The 5 Lunch Challenge

 I am all about eating with students.  Besides liking french fries, I think it it is the way we can know someone best.  For some reason, all of us are more authentic and just us when eating.  A lot of pretention and posing is gone.

Here is the 5 Lunch Challenge:

Announce in your weekly event that you want to eat lunch with 5 different people over the next 5 days.  And, you want to eat where they normally eat...the cafeteria, the food court, a campus snack bar, etc.  But, it is not go out to a special place.....it is eating where students eat.

Their responsibility is simply to introduce you to whomever they know that is around or near by.  They don't need to make a big deal of it or whatever.  Just introduce you to them.

Your response is not to suddenly share the Roman Road or invite them to your weekly event.  Just tell them you are glad to meet them and ask them something about them like, "Where are you from?"  "How is the semester starting for you?"  "What did yo do over the break?"  Their response may be the end of the conversation as you and your lunch partner move on.  Show a genuine interest in them!

One Condition on the 5 Lunch Partners is they have to not be in all the same friend group.  The purpose is to connect with a wider variety of new people.

The result is simply connecting on campus to different students and seeing if God takes it anywhere with any of them.  You may be surprised.  And, it may not happen instantly.

What is the worst that could happen?  You have lunch with 5 of your students and probably know them a little better and you have eaten 5 lunches.

Walk across the campus and through the student center EVERY day.  You may even bump into some of the students you met at one of your 5 lunches.

Arliss Dickerson's college ministry books are available at amazon.com/dp/B08CMD9CXX. Check out “Tips for College Freshmen”