When I started in college ministry many years ago, there was an axiom, "If you are up front, it is wrong." The point was that students were to be doing all the up front things. That was part of training them for future service as well as it being a student led ministry.
There has continued to be a growing trend for a College Minister to always be up front. They speak for the main event and they lead the Bible study groups, etc. Part of the current practice that is a good change is that in those years, if a student could not do it, then we had guest speakers. That was a mixed bag. The plus was students heard a variety of ideas, viewpoints, and even saw different styles of Christian messages.
The negative side of that was students often hearing a re-warm of last Sunday's sermon that did not apply much to them or a "What You Students Need to Know" talk. It was amazing how many of those were pretty similar.
My granddaughter attends a college that has a large weekly worship event where two different students rotate speaking each week. The College Minister selects them at the first of the year and they basically do it. I must confess that scares me just a bit too. But, it is working very well for that ministry.
I have previously admitted to the idea that I think we are making our weekly collegiate worship events a little too "churchy" in many instances. That does not mean they ought to be short on gospel or Jesus truth. I actually think that there ought to be some fun things part of the weekly event sometimes. I do draw the line on some things, as I remember our student worship band leader throwing up beside the stage after a "fun activity" prior to leading the next song.
If you as the College Minister are up front a lot, why is that?
-Is it because you did not think far enough in advance to prep a student to do it?
-Is it because it just never occurred to you to ask a student to do it?
-Is it because you tried having students do some of it and they bombed miserably?
-Or, how are you training students to lead worship, speak, etc?
Here are some thoughts:
1. Pick four or five students who you and your leadership team think would do a good job with announcements, prep them with a little "training" and rotate them as the "announcers".
2. If you speak at your weekly meeting, try having a student be the speaker once a month.
3. If there are not any students that could really speak, what about having a monthly "Tell Your Story Night" where three or four students would share their "testimony" of God's work in their life?
4. If there a bunch of talented musicians in your ministry, what about asking four or five of them to each sing, play, or whatever a worship piece for one of your worship events?
In my first posting of this article, I did not state that for the last several years at ASU, I spoke at our weekly large group event, but with a lot of student involvement in different ways.
Is it a negative thing or just I do not particularly like it. That's up to you to decide about your ministry in your location. Think about it. Are YOU up front too much? Why is that? Or are you just particularly handsome or beautiful and they need to see you all the time?
Arliss Dickerson is a part time college ministry consultant for Lifeway Christian Resources and the author of five books on college ministry available in eBook and print at amazon.com (Type in Arliss Dickerson).
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