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As a college minister, you probably have some room in the schedule over the next few days. Of course, family and football take precedence, but if you have some time beyond all that, I want to encourage you the same way InterVarsity’s Emerging Scholars Network just encouraged its readers:
Add Reaching the Campus Tribes to your Thanksgiving Break to-do list.
www.reachingthecampustribes.com
If you haven’t had the chance to read my (free and full-of-pictures) book yet, this week is a magnificent time to do so. The book offers major encouragement and major ideas for anyone involved in ministering to college students. Could you use a huge boost as the semester or quarter draws to a close – and as the next one is right around the corner?
You can easily read the whole thing in a day – especially a lazy, cozy day during Thanksgiving Break. And there’s even a mobile version if you need it, perfect for loading onto a phone and sneaking a peek during Halftimes!
I appreciate the thousands who have visited the site and downloaded the book so far. I’m excited that it seems to be helpful to a wide range of college ministers. After roaming the country over the last few years (and 8 years of direct college ministry before that), it’s still the best way I can share with you the fruit of what I’ve seen.
And if we’ll pass Reaching to other American Christians who need to understand what we do… it might just be a tool God uses to grow their support for our work, too.
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Meanwhile, as many of you are indeed beginning your Thanksgiving break today, I’m going to join you and take a few days off of the ol’ blog. Personally, it’s a doubly good time for me to take a pause, since…
…the enormous Road Trip 13 comes to a close today (presumably, at least).
I’ll have recapping to do next week, but for now it’s going to be a good time to rest up, hang with family, and clean out my car once more. It’s amazing the entropy that sets in during 7 weeks on the road!
See you on Monday.
written from Dickson, TN
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Exploring College Ministry Road Trip 13: Day 52 recap
recap: VA to mid-TN, with a fun stop at Tennessee Tech (see all explorations so far)
mileage: 9,213 miles (so far)
new campus: Tennessee Tech (#36)
new state: Tennessee (#24)
T-shirt: the Huskies of UConn
wednesday: I make my way home to the Dallas area! (final T-shirt today: the Pride of Widener University)
I mentioned earlier this week that the response to Reaching the Campus Tribes, my college ministry book, has already been phenomenal – and in less than a month since the official release!
But I honestly believe that if lots of people find this book – and read it – all of us who serve in college ministry could benefit. In fact, if even some of its ideas find widespread use, EVERYTHING could change!
That’s my prayer & hope for this book. But we’re a long way from being there.
So here are a few thoughts on what YOU could do (whoever you might be) to help share this free book, organized from the least crazy to a little bit braver. Remember the book can be downloaded for free at http://www.reachingthecampustribes.com. And it’s certainly email-able, print-able and copy-able, as well.
- Share the book with buddies. Is there anybody you’ve meant to send the book to? Friends, students, fellow campus ministers in your circles? (You know they’ll at least like the pictures, right?)
- Go public with your support. Stick something about reachingthecampustribes.com on your Facebook status or Twitter update, and I bet some new people find the book. Blog posts are extremely helpful, too!
- Share the book with local college ministers. This takes a little more guts… What if you told every college minister reaching your campus(es) for Jesus about this book? Reaching the Campus Tribes could be a real help within any community of college ministers: for building mutual appreciation, building some level of better cooperation, presenting a common language for your common task, and even just serving as a rallying cry for this amazing work we do. But a rally’s only a rally if others are involved!
- Share the book with your church. What if your pastor, your church’s staff, or even the whole congregation had access to Reaching the Campus Tribes? Wouldn’t that encourage them to support college ministry better? Wouldn’t that encourage them to make sure students are well-served? You betcha!
- Cast this book upon the waters… Finally, the guerrilla strike! What if you shared this book with people you don’t know – like leaders in your town, presbytery, association, state, or national body? Are there any innovative people who might like thinking big thoughts about reaching college students better? Are there any major opinion leaders who need to think those thoughts, whether they’d enjoy it or not? Would it help create change if 20 copies from 20 people (even if they’re strangers) showed up on a leader’s e-doorstep?
God may choose for this book to spread widely, or He may have other plans. But I encourage you to think about helping others enjoy it this week! While I’ll be walking through those steps myself, your word will actually mean more than mine; a recommendation from a friend (or even a stranger) often means far more than the recommendation from the author himself!
Thanks a bunch for any help you can give!
Written from Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, NJ
Road Trip #11 update (Day 18):
yesterday’s T-shirt: the Maui Community College tribe and a polo from the Tiger tribe of LSU
Please be praying for direction for where to go next (after the conference ends this morning)!
(click here to learn more about Road Trip #11)
Chapter 6 of the new book is a quirky little interlude, but I actually really like it being in there. Entitled “Practical Concerns,” it addresses some of the key issues Christians have about practicing college ministry. Chapter 5 of the book discusses why college ministry matters; Chapter 6 (hopefully) precludes the objections that arise even after people have all those great reasons to reach college students.
Here’s the beginning of Chapter 6:
Even though there may be strong reasons to prioritize college ministry, it still must be practical for the many churches, denominations, and parachurch groups who will be involved. So it’s very important to address common concerns about taking on this task.
The most common objections to pursuing college ministry arise from the following areas:
- The short time frame and transitory nature of the college years
- Past difficulties experienced in trying to impact college students
- Not enjoying the fruits of our labors, because students graduate and move on
- The unspiritual or uninterested nature of collegiate culture
- The financial cost involved, without receiving financial return from the students
We might assume these objections most often come from pastors and churches. But they can apply just as much to those in campus-based and Christian college settings, as well as to denominational leaders and members, parachurch participants, and anyone else who might consider connecting to the campus tribes.
I’ll address these concerns in the following pages…
Reaching the Campus Tribes will be released on Monday, April 20th; it can be downloaded for free at www.reachingthecampustribes.com.
Here’s the table of contents for the upcoming Reaching the Campus Tribes (An Opening Inquiry), which will be publicly released here for free on April 20th!
And below the table of contents… the cover! (It’s pretty cool if you ask me; click the pic to see it bigger.)
- Look to the Fields: introducing the campus tribes
- Exploring the Campus Tribes: how i ended up on a yearlong journey to 181 campus tribes, and what i experienced
- White unto Harvest: why our present work isn’t enough
- Reaching the Campus Tribes: a new outlook to improve our efforts
- The Harvest is Plentiful: why reaching the campus tribes could change everything, and other reasons this matters
- Practical Concerns: why greater work among the campus tribes is practical in light of the difficulties
- Orienting (A Conclusion and Vision Trip)
- Into the Harvest – A Road Map Forward from a Road Trip’s Findings: specific steps forward for reaching the campus tribes
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