Cats, Kittens, Helicopters & College Students

I have to confess to you... I'm not a pet person.  I learned at a fairly young age that I am VERY allergic to most cats and dogs - which was fine in the pet-free home I grew up in, but it did make for challenging sleep-overs as a kid.


Of course, I ended up marrying a pet-person... isn't that always the way it happens?  My wife has been very understanding for most of our first 10 years of marriage.  This past winter, however, her parents asked if they could drop off their "outdoor" cat for the winter.  Having just moved "out to the country" I felt obliged to create some space for this "outdoor" animal.  


While we found ways to make it work during the winter months, you can imagine the shock and horror I experienced as I learned this cat had become pregnant during the active spring months.  Sure, the new kittens she produced were cute and all, but there was no way I was going to become a cat person.


Why am I sharing all of this?  Great question.  And I promise there's a connection to campus ministry coming...

The Problem With Being Present With My Family

| Guest Post | Nathan Foster |

I love my family. 

I can’t begin to describe the intimate connection I feel when I think of my kids. I never knew I could love this much. 

Yet I’m not really a very good father. Can I admit that I’m easily distracted and often get bored when I hang out with my kids? In spite of my persistent desire to wake them up at night because I miss them, in spite of the butterflies I get when I stare at them, sometimes I can’t handle more the 15 minutes of running around the park or playing hide and seek. 

I often wonder what is wrong with me that after a couple of hours of watching my kids I’m anxious to run away.

Starting at Home

| Guest Post | Nathan Foster |

How do we know when we are loved?  Is it that look of acceptance, a smile and warm embrace?  Or is it when someone buys us crap we don’t need or lets us have our own way?  The ultimate expression of love has to be taking a bullet for someone, losing your life so someone else can live. You know, the Jesus way.  A heroic stranger sacrifices her own life to save that of a child about to be struck down by a wayward semi.  Our heroine just gave the child what potential time on earth she had left so that the kid could have more.  Minus the potential pain, dying for someone is giving them lots of potential time.  When we share our time, is this not the pinnacle of human sacrifice? 

Time lets us know that we are loved.  In periods of isolation or sadness when someone shares their time, it doesn’t just mean a lot-- it means everything.  The only thing I have any control over is what I do in this fleeting moment.  Time, my most valuable possession is quite possibly my only real possession.  (Excerpt from Wisdom Chaser).

Towards Thin Places

"God is calling you into His presence!"

This was a statement made by the worship leader last night during our opening time of worship at the Summer Institute for Campus Ministry (SICM).

He went on to confess that on more than a couple of occasions this past year he was approached by different students who would say, "I'm not sure why, but I feel like I'm supposed to tell you that God wants you to come into His presence."


Can you imagine being on the receiving end of a comment like this?  How do you think you'd have received it?  With excitement!?  Or maybe some levels of embarrassment?  Did this student know something?  Did I NOT know something?

Searching for Significance

| Guest post | Nathan Foster | 

I once heard an ultra-conservative guy who had built his ministry empire on the proselytizing of “family values” give his pseudo-retirement address. Apparently, after spending years of working at the ministry 60 to 80 hours per week, he had decided that it was time to slow down. Even at retirement, however, he seemed completely unaware of the notion that he may have spent more time focusing on his work than his own family. He was championing the value of being a workaholic.

My father and I once spent a couple of hours analyzing the lives of influential Christian men, both current and historic. With limited data, we tried to assess just how well famous people bore the name “Father.” It became clear to us that the history of evangelical men was largely a story of men who ditched their families (excerpt from Wisdom Chaser).

SICM and Nathan Foster

I'm leaving later today for one of my favorite places (at least in the US) - Whidbey Island.  

For the last several years the CCCU (Coalition of Christian Colleges and Universities) has hosted a Summer Institute for Campus Ministry (SICM) on this quaint little island off the coast of Seattle.  

Dr. Keith Anderson (President of Mars Hill Graduate School) and Rev. Bill Fischer (Dean of Christian Faith & Life at Huntington University) are the co-creators of this retreat-style spiritual formation experience and have served as co-hosts since the retreats' inception.  

I have attended this event  4 or 5 times now and it always seems to be the perfect mix of instruction, conversation, activity and relaxation.  The size (typically between 25 and 40 attendees) has always drawn me in as well!

This is a great place for me to be with colleagues and friends, to be renewed and encouraged in the midst of my summer, and to be challenged and shaped in some intentional ways.

This year's theme is 'Learning Spiritual Formation' and the plan is to focus on:

• How we learn spiritual formation?
• What is an effective way of spiritual formation that is always learning?
• What elements of formation are necessary for us to learn so that we may teach?

What Gives?

About a year and a half ago I had the chance to grab lunch with a very accomplished thinker, educator, author, minister-type.  He has done so much over the course of his life, so I just had to ask, "how do you do it all?"

I was a little surprised by his response, "Sleep is overrated!"  He went on to say how the first thing he plans to ask God upon arriving in heaven is, "what's up with sleep?  It seems to me we could have been a lot more productive if we wouldn't have needed that."  I personally like sleep, but increasingly I've come to understand what he was saying.

There's a lot of good stuff out there.  A lot we can give ourselves to.  But,

When life gets too full, what gives?  Because something's got to!

We've all been there... or maybe we live there.  We find ourselves pursuing so many good things that life simply seems too full... and we know we cannot continue on at our current pace for much longer.

Whether we consciously choose what we eliminate (or temporarily sideline) from our schedules or not, we know that without a change to our current pace of life, our quality of life will continue to decline... as likely will our quality of output in all of the good things we're trying to be a part of.

So what goes first for you?

Ideas for June

Well, we've made it to June.

For many of us this means that students have been gone close to a month... so, how's your summer going?  If the answer is 'too quickly' than I can relate.

As much as I might like to spend each day of the summer months immersed in the scene to the right, making good use of our summer can be the difference between fumbling our way into the new school year or a GREAT start, between a strong, well-planned year or a chaotic, hap-hazard one.

Here are a few thoughts on how to make good use of the month of June :: please share your additional ideas, thoughts and comments in the comments section below!

• Take a vacation - there's nothing quite like getting away from campus, and work, for a while to renew our focus, passion and perspective.
• Attend a retreat or conference - I'm personally more of a 'retreat kind a guy,' but taking some time to intentionally grow - how ever that looks for you - can also go a long way in renewing focus, passion and perspective.
• Spend some extra time at home - consider working shorter hours (if you can) or 'summer hours' that allow you to come in earlier/later so that you can spend some extra time off campus and with family (if that's you).
• Assessment - if you haven't done any intentional assessment of your ministry efforts from the past year, since your school year concluded, now is the time.  Soon our attention will be fully on prep for the upcoming year... and if we want that time to be fruitful, and tracking in the right direction, assessment is a necessity.
• Soul Care - as a part of our assessment, it would probably serve us well to take our 'spiritual temperature' to see how we are doing in our own relationship with Jesus.  It can be easy, in the midst of walking alongside college students in need, to pay more attention to their spiritual lives than our own.  The summer months can provide some much needed space for renewing our pursuit of the One we believe called us to this important work.
• Connect with your team - if you've got other professional staff that you work with, find some intentional ways to connect now that students are away.  Consider a staff retreat, some extended casual (but intentional) one-on-ones for processing the previous year, staff lunches, a BBQ at someone's house where you can invite families, etc.  Continuing to build bonds with you team during 'slower months' can really serve you well during the fast-paced school year.
• Connect with other key ministry partners - June can be a great time to connect with other ministers who serve the students on your campus, whether they be faculty and/or staff on campus, pastors in local churches or fellow college ministers on campus.  Now is a great time to initiate or further invest in relationships with these important 'co-laborers' in Christ.
• Map out the rest of your summer - I usually like to operate pretty spontaneously, but in order to make sure we aren't scrambling at the end of the summer to get everything ready before students' return, it might be worth spending some time intentionally mapping out the rest of our summer months.  When do I start that new initiative?  When do I take that much needed vacation?  When do I start writing that series of talks or studies?  Can I take care of some of the details for the mission trip that might be close to a year away?

The summer months provide us some much needed space for rest and 'uninterrupted' work.  I believe that God calls us all to be good stewards of this 'off season' on campus.  What are your plans?

Grace and peace to you!

To Connect or Disconnect...

Campus has grown quiet here.  The students have left for the summer (well, most of them anyway) and it's time for a change of pace... right?!


Obviously the ministry landscape of the summer months will look different in comparison to those of the academic year; with space for assessing, planning, preparing... and of course, some much needed vacation!  But I wonder how many of us are simply turning of the 'ministry spigot' because it feels like the natural thing to do... I know, for the most part, that's typically what I do.  "See you in the fall!" I say as they we connect before they leave campus.


But is this the right approach?


Most of us are probably familiar with the ongoing debate about year-round education - especially for those in the K-12 systems.  Proponents of the year-round educational experience often site how much students typically 'lose' during their time off.  Teachers end up spending a lot of time at the beginning of each new school year 're-educating' students on things they 'learned' the year before.

Hocking Jesus

:: [Guest Post by Michael McCord] ::

NOTE:   As you read this I will be walking the streets of Nassau while introducing other campus ministers to the mission possibilities there. I wrote this blog post several months ago after returning from a mission trip with eleven students. It is mostly in response to a deep conversation we had about what will happen when the students leave college. See, they get it – they’re tired of churches that are more concerned with creating their own world rather than changing THE world for the sake of The Kingdom.

So as our students walk across their stages and receive their long expected degrees, will there be a church they can be part of? Will there be a movement of Jesus followers who actually pray as Jesus taught us… and believe it?

9 "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread.  12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one.

I was recently walking through the straw market in Nassau, Bahamas. I’ve been there close to a dozen times on mission trips through our Wesley Foundation. It’s a familiar experience to me. What struck me during my most recent visit was the likeness that I found between the current church models and this collection of traders.

When you are new to the scene, you instantly become overwhelmed by the shear size of the venue and the number of traders packed into the space. At times, you may be pressed against the musky cigar trader who’s covered in sweat and whispering, “green, mon, want some green” (note: green is marijuana, for those who don’t know) while a little old lady from one of the cruise ships elbows her way through the crowd. That’s just another typical day in the straw market. What one realizes once they have been to the market several times is that most of the merchants are all selling the same thing. In fact, they actually work for the same boss.

The [Un]Scheduled Pastor

Have you ever been asked, "What's a 'typical' day in your job like?"  If so, I'm guessing your answer was something like, "There is no typical day... they're all quite different."


Last week I asked the question [in my weekly poll], "How many weekly (repeating) meetings do you hold?"


Respondent's answers ranged from the (0-2) category to the (10-12) category.  Based on these results, a 'typical' day in the life of a college minister may include NO regular/weekly/repeating meetings - OR no more than 2 or 3 - which leaves a lot of unscheduled time to be well utilized.


This seems right to me.  I've had days, even weeks, where special events were happening, or student leader interviews were being conducted - something BIG that seemed to take up the majority of my time on campus - and it left me feeling a bit too tied down.  Do you know what I mean?


When I look at the life and ministry of Jesus I see Someone who was purposeful and intentional, but also open and available.

Top 10 Issues College Students Face

There's so much that makes up the college experience... so many opportunities, so many potential pitfalls.  

How well do we assist students in navigating the waters of the college years?

Maybe before we can accurately answer this question we must first ask, "what are the big issues that our students are dealing with?"  If we've not taken the time to answer this question than we must ask ourselves, "how relevant is our ministry?"

I've been working with college students for the last 13 years of my life.  I know there are plenty of you out there who have been working with college students longer than I have (so I hope you'll chime in down in the comments section), or have experienced ministry with college students in different contexts than I have (so your insight will be crucial as well), but here are the top 10 issues I see college students facing today - issues that MUST influence how we 'do ministry.'

Top 10 Issues:

Slow Down!

The margins in my life have been pretty thin this year. 

Our family moved into a new house back at the end of August - yes, just as the new school year was beginning - not the ideal time to move... but we were so thankful to have the chance in the economy that we're living in.


Between this big adjustment at home, and the crazy pace of life that seems to define most school years, my margins have been thin... and one of the things that has regularly been pushed off of my daily page has been exercise.  I hate that.  And I've missed it (another post for another time).


Well, this morning I was able to get out for a run.  It's not the first time since we've been in this new house, but it was the first time I took this particular route.  I've driven this direction numerous times - it's one of the two ways out of our neighborhood - so it's a route I'm very familiar with... or so I thought.

It's amazing what you notice when you slow down.  

On my run today I noticed houses that sit back off the road just enough that I've never seen them before.  I noticed, for the first time, a creek that cuts back and forth under this street in several different spots.  I noticed the hills... OH, how I noticed this hills - so beautiful to look at, but something totally different when you encounter them on an early morning run.


All of this got me to thinking about our routines on campus.


If you're anything like me, your days are probably pretty full of meetings - with students, colleagues, administrators, etc. - and those times in between meetings can often easily be consumed with checking email, returning email, planning and prepping for what is next on you calendar... even the walks between meetings can be filled with checking in on our 'smartphones'... and there's something that doesn't seem quite right about it all.


I wonder how different our days might be if we created more space in our schedules... If we chose to intentionally slow down, make ourselves more mentally, emotionally and physically available.  I wonder how different our walks through campus might be if we chose to leave our phones in our pockets and attempted to greet students as we passed them (I recognize that about 99% of them will be on their phones, but... that's a whole other post as well).


We need to challenge ourselves to slow down.  To take in all that makes up the unique place that God has called us to... if we don't, how will we ever see Him at work, or know how to come alongside what He's already doing in that place?


So what do you think?


How thin are the margins in your life?


What are some of the things you might see differently in your ministry context if you chose to intentionally slow down?


Do you know what God is up to on your campus?


I'd love to hear about your experiences!


Grace and peace to you.

Are You Available? Accessible?

Ministry can be IS a challenging calling.

A life committed to discipleship and service is one that calls us to be available to others, accessible nearly all the time.

This call to ministry is a high calling for so many reasons, not the least of which is our need to be willing to set aside our own agendas each and everyday to follow the leading of Christ.  And as we all know, this is much easier said than done.

Just 1 Question

I still remember it like it was yesterday... but it happened nearly 13 years ago.


I was a senior in college, and out to lunch with my campus pastor, just days before I was to interview for my first campus ministry position.


We had spent some time catching up on our spring break experiences and were waiting for our food to arrive when his questions turned to my upcoming interview:


"So, are you ready for this interview?"


"I guess," I said, "I've never had a phone interview before... so how hard could it be?"


"Well, if it were me, I would just have one question for you..."


I stared back at him.


"Seriously," I said, "just one?"


"Yep, just one question..."


"OK," I said, "I'll bite... what's your one question?"

Some Great Advice

During my first year in college ministry I was fortunate to work with someone who was concerned with MORE than just what I could bring to the ministry there... she was also concerned with my development as a young minster.

In particular, this savvy campus minister was interested in helping my learn how to establish healthy boundaries as young minister, the kind of boundaries that would set the stage for good health at home and at work... back then... and on into my future.

She said, "you need to remember two things to be healthy in this business:

you should never work more than two of the three time periods of the day

AND

When Students Learn You're Human

How well do your students know you?

Have you let them into your life?

How much do they really know about you?

What's appropriate?

Do you manage what they know about you in order to shape the way/s they view you?

Is that right?

If you're anything like me, questions like these seem to be ever-present in my mind.

I am, by nature, a pretty private person... and I think that's OK, but I also think there are ways in which being too private [or too public, as the case may be for others of us] can be damaging to our work with students [or our relationships at home].

There are, I believe, important boundaries that are appropriate to maintain between staff and students, ministers and those they serve, home life and work... but where are those lines? And how do you know when you're too far away from a healthy middle-ground?

If we open the door wide to our lives, we risk loosing some of the intended intimacy and privacy that we all need... and is due a family and marriage that God has blessed us with.

If we open the door to narrow, we risk conveying the message that others are not welcome... and relationships with students and ministry become much more of a struggle.

This past week, as I served alongside a group of students in NYC [after a few years of not traveling with students], I found myself in conversations where I had to decide 'how much' of myself and my life I was going to share with my students...

Now I'll admit, it's much easier to share about things that are positive, make me look good, or are likely to create union and harmony amidst the group.

It's a different story, however, when the questions that are being asked... or the comment/s you're feeling led to share, have the potential to create awkwardness, tension, or unease amidst the group... especially when you're traveling, serving and living together. Trips like this, I have found, can also be some of the best places to take take a chance on opening the door a bit wider because students have the chance to watch you, sit with you, ask more questions... and really experience your true self.

On the trip I had the chance to share openly and honestly about:

• the challenges of being away from my family for 8 days [or 9 by the time we finally made it back] and the willing and necessary sacrifice that this was for our family;
• some of the challenges and struggles that we've faced as a ministry on campus this past year; and
• a hereditary skin condition that had me struggling to get around by foot our last few days - letting students see me physically struggle was almost harder than admitting to some of the aforementioned challenges...

As the team asked questions, and as I was willing to be appropriately open and honest with them, you could almost see the bonds forming - or strengthening - between us.

It was a good trip for me. I think it was good for the students in a lot of ways as well. And I think as students got to experience the more 'human' side of me they realized that us 'minister-types' aren't as 'scary' as we're sometimes made out to be.

What do you think?

How have you experienced this tension, this dance, in deciding what you share or don't share with students?

Do you attempt to 'manage' how students view you?

How do you attempt to be 'appropriately' private and open at the same time?