a month’s worth of college ministry thinkings!

You may have noticed that it’s been awhile since I’ve been able to offer a “weekly wrap-up,” what with my crazy mouth-health issues in the first half of April and my fourteenth giant Road Trip in the second half. But I’ve grown to enjoy putting those wrap-up posts together – not only because they keep me reading everybody’s blogs, but also because I’m hopeful it’s a chance to connect YOU with some of the most helpful stuff out there.

I’ve spent the last couple of days working my way through all the blogs I’d been missing. So while it may get a little messy, I wanted to present some of the best finds from that time.

As always, this list is my subjective collection of what I think should help my readers most. And because I’ve had to catch up in a rather speedy fashion, my selection process was even more haphazard than usual! But still, I hope you can find some time today or this week and help yourself to some helpful thinkings. Categorized for your convenience!

methods

• Big study day: Want to see how a ministry gets a BIG method off the ground? Check out Blackhawk Church’s (intense!) site for its biannual Study Day.
• Evangelism methods: Matt McComas with a phenomenal idea for sharing methods between college ministries.
• Preparing for & dealing with sexual abuse (of students): Tim Ehrhardt with a phenomenal primer.
• Discipling skeptics: Steve Lutz with some of his preferred approaches / resources.
• Senior Send-off: Jason Yarnell with details on how they did it.
• Partnering with other college ministries: Gilbert Kingsley discusses forming those.
• Retro worship: Brian Virtue with an idea that would easily apply to college ministry large group meetings.
• Thinking about next year: Some ideas for the first few weeks of school, by Jerry Beavers.
• Greeks & college ministry: Laura Kellow with how she learned to reach the fraternity niche.
• Calendar for college ministers: Glen Davis with a cool online tool he made for creating a weekly calendar for any date range (i.e., a quarter or a semester).
• iPhone apps: Josh Hale lists them for clergy, but there’s potential overlap with us.
• And Threads interviews Guy Chmieleski on facilitating Bible study, training leaders, summer impact, and preparing for the fall.

wisdom for the field

• On student leaders: Brian Barela on choosing (not too many) student leaders.
• On campus ministry unity: A fascinating discussion – prompted by Guy Chmieleski – about unity among campus ministries (be sure to read the comments); a connected post followed.
• On missional college ministry: Justin Wallace asking gutsy Qs about college students living missionally… and wisely.
• On social media: Matt McComas with THE video (updated!) for expressing (and realizing) the domination of Social Media. If you haven’t seen it, you should. (And he had another post on helping others understand Social Media & its importance, too.)
• On starting a college ministry well: Tim Ehrardt asks a fascinating question.
• On recruiting upcoming students: Jon Nitta’s observations, from the perspective of both campus-based and church-based college ministry.
• On Millennials: Tim Elmore with the start of a series on their world – first here, then here. (See earlier in April for his series on “Leading the Next Generation Well.”) And Lee Floyd links to new stats on Gen Y & religion.
• On excellence: Matt McComas with a helpful call not to let “non-profit” be an excuse…
• On wise disciplemaking: Tom Greentree urges us to be wise and careful.
• On the teaching process: Betsy Prosise applies teaching theory to college ministry.
• On students & their flakiness: Tim Ehrhardt offers a more subtle approach to helping them.

assessment

• Russ Martin with a very profound and simple assessment tool.
• Brian Barela asks if your ministry is too big… or too small…
• Guy Chmieleski on whether our ministry would both be ready and be called upon if disaster struck our campus.
• Brian Barela on raising up aligned students (& student leaders).

books

• CPYU interviews the author of Enjoy Your Money!, which sounds like it could be great for teaching collegians, future collegians, and their parents about money matters.
• Heart of Campus Ministry asking about ministry books most applicable to campus ministry.
• Bob Hetzler suggests some for helping HS students make the transition to college.
• Ken Cochrum provides his Leadership Reading List for 2010 (and gets some other suggestions in the comments).

and more

• Chi Alpha at UVM had a little tolerance-hiccup when trying to get started, Glen Davis reports.
• Christians in Action has won Campus Org of the Year at Texas A&M – Corpus Christi, reports Wes Woodell! (The actual announcement is in PDF form.)
• Betsy Prosise, presently a student and college minister-in-training, offers a great perspective on (and nice thank-you for) us who blog.

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