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?

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:

Cone of Learning :: Part II :: The Power of Experience

In my post on Saturday I asked the question, "what kind of impact is your ministry having on those who are a part of them?

I suggested that the 'Cone of Learning' put forth by Edgar Dale back in the late 60s might have something to say to us - both about how we should program and assess what we're doing - in relation to how people best learn and retain information.

As much as we are concerned about students "knowing or believing rightly" [orthodoxy], we must be just as concerned about their "living or practicing rightly" [orthopraxy].

How much of our ministry is intentionally focused on connecting right knowing with right living?

I know that we assume that when we talk with students about the ways we think, or what the Bible has to say about how we live, or even the example of life lived out by Jesus; that they will know what conclusions to draw.

Or that when we intentionally take it a step further to talk about life application that because we have spoken the words that now students will adopt 'what they've learned' as a new way of living...

But isn't it when we've gone into 'practice' with them that the most noticeable change often occurs?

In them and in us?

Of all of the ministry opportunities that we provide for students, and that I myself experienced as a college student, it was transformational experiences of a short-term mission trip that God used to shape me the most.

If you think about it, in how many of our ministry opportunities are our students::

• removed from their comfortable environments?
• exposed to people not like them?
• removed from their daily routines?
• given a completely different agenda?
• given intentional space to be with God?
• exposed to people with very obvious need?
• put in a position to work closely with those in need?

It would seem that the kind of 'faith meets life' experience that we offer students in short-term mission endeavors have the potential to be some of the most formative...

What can we learn from these kinds of powerful experiences that should inform how we do small groups, local and consistent outreach and worship services? I'll give some thoughts on this tomorrow...

Where [in what kinds of ministries] have you seen [or experienced] the greatest levels of change or transformation?

The Challenge of Hitting Your Target

How do you "hit" a target that's moving, from a starting point that is also moving, especially when you aren't sure that you have anything to do with the "hitting" part of the equation???

How do you assess something that's always changing (the student body), from a position that's also oft changing (the University), when the work you do (spiritual formation) is not so much quantifiable but qualitative???

That will be the task of our team this afternoon (and likely, long there after).

Our student body seems to be changing - not every 4 years, as it once did - but almost yearly! What seems to work one year can really struggle the next...

And I ask myself, to what degree should we, as campus ministers, buy into the compulsion to do "whatever it takes" to get students attention or interest? Or, to what degree do we instead stay consistent and faithful to the kind of programming we have felt called to provide and simply insist that students change their line of thinking and pursue depth over and above grandeur?

Unfortunately, I don't think it's as easy as choosing one way or the other...

Instead, I think our way forward will include a Spirit-led dance in which we are able to provide some of the "big and shiny" (that too often is characterized by a lack of depth and commitment) with the hope and intent of building more relationships with stronger bonds that will lend themselves to challenging more students to move from the "big and shiny" to the "less exciting" depths of faithfulness, fullness and transformation found in intentional and consistent worship, discipleship and service.

How do we do this? What does it need to look like?

Again, questions we hope to explore and experience some level of revelation about as we sit and listen for God this afternoon and beyond...

I'd love to hear about your ideas... what has worked on not worked given your unique context for ministry!

We pray for you today and ask that you join us in prayer as well!

Grace and Peace!!

Who is your pastor?

One of the essentials of anyone doing campus/college ministry - serving as a pastor to so many on campus - is finding a nurturing, life-giving pastor that we can bring ourselves under.

It's called leading up.

And if you're anything like me... this can be something that is too often overlooked because of how busy we get serving and investing in the lives of others.

This practice of "leading up" is one that involves us as pastors bringing ourselves under the care, support, encouragement, accountability and blessing of one that is older, wiser, more experienced and solely interested in our success a fellow minister of the gospel!

Hopefully this includes a mentor in our field of campus ministry... it really needs to!

But it most definitely should also include the pastor at your local/home church!

Now, if you're ministry is a church-based ministry, this will be both easy and complex.  For you, the challenge has less to do with brining yourself under your pastor's leadership, and more to do with how safe you feel brining up absolutely everything to this person that also serves as your supervisor/employer.

For those of us that minister from outside of the local church - in campus or para-church settings - our need to be worshiping in the local church, under the care and leadership of a pastor that we respect and are willing to hear from, is paramount!

We cannot justify skipping out on the local church because of "all that we do throughout the week on campus..."

We cannot justify skipping out on worshiping in the local church because of the campus worship events that we lead or participate in...

We cannot justify not being a part of a local church congregation because we cannot find one that "fits" with everything we believe or desire...

We cannot justify it because we need it, our students need to see us in it, the local church needs it... and God requires it!

• Who's your pastor?
  
• How do you lead up?

• How significant do you believe this to be?  Does the amount of time you give to it congruent with how important you believe it to be?
  
• What changes do you need to make?
  

Leading up is an essential for the work that we do because it so significantly shapes the people we are becoming.