I’m a big advocate of making sure your ministry has a defined, written out, God-given vision. How you carry out that vision may differ year to year in your ministry or you may need to reevaluate and clarify the overall vision at times. Before you enter the period of college ministry hibernation take some time to assess this past year while it’s still fresh in your mind. Here are 5 questions to ask as you evaluate your ministry:

1. Did the things we implemented actually accomplish what we set out to do?
2. What one thing was most effective in accomplishing the vision God gave us?
3. How have students changed from the beginning of the year until now?
4. What one area of our ministry could we change to better accomplish the vision?
5. What ways can we use to measure our progress toward the vision next year?

Hopefully as you ask these questions you’ll find yourself pleasantly surprised at all that God has done in your ministry over the last year. For some, you may realize the need to make big changes, but that doesn’t mean you’ve failed. It simply means you’re realize areas that can be improved on, which will make your ministry that much stronger come next year.

As you read over these questions were there areas of your ministry that came to mind? Do you regularly examine your ministry at the end of each school year?

What most people don’t know, including the majority of GU students, is that there is a department called Office of Campus Ministries (OCM), where students can go for questions, counseling or if they are seeking spiritual guidance. GU does not recognize student run organization as a religiously accredited place for students to attend. There are only three known Christian organizations running on campus, but one of them will be making some drastic changes next year because of the lack of students.

Because of the student’s lack of knowledge of the existence of OCM, or participation in any of the student run organizations, there is a darkness that lurks over the campus every year.

Recently, the Baptist Campus Ministries decided to do some research and find out why no one knows about OCM… and what can be done to step up.

Here’s what we have found so far; many students are raised with some kind of religious background, but because of the lack of communication, they discontinued going to church. Many students, who are believers, feel peer pressure from their friends that they cannot talk about their faith, so they avoid stepping up. Many are not informed about the resources on campus, but if they were, they would most likely use it. We also discovered that even though the main reason for attending Gallaudet was for education, it was for social and cultural reasons as well. We also found, faith did not play a factor in their daily routine.

As a campus ministry, we strive to do outreach with the students. We find that many of them come to the campus struggling with issues but we desire to help them along the way by assisting them to make better decisions with the future, and preparing them for the outside world, where Jesus is crying out to millions of Deaf people worldwide.  If that hasn’t shocked you yet, maybe saying that there are less than two percent of Christ followers in the U.S., one percent worldwide, what’s more shocking? At GU, less than one percent.

If you think your campus is struggling to do outreach, imagine your day like this: I will spend time with God praying for the campus. The servants’ team meets up in the office; we have a meeting, pray for the campus and students. Then we either have a recreational time with them or we pursue Bible Study.

When we do these, two things happen, students never show up except maybe one or two at least once a month out of every week. When we attempt to do outreach before we start, students are quick to pass-by without a second thought.
For the first time in many years since OCM was established, we did a post-Homecoming worship service. Only 40 people showed up, which is better than we anticipated. We also did an Easter Worship service, where only two students showed up and maybe five other people. We believe that God has a plan, even if it seems like a failure in our eyes, having one person show up, made a huge difference. It’s a start to something new and we’ll be prepared for next year.

There are other supporting staff members through OCM (supporting staff members are people who serve under the Chaplains that work there).  One of them is a former student at Gallaudet and certified to run a non-denominational organization but has to work under the Assemblies of God campus ministries. We have taken the initiative to step outside our box this year by starting 24-Hour prayer. With this valuable tool in doing outreach, we believe it will do more next year… such as bringing revival to a truly dark place.

Even though I’m working for a campus ministry through the University and not student run, we question how far can we go if no one is reaching out to the unreached, and how far are we are wiling to go to get them prepared for the mission after they leave their campus?

So when you go to bed tonight and imagine your campus, imagine what it would be like seeing oppression everywhere.  Imagine that culture seeing your campus not worrying about culture, social status, dealing with language barriers from hundreds of countries coming together to speak the same language. Imagine that most students are resistant to something better than them, and I mean almost every single one of them.

How would you break the wall that’s been difficult to tear down? GU is just another college campus, with amazingly intelligent students. But believe in God? It’s not actually impossible until we release the oppressed.

“Thank you so much for including your Campus Ministry reports in the church bulletin every week.   They’re really encouraging and they help us keep up with what God’s doing on campus.”

Comments like these are common on Sundays at the local church that sponsors the Campus Ministry I direct at the University of Delaware.

Starting what I call the Campus Corner, two years ago, was one of the best decisions I made, as it pertains to keeping supporters in the loop.  The concept is simple, yet profound: write a bulletin insert to keep your Campus Ministry in front of as many people as possible as often as possible.  Then make the PDF available via email, bulletin boards, and on your website.

Will it eat into your schedule, as one more thing you gotta do?  Yes.

Will it be worth it?  Absolutely!

The Pay Off Goes Beyond What You Can Measure

I got the idea from the book of Acts.  There, Paul and Barnabas made it a practice to report to their sponsoring churches, concerning the work God was doing through them.

“Finally, [Paul and Barnabas] returned by ship to Antioch of Syria, where their journey had begun.  The believers there had entrusted them to the grace of God to do the work they had now completed.  Upon arriving in Antioch, they called the church together and reported everything God had done through them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles, too.” Acts 14:26-27 (NLT)

“Everyone listened quietly as Barnabas and Paul told about the miraculous signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.  When they had finished, James stood and said, “Brothers, listen to me.  Peter has told you about the time God first visited the Gentiles to take from them a people for himself.” Acts 15:14 (NLT)

Here are a handful of benefits that come to mind:

• Communication: Reports keep your supporters informed of the ongoings of the ministry they believe in.  So much of Campus Ministry is done outside the church building, so people in the church or in other churches tend to wonder how things are going.  Your reports can be sent to: supporters, church members and leaders, students, parents of students, and alumni.  It also reminds people of things they might otherwise forget.
• Ownership: These reports give students, staff, and volunteers one more way to take ownership of the ministry.  Their contributions will also free up some of your time, as you delegate: designing, writing, taking pictures, printing, folding, inserting, posting, and emailing.
• Efficiency: These reports serve as somewhat of a yearbook.  The material you collect can easily be reused in other ways: annual newsletters, presentations, calendars, websites, etc.
• Potential: I’ve seen my reports given as invitations as well, introducing potential students and potential supporters to the ministry.
• Surprise: You never know; these written reports can get forwarded to people you’ve never met.  They can inspire someone to study the Bible, write a check, say a prayer, become a Campus Minister, or even help a church catch the vision to start a new Campus Ministry.

25 Ideas For What You Might Include In Your Reports

1. Standard Template: with a title, logo, issue number, date, etc. (This will save you time)
2. Reports on Past Events: activities, service projects, mission trips, conversions, etc.
3. Articles: your typical week of ministry; choice of curriculum, lessons learned, etc.
4. Pictures: photographs of students, facilities, campus, events, baptisms, etc.
5. Upcoming Events: details on dates, times, locations, instructions, costs, directions, etc.
6. Prayer Requests: on behalf of leadership, seekers, faculty; support needed, etc.
7. Vision Statement: “Our ministry exists to…”
8. Testimonies: of new believers, participants, volunteers, etc.
9. News: Happenings around campus; student’s plays, concerts, games, ceremonies, etc.
10. Volunteer Opportunities: carpooling, cooking, tutoring international students, etc.
11. College Sports: details on upcoming games, homecoming, opponents, scores, etc.
12. Facts & Statistics: about this generation, your university, attendance, etc.
13. Scriptures & Quotes: about evangelism, discipleship, ministry, service, etc.
14. Trivia: questions about school history, mascot & colors, demographics, etc.
15. Personal Life: stories about your spouse & kids, house, hobbies, vacations, etc. (This makes it personal)
16. Wish List: furniture & decorations, sound system, computer, intern, etc.
17. Thank You Notes: acknowledge volunteers, hosts, donors, guest speakers, etc.
18. Budget & Fundraisers: goals, year-to-date; upcoming event details, outcomes, etc.
19. Introductions: new interns, student leaders, new believers; profile, questions, etc.
20. Reviews & Recommended: DVD’s, Podcasts, Websites, Books, Music, Conferences, etc.
21. Lesson Titles: heads up on the topic of your next Bible study.
22. Food Menu: let people know what will be served at your next meal.
23. Birthdays: list the birthdays of all the students, one month at a time.
24. Office Hours: if you have a schedule for when you’re in your office, let people know.
25. Contact Info: email, Facebook, Twitter, website, blog, phone number, etc.

Click here for a sample of the Campus Corner. http://bluehensforchrist.net/#/about-bhc/campus-corner

LEAVE A COMMENT:

• What benefits or ideas would you add to the list?
• What are some other ways we can help supporters stay invested in Campus Ministry?

I’m no Tim the Tool Man Taylor, or Ty Pennington, so when I asked about what we were supposed to be doing, we were told that the work was super important. Much like the footers that had been poured, our work was going to be part of the pre-slab infrastructure, a key component of the foundation. Our students dug out 10,000+ feet of ditches 6” deep, laid & glued the pipe together, & then refilled the ditch & leveled it out.

“So what?” Thanks for asking that…I had hoped you would. I liken that work in Phil Campbell to the shared responsibility that we have in reaching, teaching, discipling, & equipping college students during their 4- to 8.5-year trek through the university environment. No one needs to rehash the statistics about students walking out on church, but if we continue to approach college ministry from the same mindset used 20 years ago, 10 years ago, or even 5 years ago, we will no doubt continue to reach & retain a remnant of this generation.

When we returned to Tallahassee I was sharing a little about our trip during our morning worship service along w/ some pictures of the work site…some before & after shots. One lady had commented, “So what did they do?” at one of the first pictures shown. Granted, it was a picture of the worksite…red clay, gravel, dirt piles, etc. It was like the way students show up on our campuses in the fall. They’re making their way around the campus ministry & church circuit trying to find where they fit, or following friends & deciding to stay where their friends fit. They come to us pretty plain, most of the time a worksite that has been cleared & leveled by others…their family, their home church, their youth group, etc.

The hope is that the ultimate foundation for that student has been built on Jesus. That their family & home church have done the hard work, the work that many times goes unseen when students transition from high school to college. When I worked in Gainesville, Florida I was both the College Minister & Youth Minister. I had a vested interest in helping shape students in middle school & high school because one day I hoped that they would be pillars helping to serve in our college ministry. It doesn’t matter if you serve college students in a church setting or a campus setting, you need to make intentional efforts to get to know & love the middle schoolers in your church now. Be an initiator in this transition process & partner w/ parents & those that are serving middle & high school students so that throughout their pre-college years, your work in digging those little 6” ditches will take effect.

We have a group from our church that will return to Phil Campbell at the end of June…when they come back I’m expecting to see pictures of something more than a level work site. For those of us who have leadership roles in serving college students we need to not only think about transitions on the front end of students’ college experience, but also about what will happen after they graduate & move on. Many times it is easy to fall into the trap of building our personal silos for college ministry away from the church. I mean that for both church-based ministries & campus-based ministries. You can throw out whatever excuse, rationalization or justification that you want, but the fact is…we only have college students while they are in college.

Part of our blueprint for college ministry should include involving them in the life of the church as a whole. Helping them to connect inter-generationally gives them a huge advantage as they leave what has been their second home & begin the process of confronting “real life”. Teaching them what to look for in a church as they leave the campus for the cubicle can help prevent them from floundering as they enter the workforce. Give them opportunities to lead, challenge them to use their gifts, model for them a spirit of generosity & encourage them to be giving even when they supposedly have nothing.

In 2009, there were several practitioners of college ministry that were kicking these idealistic ideas around at a meeting in Portland, Oregon. In Baptist church life there are less than 60 full-time, college-only ministers in the U.S. So we began to dream, think & hash out somewhat of a blueprint for the thousands of adults that weekly make an impact in the life of collegians. Almost three years later, led by the steadfast work of Dr. Allen Jackson (Youth & Collegiate Ministry Professor, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary), the book UNFRAMED will be released. It’s right around 100 pages of practical propositions & information on getting to know students, evaluating how you teach & develop 18-25 year olds, & figuring out how to partner w/ campus ministries to reach the academy.

Ephesians 2:10 says that college students are God’s workmanship…His masterpiece, they are created in Jesus to do good works that God outlined in His syllabus that they’d be involved in (yes, this is a paraphrase). Many students get to the university a work of art in progress. We can help provide them a frame in which to mount their life to the glory of God. We can help them display that not only in the Fine Arts building on campus, but we can also give them a sturdy frame to use in the exhibit of life.

When I heard that MCA died this weekend, my arms went limp. I haven’t bought a Beastie Boys album in almost a decade but I felt like a cousin had died and nobody in the family even told me he was in the hospital. I wanted to say, “If you would have told me, I could have gone and visited him! At least I could have sent him some flowers!”

One place I listened to the Beasties was, incongruously, when working at a Bible camp in northern Minnesota. Don’t worry, the Christian music scene was represented too (a little). I remember the feeling after the campers left for home, the staff had finished their assigned clean up duties, and the grand unwinding began. With all the work completed, the music played from one of the guys rooms, and people just lay around for a while, did things there wasn’t time to do during the week and generally tried to recover from a long, full week. The demands of others were silenced and the music was loud. And for a day and a half, sometimes two, we had the camp to ourselves.

No doubt there was mischief that occurred during these times (I have a scar on my foot to prove it) but there was also a necessary period of recharging. It would have been nearly impossible to energetically and sincerely engage with hundreds of campers each week if the staff did not get some time to disengage.

My question is: what are you doing to disengage and re-energize yourself after a year with students?

Are you being challenged in your own faith walk?

Do you have people you trust personally, not academically or professionally, who are growing alongside you?

Do you play enough?

What kind of self-care do you need in the coming weeks?

One sure recipe is a Beastie Boy song, a good book, and a glass of something with lots of ice, and sunshine, but that’s just me. I’m sure you can be trusted to pick your own recuperation recipe.

A short story: I ran my first marathon in 2002. It was the Twin Cities marathon, accurately billed as the most beautiful urban marathon in the U.S. To prepare I read the book, “A Beginner’s Guide to Running a Marathon,” thoroughly following its instructions for practice runs. I was ready.

When the gun went off my legs came alive. I was moving. It was my first marathon so I was eager to show off my previously unseen training to a watching audience. But, I hadn’t practiced at this pace. The first time I felt anything in my legs was at about the 5-mile mark. It wasn’t much, just a twinge.

The bulk of the race carried on as planned. I ran fast. The scenery was memorable. And I enjoyed the support of the crowd. It was growing too, going five or six deep in certain places. I had to give them something to watch so I kept the pace up.

By mile 17 my jack-rabbit pace caught up with me. I had run this distance in my longest practice run and my legs were good. This day, though, they were not. My fast pace had caught up with me. I was cramping.

The rest of the marathon was a series of run, cramp, walk, cramp, stop, stretch, and repeat. Unfortunately, this happened during the last third of the race where crowds were the greatest in number, maybe 12-15 deep at points. By the last half mile, I was fed up with this ridiculous cycle. “Screw it!,” I said to myself. I was going to finish this race running. No more stopping. No more stretching. I turned past the cathedral and headed toward the Capital (fyi: that’s not me in the picture…I looked much more beat up). I was going for it! Somewhere after my resolute decision to run, but before the finish line of the race, I was stopped. I didn’t choose to stop. But, I was stopped. Whatever my legs were at the start of the race, they were the exact opposite at this point. I had no choice. I sat down on the curb less than a hundred yards from the finish unable to move. People yelled at me to finish the race. One guy offered to carry me. I couldn’t move.

Eventually, I completed the marathon. It was anti-climactic. Some time passed by and the attention of the fans got redirected to other runners. At this point, I did get up and manage to walk to the finish line. It did not parallel my epic start.

But, I had done it.

Many of you just experienced all this. In your ministry, there was a frenetic pace to the fall filled with a lot of buzz and large crowds. There may have been some early twinges. But, you kept trucking. For most, your ministry plan went almost as forecasted. Did you ever hit a wall? Maybe or maybe not. Regardless, you pushed through to the end. Congratulations! Rest up. Another race…er…year of ministry is just a few months away.

The season in between races is when I like to work ON my ministry. Working IN my ministry comes August through May. Working ON my ministry happens in June and July. Working ON my ministry means checking on these three things:

Strength of the leader: Did I hit a wall? Was there significant cramping? Did my personal preparation result in the intended results? What needs to change in my relationship with God, my family, and my staff? Is there anything I need to stop, start, or refine?

Strength of the vision: What are we doing? Why are we doing what we’re doing? What are our goals? What happens if our goals go unmet? What does “finishing the race” look like?

Strength of the ministry: While I ran the marathon solo, ministries consist of teams of runners. How’s the strength of the team? What’s missing? Is there anything that can be done in the next few months to set ourselves up to achieve our goals?

These are a few of the things I give attention to. My hope is that my effort working ON my ministry will be effective for when the time comes again to work IN my ministry. It’ll be time to start that marathon before you can say “CRAMP!”

QUESTIONS: What’s on your list for this summer? What are the things that you think about when working ON your ministry?

If you haven’t seen the Avengers movie yet, you should! The movie got me thinking about how vital teamwork in ministry is because lets face it, no matter how cool or relevant we are, or how big our campus meetings get, college ministry will not be sustainable without a team.

Who’s on our team is vital to the impact our ministry will have on the campus God’s called us to redeem. You may be a superhero in your own right but even superheroes are more powerful and victorious when they work together. You may be part of a staff that has 2 or more ministers on the ground full-time and that’s great!  But, your team wouldn’t be complete without the superheroes of the next generation. Students!

As a campus missionary with Every Nation Ministries, sent to the college campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas Texas, I can confidently say that without our student leaders, we wouldn’t have a ministry on that campus for long. All that to say this:

COLLEGE STUDENTS ARE FAR BETTER CAMPUS MISSIONARIES THAN WE WILL EVER BE!

It’s a simple fact. They can go more places, connect with more students and faculty, and infiltrate greater areas of campus life than we ever can! They live in the dorms, play on sports teams, participate in class discussions, life in the fraternity or sorority house, and serve as role models for their peers. They have the true pulse on campus and without them risk irrelevancy and a slow fade to non-existence on our campuses.

So how do we get the key Superheroes on our team?

First, identify them. Who are the students currently in leadership roles within your ministry or elsewhere on campus? Begin praying with them as a group for those in their sphere of influence who they want to see saved. Friends, teammates, roommates, family, pray for them all by name and see how powerful it is when God answers your prayers for a specific person. If you do this weekly, the group will grow and the praise reports will build your teams faith through the roof.

Encourage their socks off!  Help them to see that they are in that sorority, on the football team, in student senate, the only Christian in their hall…FOR A REASON! That they are quite possibly the best chance their peers have of coming into a face-to-face encounter with Jesus and being saved!

Let go and trust God. This may seem a bit reckless but by letting go of a little control I mean allowing your students to be ministers. Whether that’s allowing them to lead small groups, head-up outreaches, preach on occasion, empower them to really own the ministry they’re a part of. With that, yes, there’s a possibility some will fail miserably. But I’d bet that’s how most of us learned how to do ministry ourselves. Besides, this isn’t the worst that could happen to our ministry. The worst thing is that it dies out when we transition out, that the ministry stops with you or me. Letting go of control is part of the deal if we intend to raise up the next generation of campus ministers to take our place someday.  One of the most effective pastors I know, Steve Murrell, calls this concept “leading to leave.” Who’s the next leader of your ministry? What would happen if the Lord called you away tomorrow? For more on this, I suggest reading Steve’s book, Wiki Church.

The Avengers were heroic as individuals but they saved the world as a team. Identify your student superheroes, Pray with them regularly, check-in with them weekly; equip them to go boldly into their area of influence on their campus with the love of Jesus, and see your campus reconciled to the glory of God, one student at a time!