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What to do after Cross 09 November 9, 2009

Posted by Gilbert Kingsley in Coaching, Evangelism, Launching, Student Ownership, Trusting God.
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You have prayed for open doors.  You have made your plans.  You are going to initiate conversations with students or faculty in a different ethnic community during these next three days.  And you are trusting God to launch a movement.

On last week’s podcast from Sam Osterloh and the Cross 09 team, Anna Pratt offered some suggestions for what to do now that you have found a leader or you have some students who want to start a movement.

  • You don’t need to shoulder the responsibility for starting the movement.  Encourage the students to take the lead.
  • If you really connect with them, you may want to coach them yourself as they lead.  The Student LINC team in Orlando can offer coaching suggestions.  1-800-678-5462.
  • In any case, you will want to connect them to the particular strategy for more resources and upcoming opportunities.  There are “go to” folks for each strategy.

    • Bridges International: Linda.Woods@uscm.org
    • Destino: Jim.Sautner@uscm.org
    • Epic Movement: Darrin.Mabuni@uscm.org
    • Impact Movement: Scott.Crocker@uscm.org
    • KCCC: Bobby.Oh@uscm.org
    • Nations: Mike.Kelly@uscm.org

When you talk with any of these folks, they can let you know the extent of the coaching the strategy can offer you and/or your leader and you will want to let them know the level of participation you can have in the future.  You can find all this information, the podcasts and more here.

And now for something fun!  Stacie Fletcher and the Cross 09 team have put together some ways of passing on stories.  Basically, you can use whatever form of communication you prefer.

  • Leave a voicemail or text (321) 895-425.
  • Send an email to Godatwork@uscm.org.
  • Post to Facebook.
  • Upload to AllCallings.

They are offering a thank you gift to the first 5 stories submitted and everyone who submits a story will be entered in a drawing for an iPod touch.  They also have separate photo and video contests.  Categories are evangelism, location, movement launching, cross-cultural ministry and best overall.  Visit this contest page for more info.

You may recall what Sam Osterloh wrote in his Cross 09 email last week:

“Where did God find you? Who took the step of faith to tell you about Christ? They were loving you as Christ had loved them. Ask God to give you the ability to lovingly proclaim the gospel clearly.”

This is a faith venture.  We are anticipating what God will do in our own lives as well as raising up new movements.  Thanks to the Cross 09 team for all they have done to prepare us for these days.

The Skills to Lead Small Groups November 5, 2009

Posted by Gilbert Kingsley in Coaching, Discipleship, Evangelism, Leadership, Student Ownership, Volunteers.
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I happened to read something last week that was interesting.  No doubt you have seen it.

“Last week, I was invited to a friend’s home for dinner. We hadn’t had a chance to see each other for a while, so I was eager for the companionship, as much as a good meal. Shortly after I arrived, we were alerted that dinner was ready, so we headed into the dining room, When I got there, I was expecting to find some sort of main dish— perhaps a casserole, or maybe some baked chicken. I was also hoping for a steaming dish of vegetables, and maybe some bread, served in a basket. Instead, sitting in the center of the table, with its jagged lid mostly pried back, was a five-pound can of cold green beans. “Dig in!” my friend said.

“Disgruntled may be too strong a word, but I was certainly hoping for more. The beans were fine, and no doubt full of good nutrients. The can itself was sturdy and clearly labeled. But the meal lacked a certain presentation, not to mention flavor…

“Every week, on campuses across the country, our students attend Bible studies that are served right out of the can. This year that “can” may have had the label Cru.Comm emblazoned on it. Cru.Comm is, unapologetically, Bible study in a can.”

This came from the first of seven short, but very helpful, articles on “How to Lead a Bible Study” from the folks who gave us Cru.Comm.

Healthy small groups are the essential building blocks of a growing movement.  That article goes on to explain that quality Biblical content, community, self-discovered learning, progressive life change and outward impact are elements of a healthy small group.  Cru.Comm helps provide that quality biblical content.  But it is the role of a small group leader to bring that biblical content into an environment where community is fostered, life change happens and impact for Christ ripples outward.

These seven articles are mostly one or two pages in length.

  1. How to Use Cru.Comm
  2. Crucial Elements
  3. Preparing the Lesson
  4. Planning Your Group Session
  5. Designing the Right Environment
  6. Ten Suggestions for the First Group Meeting
  7. Guiding a Discussion

They are a must read for our new Bible study leaders.  Even our veteran leaders will be reminded of how God works in the small group.


For the last few weeks, I have been talking about growing movements in their various stages of development.  We talked about filtering a leader, developing a leadership team and seeing evangelism and discipleship become a part of the movement.  If we hope to see our movements to grow from launched to multiplying, we must give our small group leaders the skills to lead quality small groups.

While the entire curriculum of over 100 lessons, complete with posters, studies, articles and leaders’ guides, is available for only $9.00 per disk, there is a semester’s worth of free sample lessons.  This will give your leaders enough experience with Cru.Comm to confidently invest in the rest.

Growing from 10 to 50 November 2, 2009

Posted by Gilbert Kingsley in Coaching, Discipleship, Evangelism, Leadership, Prayer, Sending, Student Ownership.
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We are in the middle of a series of tips about going through the various stages of development of a movement.


Today we consider how to grow a ministry from 10 to 50.  Sometime ago, a team put together and sent me a copy of a strategic plan for growing from 10 to 50.  Here is their plan.

Vision:

  • Exciting/momentum building to give every student an opportunity to say “Yes!” to Christ.
  • It will only take 1% of the student body to influence the whole campus.
  • What is most influential group on campus?  How many from that group are involved?

Situational Analysis:

  • There are examples of growth for 10-50.
  • There are specific challenges/obstacles to overcome.

    • Leaders with limited vision/passion.
    • Leaders who can’t gather/lead.
    • Beware of becoming ingrown.
    • Want to develop authentic community.
    • The weekly meeting becomes the ministry.
    • Leadership not multiplying.
    • Not looking outside for other critical mass resources/volunteers.

Critical Mass:

  • A student leader.
  • A staff/intern coach.
  • Aligned students.

Critical Path Steps:

  • Prayer.

    • Depend on God to reach the campus.
    • Develop real opportunity for worship.
  • Evangelism.

    • Training in evangelism.
    • One on one and large group evangelism opportunities.
    • Exposing the campus with EveryStudent and FSKs.
  • Discipleship.

    • Effective small group strategy.
    • New groups starting.
    • Discipleship happening.
    • Know how to get resources.
    • Bring staff in for training and recruiting.
  • Sending.

    • Attending faith-building events.
    • Expose to vision of others.
    • Cross-pollination.
    • Training.
    • Extended time with staff.
    • Defeats isolation.
  • Leadership Development.

    • Growing from one leader to a team.
    • Instill vision and mission.
    • Asking what the next step is.
    • Invite others to ownership/responsibility.
    • Train volunteers.
    • Keep connected with staff coach.


There is nothing complicated about any of this.  Of course, we know that there are challenges and obstacles to growth.  But we start with the assumption of having the right leaders and then we need to be intentional in coaching those leaders in win/build/send and leadership development.

One coach (wish I could remember who) told me that she gives her leaders a bite of the campus in which they can see success (some target area).  She works to move from one key leader to a leadership team.  She makes a point to know GodSquad and sends students there with links to specific resources.  Finally, she develops a master calendar for herself each year where she puts recruiting, sending, events and outreaches on it.  This is really more about helping her help her leaders lead.

Expanding from 1-10 October 25, 2009

Posted by Gilbert Kingsley in Coaching, Leadership, Student Ownership, Volunteers.
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As I write this I am flying back from a series of meetings in Eastern Europe where our ministry is looking to expand our ministry down to include high schools.  The one issue that came up more often than anything else was capacity.  How do we do that when we are stretched with everything else.  That is precisely the point when we talk about growing ministries on our campuses.


In last week’s tip, I talked about filtering a leader.  Today, I want us to consider growing a ministry from one leader to a team of leaders.  As we build a leadership team, we build capacity.  Some of these thoughts came from a roundtable of metro leaders some time ago.  We gave them this specific topic of developing a leadership team when all you have is a key leader.

Building a leadership team

  • Teach that lone leader to delegate, for their sake (so their burden of work is lighter) and for the sake of developing other students.
  • The cell group small group concept naturally lends itself to raising up additional leaders with the different roles in the group, although some staff feel the cell group philosophy is a bit complicated for students to roll out at first.
  • Use data from the Key Volunteer Application to understand the leadership elements of your existing key leaders.  It is here that you learn who their friends might be and what other strength areas are needed to complement them.
  • Is there a nearby church with a college ministry?  Ask your leader to find out the contact person for you.  You as the coach of that student, or the student could themselves, check with the church to find other potential leaders to come along side.
  • Help the student realize if they can just find a couple more people, they are making progress that’s valuable.
  • Help currently involved students to take initial steps of ownership, so that over time, leaders can be grown from within.
  • Coach them to do simple gathering events, like FSK’s.  A table may surface new leaders.
  • Ask key contacts to see if they have other ideas.  This helps them to problem solve.
  • Train leaders understand what makes a leader and have them keep an eye out for it.
  • Teach seniors to find and recruit freshman.
  • Helping the leaders understand the vision for engaging underclassmen as “developing leaders”.  Consider sending emails to the whole student email list of the group, and do some “masses coaching” to help develop the vision of all the students, not just the key contact.  This helps ensure that vision gets ‘passed down’.


Some obstacles that keep this from happening

  • When our key contact is not able to communicate our coaching to the other people on campus.  (One solution is asking them to copy one of our materials and then just coach them in using that material).  This points to the need to find other leaders to help lead.
  • When another Christian group is present on campus, there can be a scarcity in finding more leaders.
  • Two-year schools are a big challenge because we don’t have much time to find leaders.  Just because they are at a two year school, does not mean that they won’t be at the same level as leaders we are used to at four–year schools.  Some are simply going there because it is not as expensive as four-year schools.  Two year schools can often provide leadership coming in to our four- year schools, though the time they have with us will be less.
  • It can be tough to get the students to practice  “selection” well in recruiting their own replacements or co-leaders.
  • Some of our target students still live at home and therefore have less of an adult mentality and more of a “youth group mentality”, or “minister to me.”  During a launch, they lack a model to look to and follow.  However, some schools have adult populations who we could tap into.
  • Relational issues tear up student leadership teams and block their synergy.
  • A lone leader can sometimes turn into a dictator and become inflexible in sharing power.
  • We may not see them do as much one–on-one discipleship, because they’ve never seen it modeled up close.  We will need to think in terms of more group discipleship.


Particularly useful tools or tactics that have worked

  • Using the transformational community article to show them how we want to go to the whole campus.
  • In the late fall, evaluate the movement as you coach it and then go over that evaluation in January with your key contact, helping them think through how they’ll prepare to pass on leadership.
  • Go over the critical path steps on the LLCP with your leader and talk about what needs to happen at each step and who might be able to help out. 
  • Of course, we rely a lot on retreats and conferences to help in this, opportunity to connect with them and train them in person.
  • Many teams do periodic leadership gatherings (monthly or more frequently) where the leaders from multiple campuses meet for dinner and then do training.  This also brings out peer coaching, and all the more if a couple can come from the same campus.
  • If you cannot do periodic leadership gatherings, consider doing a “training overnighter” once a semester.
  • When you visit the campus, meet with a potential leader to do ministry with them.  Have them share their testimony or lead a segment of a training you might be doing, even helping in a small group.
  • We want to look for people who can lead and gather others, we can always train them in ministry skills as we go along.


Most of us are on teams.  That is a value in our ministry.  Certainly we want that value to be reflected in our students and volunteers who are leading.  GodSquad has resources designed for them.  This page will lead you to articles on a Picture of a Leader, Servant Team Challenge, Developing a Leader and Assessing Your Leadership Style.  MissionalTeamLeader.com also has a wealth of resources in the Lead Your Team Filing Cabinet.

Steps in Filtering a Leader October 18, 2009

Posted by Gilbert Kingsley in Coaching, Launching, Student Ownership, Volunteers.
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In last week’s tip, I talked about the stages of development of movements and the skills needed at each stage.  For the next few weeks, I want to double click on each of those stages and focus on specific skills.  Today I am double clicking on Pioneering.  The skill we need to develop is how to filter a leader.

Steps in Filtering a Leader

There are any number of ways that someone might express interest in starting a Campus Crusade for Christ ministry.  Maybe they are the leader of an existing group or they have initiated toward us in some way.  What I am going to describe is what I would do.  You may have other resources and steps, but I think you want to have a process for helping you determine who your leaders are and helping them see that God has raised them up.

Garett found out somehow that Campus Crusade for Christ could help him start a ministry.  When his email reached me, I emailed back to tell him that I was sending him a Starter Kit.  I asked him to fill out the required information and then mail it back to me.  Within a week or so, he sent me each piece filled out and we were on our way to launching a ministry SUNY New Paltz.

Several years ago the Starter Kit was developed as a way to filter leaders.  It introduces Campus Crusade for Christ and explains our vision and plans for reaching every student on every campus for Christ.  It also helps us get to know the potential leader.  The hardcopy version that we have in our office has examples of specific tools for prayer, evangelism and discipleship.  An on-line version of the Starter Kit is found on the Start a Ministry pages of GodSquad. 

We start by looking for the most mature Christians that we can find.  I ask them to read Transforming Movements.  Then I would meet with them as a group to discuss the thought questions at the end and dream with them about how to reach their campus.  I would also walk through or draw out the Local Leader Critical Path.  This helps cast vision for what we are believing God to accomplish on their campus.

By the end of that discussion I hope to find one or two who have distinguished themselves as potential leaders.  The others would hopefully see them as leaders and these leaders see themselves as such.  Then I would hand each potential leader a Starter Kit, walk through it and ask them to prayerfully fill and mail to me the application, sign the Statement of Faith and Key Person Volunteer Agreement.  The application helps us to get to know them.  The volunteer agreement helps them see what they are committing to. And the Statement of Faith clarifies what we believe.

I believe we have two tendencies in this process.  First we can rush to hand them a Starter Kit without taking time to cast vision and instill personal confidence that God can use them.  The other is that we don’t ask them to prayerfully commit to being a leader.

There is nothing magical about the application and agreement as they are written.  But I believe the process is valuable for the potential leader to consider their role.  We must not discount what God does in the heart of a potential leader as they take personal stock of what He might be calling them to do.  There is nothing like the joy of personal discovery as they begin to crystallize their thinking about their vision.

We do learn some things about them if they delay in filling out an application or they are superficial in their answers.  But if they know that we ask every leader to fill out an application they will see this as a necessary step.  Evon took over for another as leader on one of my campuses.  I asked him to fill out each form and he did.  Reading his answers helped me get to know him better and to see how God had prepared him for ministry.

The next step is to have a conversation with them.  The Telephone Interview.  is one way to gather typical contact information, some cursory campus demographics and get to know them.  We get to hear some of their heart and how God has prepared them.  I remember once finishing the interview with Jeff.  He thanked me for taking the time to get to know him when he knew that I was looking for a person who could begin a ministry on his campus.

An optional step in assessing the qualifications of a potential leader is calling references.  On the back of the application, there is a place to list references.  A Reference Questionnaire helps us determine if the prospective leader is qualified to lead the ministry.  It is a good idea to call these references if we have questions about their leadership qualifications.

Now we are at the point where we can make a decision about their being a leader.  A helpful tool for this is the Key Person Criteria.  This page lists several areas and assesses each with a “green light” (Go forward.), “yellow light” (Precede with caution.) and “red light” (Stop.).  It helps to objectify the qualification process to that we can make an informed decision.  Finally, we call them to inform them of our decision.  From here we begin to dream and make plans to reach their campus so that everyone has an opportunity to say “Yes!” to Jesus Christ.

A lot of us have encountered a few of the same pitfalls over the years in launching and building movements. Two of the most common are not having the right leader in place and having to restart ministries because leadership does not transfer to the next generation after the original leader graduates.  It is easy to rush to start with the first person to come along.  We might be uncomfortable asking them to fill out an application or we don’t do references if we have concerns.

The first few times through this, the process can feel somewhat contrived.  But it will cut down on the number of instances where we have the wrong leader.  It will also help us when we or they realize that they are not the right leader, because right up front they know what we are asking them to agree to.  By having a qualification process, we minimize the start and restart cycle.

The Will to Prepare October 11, 2009

Posted by Gilbert Kingsley in Coaching, Launching, Leadership, Student Ownership, Trusting God, Volunteers.
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My pastor used as an illustration Sunday about an exchange someone had with legendary basketball coach, Bobby Knight.  Someone asked how he was able to win so many games.  He must have had quite the “will to win”.  Knight was reported to have said, “The key is not the will to win… everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important.”

I think about what’s involved as we prepare to launch and build movements.

First we learn that there are stages of development of movements.  Our ministry uses the following five terms for these stages.

  1. Forerunner– When we are trusting God to raise up a ministry on the campus.
  2. Pioneering– When we are actively looking and taking steps to start a ministry.
  3. Key Contact– We have a student or volunteer qualified to lead a movement on the campus.
  4. Launched– We have a leader and five aligned students involved.
  5. Multiplying–When we see winning, building and sending taking place and are impacting the campus.

Second, we have to know how to employ different sets of skills for each stage of development.  I go back to Robert Coleman’s, “Master Plan of Evangelism”.  The principles he outlines in that classic relate very well to the various skills, tactics, ministry perspectives and tools that we use along the way as our movements develop.

  1. Forerunner– Association.  Skills include networking, visualizing something when there is nothing and being a spokesperson with churches, faculty and administration.
  2. Pioneering–Selection.  Skills include gathering, casting vision, being a change agent and motivating others to the vision.
  3. Key Contact– Consecration, Impartation.  Skills include recruiting, training, being an effective coach, helping our leaders assess their own skills and needs and how to build a team around them.
  4. Launched–Demonstration, Delegation.  Skills include training in evangelism and discipleship, the ability to impart our core DNA into others and effective delegation.
  5. Multiplying– Supervision, Reproduction.  Skills include setting direction for leaders and knowing how to set others up for success in ministry.

Much like the skills that we develop when we went through our New Staff Development, the skills required of us change as movements develop.  Our leadership must adjust and adapt to those needs.  As ministers, we must grow in our ability to lead at each stage of development.  The tools we use change with a growing movement.

While our ministry requires us to become proficient at every stage of movement development, over time we begin to figure out how we are uniquely wired for ministry, what our gift mix is and how to steward those gifts.  Some of us are simply better at networking, gathering and recruiting.  Some are better at coaching, training and developing leaders.  This is an interesting tension for us in a ministry like CCC.  With an expectation of proficiency at every stage but a tendency toward specialization, this is where our team comes in.  Hopefully, the team we are part of has the breadth of skills to launch and build movements, but also the desire, some who love to start new things and others who can develop those starts.  You can find great resources to help your team launch and build movements on Missional Team Leaders.

Beginning the campus year, Part 1 August 17, 2009

Posted by Gilbert Kingsley in Coaching, Leadership, Student Ownership.
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Welcome to another year of Coaching Tips.  I look forward to passing on to you some great resources and strategies, as well as some great thinking from leaders who are making a difference.

Two of those leaders are Ethan and Terah Wiekamp in Nebraska.  They are responsible for 22 campus around the state that fall outside of UNL and the Omaha Metro area.  Their schools are as close as ten minutes away and as far as eight hours on the opposite side of the state.  They have the gamut in types of schools, four year public and private, community colleges, a Native American school on reservation and a dental school.  Last year they had launched ministries on all but one of their 22 campuses and had over 700 students involved.  So what do Ethan and Terah do to get all of those ministries up and running for the year?  Here is the plan that Ethan sent me last week

1.   Leaders.  The previous year we would show up and try to launch on all the un-launched campuses, usually with FSKs.  At the conclusion of that year we challenge students to form a leadership team, and ask them to fill out our leadership team application.  The application is intentionally concise.  One requirement is that they need to commit to coming to our CORE leadership team training in mid August.  (That’s where I’ll be next weekend!)

2.   The CORE.  This is our weekend training/kickoff to the year where we spend a weekend praying, planning, and covering the basics.  We pass out little booklets called the Passport which is our guide for the weekend (we have seminars and practical application sessions for each of the topics in the passport).

3.   Movements.  A second requirement from the leadership application is that each leader is committing to be involved in a movement.  We define a movement perhaps a little differently than most – and use another booklet, The Movement Launcher, to teach students to launch and lead one.  (You can download it at: ThisCampus.org or you can watch some videos of Terah and me explaining it at NebraskaCatalytic.com – click on students, then click on launchpad)  During the CORE we really try to drive the point home that our mission is to launch movements everywhere, and if each of the leaders was involved in a movement that grew and split during the course of the year – we would be ecstatic.

4.   Evaluate.  Having just spent a weekend with most of our leaders and leadership teams from across the state, we can next prioritize.  Generally speaking, this is our guide for deciding where to spend our time and energy during the first 2-3 weeks.

As you well know, getting 5, 10 or 20 movements up and running is a significant undertaking.  Like your own movements, the Wiekamps want each of theirs to have the most favorable start, gathering new students and setting a trajectory that will impact the campus.  Their CORE helps them do that.  Next week, I will share what Ethan listed as their priorities during the first few weeks and also where they want to focus their efforts in launching new movements.

Spring Ministry Wrap-up April 27, 2009

Posted by Gilbert Kingsley in Coaching, Leadership, Student Ownership.
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If you are like me, you probably have a fairly long list of things to do to wrap up the semester before heading into the summer.  Our Student LINC team sat down last week to talk about the types of things we are doing to finish up.  We came up with some typical things that we all do and a few things out of the ordinary.   The more I thought about some of those items, they seemed to fall into a few categories.  Though not exhaustive, hopefully this will spur some of your thinking as you transition from Spring into Summer.

Know what you need to do to hit the ground running in August.

  • Possibly have a leadership retreat, but in any case, make sure leaders plan for the fall.
  • Find out the earliest possible time to connect with Freshmen.
    • One of Eric’ Dellaire’s schools is allowing them to send an email to incoming freshmen two weeks before they arrive on campus.

Celebrate what God has done this year.

  • Ben Rivera encourages his ministries to have an end of the year party.
  • Gets stats from your student leaders.  This is a tangible way to see how God has worked.

Send the students off to the summer on a solid footing.

  • There is a Summer Survival Guide on GodSquad with various components from which you can choose.
  • Encourage students to get summer phone numbers to stay in touch.
  • As you think about graduating seniors, request the “Next” booklet from the Every Student Sent team to help coach them well.
    • Eric set himself up as a team on AllCallings.com.  He is encouraging his seniors to join his team as a way of staying connected.

For any students doing high school ministry, there are three articles for leaders on http://www.gocampus.org/

Passing the Baton March 8, 2009

Posted by Gilbert Kingsley in Leadership, Student Ownership.
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If you have not begun by now, you want to be thinking about which leaders you can count on returning next year.  Who can you ask to move into leadership?   The earlier you choose your leaders for next year the more they can prepare for their roles.  Here are some things to help in the transitioning process.

Transitioning to new leadership

1. What is God calling our leaders to?

  • Why not take them through the “Transformational Community” article.
  • Use the discussion questions,  to guide your study.
  • Ben Rivera’s Life Focus studies are a great way to look at the purpose passages of the Bible and think through how to develop a personal mission.   There is nothing like the personal interaction with God’s Word that these studies help foster.  You can either do the studies during your leadership meetings or have them do them on their own and then come prepared to discuss them.

2.  Developing personal vision.

3. Planning.

Yesterday, our youngest son, Tom, had his first high school track meet of the the season.  The relays are always exciting races.  I watched a team blow a lead and lose their race because they messed up the baton pass.  That handoff is the most important part of any relay.  If the baton is dropped, the team is disqualified, or, at the least, looses precious seconds and momentum.  The next runner to receive the baton gets themselves into position to receive it and then take off running.  They must keep in mind both what is happening with the runner handing off and the race in front of them.  This is such an apt metaphor of what we want to see happen in transitioning leadership.  They watch the current leadership to consider what and how to lead and they begin to plan for when it is their turn.  Let’s help that baton pass go well.

Numbers 13 Decoding February 22, 2009

Posted by Gilbert Kingsley in Launching, Student Ownership.
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The last two tips have been about seeing what God might do in other contexts.  1. Can I step away, just for a moment, to go look for what God might do somewhere else? 2.  Do I believe that God has already been at work preparing the ground for going into that community? Here is a third tip on this theme, a unique take on decoding a campus.  Perhaps you have some students that are getting serious about reaching their campus or they would like to help launch another ministry with you.  This was written a couple of years ago, by Dave Peterson, former staff in the NorthEast and now a pastor in a church in Connecticut.

Numbers 13 Decoding

It is really pretty easy to do.  Last week I met with a team of leaders who had just transitioned in because the key leader from the fall is spending the semester abroad.

I had the four students work together to make a map of the campus.  I had them highlight the dorms and write in how many students were in each dorm.  If a dorm had freshman concentrations I had them write that information.  I then had them identify how many commuters came to the school and write that information where the commuters would park.  The next thing I had them do on the map was have them do some basic decoding by identifying the main pathways and nodes that exist on the campus.

When they had completed this I had them open to numbers 13.  We read the passage and I asked them:

  • What was happening in the passage?
  • What was the land like that the spies explored?
  • What was the report that the spies gave?
  • Did all the spies agree?  What was the difference between Joshua and Caleb and the other spies?  (eyes of faith)
  • What do you think God wanted the people of Israel to do?

As you think of your campus,

  • What is it like?
  • What are the giants that you face on campus?
  • What do you think God wants to do on our campus?
  • What do you need to do to see God’s plan for your campus become a reality.

At this point I had them calculate the percentage of believers that were involved in their group and other Christian groups on campus.  I shared about how the Gallup polls often say that 50% claim to be Christians and how on some schools during the great awakenings 50% or more were involved in Bible study.  We talked about how many would be involved if only 10% of the students on their campus was involved and the difference that it would make.

To give them a sense of the possibilities I shared how there are student-led ministries of 200 plus on different schools.

We talked about what it could look like and then we prayed together conversationally about the vision that God had laid on their heart.

I suggested that it could actually be a neat exercise to do this at one of their weekly gatherings.

Dave

I remember when I was a student at Penn State, Wayne Okamoto and I would often prayer walk around East Halls. Often we would pray that as the lights in those dorm rooms lit the dark quad, that many would come to Christ and be light in the dark world. God uses prayer walks and Dave’s Numbers 13 experience to help build vision for what God will do and stretch student’s faith in how He can use them. For more on this, check out Colleen Harvey’s tip on Prayer Mapping.  And for more on Decoding, see Kerri Louck’s tip on Decoding.