"Level Up Your Large Group: 7 Tips to Consider" by Ryan Scantling

 If  it's true that the big attracts and the small keeps, our ministries must be good at doing it big and making it feel small.  I won't spend time in this short article arguing why large group meetings for your college ministry are so important.  Instead, I want to jump right into some practical things to consider in order to pull off your large group gathering.

1.  Welcome Wildly

What happens before your large group meeting sets the stage for what people will experience at your large group meeting.  If the first person a student interacts with is the speaker on stage or the worship leader singing in front of a crowd, then you missed a significant opportunity for ministry.  Put priority on training a Welcome Team that will greet folks outside the venue and make people feel welcome from the street to their seat.  Many ministry spaces are tucked well within a church campus.  Don't expect visitors to find it without help from a Welcome Team.

2.  Plan for Visitors

Always plan for an overwhelming number of visitors, both in how you invite and in how you prep.  Greet visitors at the door, from the stage, and after the service. Consider offering a small gift to every visitor in the room (link this with follow-up by making the gift a free coffee on you).Coach whoever is speaking on not using Christian jargon (walk the aisle, accept Jesus in my heart, etc).  Don't use insider language or call back to events or experiences that not everyone in the room attended.  Develop a culture where everyone wears a nametag.  It helps you interact with visitors and it helps visitors jump into relationships faster.

3.  Make it Fun

In what ways can you add fun to the service?  Consider doing a pre-service game or video.  Use technology to get feedback from the crowd and interact with it.  It can and should be every bit as exciting and engaging as any other event these students go to.

4.  Develop a Strategy for Personal Follow-Up

Your follow-up begins before the large group ever starts.  Plan on how you will get information to follow up with new people.  I'm a big fan of everyone checking in every week.  In our ministry, we use a service called Breeze.  Someone needs to know everyone in the room and have a strategy to follow-up with them.  Do you know which student came to your kickoff event and have not been back?  Do you know which students haven't missed a single large group gathering?  You should, because if you don't no one else does.  Call or text every new person who comes within 20 hours of them coming.

5.  Put the Right People on Stage

There are only two people in the room who everyone feels like they know:  the person leading worship and the person speaking.  Those two people need to be some of the most engaging in the room. Don't let a student think your whole ministry is stand-offish because the speaker or worship leader is not willing to hang out and interact with the crowd before and afterwards.

6.  Help People Linger Longer

First, don't let your gathering go on forever.  If your large group is unnecessarily long, people will hesitate to come, if they don't know when they can leave.  Second, help people linger.  Offer snacks or yard games or something that will help people spend time together and form relationships after your large group ends.  People who don't stay long, don't stick long.  Have your large group end in a timely way so that people can choose to stay rather than feel rushed to leave.

7.  Let Students Respond

Do not let students leave without having a clear opportunity to respond to what God is doing in their lives.  This can happen in a host of ways:  a response card, during an invitation, in small groups or through your personally texting every student afterwards asking what God is doing in their lives.

A Few Bonus Tidbits:

-I personally think many college ministry leaders spend too much time planning sermons that last too long.  Some spend 15 plus hour planning a message.  Instead, spend 5 hours planning a talk that will be half as long and spend 10 hours inviting more people to be there.

-The best next generation ministry leaders text a lot of people every week inviting and doing follow-up

-Your space is a huge part of your large group.  If you have 50 students, don't meet in a space with 500 seats.  It looks lame and new students will assume that a lot of people didn't show up because what you are doing is not worth showing up for.

Ryan Scantling is the Baptist Campus Minister at the University of Arkansas.

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

"Encouragement That Sticks" by Darrell Cook

 Over the last few years I increasingly appreciate "old person phrases."  Okay, I'm in my sixth decade., so maybe that shouldn't be surprising.  Here's an applied use of one of those phrases that I appreciate:' "I like a good bowl of oatmeal.  It really sticks to my ribs."  (Wow.  That example does show that I am getting pretty old.)  You get the image though. "Sticks to my ribs" communicates staying power.  Something that lasts.  Something that sustains.

For those of us that invest in young adults, encouragement is an incredibly vital tool to have in your tool belt.  Are you an encourager?  Do you want to be more of an encourager?  If the answer is "yes" to either of those, my guess is that you would prefer for your encouragement to have a long shelf life.  You likely want your words to "stick to the ribs" of the hearer and fill their encouragement tank for more than the few seconds after you speak them.  What does encouragement with staying power look like?

Encouragement that "sticks to the ribs" of the hearer is specific.  Craig is a friend I got to know in my seminary days .One day when he was asking questions about my background and my story he commented,  "You're a miracle."  That alone is a very kind and encouraging comment, but he continued to talk more specifically about my perseverance through my childhood and ways he saw me stretching my faith and using my gifts at that time.  When I think of encouragement that has "stuck" in my life, I am drawn to conversations with Craig where he leaned in with inquisitive and listening care while he also showed that he was observant about what God was doing in and through me.

Encouragement that "sticks to the ribs" of the hearer is preemptive .  Unless we cultivate the habit of encouragement, we can find ourselves using it only when someone is deflated.  That certainly can be an extremely powerful time to encourage, but we don't always get "notifications" when someone is discouraged.  Speaking authentic kind of truth into the lives of young adults can be a "time-release capsule" that comes back to them when they are in need of a courage infusion.

Encouragement that "sticks to the ribs" of the hearer is prophetic.  Does this mean that in your encouragement you need to predict the future?  Well, sort of.  I've  worked with a lot of freshmen.  Some freshmen can make a lot of messes.  I can focus solely on the messes, or I can see gifting in them (though perhaps clumsily applied) that is growing and needs to be expressed.  I am thankful for the patient mentors in my life who didn't immediately point to my mess (I knew I had made it anyway) and prophetically helped me with the encouragement to see a future in which maturity would allow a more complete and fruitful application of those gifts.

Speaking encouragement that is specific, preemptive, and prophetic can be just what the hearer needs for today.  Perhaps even better, it can be just what they need tomorrow.

Darrell Cook is the Baptist Campus Minister at Virginia Tech and is a gifted encourager.

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

DEVELOPING Student Leaders And APPRECIATING Them

 It is hard to have much ministry without some money.  The larger college ministries I am aware of have money.  Alums, friends and churches are generous to them.  But, I do not believe that money is our biggest and most important college ministry resource.

Student leaders are our biggest and most important resource!  It is our responsibility to encourage them, build them up, and let them know they are appreciated.

The 5 Steps in Developing Student Leaders:

1.  Intentionality - We have to always be about looking for potential leaders and be intentional in building them up.  Recognize them and show they are valued in your ministry.

2.  Training - Leaders often fail because they did not know what to do or how to do it.  It is our job to make sure they know what to do and how to do it.  That happens in training and training never ends. But, it is easy in the beginning to not be clear about exactly what they are to do and some ways to accomplish it.  Yet, we have to allow room for their individual strengths and gifts to help shape their role.

3.  Giving Responsibility - There is a fine line between a leader feeling they have been deserted and too much input from someone else.  Let them do what they have been asked to do, but never feel they have been left alone or hung out to dry.

4.  Healthy Evaluation - Part of growing as a leader is learning to evaluate and to learn from the evaluation.  Nothing is ever done or happens perfectly  Work through evaluating with leaders in their responsibilities to help them continue to learn and grow.  My boss told me one time our  students would make the most comments and suggestions on the evaluation sheets. 

5.  Affirmation - The greatest thing we can do for someone is give them genuine affirmation.  Tell them what we see in them that God has put there and some of the ways He can use it. We can affirm their hard work.  Even in something that did not go well, we can affirm their effort.  Many college students have no idea all they are capable of doing and being. No one has ever told them.  We get to do that!

Do Your Student Leaders Feel Appreciated?

Hare Are Some Possibilities:

1.  Say thanks and recognize them in public settings.

2.  Surprise them with cake, pizza, or whatever at your next meeting.

3.  Draw for a Starbucks Gift card at your meeting...or every week.

4.  Put up a picture of your leadership team somewhere prominent.

5.  Invest in them by talking and praying with them about their personal life, dreams, and decisions.

We reach more students with good student leaders.  We build up churches for the future by training student leaders.  We reach a wider variety of students with strong student leaders.  We are able to stay in college ministry for the long haul because we are not responsible for everything.  Make sure they feel appreciated and not used!

Help your student leaders succeed and feel successful and your ministry will be better for it.

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

Critical Mass and Your College Ministry....Need Some Ringers?

 I have come to believe that Critical Mass is more important than I realized when I first started in college ministry.

Critical Mass is defined by Oxford as, "the minimum size or amount of something required to start or maintain something.."  When I first started, I inherited a ministry that was strong and going.  The second ministry I led also had been functioning and had a core group to build around.  The need for and the lack of a critical mass had never occurred to me.

A few years back I had agreed to help a friend who was trying to revive and strengthen a church college ministry. His ministry had experienced some leadership turnovers and a previous leader who had not worked at tying students to the church as a whole.  When he left, things went to bare bones.  The plan for the fall was to really try to engage with freshmen and I was recruited to lead three "Freshmen Focus" Events.  They would be held before the regular week night group meeting with my doing different freshman specific topics that were widely promoted.  The first one went well and had a reasonable attendance of freshmen and two or three upper class student leaders.  The second week two freshmen showed up and right at the last minute each upper class student texted or called to say something last minute had come up and they would not be there.

It was the two freshmen, the College Minister, and me.  Talk about feeling awkward!  We sat in a larger circle of chairs and I did the presentation.  They listened and were engaged.  They never came back.  I couldn't blame them.  I felt weird and I knew they were feeling weird on steroids.  I resolved that would never happen again in anything I led.  I would guarantee there would be some "ringers" there. A "ringer" in golf is a player recruited to play on a team unknown to the other players who is a super good golfer that can lift the team.  "Ministry Ringers" are those who boost the crowd.

How do you guarantee a Critical Mass?

1.  Recruitment of Core Students - I came away from that weird experience saying, I would always invite more upper class students than necessary.  But, what if there are not upper class students who have been previously involved?  Invite some young adults who "look like" college students or at least can remember college. Even if your "ringers" don't look college age, there will be others there.  That beats the feeling of "nobody wanted to come to this event."  By the way, another reason I am all about music playing before an event is that it helps to fill up the room. And it does not have to be Christian music. When a room is close to dead quiet and anyone's voice bounces off the wall, that helps bring awkward.

2.  More Ringers may be necessary.  A couple of years back I was College Minister in a church ministry with a Critical Mass....HOWEVER.....they did not do well with new people.  New people would come, feel left out, and not come back.  This is where your outside "ringers" may be needed again.  They will mix mingle and make students feel welcome.  They will introduce new students to old students.  

How healthy is your Critical Mass size wise and warmth wise?  I think one of the great lessons from the church planting movement is when a church sends a group of their people somewhere to plant a new church, it guarantees a Critical Mass.  It is not just one or two people saying, "Come to this church we want to start."  It already feels like and is a functioning church.

So, how reliable and warm is your Critical Mass?  Do you need to recruit some "Ringers"?

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

The Fine Line for Church College Ministry

 I have written and spoken about the four killers of church college ministries.  They are:

    1.  Constant Turnover of College Ministers

     2.  Decisions made for the Overall Benefit of the Church Not Benefitting the College Ministry

     3.  More Divided Time Issues for Church College Ministers

      4.  Church College Ministers are Often More Sharply Evaluated by Numbers.

But, church college ministries have a great plus that campus based ministries do not have.

Young adults have expressed and demonstrated in many ways their desire and need to be mentored by older adults.  One reason for this need is the large number of students that come out of broken homes and need to see good functioning and healthy family relationships.  Plus, students are struggling more with what to do with their life career wise.  Connecting those who are into careers and know the realities is a huge plus.

But, there is a very fine line that church college ministries have to walk.

That fine line is the one between doing things that specifically speak to and connect with college students AND connecting them to the church as a whole.  Many churches do a great job of reaching a large number of students and being a blessing in their lives.  But, they do not connect them to the church as a whole.. So, what is the problem with this?  It is possible to so cater to and direct a ministry at college students that they are not connected to anyone outside their age bracket.  Going to a great week night college events with cool lighting and a smoke machine can make Sunday morning seem pretty dull.

College ministries need to speak to specific college student issues that are not Sunday morning topics.  So, we cannot quit being college student specific in what we do.

TWO ANSWERS:

     1.  We have to lay out the challenge for more non-college adults to be willing to wade into college student events.  Be a part of what college students are doing.  Some of these could be every week people and others could be recruited to come just once.  But, students would get used to seeing a variety of ages and even become friends with some.  And the non-college adults would see the needs and opportunities.

     2.  We must lay out to students and challenge students as to why it matters for them to connect to church in more than the college specific events.  Help them know there is a reason for them to sit next to someone twice their age...or even three times their age. 

I spoke this week with a man who has a son going to college this fall.  We started out talking about the son.  But, we wound up talking about what the father's church college ministry experience had meant to him and how the friendships he had developed with the non-college adults had blessed his life. He wants that for his son this coming year.

It is a very fine line and a tough line to walk, but I believe it is one we must continually try to walk both for our college students benefit and for the benefit of church in the future.

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

   

     

       

5 Things to do Early This Semester

 1. Look for a student or two to continue a conversation that was started last semester.  It may be about becoming a Believer or it might be a student who asked how you know God is calling you to the ministry.  Whatever.  Make some progress on that conversation.

2.  Send a personal message to all (or as many as possible) to the freshmen that came the first week or two last fall and then disappeared.  Don't make it a "You are a dirty dog message."  Rather,"Hope your Christmas Break was good.  Let's drink coffee or a coke some time soon. Yell, if I can be of help." 

3.  Get back in your habit of walking through the campus Student Center every day.

4.  Check out a new and different time and maybe place to eat lunch where students eat.  New schedules bring new opportunities.

5.  Call a friend who works some where in a tough situation and encourage them.  It might just encourage you too.

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

Let's Hear it for Van Simmons!

 Van Simmons has announced his retirement from the International Mission Board (IMB) effective January 7th of this week.  Van has been not just a friend to College Ministers, he has been a best friend.

Prior to serving at the International Mission Board, he worked at the North American Mission Board leading the Summer Missions program that sent students all over the U.S.  But, to all of us BSU/BCM/BSM guys, he was "the man" at NAMB.  If you needed help, you called Van.  If you needed to know something, you called Van.  He knew who to talk to and who could help.  When the North American Mission Board went through a reorganization, Van's position was eliminated. But, the International Mission Board knew what an asset Van was to our missions movement, as well as college ministry overall and brought him on to work in Student Mobilzation helping send students around the world.  And, so Van continued to be at all the College Minister meetings and be a continuing encourager to everyone.  We trusted our students to Van. Literally thousands of students were used by God and had God speak into their lives as a result of Van's work.

Prior to going to the North American Mission Board, Van had done campus ministry in Ohio. And, it continued to show.  Van has the heart of a College Minister.  That is why he "got us" and was always able to listen and encourage.  I am sure he did a good job organizing and administrating, but he was never an "Administrator".  In my mind, if you look "Best Friend" up in the College Ministers Dictionary, there will be a picture of Van talking to a bunch of College Ministers.....and probably listening more than talking.

Van, you are much loved and appreciated in the great college ministry family.  Thanks for all the student lives you have touched and thanks for all the times you let College Ministers bare their heart and soul to you.  And, thanks for always knowing the answer or who knew the answer to all our questions.  You have been God's gift to us.

If you can, please let Van know how much you appreciate him.

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