for your next ministry activity.
Written from University of Southern Indiana
Road Trip #12 update (Day 4)
yesterday’s T-shirt: the Buckeye tribe of The Ohio State University
Still at the NSC, which will end Wednesday morning. Then… trying to figure out what’s next. Please pray for that!
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I’m having an excellent time at the NACCM’s National Student Conference, and I’ll write more specifics in the days to come. A superb Q&A with a few dozen campus ministers last night, followed by a great late night Denny’s run, has left me sleep-deficient. So the big updates will have to wait!
But there was one moment yesterday that’s certainly worth mentioning all by itself.
One of the breakout sessions I attended was led by Jim Musser, a college ministry “lifer” who served for 21 years at KU before serving the last 5 or so as director of Appalachian State’s Campus Christian Fellowship. He told us all about their leadership training program for students – a solid session, and not unlike others that might occur at similar conferences.
At the end, he offered to email us the full run-down of their program. But, he added a request: once we got it, he said, he’d love for us to send any thoughts or suggestions we had on how they could improve it.
Can you imagine? This “Vessel Group” program is a cornerstone of their ministry, something they’ve been tinkering with for a few years, borne out of two-and-a-half decades of college ministry expertise – and he wants our suggestions?
That little comment – very sincere but easy to miss – perhaps surprisingly echoes a sentiment I have heard repeatedly from college ministry “lifers” across the Christian spectrum. In fact, the minute he said it, I was reminded of how many times I’ve heard other lifers say very similar things. For one thing, I have been amazed – and a little embarrassed – by how many times similar college ministers I’ve been interviewing have asked about what I’ve learned in my travels.
What I’VE learned? These people have been doing this for decades… but they’re still interested in what this young road-tripper… or a classroom of seminar attendees… or the rookie college minister… or the students themselves can offer. They’re LEARNERS, even though they, of all people, have the right to be TEACHERS.
And in this, they put many of us to shame.
I hope we’ll pay attention to these words from these wise people. Let us who are still early in our college ministry voyage be learners now, and let us still be learners then.
My guess is that by choosing the former, we’ll be wise enough later on to keep on choosing.
Written from University of Southern Indiana, Newman dorm room 316
Road Trip #12 update (Day 3)
yesterday’s T-shirt: the Antelope tribe of Grand Canyon University
We ended up holding the Q&A last night, and it was superb, as I said above. Thanks for your prayers. Two days left, and these guys and gals have been incredible hosts – remember, I’m just an attendee (not a speaker or anything), and an “outsider” at that. But they’ve treated me like family.
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So… it looks like my next multi-state collegiate road trip is coming a little sooner than I expected. Tomorrow, in fact. (And if you want the chance to help “choose my own adventure,” keep reading.)
Surprise!
There are multiple reasons I didn’t see this one coming. But as of last night, I decided to attend the annual conference of the National Association of Christian Campus Ministries. Held at the University of Southern Indiana in Evansville, the National Student Conference lasts from Saturday afternoon through Wednesday morning.
I can’t wait! These NACCM guys and gals have been über-friendly to me during my various explorations of the last two years (and most recently, by letting me sign up for the conference two days before it starts!). I’ve appreciated the chance to learn from them, as well as opportunities to share what I’ve learned.
If you’ve never heard of NACCM, you’re certainly not alone; I look forward to introducing them to you (as they’ve been introduced to me over the last couple of years). And this is a group you should get to know if you’re interested in what God’s doing in college ministry around the country; among other things, they reportedly have enormous ministries on certain campuses, like the Purdue Christian Campus House and Georgia Tech’s Christian Campus Fellowship.
Here’s the particularly unique aspect of this trip: Right now, my only “agenda item” is to go to this conference. So I may end up heading right back, or I may end up taking the chance to explore other campuses, college ministries, churches, etc., whether they’re on my direct route or lead to a new route altogether! Other Indiana adventures? Kentucky? Tennessee? Missouri? Arkansas? Elsewhere?
A trip to IN is smack in the middle of a lot of good country, and I look forward to seeing what happens.
As always, I’m open to what God wants to do. But usually I have things a little more planned before heading out… like I said, this one sneaked up on me. So during the crazy all-day drive Saturday, I’ll be praying, thinking, planning – and I’ll keep right on doing that in the days (and weeks?) until I get back home.
So could this be a 5-day trip? Sure. Could it take two weeks? Sure. Got any ideas? Awesome.
I’m open as always to suggestions for informal ministry visits, as I continue to explore what God’s doing! So fill me in if there’s something I should check out.
But beyond that, if any college ministries or churches are interested in paying for a more in-depth “consultation” (either now or later on), let me know. I’ve had some ministries ask about this, and I’m pondering that as a possibility for supporting my efforts to serve college ministry and college ministers!
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