Erin shared with the group how he and their team raise up volunteers to launch and lead movements throughout the south Texas area. With five multiplying and five launched movements and key contacts for four others, they focus on distributing leadership to student and volunteer leaders.

Sal shared with me more about the specific tools they use in distributing ownership. After the roundtable, she emailed me two. One was the Volunteer Application that many movements have used over the years. The other was a two page Leadership Contract, that includes a challenge, description of Biblical Leadership and covenant. Sal explained that these help them to be clear on what they are asking of leaders and what they can expect.

I know how easy it is to want to move ahead with the first people expressing interest, especially on campuses that might be distant. But it is important to have a qualifying process. That process is not only a valuable thing for you, because it can save you from working with the wrong people, but it is a valuable thing for the prospective volunteer leader. It helps them consider before the Lord what He is calling them to do. That can be a very confirming process for them.

From my vantage point, I often hear Brian Hudkins, Forerunner, tell others interested in launching a movement on their campus to read through specific articles before filling out the Volunteer Application. He asks them to read the first five files on the CruPress Green Starter Kit page. The sixth file is the application. If you are talking to students about launching on another campus or in another community, why not take them to this page.

For further thought:
Prospective leaders usually come from involved students. Ben Rivera has some great ideas for finding new people.

Daniel shared that this outreach was designed to be a way to utilize Facebook as a medium for the gospel. They asked students to record their personal testimonies and upload them to their profiles.

About 150 students participated. They worked on their testimonies, using the typical three minute testimony training as a guide. After they presented them to staff for feedback, they uploaded videos to Facebook. The students were encouraged to share them with five to ten friends they have been praying for. The intent is for students to have follow up conversations with friends using the video as a conversation starter. They could begin with something as simple as “Hey did you check out my video… what did you think of it?”

Another alternative for the outreach was for posting EveryStudent.com articles to their Facebook profile and tagging friends on it. I wrote previously on using EveryStudent.com. In it were a number of ways ES.com can help as you do on-line evangelism.

Daniel thought this could easily be done back on campus. It would make a great way of casting vision for on-line evangelism at a leadership retreat. Seniors could do this as part of a legacy project. The big win with this is having students share their stories and initiate with their friends how Christ has changed their lives.

I have been challenged recently in my thinking along these lines while reading about “Student-Led Ministries”, a specific focus of the Global Campus team. The focus is on students planning, leading, organizing, sharing Christ, discipling others, building leaders, owning budgets and making budget decisions. They have the freedom to lead. Staff have a specific role in jump-starting those movements, not controlling the ministry. Students figure out how and what they will use.

Many of us can look back to our own days as students when we led evangelism and discipleship efforts. I remember at Penn State I had a chart on the back of my dorm closet door listing every dorm floor in East Halls where someone was sharing their faith and listing those who had come to Christ that year. We may have had 150 students leading the ministry efforts in those years.

Phillip Baron, is an Area Of Affairs Campus Director, living in the Philippines. Campus ministries in several countries report to him. He has helped their Area of Affairs structure their campus ministry to allow students to lead.

He describes student-led ministry this way:

• Student’s personal vision drawn out and connected with God’s plan and CCC vision
• Students raise and manage funds
• What happens is up to the students – success or failure – leadership remains with them
• Students innovate, create in areas of evangelism and discipleship; lack of resources leads to innovation. Risk taking.
• Dependence on God, not on staff.
• They figure out how to best network with others on campus, for great evangelism and discipleship.

Phillip says it requires staff

• to believe students can do all that God wants done on the campus
• to let students fail, take risks
• to coach students, but students do all things
• to train students in transferable methods
• to keep movement building simple
• to focus students on the heart.
• to identify personal identity issues threatened by student leadership
• to agree together on what they will do and not do
• to help students internalize WBS
• to show them once or twice, then it’s up to the students
• to limit their time on campus to 1-3 hrs/week, max
• to be willing to let a campus ministry die – don’t rescue a campus.

I like what Phillip says in another article,
“Student-led movements are not just about adding another campus to your ministry scope. It isn’t building more with less bricks even though it feels like you are. It is building something greater than what you or your team can do by yourselves.”

While the focus here has been on student-led movements, the principles can also be applied to faculty and volunteers as well. Why not consider targeting a campus where you don’t have anything going yet? Place ES.com Facebook ads targeting the campus for the next two to three months. Sign up to receive emails and minister on-line to those who respond to those ads. And trust God to start a movement with those who are interested.

You can read more about Student-Led Movements from the Global Campus team.

Our ministry has historically been marked by a dependence upon the Holy Spirit. Being filled with the Holy Spirit is necessary for seeing God work in and through us. The great adventure that we know to be the Christian life is only possible as we walk in the power of the Spirit.

I was part of a meeting recently where we were talked about the progress we are making in our ministry. In most cases, we did statistically better in the 2010-11 campus year than we did over the previous year. However, one area where we were really down was in the Holy Spirit presentations. Down 32%.

Back in October, our team watched a video on the ministry of the Holy Spirit that I thought was well done. “Don’t Hold Your Breath” by Broken Phone Productions, follows Rick James as he explains this vital message. In his casual manner, Rick offers a fairly classic presentation of what it means to be filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

“Don’t Hold Your Breath” is about 15 minutes long and would easily fit in any Bible Study session or weekly meeting. Why not preview it yourself and schedule a time next semester for a specific emphasis on the Spirit-Filled life.

This is my last tip until January 9, 2012.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

At Dakota College at Bottineau, in Bottineau, ND, population just over 6,000 and a stones throw away from Canada, there is a ministry that we partner with led by the DCB Assistant Athletic Director, who is also a football coach. Andre’ Mooney moved his family to  Bottineau from Phoenix to be closer to his wife’s family. According to Andre’, he was THE ethnic diversity in Bottineau as an African American man. He is an ordained minister, and a reserve chaplain for the United States Air Force as well. God obviously was moving a guy like him with his skill sets for a reason.

When he moved there 4 year ago, he looked at the 2 year college across the street from his house and thought “there has to be students there who need to hear about Jesus”. Being a pastor and with his skill sets for ministry, he decided to volunteer as an assistant football coach to build relationships with the students hoping to start a Bible study. The study started slow for the first two years, about 5-10 students, but last year God really launched it into a driving force on the campus.

Last fall, the school offered Andre’ the Assistant Athletic Director’s role. This is huge because any athletes at the school go through him. They also started a partnership with a football program in Miami, FL that allows many students who may not have a shot at “college ball” the chance to come to Bottineau and play for their 2 year program. Needless to say, Andre’ isn’t the only ethnic diversity anymore! His position has allowed him to have numerous conversations with these Miami students who are clearly out of their element in ND. He is also there for them when they are having problems, and has had many Gospel conversations. So much so, that last year, the weekly Bible study grew to over 50 students, and 13 of those were brand new Christians who heard the Gospel from “Coach”. Andre’ had the honor of baptizing 7 of them last spring at a local church. He will baptize 7 more guys this year. One of them is a football coach who moved from Miami to Bottinea to join their coaching squad.

Their ministry was already called “Elevate One” when I first met him 3 years ago. Not wanting to stop what they had going, I offered to come along side him and their ministry and equip and coach them with Cru materials. Having access to AIA Bible study material, CruPressGreen training and equipping articles and strategies, and access to our conferences and retreats has made a world of difference for them. Andre’ feels way more connected to collegiate ministry, and doesn’t feel alone knowing that we Cru staff are here for him. He and I Skype once a week, and talk via email and phone often as we have linked arms in ministry to students in Northern ND.

Finally, Elevate One caught the eye of a friend of Andre’s who is a pastor in Missouri. There is a small school in his town and he asked Andre’ if he could model the Elevate One ministry on that campus. In September, they launched “Elevate One Fulton” and are excited for what is ahead. I am in contact with this new and excited college ministry leader in Missouri and he is more than thrilled to have access to the same Cru resources that Andre’ has in ND.

The Way Forward is messy at times. But when we see God doing stuff like this, it’s totally worth it!

Jason

As you think about the Spring semester, consider how faculty, coaches or administrators might be the long-term indigenous leaders God will use to reach their campus.

Using, Galatians 4:4, “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son…”, our pastor talked about the many ways that God prepared the world for Christ’s coming. A common language, Greek, understood throughout the known world. A stable political world, the Pax Romana. An interconnectedness between nations with roads built throughout the Roman Empire. And a Jewish expectation of the Messiah. God orchestrated the events over hundreds of years so that when Christ entered the world, the good news could be carried everywhere.

In the same way that God prepared the world, our pastor exhorted us to prepare our hearts to celebrate. This time of year can be so busy with ending a semester of ministry, preparing for Christmas/Winter conferences and thinking about the spring and summer ministry opportunities. Students are preparing for finals. And we have our own checklist of Christmas preparations, parties, gift buying, decorating, etc.

Taking time everyday for Advent readings and reflections helps to prepare our hearts for celebrating His coming, even in the midst of checking off our to do’s. There are a number of on-line advent devotions that can be helpful in focusing our thoughts and hearts.

• BibleGateway.com has a few Advent newsletters to choose from. One deals with classic hymns. They have a variety of start dates. You must sign up.
• D365 Daily Online Devotions repeats the popular “Following the Star” series. No sign up required. Be sure to click through each section of the devotion in the lower right.
• Many churches offer their own advent guides. Here is one that looked particularly interesting for both individuals and families. And here is another written by former staff, Will Walker.

What a wonderful time of the year for sharing our faith. Here are some ideas for Christmas outreaches. Chris and I will host one of the stops for a neighborhood progressive dinner on December 18. For a brief hour, our home will be a place where we hope to share the role Christ has in our lives with others from very different places.

In fact, while our son, Rick, on staff at the University of Florida, is at the SE regional staff conference this weekend, our daughter-in-law, Christina and their 11 month old, Reagan, are staying with us. As you can imagine, Chris and I can’t get enough of our little granddaughter. Since Gainesville is only two hours away, we do get to see them periodically. We also get to hear some of how the ministry is going there.

They have seen God do some exciting things on their campus. Since the start of the year, 103 have indicated decisions for Christ. 325 went to their fall getaway and 335 are registered already for the Atlanta Christmas Conference. Around 1000 are involved and they have around 50 community groups. Between 150-200 student leaders have attended leadership meetings.

I asked Christina why she thought they had seen the growth they have. She said it was student ownership. Students lead the weekly meeting. All of the community groups, where they have seen so much life change, are led by students. Rick attended UF and was a leader as a student. Their ministry has had great student leadership over the years. Christina seemed to think that it started back when they had very few staff and so students had to lead. That pattern continues to today. Their stinters and interns the last few years were students already leading who simply wanted to do full time what they had been doing in leftover hours.

As Christina shared, she also thought about another key to their growth. Belonging before believing. I’ve talked about this in previous tips. I recall hearing the MTLs at UF mention this emphasis when Chris and I attended the UF parent’s banquet last month. They had a moving video story about Alex coming to Christ after being a part of a community group. Students are leading the way in developing relationships with nonbelievers and creating an environment where their non-believing friends can belong to a community of faith and then come to faith.

Subtitled ” Connecting to America’s Largest Generation”, it is an interesting look at this generation of students and young adults. What many call the Millennial Generation, these were born between 1980 to 2000. It is the largest generation. At 78 million births in the US, this age demographic beat out the Baby Boomers in size. For those of us working with high school or college students, this is our audience.

The authors looked at a number of areas, including what was important in Millennials’ lives, if they were optimistic or pessimistic about the future, how they view marriage and family, how they view matters of diversity and openness, what they desire in a workplace environment, how they look at the media, relationships, environmental issues, money and matters of faith. It is a summary of the research conducted on 1200 Millennials, but only those born between 1980-1991. Their ethnically diverse study group was fairly reflective of the US population as a whole.

My wife and I lead a Marriage Preparation Class in our church. So I was very interested in how this generation views marriage and family.  But there were two areas that I thought were helpful as it relates to our reaching this generation of high school and college students. The first, had to do with their views of the workplace. Those thoughts directly relate to their involvement in our movements. And the second was how Millennials deal with conflict.

Millennials are ambitious. They want to succeed. Many have been told that there are no limits to what they can accomplish. Many of us think that they don’t care to climb the ladder of success. That is not true. But there are several factors in job selection.

1. They want to balance life and work. There is “more to life than work.” Relationships and family are very important.
2. Money is important. But how they spend that money differs from previous generations.
3. Fun. When given the choice, they will choose a work environment that is fun. They want to enjoy getting up and going to work.
4. Flexibility is almost as important as money. Relationships drive this desire for flexibility.
5. They do want structure and feedback. Most view parents as being on their side. They generally see the older generation in a positive light. Coaches, instructors and mentors help provide the structure they desire and feedback to help them grow.

Some questions to consider:

1. Do we provide clear expectations? Both, in what they can expect from us and what we are asking them to do?
2. Do we make allowances for their own personal and social relationships?
3. Do we make ministry fun and enjoyable? Do they get to do ministry with their friends?
4. Are we transparent as leaders?
5. Do we listen to their insights and perspectives?

One other area I found interesting in reading The Millennials is that this generation is “weary of the polarization in families, in politics, in religion, and in relationships in general.” page 153. They want families to stay together. They tire of the shrill voices on both sides of many  issues that many Christians hold important. They are respectful of others. The authors want to call them the “Mediating Generation”.

This generation is not without convictions. But their tendency is to bring factions together to avoid conflict if possible. Now this book was written in early 2011, before the Occupy movement. But the Rodney King question, “Can we all just get along?”, means that they desire civility and treating others with respect. We might want to consider, how do we do what we do in our movements that capitalizes upon on this mediating value of those we are working with?

If you are looking for a statistical analysis of this generation like we have seen in unChristian and some of George Barna’s books, you won’t find it in The Millennials. But I found myself being very hopeful for what God might do in and through this generation of students.

One roundtable session looked at best practices and resources for moving from Pioneering to Key Leader. Mark Covel, working with second generation South Asians in the Great Lakes, SALT, took notes and organized their discussion.

Online materials

• We need to have an attitude of a learner. Learning where the campus is. Decoding is important. Tom Virtue has a tool for this available on CruPress Green. This is very important in the EFM context. One way to learn is to invite yourself to ethnic student organization activities.
• There is a process on CruPress Green about pioneering, a starter kit.
• There is a worksheet available on the wiki. Search for “decoding” or “Tom Virtue.”
• Use 100% database of students that have gone to different cities.
• Search online and find contacts from the leaders of ethnic organizations. Using a campus nearby.

Volunteer based

• Find a key volunteer in a location first. Then resource him or her. This person can be found by networking through alumni.
• Churches have alumni. So volunteers can be surfaced from them.
• Leapfrogging. Talk with groups in nearby cities where you want to start. They may know someone who moved there.
• Our supporters have contacts.
• Faculty at two-year schools are a great resource.
• Use a volunteer application form. Use staff to find a volunteer.
• “Stakeholders: inviting the Community to Invest” is a Mid-Atlantic SLI research project presentation that explains a model for raising up Stakeholders.

Student based

• If you visit the campus for one day, research beforehand so that you can go on a day that an event is happening in your target audience.
• Using a conference to make connections with friends and family of the students currently involved. For example, the SALT Movement makes connections with students at new campuses when they come to the SALT Conference.
• Encourage students to share with other students about the movement at another location.
• Find an indigenous group that is established that is not aligned with us or anyone else. [You will want to align them to our distinctives.]
• Ask students wondering questions (e.g. “I wonder what it would look like if there was a movement here.”).

Cloud based

• Someone using the ministry locator and running with it has proven the most effective.
• SALT Movement has a page on the Movement website for someone to contact us to start a movement: http://www.saltmovement.com and click on “campuses,” “your campus!”

Almost all of us have students involved in our movements whose passion is to work with teenagers. Many of them will become teachers. In fact, I was surprised to learn that 6400 students in our CRS database listed education as a major.

One way those future teachers can connect their future vocation to ministry opportunities is to participate in Student Venture’s Education Majors Project.

When we think about our 100% Sent efforts, one very tangible way to get traction is to connect your education majors to the Education Majors (EMP) Summer Project listed in our list of projects. They will have a great experience connecting with high school students in a project environment. They will also connect with Student Venture who will be able to provide ongoing coaching and resourcing when they land a teaching position in the fall.

This project in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, is designed to help future teachers learn how to impact students for Christ. Through three days of workshops they will learn what is possible, what is legal, and what is realistic for ministry as a teacher. They will have the opportunity to disciple a group of students and facilitate ministry training with students as they staff the Getaway, Student Venture’s summer conference. A second project is being added for the Rocky Mountain Getaway in Estes Park in Colorado.

Because of EMP, Camille, an EL ED major at Western Oregon University said, “I learned that my faith does not have to be hidden from my students.” Ryan McSherry, from the University of Illinois, wrote, “Contrary to what most people think there is actually a lot you can do with your faith in line with rules/the Constitution.”

Alex Kolbo, from the University of Nebraska, told Project Director, Scott Livermore, “EMP does a great job of having a well rounded learning/growing experience, from having interactive conversations with people who have had great ministries in schools, to engaging and informative presentations on important topics for future teachers, to even real life experience with leading H.S. students at Student Venture Getaway.”

Ryan was asked what he would tell someone about EMP. He said, “I would tell them to pray about their upcoming summer and if a longer project does not seem like His will then they should seriously consider the EMP. Even if their parents have concerns and there are other things holding them back, God is so much bigger than that and can do a lot in 10 days!”

The Education Majors Project is a great way for someone with Kingdom Vision to connect with a Team that will provide Ongoing Equipping and Coaching and to help them develop a Plan to reach high school students. Incidentally, many of those high school students just might find their way into our ministries on our college campuses.