Everything About College Ministry in ONE Sentence?

 Occasionally, we are asked or challenged to say everything we know about something in one sentence. It is the attempt to get to the crux of the matter.  Boil it all down and what is at the very core.  I could say my one sentence would be:  "No college ministry accomplishes anything of lasting value apart from God's blessing and movement in the ministry and on campus."

But, assuming that, here is everything I know about college ministry in one sentence:

Be you where you are!

Here are the two parts to that statement.  FIRST, God wants to use who we are.  His will for us is written into our gifts, abilities, and interests.  Some are speakers and some are one to one disciplers.  Some are musicians and some are personality people.  The strength of our ministry is usually tied to who we are.  The ministry will always reflect our strengths and weaknesses to some degree or other.  Our priorities will shine through.  The longer a College Minister leads a ministry, the more that will be true.  That's why we always have to be a work in progress and continuing to learn and grow.  Sometimes, the hardest person to understand and be honest about is ourselves.  We have to identify what we do well, what we don't do so well and deal with both those.  And, we have to remember that those change to some degree over the years.  Therefore, our strengths in year five may be very different that in year twenty.  That is also true of our weaknesses.  There is always a temptation to copy our hero in ministry.  The problem is that is not who God made us to be.  Be the YOU God made you to be.

SECOND, every campus is different and we must treat it that way.  That is why the same College Minister cannot exactly do the same things that might have been very successful for him or her when they served on another campus.  We must continue to be students of our campus.  That means understanding the students there as well as the administration.  Both those will affect the attitudes and responses to our ministry.  Is this a "Flagship Campus" or a "Commuter Campus"?  Are there other ministries active and strong or is our ministry the only campus ministry?  Lots of variables affect and determine the approach and response to our ministry.

And as the campus changes and as the College Minister changes through the years, adjustments have to be made.   Be the you that you are today on the campus as it is today.

Arliss Dickerson's brand new book, A College Ministry Success Formula, is now available at amazon.com/books.