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.
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