The Necessary Things

3 Ways College Ministry's Bend

I'm at Campus Crusade's Denver Winter Conference this week. It's already been enjoyable to participate in a conference outside of my region (California) and experience the differences and nuances of another sub-culture of CCC.

In my seven years on staff I've noticed that college ministry's bend three different ways:

1. Save the Lost

2. Serve the Poor

3. Savor the Body of Christ

These are obviously deep themes in the Word and central in God's heart.

Here's the shift I'm seeing:

• In the modern era these bends were mostly mutually exclusive from one another in the context of a local ministry.

• The post-modern era raised the value in interconnecting these three bends within the context of a local ministry.

• Strategic thinking is CRUCIAL as ministries integrate their 'weak' bends into their existing structure.

CCC has always been strongest in Save the Lost and weakest in Serve the Poor. We are now in a season of integrating Serve the Poor, and I have seen awesome examples of strategic partnerships with other ministries that excel in serving the poor.

I've noticed that in some ministry contexts enthusiasm and excitement can lead to haphazard and unfocused resource allocation. Another harmful trend is looking to start something from scratch within the organization rather than looking outside the organization for those who are already thriving in these areas of weakness.

The PSW Winter Conference in San Diego partnered with Compassion International--awesome! I would love to see the bar raised even higher in this area and a new level of interdependence develop between ministries. 

Have you seen good examples of intentional/strategic partnerships in your context?

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Vision--A College Ministry Start-Up Neccesity

I'm working on an ebook for those starting a college ministry. If you're interested in providing feedback leave me a note in the comments and I'll add you to the Google Wave where I'm writing it. 

Here's a couple key quotes from the first chapter:

NO ONE in the ministry you are starting is going to care as much about vision as you; if you do not spend the time getting clear on where you are going you can be assured within a year or two your ministry will be littered with decisions made in reaction to extremely positive and negative people and experiences, with little to no thoughtful strategic decisions made in light of the future.

Ministry Start-up Reality: There will ALWAYS be extremely positive and negative people involved in your ministry. They should never receive more priority in making decisions than your vision.

What role has vision played in your ministry? Have you found it easy or difficult to keep vision in front of you and your team? 

photo courtesy of 61417318@N00

Leveraging Technology for Campus Ministry

"I'm probably just most curious about what a campus like yours is doing and the kinds of things you're using to leverage technology to get the CCC name out on campus as well as expose students to the gospel (via technology) in relevant ways. 

So, basically, what were you doing before (the old), WHAT ARE YOU DOING NOW (currently) and perhaps a little of the why behind it.  Some basic how-to's wouldn't hurt either, but we've got some pretty tech savy students that I could probably turn to for help. "

A staff member with Campus Crusade for Christ asked me this and thought it would be helpful to answer his question on my blog since I'm guessing others might have similar questions.

Then:

• Facebook group for the movement and for bible studies, event and leadership teams.
• Static website updated once or twice a YEAR
• Sporadic Facebook ads for our weekly meeting

Now:

• Facebook Fan Page for our movement: Provides a vanity url (facebook.com/chicocru) for advertising, allows for dynamic engagement amongst students, generates a variety of statistics. Does NOT allow for sending messages to members facebook inbox. Most appropriate for many to many conversations

• Facebook Group Page for sub-movement groups and activities: less dynamic than a fan page, more appropriate for one to many conversations. Allows for messages to members inbox.

• Blog-based (read dynamic and frequently updated) website: we display our facebook fan page on our site through a widget that allows someone to become a member of our fan page without having to go to facebook. The goal of our website is no longer to be an online brochure but to funnel students to the facebook fan page and expose and educate new students and parents about our ministry.

• Blog posts optimized for search engines and more particularly for those searching for our ministry: this is done primarily by using keywords and key phrases that someone looking for us would type into google: examples: "chico cru" "campus crusade chico" "christian groups at chico state"--by including these phrases into our blog posts we are increasing the chances that someone searching for us will choose one of our links, land on our page, and join our facebook fan page--which would virtually connect them to our body of students.

• A Live Broadcast of our weekly meeting via LiveStream: We've embedded the video feed and the chat on our website, and use it to expose new students to our ministry and allow members who cannot attend the chance to participate virtually.

• A Vimeo account to share videos: this is also great for search engine optimization, as our vimeo page link is on the first page of google when you search "chico cru" We've created a channel for our worship team which is highly popular among our students.

How To's (first three are screencasts, last is a podcast):

• Set up a facebook fan page
• Get a vanity/custom url for your facebook fan page
• Promoting an event or activity on facebook using a fan page
• How to use Facebook to Grow Your Brand: a podcast from Jeff Widman (Facebook expert).

photo courtesy of rptnorris

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How Gen-Y and others Can Use Social Media Professionally

This slideshare presentation by Sacha Chua nailed what it looks like to professionally use social media in the workplace or to build one's career.

"Write and share what you learned"--slide 8

If more people in ministry wrote and shared their experiences online I believe all of us in ministry would grow in our effectiveness. Benson Hines chronicles various college ministries and issues in his blog which I've found to be extremely helpful in sharpening my skills.

"Reach Out. Help others. Find mentors. Ask Questions. Make friends."--slide 10

Those in upper levels of leadership and/or 40 years old and above could SIGNIFICANTLY increase their influence by using social media towards this end. Many ministry leaders 40 years and above jump on social media to BROADCAST, which is helpful. However I believe they would see exponential returns if instead of broadcasting they spent their time ENGAGING.

Michael Hyatt's blog is a perfect example. He certainly broadcasts but he is extremely engaging.

Did any slides make you think?

The Gen Y Guide to Web 2.0 at Work

View more presentations from Sacha Chua.

Gen-Y Job Propaganda--Beware of The Job as a Lifestyle

Work can never be play. Zynga sold its soul to become profitable. A common myth many millenials believe is that they can have what they want with little to no sacrifice.

Read this quote:

"So I funded the company myself but I did every horrible thing in the book to, just to get revenues right away. I mean we gave our users poker chips if they downloaded this zwinky toolbar which was like, I dont know, I downloaded it once and couldn’t get rid of it. *laughs* We did anything possible just to just get revenues so that we could grow and be a real business…So control your destiny."--Mark Pincus, Zynga CEO

Then watch at least one minute of this video:

This video certainly captured many of the values I hold (work as play, flexible hours, casual environments).

Did it speak to any of your values?

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Are You Sick With The Stealth Disease? It Strikes Ministry Start-ups Too

Are you afraid of sharing an idea that would help your ministry grow?

Many college ministry start-ups that I've seen fail have been because they have tried to replicate another local ministry without the leaders, resources, and support possessed by the established one.

Out of those failed start-ups every one of them possessed something that would have benefited the Christians and non-Christians of that campus.

Once again successful entrepreneur Eric Ries provides insight into this reality:

"Ries says one or two of every 10 companies he meets have what he calls a “stealth-disease”. They are too afraid to show something imperfect to the world or are afraid that a competitor will steal their idea. And they think that when they launch their product will make front-page news and grant them blockbuster success."--from a recent TechCrunch blog post

Perhaps you have an idea that you have seen work on a small scale (bible study, team meeting, missions trip) but doubt whether or not it will scale to an entire ministry. Chances are it will not look perfect if scaled to a full ministry, but that's not a good enough reason not to at least try it out.

The blog post goes on to say this:

"Learning what a customer needs is an iterative process.  You try something, get feedback.  Both you and your customer learn more and you try again. You keep doing this until you have something which is so compelling that the customer will pay money to have it—that’s when you know you have a killer product. But you can’t get feedback if you’re in stealth. You only have yourself to talk to."--same blog post as above

Next year try something you have seen work on a smaller scale on a larger scale. Don't let stealth disease keep you from innovating and producing redemptive change.

thanks to @baratunde and @the_swine_flu for the awesome image!

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We Can Change What It Looks Like to Clock In

I've experienced four different kinds of time at work:

1. Extremely productive time that does not feel like work

2. Productive time that feels like work

3. Unproductive time that does not feel like work

4. Unproductive time that feels like work

I believe the most opportunity to redeem "work time" lies in number four. It's easy to do training and seminars on number two, but the margin for improvement is small.

Some examples of number four from my time in campus ministry:

• Wandering around the dorms on campus because it was "hot hours," the time when students were most available.

• Laboring for hours over a decision that ultimately gets reversed as soon as the meeting is over.

• Pretending to embrace a strategy that I do not understand and generating half-hearted tactics to appease my conscience.

• Spending most of time on that which is safe, known, and mildly effective instead of that which is unsafe, unknown, and potentially wildly effective. 

I've reoriented the way I think about work time to this:

• Make the hot hotter and cold colder--instead of seeking an even or balanced pace I find that working harder when I'm working hard and resting more intentionally when I'm "clocked out" has made me more productive.

Two YouTube videos speak to the issue of time and work extremely poignantly. At least bookmark them for a rainy day.

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Trim the Fat Off of Your College Ministry

Colleges recently broke for Christmas and ministries often spend time evaluating the Fall and planning for the Spring.

The middle of the year presents an opportunity to refine your student leader group. Just like our bellies after too many Christmas cookies our student leadership teams can often become bloated with students who do not want to be there and may fit better either off of leadership or in a different ministry.

I'd encourage you to think about how you can trim the fat off of your leadership team.

I've noticed that every year at this time approximately 20% of my student leaders wrestle with the demands placed on them and seriously consider stepping down.

My first three years I waited until the END of the Spring to address this. FAIL!

If you have student leaders struggling with the demands NOW is the time to engage them. I've found a conversation with these elements prove very successful:

• Making them aware that you know they seem to be having a hard time.

• Exploring (not ASSUMING) the reasons behind this behavior.

• Setting CLEAR and SPECIFIC next steps to either align or remove the student from leadership.

I thought I was being nice and caring towards these students by waiting until it was absolutely clear to have a conversation like this; in reality I was doing the opposite and lowering the momentum and energy of my leadership team since these students often pulled down the rest of the group.

Why do so many ministries function with the assumption that everyone can be a leader, and once someone is a leader they have to be a leader until they graduate?

I remember involving myself in activities in high school and college for the wrong reasons, and stepping in and out of things until I found my niche. Many more college ministries would thrive if they took a more organic and process-oriented approach to developing student leaders.

Thoughts?

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photo courtesy of clkao

5 Essential Traits College Students Need From Their Leaders

1. Trust--every one of my student leaders revealed that they SEVERELY distrusted us during their freshmen year. None of them had a compelling reason why. This might be the most underrepresented challenge facing college ministry today.

2. Vision--it's such a waste of time to take students along for a ride that they would not want to go on if they knew the destination. i wish college ministries in general would up the level of clarity of their vision.

3. Passion--our students have stepped up in proportion to how passionate we are about the mission, vision, and values.

4. Leadership--my sense is that college students are desperate to be led somewhere, but are afraid to ask.

5. Sacrifice--I see that students are about SERVICE, but I wonder if they understand sacrifice. I sense that many students serve because they are afraid to lead sacrificially. 

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