You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘teaching topics’ category.
It’s likely you’ve talked to your students about dating well.
It’s likely you’ve encouraged them to sacrifice so they can give to important causes right now.
You might have taught them to be students “as unto the Lord.”
But though they’re better boyfriends and girlfriends because of your ministry, will they be better husbands and wives? Will they be generous with their resources – even sacrificially – ten years from now, when the money is far more plentiful (and far more necessary)? Will they be employees “as unto the Lord,” too?
We certainly should be impacting students with instructions for glorifying God in all aspects of their present lives. But if we’re not diving down more deeply into principles… and if we’re not preparing students for decisions and roles they will have in the future… then we’re not discipling them for a lifetime.
Even if our students will have good churches and good ministers and other good ministries when some of those roles and decisions are suddenly present, we still have some impact to make here.
Are you making good wives, good rich people, and good employees? What else do you need to be discipling for – that isn’t even on your students’ radar right now?
—————————————————————————————
[Click to ask questions, comment, or see any comments on this post!]
I last posted this over a year ago, but I was thinking again about the topic yesterday – and it’s something I think we need to consider a lot more often. And this may be perfect for some of you as you plan Spring Quarter, Summer, or Fall teaching series!
How often do we show our students how to apply the Bible and the Gospel in their actual everyday existence? That’s this week’s Fridea: Teaching our students to live beautifully within the natural, daily elements of their lives.
I Corinthians 10:31 is of course a key verse here:
“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (ESV)
Paul’s final summing-up of I Corinthians 10 is honestly a little unnatural. The whole chapter has been, to this point, a deep theological discussion that dives into complex places (discussions modern, freedom-loving Christians aren’t too comfortable with). The chapter reveals a hard, very specific way to love others (temporarily setting aside our Christ-given freedoms for the sake of our witness).
So it might have been expected for Paul to close out the chapter with a summing-up statement: “And that’s one big way to love others: laying down our own freedom for their sake.” That would have captured the essence of the passage.
Instead, Paul decides to take things a step further. Instead of summing up, he reveals that this (watching what we eat or drink when it affects others) is just ONE of the crazy ways that we get to glorify God:
“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
How often do we actually teach students how to live out this command? I can’t remember ever hearing an “eating-to-the-glory-of-God” message in church or any other ministry – even though that one thing takes up hours of my week. Even though there’s plenty of biblical wisdom on, or connected to, the topic of eating.
What about the other areas of our lives?
Personally, I’d rather have college students who have truly given Christ Lordship over their eating, their driving, or their stewardship of time, than ones who are trained in apologetics or can quote large sections of Scripture. (Though of course, it’s great if all these things are true!)
Have you taught your collegians to glorify God in their
- Eating
- Driving
- Sleeping
- Studying
- Time Management
- Co-existence with roommates
- Co-existence with classmates
- Casual (and other) Conversation
- Multi-tasking
- Clothing
- Social Event-attending
- and other “common” events in the life of an American college student?
A teaching series? Small group topic? One-on-one discipleship material? “Position papers” available to your students? A database of verses and wisdom on your college blog? A message series you advertise to the campus at large?
If, on the other hand, we (accidentally) teach students that biblical truth, prayer, and the counsel of wise Christians are only pertinent to BIG theological questions and BIG life choices, then we can’t complain much about segmentation or cafeteria-style Christianity. Right?
But provide a Theology of Party Attendance or a Theology of Sleep, and your students (or the whole campus tribe) might just realize what this Lordship thing is all about… and just how deeply abundant life can flow within their lives!
—————————————————————————————
[Click to ask questions, comment, or see any comments on this post!]
Every college ministry has “pillars” – those areas its leaders feel are essential for the mission they’re called to, the methods and themes that it’s most important to do well and get right. Often one college ministry’s pillars will be different from those claimed by other ministries (including other ministries on the same campus); they’re the main aspects of a ministry’s “DNA.” Deciding your ministry’s “pillars” usually involves both discernment up-front and observation over time.
After writing a bit about pillars yesterday, I wanted to address three important ways these pillars should be used in any campus ministry (although sadly, these steps are far too often avoided). In other words, these are pillars for your pillars.
In a college ministry, your pillars should be:
- Taught. The why of our pillars must be taught, and it must be taught ministry-wide. If Service is a pillar of a college ministry, then just offering service opportunities isn’t enough; if Evangelism is our focus, then it should be the focus of some of our teaching, too.
- Accessible. If Leadership Opportunities are a pillar of your ministry, is the road to leadership obvious and available to anybody (even if they aren’t in some evasive “inner circle”)? And if Small Group Involvement is a pillar, then group sign-ups shouldn’t only be available in the first few weeks of the school year… right?
- Repeated often. Along the lines of yesterday’s post, our pillars should be regularly spoken, among our student leaders and all the students. Can it be as explicit as having everybody repeat the pillars of your ministry, out-loud, on a regular basis? Sure it can, as long as you aren’t creepy about it. And whenever the opportunity arises, slip in a comment: “We’re donating to a Microfinance ministry, because International Involvement is one of the focuses of our club.”
—————————————————————————————
[Click to ask questions, comment, or see any comments on this post!]
Lest we forget, another Presidential Election year is upon us. (Which also means Leap Year and a Summer Olympics, of course.) And that means we have one of the best possible teachable moments available for our students, to shepherd them:
- in what it means to be a citizen
- to care about social and political issues
- to wisely discern their own involvement
- to prioritize God’s ways (and kingdom) over man’s
- to bridge politics into Gospel conversations
- to be wise and not simply zealous
- to be not conformed to peers and other components of the world around them
Many (if not all) of the students in your campus ministry will be shepherded by somebody this year – do you really want professors, FoxNews, Ron Paul devotees, parents, the student newspaper, NPR, or the student president of the Socialist Club to be the only lens they use? Or will you help them walk first and foremost as a Christian through a very political eight months, with all the decision-making, disagreements, stance-discernment, and dialogue it will naturally inspire?
So that’s this week’s Fridea: Consider your action plan for shepherding in this teachable moment. And get started shepherding before the summer hits.
—————————————————————————————
[Click to ask questions, comment, or see any comments on this post!]
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.
—————————————————————————————
[Click to ask questions, comment, or see any comments on this post!]
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!
—————————————————————————————
[Click to ask questions, comment, or see any comments on this post!]
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.
—————————————————————————————
[Click to ask questions, comment, or see any comments on this post!]
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?
—————————————————————————————
[Click to ask questions, comment, or see any comments on this post!]
Recent Comments