6 Things You Can do While Your Students are Gone

Do Number 1 for certain and then pick a couple more.

 1.  REST....do some things good for you!  If you are married, spend some extra time with your wife or husband.  If you have children, do something fun with them. If you are single, do something with a friend that is NOT a college student.

2.  Clean up your ministry social media.  By clean up, I mostly mean update it.  I am always surprised when I click on some ministry's web page or Facebook page and the most recent listing on it is about their start of school events....REALLY?  I have even seen some from last spring. Come on, clean that up.  You can always just put your weekly schedule up there for people to see.  One other clean up I would suggest is to see, if everything on there is something you feel ok about parents or pastors seeing when they go to find out about your ministry.  I was asked by some parents recently about a ministry.  I went to their website and saw one of the posts asked the question, "Do you fold your toilet paper or wad it?"  Is that really what you want people's first impression to be of your ministry?

3.  Do thank you notes or personal contacts.  Are there campus administrators or janitors or administrative aids that have been helpful to you and your ministry?  Let them know that you appreciate it by a note, a personal visit or even some sort of thank you gift.

4.  Send an update or summary of the semester to financial supporters.  It can be a "Dear Friends" letter that goes to those who have provided financial support that tells them some of the good things that happened this semester.  You can personalize it by writing a quick P.S. at the bottom.

5.  Send an end of the year update to all alumni.  This could be the same as your "Friends" letter.  Remember, older people have a hard time reading things on red paper even though that is a favorite Christmas letter color.  If you do alumni news, ask for their alumni update.  Always, always enclose a return envelope.

6.  Take a personal prayer and thinking one day retreat.  Go somewhere away from home and work and just be still and quiet all day.  It will drive you crazy the first half of the day, but maybe by the second half you will begin to clear the clutter.  Try it.

Could your college ministry be reaching more students?  Check out, Reaching MORE College Students:  Next Level College Ministry, amazon.com/dp/B0BMW8NPMN.

3 BIG Issues in College Ministry Today

1.   Declining Numbers in Young Ministers Expressing a Call to College Ministry - Those that hire College Ministers indicate that there is a smaller pool available of those who feel called to and are pursuing a college ministry position.  Formerly where there were college ministry classes with 20 to 30 in them, those classes are much smaller and it seems fewer classes are being offered.  There are three obvious reasons for this shrinking pool. 

- First, the emphasis on church planting continues to be a pull to many feeling called to ministry.  Also, church planting often seems more appealing than dealing with the issues of more established situations.

-Second, There is a sense that there just are not many college ministry positions available because of the publicized cuts in some states.  While this is not entirely accurate, that message is out there. 

Finally, there are fewer young adults acknowledging a call to vocational ministry.  And, the hardest college ministry positions to fill are those where they want to place an African American.  One college ministry supervisor said he had looked for two years for a strong candidate with some college ministry background.

2.  Ministries Recovering from Covid - Many campus based ministries have experienced a downturn in their ministry due to two years of strict Covid protocols on campus. 

 Each of those two years they were not able to reach the number of new students as in the past.  Those two missing years continue to show up in shortage of student leaders and just in attendance as a whole.  When a ministry misses a year or has a "down" year, that hole shows up over the next four years.  When you plug two of those "down" years into the ministry, it leaves a gaping hole that will continue to be an issue. 

 One interesting thing some have reported is that often church college ministries were not required to adhere to campus Covid policies since they were not on campus.  As a result, they have not seen as dramatic an effect. The downturn in attendance in these campus based ministries leads to questions as to whether the College Minister is doing a good job.  Everything looks normal; why isn't the ministry where it used to be size wise?  That is unfair and puts an extra pressure on the College Minister.

3.  Anxiety About Positions - There continues to be some anxiety among many College Ministers that their positions may be lost due to the losses experienced in other places. Or, a concern that a downturn in church offerings will affect their position.  

Could your college ministry be reaching more students?  Check out, Reaching MORE College Students:  Next Level College Ministry, amazon.com/dp/B0BMW8NPMN.

Beach Reach Spring Break Ministry is On!

 One of the great Spring Break Mission projects is Breach Reach in Panama City.  There are three (3) weeks scheduled for Spring Break 2023.

Week 1:  Saturday,  March 4-Friday, March 10

Week 2:  Saturday,  March 11-Friday, March 17

Week 3:  Saturday,  March 18-Friday, March 24

There is a $30 Registration Fee for each participant for Beach Reach that will be paid during registration.  Lodging is available at Laguna Beach Christian Retreat Center.  Leaders need to call Laguna Beach directly to request those lodging arrangements.  Meals can either be reserved at Laguna Beach or groups can decide to cook on their own.  Linens can be reserved for a separate fee.

General questions can be addressed to Mark Whitt at mwhitt@tenbaptist.org or 270.293.6632.  Beach Reach is one of the great ministry opportunities for witness, worship and just fun and community building for your group.

Should your college ministry be reaching more students?  Check out, Reaching MORE College Students:  Next Level College Ministry, at amazon.com/dp/B0BMW8NPMN.

How Much Time Should You Give One Student?

In my recent blog article, "What Causes 'The Lid' on Your College Ministry?" I did not mention one possible lid.  It is possible to let too few students take up the majority of your time.  There is a conundrum here in that we want to invest in students individually and we want to be available for those that need us.

We need to do one to one discipleship and we must do crisis or developmental "counseling".  But, here is the thing.....there are a few students who will take four or five hours a day, if we will let them.  Or, one of the things I warn young College Ministers about is, letting your office become the lounge area.  Got some time to kill?  Go hang out in the College Minister's office.  He or She does not have anything better to do.

I have a graduate degree in Guidance Counseling and one of the most valuable things I learned is, students who need to talk will often take ever how much time that you give them.  If you give them an hour, it will take an hour.  But, my great Guidance Counselor Professor shared this, when a student says, "Can I talk to you?" and it is not something that has been planned or scheduled, you must control the situation.  This is that student that is famous for hour long conversations when you do not have an hour.  When they ask you say, "Sure, I have about ten minutes."  Almost always, that will be enough time.

On the other end of the spectrum, it is possible to invest too much time in the super sharp leader types.  I am not backing up on my belief that we must be investing in leaders and that developing them will grow our ministry, as well as develop leaders for the future church. But, it is also possible to just be talking to those students we enjoy talking to or are "our favorites".  All of us have students we relate to more naturally and just enjoy.  But, if we succumb to that temptation, it will mean we will not have the time to connect to other students out on campus or to be doing something else only we can do.  

There is a fine line in students feeling we are accessible and not letting our office become a "lounge area".  Some years ago, I went to see another Campus Minister on campus.  The secretary said he was back in his office.  I walked into his office to see one student sitting behind the College Minister's desk doing home work.  Another was sitting in front of the desk playing a guitar and there was a couple in the corner....well, they were obviously on a very romantic date.  The College Minister was in the other corner doing some paper work.  That is when your office has become the lounge.  Sometimes, you just have to say, "Hey folks, I got some stuff I have to do, can we move this to another area, please."

Give students time, but be wise in when and how much time you give to individual students.

Should your college ministry be reaching more students?  Check out, Reaching MORE College Students:  Next Level College Ministry, at amazon.com/dp/B0BMW8NPMN.

 

What Causes "The Lid" on Your College Ministry?

 The Lid is that number that you just cannot seem to grow past.  Students graduate and you reach new students, but the number being touched seems to stay about the same.  The attendance at your large group worship event varies a few one year to the next.....but is basically the same.  It seems to have hit a “lid”.

Some Causes of a College Ministry Lid:

1.  The Facility - An obvious answer is that you may have simply maxed out what your meeting space will hold comfortably or even semi-comfortably.  Is it time to consider meeting somewhere else?  Another possibility is where you are meeting is not well set up or the appearance is just harmful to the overall ministry.  Is it time to do some serious painting and repair? Or, is it just the wrong place to meet due to access, etc?

2.  Student Leadership Organization - Sometimes, a ministry hits a lid as a result of the number or organization of the student leaders.  Is it time to consider a new or re-vamping of your student leadership team?  Is it time to enlarge your leadership team?

3.  Resources - It could be that you have simply maxed out what you can do with your current budget.  Obviously, raising more money would help.  Part of making that possible is demonstrating and expressing a vision of where you want the ministry to go and getting people to buy in.  Second, should you simply cut out some things budget wise to put more money where it can help you reach more?

4.  Bad Reputation - If a ministry has a bad reputation on campus, it will always affect the number of students reached.  Do you know WHAT the reputation is on campus and WHY it is?  Usually, a bad reputation is the result of some misbehavior or perceived misbehavior by student leaders.  Occasionally, it is the result of the ministry breaking some campus rules or regulations.  Stressing to student leaders the importance of their behavior and how that affects the ministry is huge. It is possible for a ministry to not deserve the reputation it has gotten.  Good and accurate publicity and promotion is key in that instance.  

5.  Time and Day - Perhaps, you ministry's large group event has been the same time and day since Moses was a freshman.  Campus schedules and rhythms change.  Maybe once that was a free night is a major class night now.  Or, the night is still good, but the time is wrong.  I also am an advocate of events starting and ending on time.  If your meeting is known for going way over time, do students not come because they have home work and your event is too unpredictable?

6.  Wrong Strategy - Strategy is the intentional plan for the ministry.  There are two common mistakes in strategy.  First, is copying another ministry with different resources and in an entirely different setting.  Or, the strategy has not been tweaked and adjusted as the campus and students have changed.  Post Covid is causing many ministries to need to re-build which may call for a new strategy.

Strategy and Student Leadership are two of the key things I talk about in my new book, Reaching MORE College Students:  Next Level College Ministry.   I hope you will check it out at amazon.com/dp/B0BMW8NPMN.