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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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Like yesterday’s post about how Christ impacts students’ Christmas lists, this post is a favorite from last year around this time. I know at least one college ministry that printed this out to share with their students – I encourage you to consider doing the same!
What if, this year, you issued students a Home-Bound Challenge. (This particular name has multiple layers of meaning, but you can call it whatever you want, of course.)
The idea is to challenge your students with specific spiritual activities for the Winter Break. Students face the culture-shock of being home AND the busyness of the Christmas season… so giving them an actual “goal list” or “Christmas Break Bucket List” could really help them accomplish some things.
You might even consider a night just to share testimonies of how students saw God move over the Winter Break – including through the Home-Bound Challenge.
You can include whatever goals God leads you to, but here are some that are ready for cut-and-paste:
- Discuss how you’ve grown spiritually this semester with at least one family member.
- Take one whole day alone with Jesus.
- Hang out with one person from high school that you need to reconnect with.
- Read one book of the Bible you’ve never read before.
- Plug in fully to your church – volunteering, attending, going to the college ministry – even if it’s not as “cool” as your church at college.
- Tell your parents how much you appreciate them.
- Pray regularly that God would make you the kind of student that glorifies Him best.
- Pray through your course schedule for next semester and discern whether God would have you change anything.
- Read one Christian book. (Ask your college minister if you need ideas!)
- Take at least three days in a row to fully rest.
- Contact me (your college minister) at least once to let me know how things are going and how I can pray for you.
- Help your parents in some way that surprises them.
- Prayer walk a college campus in or near your town, even if it’s not the school you go to.
- Pray for our college ministry every day (and write down anything God shows you).
- Pray for your upcoming professors. By name.
- Think up ways to serve your upcoming professors.
- Pray through your areas of campus involvement. What needs to change?
- Pray through your college ministry involvement. What needs to change?
- Go through your closets at home and donate things you know you don’t need anymore.
- Keep doing the spiritual habits you’ve developed at college – don’t skip once, or it’ll be hard to keep the habit all Break.
- Call your closest friends regularly, and keep each other on track spiritually.
- Connect with Christian youth in your town (or even their parents), and help them think about preparing for college.
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I first posted this idea last year, but it’s a good challenge for our students (and for us) this time of year.
I realize there are plenty of “big,” radical ways we can encourage students to let Christ reign during Christmas. But what about this idea:
Have you challenged your students to let Christ “impose” even on the gift portion of their Christmases?
Assuming most of your students aren’t foregoing gift-receiving altogether, challenging them to look through spiritual eyes at what they ask for is great spiritual practice. They’ve got two big chances to put Jesus square in the middle of the gifting:
- What they put on their Christmas wish lists
- How they spend their Christmas money
How many of your students are likely to ask for / use their Christmas money for a Christian book that would be well worth reading? What about a new Study Bible or Bible Commentary? What about a video game they know will specifically help develop relationships with their dorm-mates? Or a DVD they know will help inspire them spiritually (whether it’s a Christian movie or not)? Will they buy iPhone apps that help them be better students? Will they ask their parents for Wal-mart gift cards to keep from spending so much on fast food?
More importantly, will they at any point pray for God’s wisdom in what they ask for? And will they pray for God’s wisdom in how they spend any cash they receive?
In other words, are we raising up students who “in all their ways acknowledge Him”? Will their Christmas lists reflect the Jesus inside them?
My list of examples surely don’t cover all the possibilities of Jesus-directed gifting. The great thing is, a little prayer and a little thought can help students realize how they can purposely grow, serve, and live best in the New Year. And while – again – I recognize it may seem holier to focus on “Christian service” or “Christian witnessing” during the Christmas season, Jesus probably wants to be Lord even of our wish-lists. And if our students practice that lordship here, who knows where they might let Him impose next?
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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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I had the awesome chance to speak last weekend for the college ministry retreat of Peninsula Bible Church in Palo Alto. A great group of students (from Stanford, Santa Clara U, and a few other schools) and their college ministers gathered in a cool little retreat spot, and we got to hang out Friday through Sunday.
And as always, I tried to notice what I was learning or being reminded of for our work as a whole.
Since taking my yearlong road trip and better developing my view of “campus ministry as missions,” I haven’t had too many opportunities to share this idea directly with students. (This view is best laid out in my ebook, Reaching the Campus Tribes.)
But every once in awhile, I’ve had the chance to speak either to a college ministry’s student leadership team or – in this case, at least – the ministry as a whole. And what I’ve noticed is that college students are able and willing to rise to the challenge as “college ministers” themselves. Even though they are in the throes of the college experience themselves, like the “indigenous” leaders raised up within foreign missions, students can get excited about serving as “missionaries to their own tribe.”
This is more than just asking them to serve as Student Leaders within the college ministry we (as college ministers) are directing. This is empowering them and encouraging them to take the added step of taking responsibility for the reaching of their campus. Yes, it’s still often best for them to have direction or oversight from somebody a little bit older. But there’s a difference in how much ownership they assume.
When I called the students to this – and encouraged them therefore to be open to ALL the ways God might direct their “missions” – they ran with it! For example, several students apparently stayed up late one night conspiring to reach a local community college with a Bible study (even though only one of those students actually attends that school).
In the days to come, I’ll share some of the points I used this weekend to push this idea. Hopefully those will help you do the same! But for now, my point is this: College students can rise to the challenge of a high level of “ownership” in your mission to the campus. How much do your students “own” the mission right now? Have they taken on the role of missionaries to their own campuses?
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Since it’s my mom’s birthday, I thought I’d ask a related question:
How are you helping your students “honor their fathers and mothers” during their college years?
Certainly, it’s important for students to make their homes within their new “neighborhood.” Students’ inability to separate from their parents and hometown often introduces problems of its own.
But students can err on the side of leaving-family-behind, too, can’t they? Far too often for many of our collegians, parents and families are “out of sight, out of mind.”
And when they do return home – at Christmas, summer, or just for a weekend – a new family-apathy may rear its ugly head.
Parents are still a big part of students’ lives – even if they don’t recognize it like they should. So how often do we teach our students about loving their parents – even while they’re at school? Serving their parents? Being awesome when they return home? Witnessing (in word and deed) to non-Christian parents? And so on?
Christmas Break isn’t far away, and Thanksgiving is even closer. Now might be the time to consider how well your students are keeping the 5th Commandment, and how well you’re helping them do it.
Happy birthday, Mom!
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Just an encouragement as many of your campuses are entering (or in the midst of) Finals:
Don’t be afraid to show yourself a true fan of academic rigor during this time. Your students will pick up on your cues here (and they probably have all semester). Are they learning to fulfill their calling as students, to work “as unto the Lord,” to be faithful in dying to their natural desires in order to be their actual best? Are they learning those things from you, intentionally?
I still believe that these guys and gals are supposed to be “Christians disguised as college students,” not simply “students who happen to be Christians.” Their spiritual walk takes top priority, and sometimes that does mean making choices that look odd to a secular world – including the secular educational establishment.
But I’ve come a long way since my own college days in understanding that we – as college ministers – need to encourage them to be really good students. And we certainly can’t be known for encouraging laxity in educational rigor, wisdom, commitment-keeping, and academic faithfulness.
Not only will any hint of “academic apathy” on our parts rub off on our students, it will rub faculty and administration the wrong way for sure. And that’s no way to serve our campus tribes best.
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“Topics Worth the Tussle” is a series of themes students (or leaders) may need to wrestle with inside your ministry. They’re not always popular, but that’s one reason they’re all the more needed.
And today’s topic is especially important as students head into the summer.
Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted… (II Tim. 3:12 ESV)
Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? … No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. (Heb. 12:7,11 NIV2011)
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4 ESV)
Then Satan answered the LORD, “Does Job fear God for nothing? … But put forth Your hand now and touch all that he has; he will surely curse You to Your face.” (Job 1:9,11 NASB)
Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. (Rom. 12:15 NKJV)
Is your college ministry full of people who know how to suffer well? Have they come to recognize the amazing value suffering has in their lives and in the lives of those around them? Do they even – though through tears – welcome suffering, chalking it up (“reckoning”) it pure joy because of what God produces in it and through it?
Do your students recognize that cleansing, strengthening, glorifying suffering doesn’t only come in cancer diagnoses or deaths or earthquakes, but also when “I so wish that girl was interested in me,” “I wasn’t picked for that leadership position,” “My roommate and I aren’t getting along”?
Has God “shown off” in the midst of suffering within your college ministry, as He did with Job?
And do your students – unlike Job’s friends – know how to “weep with those who weep”? Do they suffer with others well?
This is a topic that may very well be worth the tussle in your ministry – or at least in your mind, as the leader of your campus ministry.
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