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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?
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A while ago, I had the opportunity to guest-blog at the BASIC Concepts for Campuses blog. In case you missed it (or need a refresher), I wanted to post it here, too!
There’s a big problem with making a list like this: There are plenty of other items that could end up on it.
That being said, here are some of the areas your college ministry might want to rethink – or consider in the first place! Each of them has the potential to take a ministry to its next level of impact, so hopefully two or three of them (at least) will give you some pondering-fodder in the months ahead!
1. Get smaller. What would happen if you devoted a heavy portion of energy to impacting one particular “people group” on campus – the Theater club, for instance, or one dorm floor where a few of your ministry’s students already live? This is niche-based college ministry, and it’s one strategy always worth considering. If (by God’s leading) you put disproportionate effort into reaching deeply into one campus segment, you may find that you actually reach more students that way… and more non-Christians, too.
2. Learn the tribe. How much time have you, as college minister or student leader, put into “learning your tribe”? Any missionary would likely spend months observing, studying, and discussing his particular mission field. Do you know your campus’s demographics? Do you know the goals of the administration for the next 24 months? What segments of campus are other college ministries reaching well? What’s the history of your mission field? If you don’t know the answers to these and other questions, you’re not making the impact you could.
3. Prepare for success. College ministers should be evaluated on how well their graduates are doing two years beyond college. (That’s not the only measure of success, but it’s a big one.) How well is your ministry doing at preparing students for “the real world”? While this should be a purpose throughout the college years, it should receive special attention as students near graduation. How are seniors being discipled in choosing a church, handling money, finding community, dating, being a Christian employee, and the many other struggles of life beyond college?
4. Share whys, not just whats. How often do you encourage students to do something without helping them understand why? It’s easy to push students to service opportunities, invite them into community, or urge them to excel in their studies without once teaching them what the Bible has to say about these things. (And students probably won’t argue that they’re each important.) But giving instructions without biblical motivation is legalism, and it makes us no different from their fraternities and service clubs when it comes to encouraging “good behavior.” A quick test: For each aspect you consider to be a “pillar” of your college ministry, have you engaged in ministry-wide discipleship on that topic?
5. Evaluate. When you really think about it, do you know that your ministry is making an impact? How do you know? One of the trickiest things about college ministry is figuring out how to evaluate our work, but it’s still worth attempting to do. Are students remembering (and applying) your weekly talks? Are small group leaders communicating well? Is your annual on-campus service project accomplishing what you hoped? Are students actually succeeding spiritually in the years beyond college? Are visitors feeling welcomed and getting the information they should? If you don’t have regular and effective means of evaluating your activities, it’s time to develop some!
Have you considered these areas in your ministry? What other areas in your ministry have you realized needed to be reconsidered?
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While I’m on the subject of building conviction in our students that will last past the collegiate bubble, I had one more thought.
I had noted in the past couple of posts (here and here) that our students won’t have as easy a time once the opportunities for “good works” and spiritual disciplines are less available and less encouraged. So, I said, it’s important that we build the type of conviction that will push them to seek out those activities, whatever it takes.
But that’s not the only problem our students will face. We can’t just build conviction; we must build hearty, lasting conviction – because even that conviction will face subtle attacks in the post-college years:
- When they’re making a lot more money, giving sacrificially seems all the more… sacrificial.
- When they get busier than they’ve ever been, things like church and daily time with the Lord become very easy to skip.
- The barrage of materialistic temptations, the “quarter-life crisis” issues, new jobs, new relationships, and plenty more can lead to self-centeredness… so an entire world in need starts seeming awfully irrelevant.
- In the mid-twenties, the beauty of chastity can start seeming awfully… idealistic (and very lonely).
- What was zealous, intimate, and healthy community three years ago can be remembered as conformist and passe after a few years without it.
It’s not just lack of opportunity that will cause zeal to wane, there will also be a barrage of assaults on students’ conviction itself. So the question is, Are we building in our students rock-solid convictions about the actions that are right and best? Are we teaching them why chastity really does matter and why zeal for justice should last a lifetime? Are we giving them arguments for the importance of giving or the value of prayer that will stand up even against their own doubts and ditherings?
This is no easy pursuit. But behavior modification that lasts a few years isn’t enough fruit, is it?
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As I was writing yesterday’s blog about the the post-bubble bewilderment, I was kinda struck by how important all of that really is. And my first example has stuck with me:
- How do I practice social justice now that there isn’t an opportunity thrown at me every other week?
The same could be asked about accountability with other Christians, participating in solid Bible study, seeking and offering counsel, praying for the nations, giving to big causes, starting big causes, donating time and effort to ministry activity, leading others closer to Christ, and so on.
Are we “creating” students who, after their college years, will seek out chances to do the good things they’re now doing? Or will our students – like so many, I’m afraid – have left these activities behind five years later?
I’m not sure that exposure alone produces the kind of conviction that lasts. For a few students, simple exposure – to discipling others, for instance – will prove addictive enough to participate for a lifetime. But for many, it simply won’t be as easy after college to find those opportunities (and they won’t have the same push from their leaders and peers). So if we haven’t built in them a conviction (not simply an appreciation), then we haven’t built them into lifelong followers any more than they were before they came to college.
Willing to evaluate your ministry? How “zealous for good works” are the men and women who graduated from your ministry two years ago?
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I remember being bewildered – for years – about what it meant to date “Christianly,” once I was outside of the collegiate bubble. Inside those college years, it was quite easy to find, serve alongside, and get to know awesome girls before I ever had to decide if I wanted to take another step toward more-than-friendship.
But while I’m sure I heard several Dating & Relationships talks during those years, I don’t remember being well prepared for after those years. Suddenly it wasn’t nearly as easy to navigate.
I bet that collegiate bubble shows up in other ways, too:
- How do I practice social justice now that there isn’t an opportunity thrown at me every other week?
- How do I find intimate community when there aren’t “small group signups” each semester?
- How do I pick a church in a new city, when I’m not around dozens of others who are trying to figure out the same thing?
- I think I understand “using my mind to God’s glory” when I’ve got a full docket of classes… what does that look like after my formal schooling has ended, though?
- How do I evangelize when people seem a lot less open in the “real world,” and when I don’t have buddies who are witnessing alongside me?
- What am I supposed to do with money once I have a lot more of it? (Giving “sacrificially” and tithing seemed a little easier when it was just $5 a month…)
These are six scenarios that seem pretty probable, and they’re just the first six I thought of. The question is: In these and other areas, are you preparing students to succeed during their years in college… or to succeed both now and later?
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Surely this is something – unless your college ministry is just enormous – that you could join other local college ministries in doing.
The idea (or Fridea, as the case may be) is a study – offered possibly each semester – for any Christian students who will head out from campus next semester. Remember, we’re not just talking about those graduating. It applies to collegians studying abroad, taking some time off, doing an internship, etc. (Although, depending on your scenario, you might have different studies or split some of those groups off once or twice to talk about issues specific to their situations.)
This week, I’ve been looking at the HUGE need to shepherd such students while they’re away – including purposely impacting students for a season after they graduate. But of course our shepherding will be even better if it starts while students are still local.
Again, I think this one might make a lot of sense as a multi-campus-ministry effort:
- The diversity of discipleship will help a lot, especially since everybody’s “real world” experiences will look so different
- Cooperation might allow y’all to get started on this sooner rather than later (since you’re sharing the load)
- Cooperation among a few college ministries will encourage other ministries to engage this vital area
- Critical mass always encourages students to take part
- Connecting MORE students to each other as they head out – some into the same places – increases their opportunities for accountability, encouragement, and community next semester
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I wrote Tuesday on the need for us to consider those who have, up until this semester, been a part of our community. Maybe they graduated in the Spring or Summer, or maybe they’re just temporarily gone – on an internship, perhaps, or studying abroad.
If we’re willing to consider doing this – and I beg you to consider doing this – I would also encourage a strategy, like a program or a team, to get this done.
Because while we love to think that our students will receive that kind of encouragement and exhortation “organically,” it’s tough. Honestly, we can’t really expect people thrown into the “real world” (whether permanently or temporarily) for the first time to be good at navigating this, can we? They haven’t had to navigate this world before, so they’re unlikely to seek out all the community they need. And their friends are either in the same boat (if they, too, have left college behind) or those friends don’t know how to deal with people who aren’t still in their world.
And we’d like to think we – their college ministers – will be good – naturally, organically – at contacting those students who have left our community. Chances are, the realities of our local ministry will override the desire to shepherd those away from us.
Unless we plan for it. Unless we plan for helping these students, either directly or by organizing others to do it.
And we can, right?
- We can calendar it.
- We can train students for post-college spirituality before they leave.
- We can train other students to be good friends to those who leave.
- We can help parents who – like their students – are figuring out something new.
- We can organize a student ministry team – for real – meant to help all of this happen better.
What else?
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So in keeping with yesterday’s theme…
How confident are you that your upcoming December graduates will find – and commit well to – a strong community of believers within three months of graduation?
Go ahead – think of someone specific who’s graduating in December (or in May). But not just somebody staying around town. Not even somebody going back to their hometown. Someone going to a new environment altogether, who will have to start pretty much from scratch on the whole “Christian community” thing.
How likely are they – really – to find a solid, strong community? How likely are they to jump right in, plugging in well from the outset?
If this isn’t a strong aspect of how we send them into the world, then what case do we have against parents and youth pastors who don’t prepare students to find solid churches and solid campus ministries when they “release them into the wild” of college?
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This is something I’ve mentioned before, although it bears repeating. And repeating some more. Because it might just be one question that college ministries MOST need to hear.
Are you building students in such a way that they’ll be amazing God-followers in 10 years?
What if this was our key evaluation? What if this question directed nearly everything we did? If this question were to resonate in your brain – day after day, week after week – it would, in all likelihood, affect your campus ministry greatly. It might require some additions; it might change your entire ministry; it might mean different leaders or different events or even drawing fewer students… and better impacting them for the long-run.
If the students who stick with us during college aren’t being impacted for good, if they’re not awesome when they’re 32 – in fact, if they’re not a decade’s worth of more-awesome – then something is wrong with what we’re producing. These are hinge years. They should be changed forever.
It’s not our job – ultimately – to change people. And it’s students’ fault when they fall away or mess up or back out. I know all that.
But we do have a solemn charge to watch over souls today – and the assessment of our charge certainly doesn’t end when they graduate.
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Last night I got to attend an annual event at my church from high school, a sort of “reunion concert” for current and former members of our youth choir. I’m quick to point out: I am no singer; it was a big choir. But it was a really neat part of my life, so the memories were great.
On Saturday, I got to hang out with a girl I’ve known since I was the leader of her freshman Bible study (I was a sophomore at the time). She later went on to be a leader in the same freshman Bible study a couple of years later, and we – as always – had fun reminiscing about those awesome days. I’ve even shared that same bond with people far younger than I am, who ended up leading in that same Bible study eventually, too.
Except for the occasional exception, college ministries don’t seem to do a lot with “tradition” or “nostalgia.” But instituting tradition and celebrating nostalgia can seriously benefit our ministries.
It’s a way to build community, for sure. It’s a way to build reminders – which God can use in people’s lives long past their college years. It can also invigorate current students, as they realize they’re part of something much bigger, much longer-lasting than the current campus ministry. It allows students’ own impact to last long beyond their few years with you. In a way, it adds a true depth to a college ministry that can’t be achieved another way.
If you’re interested in adding a dash of tradition to your college ministry, here are a few ideas to start brainstorming with.
- Celebrate the memories of each semester or year, as that “era” comes to a close. Encourage individual groups – like small group Bible studies – to do the same with their own groups. (Lists of memories make great T-shirts!)
- “Institute” traditions from the teaching points, favorite songs, or inside jokes that naturally arise within the ministry. Purposely use them in a regular way (as long as they’re useful.)
- Construct an ongoing “family tree” of small group leaders, ministry team leaders, or other positions in your ministry, letting new leaders realize the heritage they’re taking part in.
- Have present leaders write encouraging / exhorting notes to those who follow them in those positions.
- Have Seniors speak to the group before graduation each semester.
- Build actual or symbolic “ebenezers” (stones of remembrance) to remember what God taught and/or did in certain seasons of the ministry.
- Write out a history of your college ministry (or have students do it – they might even be able to do it for some school project!). I bet you even find out some exciting new stuff…
- Bring back alumni / former staff to speak to students.
- Hold reunions for alumni.
- Build alumni “clubs” – for encouragement, connection, and even fundraising.
- Get testimonies from alumni of how God used the ministry in their lives. Share some of these with supporters, overseers, and current students.
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