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.
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