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Update: Happy Memorial Day! Look for a new blog on Tuesday the 31st.
Friends,
Like many of you, I’m going to take a bit of a breather this week… or at least a blogging break. It should actually be a fairly busy week for me, especially as I set up the summer portion of my newest official Project to serve you guys. It’s called Books-to-Impact, and it’s a great way for any college ministry to raise funds or support causes. (I’ve mentioned it before.)
I’ll also be praying and thinking through some other facets of my ministry, and I’d be honored if you pray for me this week!
Meanwhile, if you’re hungry for some college ministry learnin’, use the week to catch up on posts you haven’t gotten to read, or check out the extensive archives. (I’d use Categories list on the left to find topics that will help most!)
Finally, if I can help you assess and brainstorm your campus ministry through a site visit, speak to a gathering of college ministers (or others who need to hear about college ministry), or serve you in-person in some other way this summer, let’s talk about it!
Otherwise, see you next week!
speaking and “consulting” in new york
Yesterday I flew up to Lima to serve as a speaker at Propel, the ministry leadership conference of the BASIC College Ministries. BASIC is a fellowship of church-based campus ministries mostly located in New York state, and I get the chance to share a whole bunch of key ideas from what I’ve learned.
On top of the seminars I’ll deliver, I also have the awesome chance to participate in some Catalytic Conversations. In eight 30-minute slots, I’ll sit down with the leader(s) of individual ministries to offer brainstorming, coaching, encouragement, or whatever the need of the hour (or half-hour!).
Please be praying for me and us. (I love college ministry conferences!)
visiting students is the bomb
One of the best – and most random – parts of this trip was getting to spend a couple of hours in Rochester with a student from Dallas! He’s been in my church’s college ministry during the summers, and now – right before he graduates – I got the very cool opportunity to see him within his own campus tribe, the prestigious Eastman School of Music up here in NY.
Remember, even if you’re a campus-based college minister, your students would love a visit when they’re away from you this summer – even just a lunch gathering in that city where several of them live, perhaps. And church-based college ministers have two groups they can visit: home-grown students who go away to school, and students who go to school locally but live elsewhere in the summer!
This is definitely a very cool way to love students (and to explore some other campus ministry settings while you’re at it!).
textbooks lead to money which helps with impact
Meanwhile, I’m excited to see how this season of Books-to-Impact has gone (as many schools finished their Finals this week). I know some college ministers are hesitant to get excited about something new like this, but things continue to look really good for this fundraising effort. I believe it could be helping dozens of college ministries to raise money for ministry or causes (or both!) over the next couple of years. If you haven’t taken a look at Books-to-Impact, I hope you will.
And please be praying that this round of Books-to-Impact work would be a huge financial blessing to the ministries involved (including my own!).
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Sorry for the extended hiatus here at Exploring College Ministry. Not only did I have all the normal Christmas festivities, I’m also neck-deep in the Trial Run I mentioned awhile back. It’s actually going really well, and I’m guessing this Project will be something that can help quite a few U.S. college ministries raise funds in the coming semesters.
But for now, it’s a Trial Run. And therefore rather secret, if you didn’t notice that already.
I hope your Christmastime and Winter Break have both gone really well. I hope your students’ Breaks are going well, too, whether they’re hanging with you, at home far away, or a little bit of both.
As you watch all these Bowl Games – did you see TCU??? – don’t forget that we’re lucky enough to have these lively places as our mission fields! Can you believe it? Maybe I’ll blog about that soon.
Speaking of blogging, I plan to be back next week. And I have a feeling this could be a neat year in this corner of the world… and I hope your corner has had an excellent 2011 already.
I appreciate that many of you like to stay updated on my ministry! And like to help! So here goes, with helpful headings:
T-shirts wanted: help me share the glories!
As you
know, one of the coolest ways I get to share the glories of college ministry is via T-shirts! In fact, this year I’m wearing (and taking a picture of) a different shirt each day, often with some specific little reason for my “Campus Tribe of the Day” pics. (I just started Facebook album #2, because the first album is now full!)
I realized some of you might want to help me represent your awesome college(s). And it’s always very cool to get local “garb” from the many missionaries to the campus tribes. This isn’t just for fun – I truly consider it important.
So for those who might want to help in this weird way, I would love (and proudly wear) any size-Large T-donations you want to send! For decades to come, you’ll be helping me tell the story of God’s work among the campus tribes. And this year, you’ll also help me reach my goal of a different campus represented every single day.
If you’re interested in sending a shirt my way, just let me know. Of course, I can let you know if I already have a shirt from a particular school (though duplicates are never a problem!). And remember – I want to represent every college I can, so I love to get shirts from schools “off the beaten path,” 2-year schools, and other places where campus ministry is present OR needed!
site visits: use my experience!
All of a sudden, I’ve had several college ministries contact me about visiting! The goal would be helping evaluate their present works – and more importantly, discovering all their potential next steps! (These have been churches, but this can apply to any kind of college ministry.) As I’m putting together my Fall Calendar, I wanted to mention the opportunity here.
With everything I’ve seen around the U.S., I can examine a situation, help jump-start a new college ministry, or “fast-track” an existing ministry in an extremely unique and powerful way. In fact, I really feel like this may be a “sweet spot.” Exploring collegiate situations and generating ideas are two things I’ve done hundreds of times on my own; now I have the chance to do it for those who are helped by it.
So if you – or a ministry you know – might be interested, let’s talk. I want every college ministry to have the opportunity if they want it, so I keep things extremely affordable. And by hiring me, you’ll also be helping me continue to spend my time helping the field of college ministry thrive.
For a few more details on that AND other ways to hire me, click here.
speaking and collegiate weeking: travels!
This week, I have the marvelous opportunity to attend the training of some college ministers in Missouri, and I’ll be teaching a session and doing some major Q&A on Wednesday. It should be a blast! As always, I imagine at least one or two blog posts will come out of that time. (Have I mentioned that collegiate conferences are the best way to learn about our field?)
I do ask for your prayers for my time! Most of all, please pray that I’ll be helpful to those college ministers and glorifying to God.
In August, I’ll be attending Collegiate Week in Glorieta, New Mexico – a top-notch training event I’ve discussed before. In the past, this has been a phenomenal week with a lot of college ministers (and college students) from both campus-based and church-based contexts. It was also incredibly formative in my own college ministry growth. (This will be my ninth visit!) So I’m thrilled to get to go once more.
If any of you will be at either of those events, let’s be sure to connect! And otherwise, stay tuned for some learnings here at the blog!
moving into dallas dallas: new digs!
You may or may not know that I’ve been living rather outside of Dallas proper for the last couple of years, since returning from my yearlong road trip. Happily, I now have the opportunity to live IN Dallas. In several ways, this will make it a lot easier to connect and minister around here, and it will even help my accessibility and ministry opportunities in general.
Plus, I’ve also got the neat chance to serve an autistic friend where I’m living, so that opens up a whole new adventure. Good times indeed.
news to come?
If you’ve made it this far, you deserve one more tidbit: Please be in prayer for the possibilities to come! It’s been an interesting summer, and it looks like God’s directing me toward some next steps as I continue to give my life to help the field of college ministry. We’ll see what He wants to do…
As always, for the biggest “scoops” and latest info, you can always join the 600+ others in the Exploring College Ministry with Benson Facebook Group. Those guys are my heroes, and it’s so encouraging to know that so many of you are rooting for me… as I root for you!
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In case you’re coming for the follow-up to yesterday’s post on how to road trip, I needed to put that on pause to fill you in on this week’s adventures. Sorry about that – look for further tips this weekend or next week!
I’m headed to Arkansas today! I’ve been graciously invited to give a seminar at Campus Ministry United’s annual summer conference, held at Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas. This was one of several conferences I attended on the yearlong road trip, so it kinda holds a special place in my heart. It’ll be good to be back.
I’ve also been really looking forward to my theme: I’ll be speaking on Better Brainstorming, a very practical topic I’m pretty stinkin’ passionate about. If you can, please pray that I’d be effective and encouraging – not just in my seminar on Saturday afternoon, but in the rest of the time I get to hang with the men and women at this conference. I really appreciate it!
(And if you know anybody who might like to hire me for something like this – or a whole host of other ways to make use of my learnings – check things out here!)
are you in the group?
It’s a good time to note: If you didn’t realize I was headed to Arkansas, you probably aren’t in the Exploring College Ministry with Benson Facebook group. It’s definitely the place to get the best low-down on news like this. And there are chances to help me out; members of the group have been helping me figure out some connections to make and things to enjoy on the drive to Arkansas today!
Finally, in case you’re wondering, this does not count as an official Exploring College Ministry Road Trip. (So Number 15 is still to come!) Though I’m perfectly happy to be on the road again, this is just a straight-there, straight-back, one-state-away sort of trip. Not exactly worth comparing to the more humongous explorations.
some good reading for our field
I did want to point you to two newsworthy items you should check out:
Scot McKnight discusses the younger generation “falling away”: In reviewing a new (cool-looking) book, McKnight examines this notion as a potential myth, and College Ministry has entered into the Comments section. So if you’ve got something helpful to say (pro, con, or otherwise), add your two cents!
Alec Hill, President of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, looks with concern at CLS v. Martinez: This is another place that could use wisdom from college ministers! Add to the comments if you can, but this is yet another good resource for better understanding this important Supreme Court case. (And if you need to catch up, my recent post on it is here.)
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Summer has brought interesting days for me and the whole Exploring College Ministry project! So thanks for letting me share some upcoming opportunities and other updates from my world. I appreciate your prayers, as I continue to help push the field of College Ministry to be even stronger.
ev free 2010 leadership conference, columbus, oh
Next week, I have one of the most exciting opportunities I’ve had: The chance to talk to a denomination’s church leaders about developing a College Student Plan within their churches. I’ll be speaking at the Evangelical Free Church Leadership Conference next Wednesday morning! From the description of the seminar:
“Not every church needs a standard, holistic college ministry… but every church that encounters college students must plan for that encounter.” The need for a particular College Student Plan in each church is one of the conclusions drawn from Benson’s unique college ministry experiences… In this session, he’ll share what he’s learned about success in this vital area – as well as how churches sometimes fail, even with all the best intentions! Whether a church simply has a few graduating seniors in the youth group or it sits next door to a college campus and hopes to reach that “tribe” with gusto, this session will look at developing a great College Student Plan (and why it matters in the first place).
How awesome is it that a denomination would even focus on this stuff?
So I would really appreciate your prayers: For clarity, for the right attendees at the seminar, for wisdom in both the prepared seminar and the Q&A, and for church leaders simply to care about college students in big ways. Also, please pray for openness in those who attend; my approach encourages church leaders away from certain methods (and certain isolationism) that can be pretty common, including encouraging them to PARTNER with present ministries when that’s a better plan.
I imagine my blog will springboard from this experience a little bit next week, so that should be fun! (Here’s the first of those.)
crazy times
Meanwhile, this past month has been a unique time around here. For the first time in a long time, I’ve needed to weigh changes in my schedule and situation – centered around the need somehow to pay for my continued work in our field.
Honestly, it feels like a real “hinge” moment for this ministry. And that includes being able to continue blogging; while that’s my hope, I have to be open to whatever changes I need to make in light of the present trickiness. But some exciting potential “next steps” have popped up in the midst of this crux, so… we’ll see what God wants to do.
Of course, if you have any desire to use me (I think you’d be thrilled by how I can help!) or to donate to the cause, either is extremely appreciated. Or if you know of others who would benefit from my expertise OR just like supporting ministries that are aiming to change the world, send them my way.
And regardless of any of that, I do ask you to pray! I need wisdom and resources (both, it seems, more now than ever!) – and, as always, I need a willingness to obey any path forward God wants to reveal!
Thanks, friends. Thanks for making this Exploring College Ministry project so much fun over the last three years!
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Quick note: I highly encourage you to plan to “attend” the free “Blogference” taking place Tuesday through Thursday. Read more about it here.
It’s amazing to realize that the last time I left on a big road trip was over 6 months ago. And while that gargantuan trip took a couple of months and I’ve had some cool adventures (like my trips to Urbana, Crusade Winter Conference, Jubilee, and the Verge Conference) since then, it’s been awhile since I’ve needed to pack up the Pathfinder for another big trek! But the time has come…
Road Trip 14 is upon us.
In a few days, I’ll make my way toward Boulder, Colorado, to attend the Ascent Conference. This biannual gathering of mostly church-based college ministers is made all the more significant by the fact that the organizers are the most influential folks in that church-based branch of campus ministry. (Read about the Ascent Network here.)
Of course, once I planned to visit the conference, I immediately began weighing the value of driving over flying. I ultimately decided, indeed, to make this my fourteenth gigantic, multi-state, college ministry-explorin’ road trip.
my path (roughly): I’ll go from Dallas to the Denver area via the West Route, which means heading through Wichita Falls (where I’ll be eating lunch with any college ministers who want to hang out) and Amarillo, TX. I’m hoping to spend about a week in Central Colorado (which, as you may know, has a wealth of potential college ministry explorations). Then, I’ll take the East Route back to Texas – via Kansas and OK.
the dates: Thursday, April 15th through the end of April (approx.)
the details page: For a growing list of ALL the explorations, you can keep checking in to the official Road Trip 14 page.
connecting to the trip: Yesterday, I posted all sorts of details on the nuts-and-bolts of connecting to my adventures, so you can check that out to see the options. But there are definitely ways you can actually participate as I venture through the country, too!
- prayer: I sincerely appreciate any and all prayin’ you want to do. I’ve included some requests at the bottom, and I’ll update you on occasion as the trip unfolds!
- ideas: If you’ve got thoughts on what / who / where I should visit, please let me know! I know you don’t expect me to be able to do everything… but I also trust God to work through His people. Your ideas and suggestions are invaluable for these trips.
- connections: Likewise, if there’s anybody whom I should connect with or anyone who needs to know that I’m headed their way, feel free to set that up! Again, I can’t meet nearly everyone I would like to. But a large portion of the connections I’ve made on these trips have come about through mutual friends – as well as finding places to stay and other hospitality.
distinctives of this trip: God seems to provide each trip with some unique focuses and adventures, and I’ll be far better at recapping those than I am at forecasting them! But presently, here are some of the ways RT14 is standing out:
- companion!: For the first time ever, a fellow college minister will be joining me on a road trip! My buddy Mark Warrington will ride up there, attend the conference, and spend a couple of extra days before he flies back home (and I continue on from there). I’m super-excited at the chance to involve someone else in the first leg of RT14.
- revisits: I always love exploring new ground, but it’s also fun getting to re-visit ministries and ministers I’ve encountered before. On this trip, I will get to spend some significant time in areas I’ve seen in the last few years. Not only does that mean I get to see some cool friends again, but it also gives me an extra incentive to go a little deeper and get a little more creative! Which leads to #3…
- roads less-traveled: Few details are in place, but it seems like this trip may involve a healthy dose of lesser-known schools! Too often, we only think of college ministry in terms of Top Tier State Schools, Prestigious Schools, and The Big Cities. So I love opportunities to explore the many other campus tribes that help make up this rich fabric, beginning Thursday with the Mustang tribe of Wichita Falls, Texas!
prayer requests: If you feel like prayin’ for me, that would be awesome. Here are specific requests as Road Trip 14 approaches:
- continued mouth healing: You may or may not have been following my mouth-health saga on Twitter or Facebook, but it’s been a tough 11 days (so far). The ulcers-on-my-uvula (seriously) shouldn’t have any long-term repercussions, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t been ROUGH in the short-term. Yet the situation has definitely improved. Please pray that all will continue to heal – and that soon enough, I might have normal eating and sleeping.
- planning: As best I can tell, living in God’s adventure on these trips involves some combination of (1) God’s very specific direction about what I should do, (2) my experiential wisdom about what I should do, and (3) lots of space for God to surprise me. Pray that the “mix” would be right in the coming days and weeks.
- reception & community: Pray that college ministers and others would be interested in connecting, and that the fellowship and mutual benefit would be sweet. Hopefully I’ll get to learn a lot – as well as running into people that can be encouraged by what I’ve learned, too.
- surprises: Pray that God would bring people, experiences, and opportunities that blow me away.
- road-trippy things: Safety, speed, good directions from my Garmin, etc., are always worth praying for.
Writing this official Road Trip 14 post makes this whole trip seem rather… official. Yikes. Can’t believe I’m leaving in 3 days!
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Every once in awhile, I figure it’s helpful to post the various ways you can connect with me – and, more importantly, join me in this crazy adventure of exploring college ministry! (Plus, some of these are NEW.)
And as you may or may not realize, Road Trip Fourteen is right around the corner! I should have details on that posted tomorrow – but for now, some ways to maximize your participation in that trip – and all my other crazy adventures and learnings!
Campus Tribe of the Day!
This year, I’ve been taking daily pictures of my “garb” from the campus tribe, one T-shirt at a time – and you can see everything so far right here. (Not only do I post the pictures, but I post reasons for choosing the Campus Tribe each day!) It’s a pretty fun album, and I update it once or twice a week with the pictures I’ve taken recently. I also generally post the pics via Twitter on the day I take ‘em. (Why I care about all these shirts.)
Enjoying the Blog Even Better
If you’re simply reading this blog on the page, that’s great! But there are other options that you might find even handier. For instance, using a Blog Reader helps you keep up with the posts you haven’t read yet – Google Reader is a very easy, very free one. (Here’s a one-minute video on using it.)
Or perhaps even easier is getting each day’s blog via email! (Just don’t forget, they come each day.) You can sign up on the left side of the blog, under “Get Posts via Email.”
Facebook Group: Exploring College Ministry with Benson
Often, the Facebook Group is the first to know of especially big news, and the group is often really helpful at providing me with direct contacts while I’m on my road trips. But this is also a good place to be if you want the major info, but don’t get to read the blog regularly. I won’t fill up your Facebook inbox; it’s mostly limited to the big stuff.
Messaging and Such
I’m always happy to field emails, and Facebook messages are even easier to handle. I do sometimes get a bit behind, but I really enjoy hearing from you guys – and answering any questions I can! See my contact info here.
Twitter = Twenty-Four / Seven
Not really. When I’m home in Dallas, I’m not a particularly heavy Twitterer. But I definitely rev it up for my trips, ’cause that’s when my life gets a more interesting! So with Road Trip 14 approaching, if you want to follow my feed or just want to check in on my explorations on occasion, you can – right here.
Road Trip 14!
Finally, you’ll be able to keep up with the details of Road Trip 14 at the official RT14 page. As always, I’ll be posting the campuses and states I visit, the college ministry experiences and people I encounter, and the churches I attend! (And if you’re in the mood for details before that page gets some info, you can always check out the itineraries of the Yearlong Road Trip and Road Trips 11, 12, and 13.)
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As you probably know, most of the “fruit” of my college ministry explorations over the past few years has been absolutely free for others to enjoy. This blog, my Reaching the Campus Tribes book, and hundreds of in-person conversations with college ministers during my trips and here in DFW – all free! It’s a blast (for me), and hopefully it’s helpful (for you guys). Don’t worry – as much as I’m able, I hope to continue all those free endeavors and more!
I do think it’s helpful for our field to have people focused solely on helping Collegiate Ministry to grow. Obviously, we need countless men and women pouring directly into students’ lives. But I also think our field is helped by people devoted to buttressing that work on the ground and serving those campus missionaries. That seems to be my call – perhaps even for a lifetime.
But I’m at a bit of crossroads, and I figured I would ask for your brilliance!
For two years, I had sojourned – through a yearlong research-road-trip, five research trips following that, and plenty of other fruitful explorations – knowing God had called me to it, without focusing much on income. (Indeed, I continue to wait to see how God wants to provide for the loans that resulted, but that’s not really the point of today’s post.) At the end of the second year (that was last August), God seemed to be pointing me to start thinking about making a living as I walked forward.
It was time to ask diligently how my Calling (which remains the same) should correlate with Income – making a living so I can continue to help our field. As I was praying about that last August, lo and behold, I was approached about taking my first sponsored road trip. God is so good!
But that trip ended, so I’m back to the question about Income. So far, no Big Project has presented itself, so I’m praying about other means for making a living.
But here’s the rub: While I’m very open to whatever opportunities God wants to provide, I am hoping He might provide ways in which my Income doesn’t take time away from that primary Calling. It may be that God would have my source of Income and my primary Calling be separate, as happens with many bivocational ministers. But of course, I’d rather those things dovetail, so that I might focus on our field as much as possible.
So that’s what I’m pondering, and I’d like to ask for your ideas. I guess this is the big question:
Are there activities that could both help college ministries and bring in income?
And the second is like it:
What other means might God use to support my Calling?
I certainly have some ideas, as well as some opportunities for a little income – speaking at various functions – in the coming months. But as I’ve pondered this quagmire, I realized how much you guys have helped me all along – from those hundreds of conversations around the country, to the ideas for and comments on the blog, to the amazing editing help I had preparing my book. Why wouldn’t “open source” this situation, too?
Whether you see this post today or later, please consider praying and thinking about this. I would love to hear any ideas you’ve got! You can leave a public comment if you’d like, or contact me privately.
And remember, I wound up on a yearlong road trip – so I’m pretty open to crazy thinking!
Thanks for the help, friends. I look forward to considering each and every thought you’ve got! And whether you have ideas to share or not, I really appreciate your prayers and the many who have supported me (financially and otherwise) already!
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I need to write briefly so I can go to sleep – it’s been a long week, and I still haven’t adjusted to the time zone difference. But here are my next steps!
As I noted last week, the front end of this trip is quite dense, but that makes room for a lot smoother sailing in November. So that’s why in the last 6 days, I’ve driven nearly 2,000 miles and explored two different campus environments.
I’ll get to stay here in the Sacramento area this weekend, and then I’ll head briefly even further north to Cal State Chico on Monday. That evening, I’ll probably double back to the Bay Area, and I’m still working on the schedule from there – so you can pray for that scheduling if you’d like! But I do know that I need to be at the CollegeLeader Conference in Southern California next Thursday, to speak and spend time with a bunch of college ministers. Hooray!
Also up tonight and tomorrow, it looks like I’ll be enjoying a pursuit that has been a big – if extracurricular – activity over the last two years: visiting multiple church worship services each weekend! As you know if you’ve followed for awhile, I visited 165 weekend churches services during my yearlong trip, and I’ve visited plenty more since then. So you can look for my observations of each weekend’s churches on Twitter if you’d like – should be some pretty cool experiences at some pretty interesting churches!
So that’s it. Thanks for road tripping with me through Week 1!
written from Motel 6, Davis, CA
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Road Trip 13: Day 6 recap
explored ministry at UC Davis
T-shirt: the Dragons of Drexel University
today: various explorations around Sacramento
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