Category Archive

I know you’re likely either in the first week of school or preparing for the first week of school…

…but I need to remind you about the Catalyst Conference this October, and our College Ministers Cohort!

For more info (now or later), go to the Facebook Event and RSVP as MAYBE or YES. You’ll get updates as I have them, and eventually I’ll send info on how you can sign up officially (yes, you’ll need a ticket).

Meanwhile, through Thursday we’ve got a $199 rate going (cheaper than even the normal Group Rates!). If you need our Group Code, be sure to RSVP (as Maybe or Yes), and I’ll send it out between now and Thursday (or just contact me directly).

I hope you’ll consider Catalyst and the College Ministers Cohort – it’s going to be a blast!

What if you truly prayed for all your college students – your school-year students and any summertime students you’ve got – each week this summer?

Maybe it’s just you prayin’, maybe you and the staff, maybe you and some church members, maybe you even bring your student leaders in on it. Make a list, and pray. Ask for prayer requests if you want (and if you haven’t already); let students occasionally know how you prayed for them if you so choose. But the Fridea is just to pray. For all of ‘em!

In all likelihood, you are the key shepherd in each of those lives, whether students are around this summer or not. You are more devoted to their growth (and knowledgeable about what they need) than anyone else.

Prioritizing prayer might be a way to see that play out, even while your shepherding is from afar.

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Earlier this month, I had the chance to “present” at Guy Chmieleski’s blogathon – with this round’s theme “The Future of College Ministry.” When I write at other sites not everybody might get a chance to click over, and others might just have missed it.

Following Road Trip 15, the issue I address seems all the more pertinent to where we are as a field – and where lots of individual campus ministries are, too. So I really do encourage you to read and ponder this idea!

Further In: A Future of Deeper

The brightest future for any individual college ministry might be found in going deeper, not simply wider. And coincidentally, this could just be one of the most exciting paths forward for our field as a whole, too.

After exploring the wide world of American college ministry over the last four years, I’m occasionally asked about anything that I’ve found disappointing. One of my common responses: “It all seems too similar.” I’ve seen hundreds of ministries in action (in all four branches of college ministry), and while I’m quite excited about what they’re doing, it’s still rare to find ones that seem, well, all that different.

Of course, I’m not saying ministries are identical. But it’s far too rare to find college ministries (or even aspects of ministries) that don’t pretty closely fit a common mold (whether their leaders realize it or not).

the difference is real

College campuses differ in plenty of ways. Sure, we can paint schools with broad strokes: “big state universities,” “private Christian schools,” “liberal northeastern schools,” etc.. But only a moment of reflection reveals that those generalizations work about as well as “African tribes” or “North American neighborhoods.”

And if we approach them in generalized ways, we’ll get “generally good” results! I want more.

It’s no secret that I view college ministry through the lens of Missions, and this is perhaps the biggest reason: College campuses differ. Widely. They’ve been structured that way, with all sorts of factors affecting demographics and sociology: a school’s region, its size, what kinds of students it chooses, what kinds of students choose it, its academic foci, its history, its religious climate, its faculty and administration, and on and on.

If the four colleges (of any kind) nearest to you vary as much as they do (and I bet they do!), then isn’t it possible that we’re better off approaching every campus on its own terms?

the difference should make a difference

So that takes me back to the point of this post. If colleges truly are different – at least past the thinnest of surface impressions – then shouldn’t there be pervasive “different-ness” within our field, too?

But the questions might make us cringe: How contextualized have I made my mission to this campus? What are we doing only because this campus is the way it is? What are we doing that would be unlikely to work at most other campuses?

When I impact another person, my greatest effectiveness comes when I know his needs, know his wants, and otherwise know him – and tailor my approach to reaching him as a person…

The same is true for an entire campus. We should be learning these places, falling in love with these places, and begging God for approaches that will fit them best. As we do, deep contextualization may lead to adjustments to present forms, entirely new initiatives, or even entirely new ministries.

• A future of contextualization would mean refusing any sense of “manifest destiny,” instead diligently exegeting each context before I, my national organization, or my church decides to reach it.
• For places we are called to reach, this means digging down into what makes each campus unique – and only determining our methods afterward.
• This could very likely lead to many additional niche ministries (efforts that reach specific groups of people) and complementary ministries (efforts that focus on one piece of students’ discipleship). Some of these forms will come from within present college ministries, some will spin off from present ministries, and some will start from scratch.
• And when it comes to training each other, we must leave behind senseless extrapolation. What has worked well in one or two places is rarely the prescription for most. We should definitely be sharing what we’ve learned, but much more often as theories and possibilities than as blueprints or patterns.

I genuinely love what God and His people are doing in college ministry. It’s exciting and impactful. But when I think about the future, I’m hopeful we’ll get to know our campuses, come to love our campuses, and reach our campuses on an even deeper level – both in individual campus missions and in regional and national efforts.

I really do envision a day when we see a wide variety of college ministry efforts and practices – many that would be unrecognizable to us today!

(click the picture for a better view)

This is a little off-topic, but some of you may be interested – or know other people interested – in good, used Christian books. (And they’re great for Christmas presents, too!) I’m thinning out my own library a little, and I had a bunch of other great books from when I used to sell them to support my college ministry efforts out in West Texas.

I plan to put these on Craigslist this week, but I figured I’d let you know so you can take a look – or pass the list on to pastors, seminarians, college students, or others who might be interested. There are about 600 books, with a large number of commentaries and other scholarly things. But there’s plenty of other kinds of Christian books, too. And they’re very inexpensive – as you’ll see – plus the shipping charge is hard to beat…

If you’re intrigued, please take a look or pass this on! You’re helping support my ministry, for sure. (And helping get these books out of my house.)

You can probably just click on the link below, but it may be easier to right-click and save the file to your computer.

usedChristianbooks.pdf

If you’re interested, just use the email address in the file. And I can take credit cards via PayPal if needed!

Thanks for letting me go off-topic!

Are you familiar with Groupon?

It’s basically daily couponing available in quite a few cities across the U.S.. There are other sites with similar things going on: Living Social, for example. Each day (if you so choose), you get an emailed deal for your area, and you’re basically buying a gift certificate for way less than face value. So you may get, for example, $25 worth of Tin Star Mexican food for only $10 (one of my recent faves).

Food comes up an awful lot in the daily deals, but there are also Groupons for stores, theaters, and more.

So as this site appears to have taken off around the country, I’ve been pondering how college ministries might take advantage of the Groupon offerings. Clearly, these things mean getting quite an enormous “bang for your buck” – if you remember to use them before the expiration date. So I figure we should try to take advantage of this little goldmine. Right?

So for this week’s Fridea, here are my thoughts – so far – on how to use Groupons for college ministry:

• Giveaways (you probably already give away gift cards, right?)
• Occasionally messaging your whole group to go buy a particularly good Groupon to donate to fellow students (including international students), people in your church or in the community, faculty / staff / administration at your campus, and so on.
• Getting students to buy Groupons for an upcoming college ministry hangout – like at a restaurant – so everybody’s money will go a lot further. Schedule it!
• Buying (or encouraging students to buy) enough Groupons to invite friends – like unsaved friends, whole fraternities, all the freshmen, etc. Remember, you’re paying way less upfront.
• Figuring out the Referral and Affiliate programs, generating revenue (or Groupon bucks) for your campus ministry.
• Use Groupon to identify local restaurants that may be willing to cut your ministry a deal in the future. (If they’re willing to do the Groupon thing, they’re probably willing to think about other advertising avenues.)
• Encouraging your college ministry sponsors to purchase Groupons for you as a little “bonus support.”
• Being particularly AWESOME (if you’ve never used Groupon before) and signing up for the emails using this link: http://www.groupon.com/r/uu3124807 Then if you ever do decide to make a Groupon purchase, I’ll get a bonus. That means you’ll be helping support me as I serve college ministry! Thanks! (If you already used one of the Groupon links earlier, those do the same thing.)

So that’s my list, quickly assembled. What other creative (or non-creative) uses can you think of? Let us know in the comments!

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Sorry for the blogging lack the last couple of days! After Catalyst and the speaking opportunities at DTS last week, I’ve taken a few weeks off to catch up on rest and a few other things. Check back in on Thursday and I should be rarin’ to go once again!

So look for thoughts soon on:

• A great method for college ministry collaboration
• Why one particular sports team would make a great college ministry
• More thoughts on The Social Network
• and more, of course!

Thanks for letting me take a little break! It was much needed!

As you may know, I just finished up one series about Front Door Hospitality. But as many of us continue to plug along in the craziest portion of the entire year, I thought I’d use the rest of this week just to offer some focused ideas. Maybe these will scratch where you itch, maybe they won’t. But even if they get us thinking (or rethinking) about the year-to-come, that’s huge…

…because pondering done now pays off far better than pondering done later in the school year.

Hope these are helpful! Here’s the first one:

What if your college ministry small groups spun off of the large group topic?

Some of you already do this.

But for others, it might be worth considering.

If you’ve chosen your Large Group message topics with purpose and precision (and I deeply hope you have), then it’s possible that the best thing for your small groups could be going even deeper on those issues.

Plus, these kinds of tie-ins can encourage Movement: helping students step from areas of lighter involvement (like attendance at the Large Group) to areas of deeper involvement (like joining a small group).

variations on this idea (not suggestions, but potential versions):

• Have just a few groups dedicated to this method, out of several small group options.
• Offer this for only part of the semester, tying into one Large Group Meeting series.
• Offer this within a “newbies group,” as a short-term opportunity to give small groups a try. (The whole tie-in thing could especially encourage those who come regularly to Large Group to consider jumping into the small group.)
• “Leave ‘em hanging”: Purposely ask questions, bring up a tough issue, only cover half the passage, or otherwise provide a cliffhanger that will only be covered in that small group.

Any of the above could be combined, too.

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I was thinking about a college minister buddy who’s new to his ministry, and considering what I might tell him at this juncture. And what came to mind was a simple idea – but it’s something I’d urge all of us as the summertime arrives.

Really weigh all you need to do this summer; don’t just “run your plays.”

Summer is actually one of those moments when college ministries most diverge. Some of us participate in some sort of Summer Project, investing a lot of time and energy in a very specific role. Others have nearly complete “downtime,” at least regarding anything they’re truly required to do. For many, it’s heavy support-raising season. Church-based college ministers may see the advent of what’s nearly another college ministry altogether, made up mostly of home-grown students. For a few college ministers, summertime probably doesn’t look all that different than the school year, except for perhaps a few additional sand volleyball games.

But whatever you’re doing, can I encourage you to spend time wrestling with the opportunity before you? …to not just “run the script” – whatever your ministry’s “script” happens to be?

What if this summer is supposed to involve something – or someones – that it wouldn’t usually involve? Or what if there are planned events that really aren’t the best choice this time around?

I can’t suggest what you should or shouldn’t be up to, except for one thing: I think you should spend serious thought and prayer about this summer, even if your calendar is already set. God’s able to place plans-within-plans if needed! And what He may do is provide one or two things – even little, easy things – that would make a big difference.

ponder-ables

To help you ponder, here are some areas that come to mind:

• Helping your usual students while they’re away
• Serving your usual students who stay local
• Serving students who aren’t usually in your ministry, whether they happen to be local or even have just come home for the summer
• Taking a personal sabbatical
• Exegeting or re-exegeting your campus context, getting to know its history and its present
• Reading
• Canceling a traditional activity that isn’t purposeful (anymore)
• Getting an outsider to take a look at your ministry and ask good questions (of course, I’m willing to help)
• Attending summer opportunities for college ministry training (ask me – I know several)
• Fully, painfully evaluating / auditing your campus ministry
• Support-raising (even if that’s not your usual M.O.)
• Developing partnerships with local churches and other Christian ministries
• One-on-one disciplemaking
• Finding a mentor / discipler for yourself
• Meeting / better connecting with other local college ministers
• Visiting college ministers / college ministries in another location (ask me – I can give you ideas)
• Taking a trip with students (even a Mad Libs eBay Road Trip, if that fits some purposes)
• Reading college ministry blogs
• Blogging about college ministry
• Refurbishing your web page, support letters, Facebook fan page, meeting room, business cards, advertisements, and anything else

Other ideas?

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You may be well aware that most of my work for the field of college ministry the last few years has gone “unfunded” – or, more exactly, the funding is “delayed.” But for me to continue working to push our field forward, income matters. And it’s certainly my hope to find income that continues to allow me to live out my calling full-time

Interested in helping support the work of Exploring College Ministry?

Then hire me! – or connect me to others who would be interested in using my services.

In College Ministry, breadth matters. I’m able to help ministries in unique ways, because I can combine years of college ministry experience with an enormous array of observations and a broad understanding of contextual differences. In other words, my experiences allow for pretty unique brainstorming, assessment, question-asking, method-sharing, idea-generating, and more.

I’ve added a new “Hire Benson” tab at the top; it describes several ways I can help impact:

• Site Visit / Consultation / Assessment (an extremely impactful opportunity)
• Speaking
• Quick “Audit” or Conversation (no travel required!)
• Writing or Blogging Projects
• Sharing the Value of College Ministry
  

And I’m always open to considering other options!

One of the best action steps could simply be to get in touch with me – and we can decide together how I can help your ministry, organization, or network.

Of course, there have always been brothers and sisters who have chosen to support me directly. If you’re interested in that – or, again, know someone who might be – read that info here.

If YOUR college ministry might want to hire me (or support me), please let me know! But just as I rely on college ministry’s “web of connections” when I take a trip or strive to learn new things, I need your help connecting to OTHERS who might want to hire me or support me financially. Know any people who might want to help impact the world by supporting Exploring College Ministry?

However you help, you’re simply helping me continue to invest in our field and push it forward! Thank you for all you’ve done already, including simply reading this blog. It means a lot.

See options for Hiring Benson here, or check the info on Supporting Me (financially and otherwise) here.

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