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As I noted earlier this week, I’ve been on a learning trip with our large church team. That meant several great learning “interviews” – not too unlike the hundreds I’ve done with college ministers, only this time with a few other people sitting alongside me in each one.
Of course, my coworkers asked many good questions. But since some of them are newer to their roles than I am to mine, I led the way in several of those conversations. I also knew it was good to show the kind of questions they should ask of other ministers on a regular basis… and even show the kind of great question-asker they should become.
How often do students get to sit in on your learning sessions – whether that’s with other college ministers, campus administration, overseers or supporters, even other students?
Since this is a Fridea, I’ll offer a concrete challenge: Involve students in five learning conversations between now and the end of the school year. You can do that, can’t you? It might even set you – and them – up for a great new school year in the fall.
Have you considered taking a learning trip or “learning retreat” with your student leaders?
It’s on my mind because as you read this, I’m headed to Memphis with my church staff team to do that very thing. We’re excited to learn from church folks, parachurch folks, and secular non-profits, along with a few of us attending the MLK50 conference.
It’s been a bear to schedule learning opportunities for an entire team, but it’s oh so worth it: Learning from different contexts can help any ministry take leaps – and make tweaks – like few other learning experiences can. We’ll be better for it. So would you.
So what about it? What would your ideal College Ministry-Learning Trip consist of? And whom could you take?
Hope you had an awesome Spring Break, if that’s what you were doing last week.
I hope you point to the fields.
In all your dealings with supporters, parents of students, church congregations, overseers/bosses, former students, and others you share your ministry with… don’t forget to point to the awesome nature of collegiate ministry work – not simply what you’re doing on your campus.
Weekends like this one – in a wild NCAA Tournament – surely encourage us about the many wonderful places that have an outpost of truth. Colleges that most people have never heard of – like University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and Loyola University Chicago – are now front-page news. And simply the excitement of all of this (as I wrote last week) reminds us of the amazing nature of what you get to do – and especially where you get to do it.
I hope you’re encouraged, even by things like this Tournament. Don’t forget to encourage others about the amazing field of college ministry.
As the news broke this morning of the passing of Billy Graham, I couldn’t help but think about my favorite Billy Graham story: his role in Explo ’72, the Campus Crusade for Christ conference here in Dallas that came to be known as the “Christian Woodstock” and the pinnacle of the Jesus Movement. That event, in turn, helped push “Jesus Music” (later known as contemporary Christian music) forward among believers – obviously a watershed moment for any of us who have sung non-hymns with college students.
Below are a few interesting articles about Billy Graham’s connection to campus ministry… but of course hundreds or thousands of us have a more personal connection, too. In my case, the pastor of my church in college, Chris Osborne, had come to Christ after seeing Graham on TV, and I’m very thankful for the impact that pastor had on my life. Whether it’s a lineage of evangelism or impact, I wouldn’t be surprised if many of you can trace a little of the “Billy gene” in your spiritual DNA.
- Evangelicals on Campus: an interesting look from Patheos on Billy Graham’s presence on campuses (which wasn’t always welcome)
- A Look at Billy Graham’s Ministry in College: Where did Graham get his fire for evangelism? In college! (There’s even a poignant scene on the college golf course.) Not only does this highlight the “college ministry” role of Christian colleges, but it emphasizes just how world-changing ministry to collegians can be.
- A ‘Religious Woodstock’ Draws 75,000: the New York Times take on Explo ’72, written at the time
- What Really Happened at Explo ’72: a quick synopsis from Cru
- Tips for using Billy Graham’s “My Hope” film on college campuses
In years past, I’ve noted that events like the annual Super Bowl do a great job of highly publicizing the opportunity available by ministering to college students. (So, for instance, it’s a great time to remind your fundraisers or overseers of that fact.)
Helpfully, SB Nation has a great article on the college represented in this year’s Super Bowl. The article even notes that the schools themselves are making these connections (even if college ministers don’t!):
Colleges care about this stuff even more than fans do. Take a look at your school’s social media accounts over the next two weeks (and maybe even already), and you’ll see graphics congratulating each alum who’s headed to Minnesota.
Stanford leads the way with 5 players represented on the two teams’ rosters, and it’s no surprise that Florida State, Michigan, Georgia, and other big name, big-sized schools have a few. But other schools illustrate the potential of college ministry to impact leaders even at “lesser known” institutions… like University of Findlay (in Ohio) and Shepherd University (in West Virginia). See them all here.
The students you impact will go on to something, whether it’s a Super Bowl or building great buildings or politics or being fantastic parents. The Super Bowl is just one great reminder of how far your impact will go.
I’ve posted this before but probably can’t say it enough.
Summer slows down for me a bit, so, for example, I might get the chance to press forward on the theory and strategy side of my ministry by reading a variety of books. I’ve attended heavy-duty conferences in summers past, or started working on something spring simply didn’t provide time for.
Crash-coursing can be a joy.
I don’t know what your summer looks like, but here’s one thing I can guess is true: There’s at least one portion of your college ministry which, if you improved during this summer, would truly (and forever) impact the ministry as a whole.
So the question is, can you take the time this summer to make that advance?
Could you take a few days, or an hour every day for a couple of weeks, or a weekend retreat, or some other “crash course” season to move the ball forward in that area? Sure, a crash course is not the only way to learn – maybe not even the best way. But it can work for certain topics – and even more importantly, it may actually be something you’ll actually do!
If you HAD to choose something to take a crash course on, what would it be?
Have you considered just how valuable college seniors could be for improving your ministry?
Sure, you may already be using seniors in major discipleship arenas – discipling individual underclassmen, teaching, running ministry teams, etc. And that may be right where they need to stay.
But this idea still could fit some of those seniors (as a “side job”), other seniors whose plates are too full for larger ventures, and even seniors who aren’t ready to lead – but have faithfully persisted in your campus ministry over the years.
What if you looked at these students’ skills – especially the careers they’ve chosen – and imagine how each might build the college ministry? Instead of putting each individual on a team, this option would mean treating a few chosen seniors as “consultants,” charged with examining or improving some portion of the ministry.
Not everything may line up perfectly, but you might surprise yourself with a little brainstorming. A graphic design student might create your next logo… or even design an entire “marketing” plan for the next few years (for recruiting students OR for fundraising). An engineer might take a look at your building (if you have a building), but she could also set her analytical gaze on your student tracking system. A student who’s proven time and time again to be great at teaching may actually need to pull back from teaching this year… and instead become a coach of underclassmen who are teaching or leading small groups.
If you think about this method student-by-student (rather than trying to brainstorm “ways to use people” without people actually in mind), you’re likely to come up with some pretty great options. After these trustworthy seniors have already spent years in your ministry teams, leading small groups, or – like I said – simply attending (but doing that faithfully), this request might mean more to them than you’d imagine (even causing seniors to stick around and stay plugged in if they’re liable to fall off, as sometimes happens).
And it could be a boon to your ministry, with impact that far outlasts these guys’ graduations.
It may not be composed of an actual scrapbook, but what will you do to memorialize your college ministry’s history from this school year?
This too would be a great job for students. And sure, it’s sad if you haven’t done this through the years. But why not start now? Whether it’s a page or two, pamphlet-sized, or a wall of remembrance (that you ultimately take a picture of), commemorating what God’s done – and simply what took place, good and bad – can be quite powerful.
And “powerful” works both now and later. Pushing your ministry to recall the recent past ties hearts together, reminds of truths learned (from the stage and from circumstances), and celebrates the Lord’s shepherding and sustenance. But later – a year or two or ten years later – reminders work powerfully to assure of God’s faithfulness, reveal a ministry’s progress over time, point current students to the students who have gone before them, and encourage leaders when they need the encouragement.
(Bonus points for how this might impact an alumni network, provide great fodder for support letters, and give one more cool chance to involve students around their passions for art or writing or photography. Or scrapbooking!)
After posting yesterday about the need to excite students about collegiate ministry callings, I thought I’d repost a long-ago note about connecting students to other campuses right now. With edits, of course…
I remember a collegiate mission trip I got to help plan while I was a college minister in West Texas; we took about 100 students from Abilene to Boston. Obviously, Boston is one of the most “collegiate” cities in the U.S., so any visit there (even a vacation) might include Harvard and other famous campuses.
But I appreciated the fact that our planning team decided to take an extra step to connect students with those Boston-area campuses. While there, we not only encouraged our students to visit various schools, we participated in prayer walking and other campus ministry experiences. And not just at Harvard or MIT, but also at less-known (but still amazing) places like Northeastern U.
And so our Abilene students left the world of their various Christian colleges (all three of the big schools in Abilene are Christian schools!) and encountered fellow college students in very different settings.
Campus visits and connections to other campus ministry activities can be a fantastic way to…
- increase students’ awareness of the needs on their own campus
- catalyze their creativity for reaching their classmates
- spur them to the missional approach they should be living out day-to-day
- and open their eyes to the awesome adventure of college ministry as a vocation
This can be as simple as ducking into a campus on the way to the ski slopes or a conference – for lunch and a little prayer walking, “spiritual exegesis,” or a quick tour with / discussion with a campus minister. Or campus participation could make up a piece of your plans during a mission trip or retreat… or perhaps even the focus of the trip! Even a quick weekend road trip could bring you to a “foreign” campus tribe, offering an eye-opening and heart-stirring teachable moment.
And even if you won’t be around, you can encourage students to check out a campus (and even connect with a college ministry) when they take their own trips this summer, work an internship in an unfamiliar city, or go back home.
Join me on a vision trip.
Potential missionaries – or supporters – take a “vision trip” to imagine together how God might lead them to impact a particular people group.
Our vision trip takes us to a nation filled with numerous tribes. We’ve heard reports that these populations have a great need for the gospel, that these tribes are still largely unreached, and that darkness abounds within many of them. But these tribes are also highly influential within their nation as a whole, as well as being extremely open to influence – whether ours, others’, or their own educators’ and chiefs’.
The vision trip’s timing is fortunate: Representatives from nearly seventy of these tribes have recently gathered for a great annual contest (known to the natives as the “Tourney”). Elite warriors from each tribe compete in contests of endurance and skill, while thousands more surround the games to root for their delegates. By the time of our visit, only four tribes remain – four potential champions, finally whittled down from the original dozens.
This event could provide an excellent window into these tribes, so we watch.
We notice immediately that each tribe rallies around an individual identity, a nickname or costume that seems to bond its members rather mystically. Three of the remaining tribes have been named after animals – a common waterfowl, a fighting rooster, and a tenacious canine. The last tribe’s name derives from its region’s historic industry. But these four tribes defeated others, just as unique, to reach this point – many of these also named for animals, from Wolverines to Razorbacks, and others that hope to embody the spirit of Musketeers, Mountaineers, or simply the Irish (known as “Gaels”).
(The variety of tribal names reflects the striking variety of these tribes – a diversity between locations that might not be recognized by those unfamiliar with this mission field.)
The Tourney inspires much festivity, and all the more in these final stages. Dancers are prevalent – as are musicians, food, drink, wagers, and even prayers. The chiefs of the tribes are here, and can even be found celebrating alongside the youngest from their villages. Healers stand by, though actual bloodshed is minimal. Impartial judges are assigned to regulate the games (but face much taunting throughout). And often, above the din, tribal chants can be heard: sometimes jubilant or jeering; often rhythmic, even solemn.
But we look closer.
We can’t deny the deep passion in these tribes, among warriors and watchers alike. When competitors win the crowd’s elation is profound. But losing warriors may weep with bitterness that would be shocking if we hadn’t seen fervent zeal displayed all along. We view transcendent “shining moments” when Davids take down Goliaths, when boys become men for a few crucial minutes, when weakness is turned to strength to put opposing armies to flight. These brief contests reveal passion and enthusiasm that have yet to be tamed – not only in contestants, but in their tribes. There is a grit here, a rowdiness, a wild youthfulness. Wisdom will be important to add to this zeal, of course – but with this energy, much could be accomplished for God’s Kingdom.
It becomes clear that creativity and intelligence abound within these tribes, as well, and it’s not surprising that national and world leaders will come from within their ranks. Meanwhile, we also notice that the bond between tribe members – known as “spirit” – is not frivolous. It is through this sort of community and comradeship that truth can travel quickly – but so can falsehood.
As we continue observing the Tourney with missionary eyes, we are thrilled that God might ask us to reach such a unique people. Of course, this will not be an easy ministry (as though any missionary activity was ever easy!). Surely patience, energy, and investment will be required if strong and lasting work is to be built. But even a quick, competition-filled vision trip has shown us: These mission fields offer great opportunity and blessings untold. And if these particular people are reached well, they in turn will change the whole world.
All the “madness,” the excitement, the passion, and the valor found in this Tourney reflect the beautiful tribes from which the contestants come. And there are far more than sixty-eight tribes to reach.
This is the 2017 version of my annual “sixty-eight” essay.
I’ve had the amazing opportunity to visit 39 of the schools in this year’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, and I proudly wear shirts from 4 more that were donated by ministers or alumni.
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