"How did you learn to do College Ministry?"

Recently, a friend asked me a question I don't think I have ever been asked before.  He said, "How did you learn to do college ministry?".  I had to think about my answer for a while.  Simply put, it has been a lifelong process.  But, here are key points for me in the process of learning to be a College Minister.

-I was active in BSU on two different campuses and on the leadership team.  One was a small Baptist college and the other was a larger state university campus.  I saw a variety of things done.  Usually, we start out doing simply what we have seen done.

-My first job was at Henderson State University and I just picked up and continued doing some of the things that Nancy Philly Russ had done there before I came.

-We were required to go to Collegiate Week at Glorieta and Max Barnett was BSU Director at Oklahoma University;  He was considered one of the top College Ministers in Baptist life and he did a seminar in the leader track every year for several years.  I went to all of them.  The key thing I learned from him was to have a plan and strategy.  Then, work that strategy.  Don't just show up for work each day and see what happens.  Have a plan and work it.  I have done that ever since.

-When I went to Arkansas State as the BSU Director, Ron Wells was the BSU Director at Texas A&M and was considered one of the top College Ministers in America and led a large ministry there.  My boss paid for me to fly to Texas A&M and I followed Ron around for 2-3 days.

-A few years later I was at a regional College Ministers Conference at Southwestern Seminary and after a session, a group of us went to Grandy's to eat cinnamon rolls and talk shop.  Someone said, "This is better than the conference.  Wouldn't it be great if we could do this for two or three days?"  So, the next summer a group of us met at the BSU Center at Arkansas State and did it for three days.  We wrote questions on a white board and just went down the list.  It was wonderful! 

-For several summers I would pick out four or five College Ministers who I had heard were doing an excellent job.  I would send them a stamped, self-addressed envelope and ask if they would be willing to send back to me a copy of any of their printed materials, posters, etc.  I learned a lot.

-In about the second year of those summer gatherings, Dave Jobe, who was a BSU Director in Texas, shared an idea he had developed and was using called, "Freshmen Survival".  It had made a huge growth curve in his ministry.  All of us resolved to do some version of it.  It was the single most important and beneficial decision or ministry adjustment that I ever made!  Our ministry began to impact more and more students as a result.

-When I am on another campus somewhere, I walk through the different religious centers on campus.  It is amazing what you can learn by looking at their facilities and what is on the bulletin boards.

-The National Collegiate Ministries Summit in Nashville has been that for me in recent years.  And, I always try to go to something that I think will likely be contrary to my thinking or philosophy.  It causes me to think hard.  AND, I go to hear some people who I know who are doing the same things I am and learn some little tweak or detail that makes me better.

I guess this is how I am learning to do college ministry.  How are you learning to do college ministry?  My daughter gave me a book for Christmas entitled, THE COMPOUND EFFECT by Darren Hardy.  In it he says, "If you want to grow in an area, befriend the person you think is the biggest, baddest, most respected person in your field."

"Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.  But one thing I do:  Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."  Philippians 3:13-14 (NIV)


Arliss Dickerson is a part time college ministry consultant for Lifeway Christian Resources and the author of five books on college ministry in eBook and print at amazon.com (type in Arliss Dickerson).