What IF Finances Force Cuts in Collegiate Ministry in the Future??

 In light of the recent cutbacks in college ministry in the Georgia Baptist Convention (which had long been considered a leader in college ministry) and at Lifeway a while back, etc, where do we go from here? Please understand that Baptist college ministry is done on the state level and each state convention makes its own decisions.  Thankfully there are states who have not made cuts and have even strengthened what they are doing in collegiate ministry. Yet, many predict that giving to Baptist causes will go down over the next few years.  So, what if money issues cause changes to be made in other State Baptist Conventions?  I am not a prophet and no one has asked my thoughts and I am pretty sure they will not.  But....

So, what are options for the future?  I am not recommending any of these at this point and don't even like some of them.  But, they are options.  Maybe looking at these would get us to a better option.

1.  Prioritize Campuses - Some campuses are just easier to work on for a variety of reasons.  Some campuses are flag ship campuses and they produce leaders simply because of the type campus they are and the students they attract.  Some have a strong history of a large ministry and it has momentum.  Maybe, it is we will work on these five (5) campuses in this state.

2.  Do matching salaries - A Convention state office will pay this much money on your salary and you raise an equal amount or a percentage.  

3.  Pay 4 or 5 senior top notch Campus Ministers and then let X number of younger Campus Ministers raise their salaries and work under them in multiple staff situations or on smaller campuses.  The younger men and women would be mentored by them and learn from them.  Maybe, they serve one year directly with them and go out on their own to a campus the next year.  They could be permanent or a two or three year commitment.  Be mentored one year in a larger ministry and then serve one or two years somewhere else on your own.  This would multiply ministries.

4.  Ask an individual church to take over the local college ministry.  This has been tried to some degree where there have been cutbacks.  Some money could be provided by the State Convention to that church.

5.  Ask all the Baptist Churches in the town to go together to pay for a college ministry leader who would be on campus.  Actually, this is a really old idea.  But, maybe its time has come again.

6.  Just turn college ministry over to the non-denominational groups like Cru and Intervarsity, etc that raise their own salaries and don't cost us anything.  Of course, they are raising much of that money from Baptists and do non-denominational ministries develop and produce Baptist leaders for the future?  Yet, they are doing kingdom work.

7.  Ask churches in a college town to make their Youth Minister Youth and College and give them two or three Interns for youth and college.  It costs the church some more, but it produces more at not a huge additional cost.  The State Convention could provide some funding.

8.  Develop a Faculty Network of Baptist Christian professors who would start a Bible study on their campus.  Provide training and materials for them.

9.  Join with other evangelical groups in that town to have a Christian Center or Ministry that has a Center that different groups can use and work out of.

10.  With limited resources, divide up campuses in a state with other evangelical groups.  They will work on this campus and we will work on that campus.

11. Get a bunch of my college ministry books and fly over campuses and drop them from air planes and see what happens.

Let me hear YOUR idea.

Here is my MAIN SUGGESTION:  Let's get a plan ahead of time of where we are going and try to be intentional about it!!!  Just cutting expenses is not the best plan.  And, alums should give $25 every year to the ministry that blessed them.

Arliss Dickerson's college ministry books are available at amazon.com/dp/B08CMD9CXX.