It was my privilege to be a part of a Zoom call of about sixty College Ministers last Thursday talking about using technology and different on line methods to continue to minister to students who are now at home. Some great stuff was shared. Eric Randall from Woodland Heights Baptist Church and Ryan Scantling from Conway, Arkansas BCM were talking about what the BCM and all the Baptist church college ministries in town were doing together during this time. They indicated they did not want students to feel over run with different posts, devotionals and large group events on line. So, they are doing it jointly. Different ones offer different things on different days and they divide up on providing a daily devotional.
It seems during this time that cooperation between church and campus based ministries is more important than ever. Last year I wrote a Blog article entitled "8 Reasons College Ministries Don't Cooperate". Here briefly are those reasons.
1. Different Theology - They feel cooperation is endorsement.
2. Totally Self-focused - This is the feeling that our ministry must do what is best for us...no harm is meant to anyone else.
3. Disagreement Over Methodology - Nuff said.
4. Numbers Pressure - Some College Ministers feel pressure to produce numbers and so there is concern that cooperation may dilute their ministry or take time away from their ministry.
5. Tunnel Vision - Just not seeing the value of working together and often the harm done by an air of competition.
6. Desire to Reach More - These genuinely believe if everybody just does their own thing that more students will be reached overall.
7. Limited Finances - Many cooperative events involve shared expense and some just feel their resources will not allow it.
8. Just Crazy Busy - Cooperation takes time and it just does not fit in the top time priorities.
Yet, I believe not only is cooperation, at least in some areas, is best generally, it is even more important in these very different times.
TWO IDEAS FOR WORKING TOGETHER:
1. Present a UNITED FRONT in dealing with campus officials. Access to incoming students is huge. Most on campus New Student Orientations have been canceled. Some campuses are providing names and addresses to greek organizations. Should that be provided to religious organizations? A combined group of religious organizations requesting similar access goes further than one group making the request.
2. LSU/BCM and Baton Rouge churches are working together to provide "Food To Go Bags" to International Students who cannot go home and are mostly isolating. They are put outside the BCM Center.
I am not advocating that we all just become one ministry. There are lots of good reasons not to do that. But, where should we work together? And, if everyone does not want to cooperate, work with those who do.
The NEXT COLLEGE MINISTER ZOOM meeting will take place Thursday, April 16 at 2:00 p.m. CST. We will be talking about reaching freshmen during this "New Normal". Three or four College Ministers will share what they are doing. Contact me, if you need the log in information.
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). ALMOST EVERYTHING ABOUT COLLEGE MINISTRY will be available in early summer.
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