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Last Wednesday, I started posting a public log of Michael Frost’s comments about college ministry last week in Brazil. (If you’re unfamiliar, Michael Frost is an internationally acclaimed expert on the Missional Church.) Time was short while I was on the trip, and my updating fell behind. So here’s the FULL list, and I’ll post a few reflections below the list.
When we’re in the presence of experts like this, it’s good for us to lap up all we can – whether we agree with them on every point or not. (I certainly wouldn’t agree with every single point Frost made, and I’d love to hear arguments for OR against his thoughts here.)
These are simply the references Frost made to college ministry or common college ministry practices. I’m trying to present them as straightforwardly as I can. Whether we’d ascribe to each of these assertions, it’s still some excellent stuff to chew on.
- Frost said he doesn’t like the approach of motivating college ministry by sharing the bleak statistics. His specific example was someone sharing the large number of people on his campus, followed with “but only 1% follow Christ.” That focus is not all that motivational, he said. Instead, he seemed to be inferring that we should motivate by describing the specific people to whom we’ve been sent.
- He said that as a general rule, “I don’t think we’re meant to evangelize strangers.” This was said in response to a question about how “announcement” and “demonstration” work together without one being subservient to another (a key point he argued in his first talk). After stating that those two things should generally accompany each other, he made this quote.
- After stating that missional Christians have to embed ourselves into communities, Frost added, “I guess you do [that] as campus ministries especially,” stating his observation that college ministries already tend to embed themselves into their people group.
- He used the arguments of Allen (1927) and Bosch (from the 1980s) to argue against campus ministry models that let the church “outsource” their mission aspect. He described it as the college ministers saying, We’ll go on mission, and then we’ll send them to you [the churches] to get the Worship, Discipleship, etc..
- Connected to #4, Frost said oftentimes the Christians who are most willing to go “on mission” often get “ejected” from within the church in order to perform that mission outside the church. This particularly missional group includes, he said, college ministers.
- Connected to #4 and #5, he said we college ministers need to take that missional passion God has given us and make sure we’re connecting with our own churches enough to help bring them to this understanding.
- Frost explained that one of the key practices of missional ministry is Proximity in his third message, and he specifically noted that college ministers do practice Proximity (by spending our time on campus).
- Someone on our team shared that much college ministry work seems to require us to play various roles – including roles that seem to avoid the “Powerless” orientation Frost had argued for in that third message. How do we deal with the need, for example, to be respected by the school’s administration, if we’re supposed to take a “powerless” approach like Jesus did? Frost replied that “bringing ourselves lower” doesn’t mean acting in a way that disrespects the people we’re working among. Further, he said, we can’t undo who we are – for example, if we have a Master’s degree. But we just shouldn’t go in with lots of prefabricated products and methods. Instead, we should adopt a “Don’t just do something; sit there” mentality, spending time with and among students to discover the needs and the methods.
- Toward the end of that third session, Frost added an emphatic word for campus ministers: Let students participate in the mission.
- As Frost started his final message (Questions for Missional Ministry), he said that many of the college ministers he’d been chatting with on our trip were already asking these same missional questions. He encouraged us to help our churches ask the same questions we’ve already been asking.
- He mentioned #1 again on the final day.
- After urging us to follow the God of the missio Dei, he asked rhetorically (and with affirmation), “Why would you be doing student ministry, why would you be planting churches, if you weren’t?”
- Regarding the specific Missional Question of “To whom have you been sent?,” Frost specifically noted that we (in that audience) are already thinking about this question, since we know the campuses we’re called to. But he again encouraged us to help our churches think about the same question.
- I asked how we in college ministry should best define our people groups, and if it’s possible to “over-define” or too narrowly define those groups. He answered that we could indeed over-define these groups. His example involved saying that we shouldn’t try to reach a geographic area (the “parish model”) on top of trying to reach college students (which are the subculture), because students don’t really see their identity as belonging to the “west side of campus.”
- In connection with Frost’s point that we should reach out missionally together, he stated that many parachurch ministries started instead with rugged individualism. The mentality has been, he said, “This group isn’t being reached, so I’m going to reach them.” His examples included a major national college ministry and a ministry to surfers.
I was most interested in two facets here:
- Frost was extremely consistent in explicitly treating college ministers and the act of college ministry as generally “missional.”
- Playing off that belief, he regularly encouraged us to use our own missional understanding to help our churches understand these things.
Of course, Frost was talking about much more than college ministry. These are just comments that came up in the course of his four messages. If you’d like to read some fairly detailed notes that walk through the great primer on “missional-nees” that he provided, check ‘em out:
- Talk one: Basics of Missional
- Talk two: The Missional Church
- Talk three: What Missional People Do
- Talk four: Questions for Missional Ministry
So there you have it! I’m sure I’ll be springboarding from these thoughts for awhile, so stay tuned.
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updated tuesday, may 18
It’s not often that we who invest our lives in students get to hear “thoughts on college ministry” from Christian leaders in other areas. (But I look forward to the day when that’s not the case!)
So you might imagine that I’m lapping up all I can this week, as Dr. Michael Frost is discussing missional ministry with our team of 40 – a majority of whom are college ministers.
He just started teaching yesterday, but I’ll add to this list (on this same post) as the week goes on. So be sure to check back each day; if something new has been spoken, I’ll try to have it here.
For now… (and please remember, these are his opinions, not necessarily mine)
- He said he doesn’t like the approach of motivating college ministry by sharing the bleak statistics: his specific example was sharing the large number of people on our campus, “but only 1% follow Christ.” That’s not all that motivational, he said. Instead, he seemed to be inferring that we should motivate by sharing the specific people to whom we’ve been sent.
- He said that as a general rule, “I don’t think we’re meant to evangelize strangers.” This was said in response to a question about how “announcement” and “demonstration” work together without one being subservient to another (a key point he argued on Monday). He stated that they’re meant to work as two sides of the same declaration, not as two pieces that are juxtaposed. That point led to this quote, which certainly directly applies to our methodologies. (Again, these are his thoughts, not mine.)
- After stating that missional Christians have to embed ourselves into communities, he added, “I guess you do [that] as campus ministries especially.” In other words, he was stating his observation that college ministries often already participate in that area of missional ministry.
- He used the arguments of Allen (1927) and Bosch (from the 80s) to argue against campus ministry models that let the church “outsource” their mission aspect. He described it as the college ministers saying, We’ll go on mission, and then we’ll send them to you to get the Worship, Discipleship, etc..
- Connected to #4, he said oftentimes those people most willing to go “on mission” get ejected from our churches into performing that mission outside the church.
- Connected to #4 and #5, he noted that we campus ministers are part of that “missional” bunch of people. So we need to take that passion God has given and make sure we’re connecting with our churches enough to help bring them to this understanding.
More to come! Meanwhile, if you’d simply like the notes of what Frost is teaching this week, I’m blogging that in my official capacity on the trip. I’ll update this list in the days to come, too.
- Talk one: Basics of Missional
- Talk two: The Missional Church (available early 5-19)
Feel free to interact with anything he’s said here (or with me personally). I’m looking to glean this week – not just for me but for all of us, and not just things I agree with but things that can and should make us all think!
Update: Brazil Missional Trek
Monday, Day 4: This was another long day. I went with one team to journey throughout downtown and a few different neighborhoods, seeing some sites but ultimately ending in some “free hugs” service and an amazing time with the Zoe Church community at Starbucks. I even had the chance to talk about Jesus with a guy – in tandem with one of the Zoe members! (To follow along with the team and what we’re learning / experiencing, see our blog at plantingbrazil.wordpress.com.)
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I’ve come to learn that relatively common college ministry methods still aren’t always widely known. This week’s Fridea is one of those tools that I’ve seen in a number of ministries, but I would still guess it hasn’t come into play in plenty of others.
This idea is also a particularly Missional undertaking – and just happens to be one of the many ways college ministries have been “missional” since long before “missional” was cool.
The Fridea? Encourage students to stay in the dorms, as intentional ministers to next year’s residents.
I hope it’s not too late to share this idea, but it’s amazing how God can turn students’ plans, even at the end of the school year – and even in the summer.
Certainly, in some contexts this method takes place “organically”; students, having been gripped by Jesus, recognize the unique soil provided by the dorm environment. So instead of jumping into an apartment or splitting a house with buddies, they decide to renew their dorm lease for another year… or in some cases, even choose to return to the dorms after a hiatus off-campus.
But unless this is happening in a widely known way on your campus, you might need to nudge your students to consider this sacrificial sojourn. The OU BSU did that through a student testimony just last night; they also have that as one of their scrolling announcements on their home page right now.
And here’s the thing: An intentional decision (maybe even especially if it’s a hard decision) to live in the dorms will help students become even more “on mission” than they were before. It’s the principle of your heart following your treasure (Matt. 6:21), which is actually a psychological principle (and thus the way God made us). As students give of their comfort-treasure and coolness-treasure and money-treasure and alone-time-treasure and Christian-environment-treasure to live in the dorms… their heart will find itself more firmly embedded in those places than ever.
So might this be worth an announcement, an email, a push? If not, could you put it on the calendar for next year?
Written from Motel 6, Oklahoma City, OK
Road Trip 14 recap, Day 15 (see all explorations here)
new campuses: Oklahoma City Community College (#22), Hillsdale Free Will Baptist College, Moore, OK (#23)
yesterday: exploring OKC and another run to OU in Norman!
today: more at OU… and then, we’ll see. If nothing comes up for the weekend, I’ll probably head home!
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During the Verge Conference last week, I participated in several detailed discussions of how various college ministries are working to be missional. This was of course fascinating – especially in Austin, where some college ministries have established missional micro-communities among various campus segments.
I have been a fan of micro-communities and other strategically missional college ministry methods for a long time – ever since I heard of various fellow Texas A&M students starting such endeavors organically when I was in college. I’ve heard about and seen this happening plenty of other places in American college ministry, too – sometimes it’s formal and designated, and other times it’s more informal and organic.
(If you missed it, I celebrated the generally missional nature of college ministry on Friday!)
After comparing and contrasting hundreds of college ministries in the last few years, I end up asking a lot of questions when I encounter any ministry or model. Often I keep these questions to myself, though there are plenty of times when people want some poking and prodding via impactful questions. (I appreciate those kinds of college ministry learners, and I’m happy to oblige!)
I jotted down plenty of questions at Verge, so I figured I’d post them – as we all wrestle with what it means to be most missional and most effective. Many of these questions could be vital, and yet many of them will require…
- deep research
- wide, multi-context study
- spirited debate
- or all of the above!
Of course, we need much more of this in college ministry, in general – so let’s get crackin’! Who’s up for it?
Meanwhile, answers are (usually) preceded by questions. So here you go – some questions connected to missional college ministry efforts:
- When reaching campus particular segments / niches, how do we decide where to draw lines between segments?
- How do we truly evaluate the success of any college ministry model (vs. another method we might have tried)? Is that possible?
- Is it better for new missional endeavors to spring up organically, or should we strategize them?
- As college students lead throughout our ministries, how much authority / autonomy should they be given?
- How are our efforts at building missional communities affected by the short time we have with students? Or by their transitory nature even within their college experience? Should those things matter?
- When pushing for missional activity, how do you create a “front door” for those Christians – AND non-Christians – who aren’t yet interested in living ultra-missionally? Should we worry about this?
- Does collegians’ devotion to missional micro-communities and other high-commitment methods always indicate that God is at work? Since students regularly exhibit zeal-without-wisdom, how do we differentiate students’ godly passion from Gnosticism (or its active cousin, Legalism)?
- When starting a new missional work in a single campus segment or “niche,” do we need to do the same groundwork, cultural exegesis, and patient progression as when we start an entire new campus ministry?
- How does a missional focus affect our impact on the campus as a whole? (This includes our impact on faculty, administration, the “shalom of the campus,” and other campus ministries.) How much energy should we put toward this campus integration?
- Since college ministries almost always seek to deal with students “on their terms” – and most do so “on their turf” – is the question about being missional or being more missional? How does this affect our approach?
- For those who practice more classic college ministry models: Are you open to radically changing your methodology, if that’s what it takes to be more effective?
- For those who have adapted a “missional community” model: Could there be some contexts where classic college ministry efforts could be more missionally effective?
- Whatever answers we give to these questions, how sure are we that we’re right? Does our certainty match our study?
While these questions may take years for us to answer well, feel free to share any first opinions or experiences you’ve got!
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