What Should a College Minister's Week Look Like?

 I am of the strong opinion that if you do not plan your week, someone else will.  Here are six suggestions for scheduling a week.

If you speak at your regular large group meeting, plan time in your schedule each week to prepare.  Lack of preparation or winging it will hurt your ministry and set the wrong example for your students.  I also am all about laying out your basic plan for each week for the whole semester.

Have a set time and or days to eat where students eat.  It may be be in a cafeteria, campus food court, etc.  It is great for mixing/mingling, meeting new students and just having a sense of the campus.  Sometimes have set appointments to meet one or more students and other times just go and see how God uses it.

Schedule weekly meeting with your student leaders.  I favor having a set time each week and that makes it more likely to happen.  When possible schedule these meetings in clumps instead of spread out all different days through out the week.  I believe this is some of the most important time of your whole week for the ministry and for their future and the future of the church.

Schedule a paperwork time or day.  There are reports that have to be done, thank you notes and letters to be written, etc.  Tuesday mornings somehow worked best for my campus routine and responsibilities.

Set a time following your main event to follow up with new students that have come.  On Thursday mornings, I followed up on new students who had been to our Wednesday Lunch Program.  On Friday mornings, I followed up on new students who had been to our Thursday night event.  The sooner the better is a strong belief of mine.

Plan to walk through the Student Center and across the campus EACH day.  This can be at random times and does not necessarily have to take that long.  It will give you a better sense of of the vibe of your campus.  You will have "bump visits" that God can and often will use.  Doing this at a class change time is usually the most productive.

Someone asked, "What about your own private devotional life?"  That is a home thing, not at the campus.

Arliss Dickerson's book, A 3 Part College Ministry Success Formula, is available at amazon.com/dp/B0BZ6Q7HSV and A College Student's Guide to Spiritual Maturity is at amazon.com/dp/B0CXTCTNB1.