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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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One of the best comments I heard peppered throughout my campus ministry-exploring travels was a recognition that we must consider students’ time and schedules. I was encouraged to hear that at least a few college ministers place this as a priority, and in fact it helped me realize that it must be.
Yes, students should be pushed to recognize that ministry to others, involvement in community, and other Christian pursuits should be a major part of their collegiate experience. Many of them don’t steward their time accordingly, or sacrifice in this area like they should.
But we are shepherds of these students, and we have to be willing to see both sides of this concern. I think it’s easy for us to correct their errors in underspending their time for ministry-oriented activities… while not taking responsibility not to ask too much of them.
Oftentimes the activities we expect of students – or even simply the events we offer them – make it far too easy for them to fall into a trap of spending too much of their time within our ministries… and too little time either in spiritual pursuits outside our college ministry OR on all the other equally spiritual pursuits of education, relationships, family, and any other callings God has placed on their lives.
For campus-based college ministries and institutional college ministries at Christian colleges, this includes not so filling students’ calendars that they find it all too easy to ignore church involvement.
So this has to be a priority, and it’s certainly a part of Hospitality: purposely ordering our college ministries to keep from overburdening students’ schedules.
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It’s probably right and good for most of us to rise to the occasion of a new semester, rallying students with vigor and reminding them why they’re a part of our group. But it’s also a shame if man-made timelines (like the end of a semester and beginning of a new one) cause students to move too quickly past everything God wanted to teach them in Fall 2011.
So the Fridea is along those lines: Remind students of what God did and what He showed them last semester (or quarter).
Whether you push students to ponder this on their own OR actually recap the teaching and other impact of Fall 2011 (or, preferably, BOTH), this is a good chance to add continuity within the year… and to “give God space” to finish the good things He began only a few months ago.
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Somehow this Fridea from last week never got posted – sorry about that! So enjoy the extra Fridea this week…
I’ve been writing about Hospitality in College Ministry, and today’s Fridea certainly ties in (in a way).
Here’s a weird question: When’s the last time you talked to your students about sleep?
Sleep can be one of their biggest idols, or it can be one of their biggest neglects. And when they get out of college, they may keep those same patterns – or some of the idolizers may start neglecting sleep, while others learn to idolize it. Learning how to manage sleep well – and enjoy it, too, and use it as part of the REST God commands – will all be a big part of living faithfully before the Lord.
Sleep is a third (or maybe a fourth) of our students’ days (and their years). So I’d imagine this area is crucial to their success.
So, again, when’s the last time you referenced sleep in a message? Taught about it? Pointed students to the way doing “all to the glory of God” applies to sleep? Taught them neither to idolize sleep nor to idolize everything else in a way that keeps them from it?
So that’s this week’s Fridea: Let sleep be one of the areas of collegiate life that you address. Whether that comes through an entire message or just as an application point every once in awhile, offering your students some wisdom for their Zs sounds like pretty great Hospitality to me.
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I don’t know what your plans are for teaching and other discipleship activities this semester, but I wanted to encourage you with a principle that college ministers need to remember (but we’re always going to be tempted to forget):
Some of the best things we can offer today’s students are the things we offered yesterday’s students.
Surprised?
I know it might seem more normal to encourage us not to take the easy, lazy route of relying on past efforts for present students. And in some cases, that really is the lazy route. Innovation is important. Constant tweaking of our ministries for better impact is important. Keeping current with our students and their needs is important.
But the point of today’s principle is to remind us that there are some “tried and true” methods – whether it’s teaching topics, discipleship tools, small group materials, or even conferences – that we personally may be worn out on… but that this year’s students haven’t benefited from yet.
The nature of college ministry is in some sense cyclical. If we’re focused on always trying to be “fresh” and “new” simply because we don’t want to repeat ourselves, we might be discounting some of the very methods God wants to use. Just because you’ve personally been to Passion conferences a zillion times or taught freshmen how to have a Quiet Time each year for the past ten doesn’t mean that the students in front of you won’t be just as impacted.
Don’t grow weary with the best stuff you teach or the best stuff you do. This year’s students might need the exact same things!
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Before Thanksgiving Break, I wrote plenty about the need to prepare our students for the Break. And, whether we had the chance to do that or not, I encouraged us to work strategically to ready collegians for the long Christmas Break.
But there’s another important step a friend helped me realize last night: Debriefing.
What if this week’s small groups or Large Group Meeting was dedicated to talking through the good, the bad, and the ugly of your students’ Thanksgiving Breaks? Or what if you offered the opportunity at a special lunch or online forum? If you can’t take those steps, what if you at least encouraged students to talk to you, other adults, or student leaders about what they faced at home?
Some of your students feel like a semester’s worth of spiritual growth was unraveled in just a few days, and they’re wondering what that means or how in the world they’re going to handle Christmas. Some feel a tinge of homesickness now that they’ve returned – maybe for the first time this semester. Others were reminded – deeply – of all the reasons they were so glad to leave home for college. Some feel like they missed some opportunities to impact their friends or family.
Others had really neat times at home – and their stories would be great for other students to hear. (And some made mistakes that they can help others not repeat.)
There are all sorts of reasons why a post-break Debrief makes enormous sense. Yes, if you can’t get that together this week, then I’d definitely encourage starting that tradition in January. But as my friend pointed out, debriefing Thanksgiving is one more GREAT way to prepare students for the Christmas Break that’s coming soon.
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There’s a church in town known for teaching its people what it calls “Conflict Resolution”; in fact, it’s had the opportunity to teach those principles elsewhere around the world. As I was thinking about that this morning, I realized how important it is for us college ministers to help our students get really good at this, too.
I don’t remember ever hearing how to handle things when a relationship went sour – and now that I’m well out of college, I recognize there have been times where I could have used the training.
How well do your students “fight”? Have conflicts arisen within your ministry, and then been resolved well?
And how well have students worked through past conflicts – like with parents or siblings (who they’ll probably see this week and may spend a whole MONTH with over Christmas)?
This is an area of training that college students likely need NOW – and will certainly need in their decade to come. How much different might their relationships be when they’re thirty years old… if they’ve learned “Conflict Resolution” when they’re twenty? And how much better might their spring semester be if they handle those things well over Winter Break?
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Yesterday, I posted many of the reasons Thanksgiving Break could be really important to prepare students for. And many of those reasons apply to Christmas Break, too. These two experiences are two of your students upcoming “hinge moments.”
So today, I just wanted to brainstorm “out loud” about ways you might teach, disciple, and otherwise prepare students for these times. Do what fits your purposes best, but I hope you’ll at least consider preparing students for the holiday Breaks.
Teaching / training areas
- Evangelism (with a special emphasis on family members and “old friends”)
- Honoring your parents
- Spiritual Disciplines
- Fighting Temptations (especially those brought on by being “back home”)
- Rest
- Decision-making (since, as noted yesterday, these are excellent times to ponder the semester / summer ahead)
Methods
- Message(s): Of course, you can always teach such things in a Large Group Meeting message or short series.
- Small groups: Use your present small group structure to talk through yesterday’s issues and/or the topics above
- Training devotionals via email or blog: In the week(s) leading up to either Break, what if you hit some of the above areas in a written format?
- Ongoing devotionals during the Breaks: Likewise, ongoing contact with students (especially over Christmas Break) could be phenomenal. Students could even contribute both teaching and testimonies of how God is using them during their Breaks.
- Booklet: Instead of (or along with) an ongoing devotional, you could produce a “Quiet Time Guide” or other resource students could take home with them.
- Establishing in-break Community: Small groups shouldn’t end at the threshold of Christmas break. Either your present groups or only-for-the-Break groups should be (remotely) providing accountability, encouragement, etc., for students while they’re away from school.
- Online Community: While less “organic” attempts at community may be necessary for students to actually use them mid-break, supplementing on Facebook, a blog, or an email list could be great.
- Personal connections: You, your staff, and your student leaders could certainly reach out to students personally during the breaks. A call on the Friday after Thanksgiving or periodic emails during Winter Break, for instance, could be more important and timely than you realize…
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There’s a difference between “running a program” and shepherding people – in campus ministry and any other form of ministry. And sometimes we can assess which one we’re leaning toward by whether we recognize the seasons and unique moments in the lives of those we serve.
So have you considered preparing students for (or otherwise encountering) the Thanksgiving break?
Don’t think this is a big deal? Certainly, you know your context and students better than I do. But here are thoughts I had about what Thanksgiving could mean for your students and your ministry.
- It may be the first more-than-a-weekend your freshman have been around their families.
- It’s a more concentrated time with family than many students have had this semester.
- Those few days can be used for lots of things: reading, rest, a special spiritual Sabbath or sabbatical, diligently attending to projects or other homework, etc.
- It’s a good time for praying through decisions: Like how God would have them use next summer, student leadership opportunities for next semester, what (and how many) classes they should take in the Spring, and what other opportunities might be worth adding (or dropping!).
- Immediate and/or extended families may provide a chance to share Christ to non-Christians.
- Some should consider staying local during Thanksgiving – have they prayed that through?
- It’s often a huge time to impact International Students (and anybody else who happens to stay in town).
- It gives students a “trial run” for using the Christmas Break well.
- Any spiritual disciplines developed over the semester will now face a real test – with the varied schedules, lack of community, and presence of families and other distractions.
Oh – and any preparation you do now will like apply to the upcoming (and much longer) Christmas Break, as well!
I could keep brainstorming, and so could you. In any case, it seems like Thanksgiving might be worth preparing students for – ideas on that to come.
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I shared the other day about having the chance to teach some students last weekend about seeing themselves as true “missionaries to their own campuses.” But how we got there in the context of this particular retreat is kind of interesting.
The focus of the weekend wasn’t simply encouraging these guys and gals to impact others. Instead, I started with a focus on students’ own walks with Jesus (in the first couple of messages). Then, I turned the corner in the final message, looking at how they might minister on their campuses. We called the overall theme, “Satisfied and Sent.”
The interesting thing? I used the same entire passage for each side of that theme! We camped out the whole weekend in Isaiah 55 – working through the entire chapter in the first two messages, then walking back through the entire passage once more in the final session.
If you check out that passage, you might notice how it could fit both the “finding satisfaction in the Lord” and “helping others find satisfaction in the Lord” topics. All I really did was have students – who (hopefully) had been impacted by Isaiah 55 in the first 24 hours – put on their “ministry glasses” when we viewed it again.
Suddenly, the great invitation of verses 1 and 2 became an invitation they can offer others.
The revelation of a God who can raise up David as a “witness,” “leader,” and “commander” became personally encouraging for those hoping He’d lift them up to impact, too.
The vital idea that God has heavens-higher ways and thoughts became instructive not simply for personal walks – but through the lens of a ministry calling, it helped them realize God may call us to places and methods that don’t “fit” our personalities or our plans.
And with ministry glasses on, the revelation of a God whose word (in Isaiah 55, it means his promises, commands, etc.) won’t return void reminded them that obedience to God’s sending command is guaranteed to bear the fruit He intends.
By exploring Isaiah 55′s specific applications for impacting others – after first examining the applications for personal spiritual journeys – students had the chance to do what we college ministers do all the time. If you want to raise up your students to serve as a true type of college minister now, then helping them read the Bible through the lens of that calling can be a great start!
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