The Fridea? Regularly share with other college ministers the NEW opportunities or possibilities that seem to pop up on the radar.

Here’s what I mean: Every once in a while, it’s likely that a potential outlet for future ministry presents itself:

• Key students talk to you about a new passion they have for a certain issue
• You notice several students from a certain niche start coming to your large group meeting
• You begin to notice a possible opportunity for outreach, and as you pray you continue to think about it
• An administrator contacts you about a certain need on campus
• You attend a conference and hear about a method for reaching fraternities that you’d love to try
• …and so on.

However new ideas show up on the radar, what if you made a point to express these possibilities to other ministers? Isn’t it just possible God might be showing them similar things? Plus, sometimes the encouragement they’ll offer – which might just include an invite to partner together – will be the encouragement you need to actually go for this.

If you sent a monthly email to all the other college ministers simply telling them the brainstorming you, your staff, and your student leaders have been doing, you might be shocked to see God use that to build partnerships to accomplish those very things!

—————————————————————————————

[Click to ask questions, comment, or see any comments on this post!]

Clearly, lots of churches don’t take that same stance. But the truth is, lots of college ministries don’t, either. In our case, I believe there’s room for a lot more partnership in service activities – as well as other functions of our ministries.

How often do you consider questions like these?:

• Before we launch a Bible study for that sorority, do we know of any other ministries with students in that club?
• Instead of assuming nobody’s already reaching that dorm, have we tried to find out and maybe join them?
• We’ve thought about advertising to that nearby community college – is there a church that might want to help with that outreach?
• Are there any other secular clubs on campus that could partner with us for this campus-wide party?
• Before choosing a new service project, have we considered the ones the campus is already getting behind?
• Instead of having our five students with a passion for _____________ do that on their own, what if they joined forces with similar students from other ministries?

Believe me, I recognize there are sometimes great reasons NOT to partner. But I feel like we’re more often erring on the other side of things, on the side that needlessly recreates wheels and misses opportunities for a little extra unity. We have to be open to considering partnership often.

One more note – When it comes to partnering with other ministries, let me say this: I am by no means a naysayer when it comes to having multiple college ministries on a campus. I understand the role they serve, and I know there are real differences between groups. (It is a misunderstanding of biblical unity to declare that things shouldn’t be this way.) But the fact that there often should be multiple college ministries on one campus doesn’t mean that the next activity can’t be done in unison – whether it’s starting a niche ministry or holding a Service Day downtown.

—————————————————————————————

[Click to ask questions, comment, or see any comments on this post!]

I realize that there were (and still are) many emotions surrounding those situations. And everybody’s personal response, of course, varies.

But I have two questions for you to consider about your own love for your campus – as opposed to (simply) loving your ministry to that campus:

1. Do you love your campus enough that you would be emotional – even devastated – if such things happened in your own backyard? Even if they had no direct connections to your ministry
2. Do you love campuses enough that you can weep with the college ministers and students of Penn State?

I realize each person’s take on #2 might vary; while I’d love to see every college minister care about others’ mission fields, our experiences and “wiring” are all different here.

But I think #1 is a non-negotiable for good campus ministry, and it’s a great assessment of how well we’ve really come to adore the field God’s given us to tend. I hope we’re all weeping with those who weep in our own campus tribes.

—————————————————————————————

[Click to ask questions, comment, or see any comments on this post!]

What I particularly like about this article, though, is that it’s pretty informal – clearly just Lomenick’s quick-take on what he’s learned in his various ministry roles – as well as from picking the brains of some of his staff members. (Below is the start of the article and some of the most interesting ones, but click here to read the whole thing – as well as people’s comments.)

A good friend asked me the other day my thoughts on how to lead the millennial generation, basically those born after 1980. We gather thousands of leaders who fit this category on an annual basis, and most of our Catalyst staff are under the age of 30.

I have to admit- I don’t always get this right. As a 100% Gen X’er, my tendency is to lean away from several of these points, and lead how I’ve been led over the years by Boomer and Busters. But I’m working on it….

So with that said, here you go, thoughts on leading millenials:

1. Give them freedom with their schedule. I’ll admit, this one is tough for me.

7. Lead each person uniquely. Don’t create standards or rules that apply to everyone. Customize your approach. (I’ll admit, this one is difficult too!)

8. Make authenticity and honesty the standard for your corporate culture. Millenials are cynical at their core, and don’t trust someone just because they are in charge.

13. Not about working for a personality. Not interested in laboring long hours to build a temporal kingdom for one person. But will work their guts out for a cause and vision bigger than themselves.

14. Deeply desire mentoring, learning and discipleship. Many older leaders think millenials aren’t interested in generational wisdom transfer. Not true at all. Younger leaders are hungry for mentoring and discipleship, so build it into your organizational environment.

18. They’ve been exposed to just about everything, so the sky is the limit in their minds. Older leaders have to understand younger leaders have a much broader and global perspective, which makes wowing Millenials much more difficult.

And again, I’d encourage you to click here to read the whole thing – along with people’s comments!

—————————————————————————————

[Click to ask questions, comment, or see any comments on this post!]

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?

—————————————————————————————

[Click to ask questions, comment, or see any comments on this post!]

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?

—————————————————————————————

[Click to ask questions, comment, or see any comments on this post!]

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.

—————————————————————————————

[Click to ask questions, comment, or see any comments on this post!]

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.)

—————————————————————————————

[Click to ask questions, comment, or see any comments on this post!]

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?

—————————————————————————————

[Click to ask questions, comment, or see any comments on this post!]

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!