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Sorry to miss a couple of blogs this week – it’s been a bit of a busy one (to say the least).
What if you could increase your time discipling students by a month this school year?
I’ve been pondering methods for Thanksgiving Break and – looking beyond that – Christmas Break. How do we meet students where they are, with these breaks (and especially the latter) potentially mattering as much as they could?
In the last blog, I mentioned (among several possible methods) an email (or printed) daily devotional. Have you ever done this for your campus ministry?
I’ve seen this done, and I’ve done this. It might occur most often on mission trips, when college ministers prepare a series of devos for students to read through the week. The best example from my own ministry was a 40-day devotional walking through Hebrews 11; once it was typed up, I was able to use it with students a couple of times.
This can be an amazing avenue for “proxy discipleship” during the Christmas break. Even if it’s something simple like everybody in your ministry reading through the same Scripture passage each day, the community-building opportunity is clear. (Especially if they can comment about what they’re reading on Facebook or on a blog.) But what’s more, you’re helping students abide in Christ during the break… and, if you wish, you’re able to address specific topics that may come up in their lives in that specific month. (I mentioned those topics last time.)
If you choose to do this, there’s definitely still time to put it together – and if it’s an email or blog version, it doesn’t have to be completed before the Break starts, anyway!
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I first posted this Fridea around this time last summer, but it’s something that could be really profound for your college ministry – and it’s even something that might be worth making into an annual tradition.
A while back, I discussed fasting as a great discipline to introduce to college students. And while there are plenty of ways to make this “vintage” practice part of your college ministry, here’s one of the bigger ways:
Call a college ministry-wide fast in preparation for the upcoming school year.
I recognize this is a bit tricky most of your students are away for the summer. But Facebook Events or phone calls can work wonders! And it’s a pretty neat way to participate in spiritual community together, even while separated by thousands of miles.
(If you’ve got some students local this summer who are going elsewhere in the fall, this can still be a personal fast as they prepare for their own next year.)
The first exposure to fasting I remember was in the youth group, where our youth ministers held an annual 40-day fast before Youth Camp. Not nearly all of us – and very few (if any) of the students – chose to fast from food. But many of us fasted from something for those 40 days.
I remember that first time we did it – and I remember how God prepared me for what He wanted to do. I entered Camp with a strong sense of expectancy AND saw God move in some really exciting ways that week.
Those are three of the potential benefits of a “anticipatory fast”
- opening ourselves to God’s preparation
- entering a new season or event with expectancy
- and then – as God sees fit – watching Him respond in cool ways to the fervency of His people
If it fits your group right now and fits your purposes, I’d encourage you to consider calling your students to a fast! It could prepare everybody for an astounding fall – or at the very least, help everybody start the school year in a very special – and anticipatory – way.
I listed a few resources for learnin’ about fasting on that earlier post. I’d love to hear about other ideas / resources, too!
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I’ve edited this (hopefully that means I’m a better writer than I was three years ago), but my weekly “College Ministry Frideas” started with this fun one… and it’s one I’ve personally done. And it’s one of the more surprising ways you can love on students!
Here’s a bouncy idea for loving on college students who are away for the summer!
Did you know that you can mail a lot more than just boxes through the Post Office? It’s true!
Hopefully, you’re already planning to send your “away students” something while they’re spending the summer at home, serving on mission trips, diving into summer projects, or serving at camps. And they wouldn’t just be excited to hear from you, but also from any friends who are still “local” for the summer, too.
So holding a “care package construction day” or “postcard writing day” within your summer ministry could go a long way toward encouraging and impacting students who don’t get to see your faces on a regular basis.
BUT, why not step up your game even more? You can send some BIG love, thanks to the US Postal Service.
Ingredients (which can be located at any Super Wal-Mart):
- Several dark-colored Sharpie markers (regular-sized or extra-thick)
- One humongous, light-colored bouncy ball. Look for the ones about three feet in diameter. If you can’t find ‘em at Wal-Mart, they’re bound to be somewhere. Maybe even order several cheap online.
Here’s the deal: You’re going to have local students (and others!) write notes all over the ball. Then, the ball will be sent as is to the student – no box.
Like I said, I’ve done this before… In fact, one student loved this so much she made a point of saving the ball all summer, including taking the ball as her airplane carry-on, on her lap, all the way home. (Did you know big, bouncy balls deflate when they take an airplane ride?)
Just think about students’ reaction on the receiving end! You think their camp buddies or mission trip buddies won’t be jealous?
Steps to take:
- Before writing notes, draw a large (12-inch by 6-inch) box on the ball.
- In one half of the box you’ve drawn, write the NAME and SUMMER MAILING ADDRESS of the recipient of the “package.” DO NOT fill the entire space, because you’ll need the room for a postage label (these can be big labels sometimes).
- Then, get notes the easy way! Just take the ball(s) to your weekly meeting (assuming you have one during the summer) or to church. (People will notice if you’re carrying a big ball around at church, so that helps.)
- With a little extra leg-work, you can also get some really unexpected notes for your ball. The student’s parents (if they’re local) will be glad to add a note. So will church leaders at their church. But think big here – what about a professor they love? The school’s president? The mayor? A local celeb? Plenty of people would be happy to write a quick note of support – or even a signature – for a college student doing volunteer work over the summer.
Finally, it’s time to send your creation(s).
As far as I know, it’s still very legal to send just about anything through the mail (so if you’d rather send a banana or a pillow, feel free!). However, you probably want to find a friendly and experienced postal employee to help. They don’t get these requests every day, and you want somebody who realizes it’s legal – without getting mad that you’re trying to send a big ball in the mail…
WORST CASE SCENARIO: If your local USPS people absolutely refuse, you can always just put your item in a box. That’s certainly less fun on the receiving end, but it’s still pretty great. Or, if you know your USPS staff won’t cooperate with your ball-sending endeavor, you could just let everybody sign a big box in the first place.
As always, this “Fridea” can be useful as-is, or it may even be more useful for springboarding you to your own creative endeavor! (If you’ve got a similar idea, let us all know in the comments!)
Of course, you always want to make sure whatever you send really is legal. No “Animal Fighting Accessories,” for instance. Here’s the official USPS list of “Other Restricted and Nonmailable Matter.” It’s both informative and rather entertaining at points.
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I’m slightly uncomfortable with College Ministry’s stance toward the summer months. While individual ministries vary in summertime activities, the field of College Ministry as a whole seems to shrug off summer as either expendable, tailor-made for support-raising, or primarily for “special events” like weeks-long projects or mission trips.
Like I said, I’m only slightly uncomfortable. I understand all the reasons this happens, and I don’t have some sort of broad edict on how we need to do it better. But I can ask questions, so that’s what I’ll do for the rest of this post.
This is key: These questions are for you to ask yourself (and maybe even God) about your ministry. But many of them won’t apply at all to your ministry, and I completely understand that. Only if the shoe fits should you wear it! And there are a variety of “shoes” in the list below.
- Are our students coming out of summer closer to God than they were in May?
- Do we treat students who are called to stay home / stay local during the summer with the same honor as students who do missions, work at a camp, or work on special ministry projects?
- Do we share any responsibility for shepherding our students when they’re not in town with us?
- For the summer activities we do, are we giving local students the “B Team” when it comes to staffing, planning, purposefulness, or activities? Should we be?
- Are we ministering in light of the fact that college students often have more time to invest in spiritual activities in the summer?
- Are we fully taking advantage of the other advantages of the summer months (perhaps group size, campus accessibility, student boredom, chances to partner with other ministries, and more)?
- For campus-based college ministries: Should we be solely counting on home churches to shepherd our students (students they may not have seen for 9 months)?
- What specific purposes have we already thought through, prayed through, and written down for this summer? Did we spend as much energy and focus on planning for the summer as we did for the spring?
- Are we basing our local summer work on how many students are around? If there were 100 more students, would we be more purposeful? How should purposefulness, energy, etc., be affected by ministry size?
- Do our summer ministry activities accord with our recognition that the college years are truly a “hinge” moment in students’ lives? Are we okay with 1/4 or more of that hinge remaining largely “unshepherded”?
Again – I’m not writing assuming that all these apply to your campus ministry! (In fact, I know that some ministries have their strongest work in the summer, and some might need to ask these Qs about the school year!) But I wanted to ask questions that would challenge us to rethink our approaches and make sure we’re fulfilling our ministry in a year-round way.
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