As I prepare to start leading worship for "Immerse," a city-wide college Bible study, we're looking at common challenges within college ministry. I'd love to know what you think about these posts...what you've seen, learned, experienced through ministries like this.
Nobody's Got It All Together...
Challenge #1 in city-wide college ministry is one of Identity.
I'm not sure why it happens. I have my theories, but I'm not convinced.
I think perhaps the church in general has become a victim of marketing.
Somewhere along the way, the church started believing there was a model for everything.
Starting a new contemporary service? Buy this book.
Building a new sanctuary? Watch this DVD.
Feeling discouraged? Go to this conference.
None of those things are inherently bad, but I do think years of marketing have put into us this idea that the way to do ministry to find the guy who's doing it best and then copy him.
I've been to "Metro." And "Breakaway." I've listened to the Passion podcasts and watched online footage of these huge college ministries. They're phenomenal. They're awesome.
But they're probably not us.
The challenge of identity in college ministry is a tough one. We're trying to serve a group of people who are in the midst of making huge life decisions. That's an important time and it's hard to know how to best minister to these students. So many times...we just try a formula and hope it works.
HOW TO BEAT THE CHALLENGE
I'm not trying to imply that I have all the answers here, but I do think there are some things we, as ministers, can do to protect ourselves from suffering from a cookie-cutter mentality.
- Stop Envisioning
We all do this. We plan an event or a song or a sermon and then we daydream about how it's going to be. We try to imagine how many people are going to be there and what's the response gonna' be like. (Most of the time, we imagine the room full of screaming, adoring worshipping people.)
Dreams are important and having an overall vision for your ministry is vital, but we've got to stop daydreaming. We've got to stop building up our services and outreaches in our minds because no matter how great the event is, it will most likely never be as great as we imagined.
By staying focused and keeping envisioning to a minimum, we operate in a much more healthy and prayerful way and we just might end up surprised at what happens at our event. - Invest In Relationships
Your college ministry is not going to look like Northpoint's. It's not going to feel like Northpoint's ministry feels.
Know why?
Because you're not Northpoint.
The students in your ministry are unique...they bring a whole set of individuals skills and challenges and spiritual needs and unless we're willing to invest in getting to know them, we'll always being playing a game of chance when it comes to ministry. Rather than knowing our people, we're just throwing different styles at them, hoping that one of them will stick.
If we'll invest in getting to know these kids, we'll find that a lot of the ideas we read about aren't really right for our people. And we'll also find that some tried-and-tested principles still apply. But we'll never know that if we don't make time for relationship. - Listen and Learn
Some of us have very vocal students...if something isn't working, they let us know. Others have more quiet congregants. But if asked, even those quiet ones will probably speak honestly.
If we're going to build an identity, we've got to learn from the students in our midst. I'm talking about doing more than just plugging them into some volunteer spot so they'll have "ownership." (Can you say buzz word, class?)
I'm talking about having an open heart to these students...to approach conversations with the idea that it's YOUR job to learn something, and not the other way around.
If you're a college student, you can do some amazing stuff to make sure our ministries are more healthy.
- Call us on the Cookie-Cutter.
If it's obvious to you that we're trying to copy somebody else, just tell us. Tell us that you see it and recognize it for what it is.
Maybe encourage us a little, too, so we don't feel too horrible. But for the most part, just call us on it. Help us to know what parts of our services feel forced or trite. - Let us in.
We want to get to know you. We want to learn from you. We want to hang out with you. We'll try not to be too weird and "old." We believe God's great stuff for you and we'd love to know what you think about that. - Speak up.
We're gonna' forget to ask your opinion. That's a fact. We're gonna' get busy and distracted and every once in awhile, you may have to slow us down and help us process what's going on.
It sounds silly, but worship is two totally different experiences based on where you're located. From the stage, I may think things are awesome...but out in the crowd, the service may be dying. So help us to know...we want to constantly learn and grow.
What about you all?
I know there's folks out there with college ministry experience!
Spill it...how can we do better in finding our own identity?
2 comments:
"how can we do better in finding our own identity?"
Andy Stanley has a great book on... just kidding.
Identity can't be described by the things you do or the thing you have; it's who you are -- whether we're talking about a person or a ministry.
All to often we try to build ministries on the tangible and they end up having no depth or meaning -- kids show up to hear cool music and as soon as it goes lame, everyone leaves.
I hear what you're saying though, and I think you're right on with the "investing in relationships" -- ministry should be relational -- WE are relational.
I guess my "pearl of wisdom" would be don't be afraid to start off small -- like, really, really small. It's a lot easier starting out to "immerse" 10 people than 100 -- you'd just end up sprinkling them, like us Methodists...
Something I don't see our City churches allowing is for members to contribute artistic inspiration into ministries. More often the churches prescribe the 'marketing' and seem to keep it neat and tidy, perhaps in an effort to look polished or they are using another church's ideas and lack the creativity to adapt. Ministry really takes a local identity when the students are able to contribute and form the identity and to allow for flexability. There are a lot of creative people and God gave those gifts for a reason.
With that is tied directly with empowering students to outreach, lead, and contribute. The ministries I have found to be great places to be are the ones that aren't completely ran by staff, but rather shepherded by staff. Of course, that always looks different; it looks like fifty people in a church basement, it looks like 1,000 people in an auditorium. In either case, they both look like student engaging others locally in conversation, relationships, and encouragement, in homes, shops, games, etc. In the end, I think the impact will be made there, locally, rather than at the corporate meeting/worship.
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