So I’ve often wondered if there’s any great way to connect with these students or their organizations. Could we feed them? Invite them to our large group after their event gets done? Serve them in some way? Or organize a “mixer” event for our group and theirs?

I know this Fridea doesn’t apply to all college ministries out there – some of you meet in an area of campus where other organizations don’t, and others meet off-campus. (Of course, you can still do those sorts of things for groups, even if they’re not your physical neighbors week-to-week.) It’s not tricky (usually) to figure out what groups are meeting in certain rooms on-campus – making it all the easier to provide targeted impact, whatever it happens to look like.

Whether the groups that meet near yours are different week-to-week or (like you) they have a standing arrangement, the point is that they’re near you. Why not take the opportunity for hospitality, service, invitation, or fellowship?

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To further flesh this out, I’d like to give some examples – but examples are hard to come by. Why? For one thing, I’ve rarely seen campus ministries that have obviously been built in this way. But second, the whole point is that these sorts of ministries can only come about by spending time loving and learning our individual campus tribes.

Still, I want to do my best. So here are a few ideas of what a college ministry built “with contextual bricks” might look like:

1. As a campus missionary got to know a particularly academic campus, he might realize that discussion-based college ministry that takes place on Friday nights (when students aren’t as pressured to study) makes the most sense. Because of incredibly busy schedules of many of his students, he might organize “discipleship pairs” in place of the more common small group structures.
2. During my first semester in Abilene, Texas, I noticed a need for greater unity among Christian students in town, as well as a large number of students seemingly “going through the motions” in this town with THREE Christian colleges. So a few of us designed a multi-campus, multiple-church-connected freshman small groups ministry, aiming to supplement the other work going on, exhort students in specific areas we’d noticed needs in, and raise up leaders.
3. One local college minister was stepping into a church role and a college ministry that had yet to establish itself very well at SMU or other local colleges. After looking at this church’s strengths and potential (as well as the prevalence of other groups on campus), we discussed the possibility of a college ministry built as a collection of “pods” – multiple niche-based ministries that would impact areas of the SMU campus not already being reached well, while some “pods” might reach other campuses, too.
4. At a campus with a (well-deserved) reputation as a party school, a new campus minister might decide her new ministry needs to offer people a “better fun.” She may intentionally design several front-door structures – a high-energy weekly large group meeting, a monthly public party, a huge ski retreat each semester, an annual dinner for the whole Greek system, and tailgating before every big football and basketball game – to draw non-Christians and help introduce them to “the life that is truly life.”

If you could re-tailor your college ministry for your campus, what would it look like? What stopped you from starting in that way? What’s stopping you from re-tailoring now?

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There’s a difference, I said, in building contextually right from the beginning (“using contextual bricks,” in other words) versus building a ministry and only afterward  making it more contextual (“using contextual paint”).

David Bartosik followed up that post with a question, though, and I wanted to flesh out a little better what this might mean. David said,

I don’t know if I completely catch what your throwing, pick up what you’re laying down…dont get me wrong, I am interested. I have a college on my heart even as you say this, but would love to hear more of what point you are trying to communicate.

[Are you] Meaning each campus has a particular flavor and you are asking what specifically are you doing to contextualize the gospel to that heart college?

My quick answer to David’s final question would be… Yes, but I’m not just talking about contextualizing the message – but contextualizing the methodology. And I’m not even really talking about “contextualizing” some methodology that already exists, but instead forming each method around the needs, specifics, and even eccentricities of that campus.

So I’m not simply encouraging us to make sure what we speak from the stage is contextual… because that presupposes both a stage and giving messages from it! Instead, I’m suggesting we could use many more college ministries that are built in response to loving a campus, getting to know the campus, and begging God’s wisdom for reaching it in very specific ways.

Does this mean that we need to start more slowly than we often do? Yes. Does it mean we need to put everything on the table from the very beginning, including things we would never, ever expect to consider optional? Absolutely. Does it mean we shouldn’t assume we’ll have a large group meeting, shouldn’t assume we’ll try to reach all the students, shouldn’t assume our ministry will look much like others in our national organization or denomination? Yeah… and we won’t assume anything else, either. We’ll come to know – and love – our campuses, and in the process we’ll discern the best ways to impact it.

There are lots of merits to the “standard forms” of college ministry, and in some cases they’ll be the most contextualized route we could take to reach students. But how we decide that – and how long we’re willing to take to discern this – makes all the difference here.

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How many of your activities this semester will be planned around clear, explicitly determined purposes?

When we realize just how much a standard college ministry actually does, it’s amazing:

• every weekly large group
• each and every small group meeting throughout a week
• every retreat
• every planned social event
• each leader’s meeting
• each staff meeting
• every service project

That’s an awful lot of events. Some are probably planned by you; some might be planned by volunteers or other staff; some might be planned by student leaders.

And so I ask the question another way: How often will the planners start by praying through and thinking through what – exactly – they’re meant to aim for, and only afterwards plan the retreat, the small group session, the music set, or the service project? Are your students doing this every time? Are you?

Though God can certainly bear fruit from all sorts of poorly planned methods (and does all the time), our participation with Him as co-laborers demands seeking His thoughts on the front end, not just seeking His blessing on the back end.

So how well does your count – the actual number – of events that will be planned with the end in mind correspond with that reality?

(For more on this, you can definitely read my series on Backwards College Ministry.)

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Many, many of us are good at slapping some coats of Contextualization on our already-built ministries, ministries composed of bricks from various sources. If we spend time loving one campus long enough, we might occasionally do some minor renovations that involve Contextualization more heavily, adding a wing or modifying a previously incongruous room to match better the campus we love.

But there’s not a lot of evidence of campus ministries designed with their own campus in mind more than any other influence. This sort of ministry would be composed of local bricks, nearly every decision affected by the campus tribe in which it finds itself. These college ministries are inherently contextual rather than simply growing to fit (somewhat) the field they’re in over time.

Of course, a large number of college ministries are still doing amazing work on their campuses. The lack of ground-up contextualization hasn’t kept them from bearing exciting, enormous fruit. But what more might we accomplish?

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But whatever the case, I’d just like to ask for your prayers in the the coming few days. I’m aiming to spend some focused time this week seeking the Lord and thinking through my present situation when it comes to income.

As I’ve seen all along the way, an undervalued field of ministry simply doesn’t offer a lot of “financial base”… even for somebody who’s seen hundreds of college ministries and will gladly give his entire life to serve college ministers if given the chance to do so. Very few Christians (including those within the field of collegiate ministry) are seeking out that kind of expertise right now. It’s a bummer, but it’s a reality.

So these days, I’m at the point of needing to figure out – right now – my next steps, even if it means adjusting in some major ways. I don’t know what it might mean – but, of course, that’s why I’m seeking Him. I’m honored for any praying you’re willing to do on my behalf!

Thanks for being part of this amazing field. My deepest hope is that my time with this field is far from over!

Yes, students should be pushed to recognize that ministry to others, involvement in community, and other Christian pursuits should be a major part of their collegiate experience. Many of them don’t steward their time accordingly, or sacrifice in this area like they should.

But we are shepherds of these students, and we have to be willing to see both sides of this concern. I think it’s easy for us to correct their errors in underspending their time for ministry-oriented activities… while not taking responsibility not to ask too much of them.

Oftentimes the activities we expect of students – or even simply the events we offer them – make it far too easy for them to fall into a trap of spending too much of their time within our ministries… and too little time either in spiritual pursuits outside our college ministry OR on all the other equally spiritual pursuits of education, relationships, family, and any other callings God has placed on their lives.

For campus-based college ministries and institutional college ministries at Christian colleges, this includes not so filling students’ calendars that they find it all too easy to ignore church involvement.

So this has to be a priority, and it’s certainly a part of Hospitality: purposely ordering our college ministries to keep from overburdening students’ schedules.

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So the Fridea is along those lines: Remind students of what God did and what He showed them last semester (or quarter).

Whether you push students to ponder this on their own OR actually recap the teaching and other impact of Fall 2011 (or, preferably, BOTH), this is a good chance to add continuity within the year… and to “give God space” to finish the good things He began only a few months ago.

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They will have a better impact. They will better fulfill their ministry. They will create a far better ministry over time, in ways both obvious and non-obvious.

But I’ll go one step further today.

There’s a big difference between the college ministry that looks at other ministries mainly to learn what to do… and the college ministry that discerns what it should do, in its context, and then finds other ministries to learn how to do those things better.

Of course other ministries will always (and should always) give us new ideas for the what. But far too often we find the bulk of our methods in either:

• large, successful college ministries
• our own experiences in college ministries
• or the “ways it’s usually done” in our organization or denomination

The more your methods have arisen from your context and your audience – while regularly looking for others’ wisdom on how to use those methods best – the better you’ll impact. As I’ve noted lots of other times, I think the panorama of college ministries is far, far too homogenous for such diverse mission fields as ours.

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When I’m thinking about Hospitality (in college ministry, churches, or otherwise), it helps me to consider how the perfect party host handles her soirees. Does she aim to host the bulk of her crowd, or all of her crowd?

I think she considers the All.

That doesn’t mean she acts the same to all (in fact, Hospitality recognizes that people need to be treated differently). And she doesn’t give in to every single expectation of each person, either.

But she thinks of all, she acknowledges all, she does what she can to host everyone at the party.

I would never say that a college ministry needs to (necessarily) target all students, cater equally to all students, or involve all students in the same way. But it seems to me… I think… that a Hospitable college ministry will indeed consider all students who make their way into it, for a day or a semester or longer.

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