Ministry Idea for Senior Send Offs

Last time I shared a ministry idea, it was after-the-fact and therefore not all that helpful for my friends in campus ministry. Here's a quick idea that we've utilized for the past few years and have found to be extremely encouraging and beneficial.

It's been our tradition for quite some time to set aside our last weekly worship gathering to allow our graduating seniors* to share testimony of what God has done in their lives during their college career. That may or may not be something you've already incorporated into your ministry. For us it's been great to hear from those students, and for our younger students to hear their reflections on what really matters most. One of the themes that always comes up is living every moment for Christ and not missing the multitude of opportunities that come your way.

* They don't necessarily have to be graduating seniors to share. Some are students that have been faithfully involved and are transferring to another school, while others will be away on internships or student teaching.

On top of that, we also present our students with the gift of a new Bible. We've settled on the Quest Study Bible. While I'm a bit hesitant to promote study Bibles in general*, I find this one to be a good resource and a great going away gift. Some of our students have admitted putting off buying a new Bible until they graduate, since they know they'll be getting one then!

* My main issue with study Bibles is when they become a primary source rather than a secondary source. I think it's important to approach a passage in prayer, trusting the Spirit to guide us in all truth. Only after we have followed His leading should we consult a commentary or study Bible, lest they serve as nothing more than a crutch.

While having seniors share and presenting them with a gift may not be a new idea, there's one more wrinkle we've thrown into the mix. Another great thing about the Quest Study Bible is that there are several blank pages at the front and the back. We utilize these pages as a yearbook of sorts, allowing the rest of our students a chance to write prayers, verses, memories and words of encouragement. This makes for a very unique Bible, allowing them not only to grow as they read the Word of God, but also giving them some great reminders of what God did in and through their lives during their time at college.

So this year, after hearing from our graduates and allowing them to pour into our returning students, we will pour back into them. We will gather around them to pray for their future, and then we'll put these Bibles out for the rest of our students to share words of encouragement from the Lord. Perhaps you'd like to do the same, or could take the idea and make it even better. If you do, I'd love to hear from you!

Learning to Pray

One of our goals in the disciple-making process for our students is to see them develop an authentic, vibrant prayer life. As I was thinking through how we practically go about helping that happen, I was struck by something and it's led me to try something new.

There are at least three different times a week that I'm with a group of students where we begin by taking prayer concerns and praying for them as a group. What struck me was that we often hit the typical stuff - illnesses, travel, stressful situations and often not much more. This hits me in stark contrast to some of Paul's prayers that he mentions in his letters.

Since we're called to pray over all manner of things (Ephesians 6:18), we will continue to lift up any concerns on our hearts. However, I'm going to try and add one more thing: each time I want to add that we pray for something that Paul would have prayed for us or taught us to pray for others. Right now the one that's really rocking my world is his prayer for the Ephesians in 3:17-19:

I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Paul's prayers often strike me as peculiar because we rarely hear people pray for those things today. Perhaps they're just praying for them in private, but if we're trying to demonstrate prayer and help students grow in it, I think helping them know and embrace biblical prayers is a great idea.

Fruitful Labor

Last fall when I was preaching through Philippians at a local church, I was really struck by Paul's statement in 1:22 as he's wrestling with the real possibility of death before him. He says, "If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me." One thing that hit me was the certainty of his statement. He knew he'd be fruitful if was to keep drawing breath.

As I pondered that for a while, I began to think of a lot of the things that keep us from being fruitful today. Many of them may not look particularly "spiritual" on the surface, but I've found that they greatly impact just how fruitful we are each day. I think in each of these areas of life, we should be faithful and disciplined so that our lives can be as fruitful as possible for God and His kingdom.

In no particular order, here's some of them.

1. Regularly getting enough sleep. I have a friend who has often said, "Sometimes the most spiritual thing we can do is go to bed." I firmly believe this! Ever since I established a consistent bedtime of 11pm every night, followed by getting up at 6am every day, I've found my life to be far more productive.


2. Eating right. This one rocks my world because I've seen what an effect poor nutrition has on me. If I consume large quantities of sugar - pop, candy, snacks, etc - it just knocks me out. Then I'm tired, lethargic, grumpy, and very ineffective in my life! The other piece of this is that I have to make sure and drink plenty of water each day.


3. Getting exercise. It's just a fact that the American lifestyle lends itself to being sedentary. We don't have to walk anywhere and many of our jobs no longer revolve around physical labor. I spend much of my time sitting with students or sitting at a desk - so I regularly have to schedule some racquetball or some other form of activity. It makes a radical difference on how I feel each day. I've also had to incorporate stretching into my daily routine - apparently things really do change as you get older.


4. Less sickness! Doing each of things has kept me from being sick (other than the occasional runny nose) for over a year. That means no missed days of work, no canceled appointments with people and no scrambling to find a replacement for some urgent responsibility. I'm not suggesting that you're a lazy irresponsible bum if you come down with the flu, I'm just saying making wise choices can go a long way in protecting you from it.

I could probably add some other things to the list - especially being financially responsible - but that's a quick four to throw out today. Does anyone out there have other things they would add to a list like this?

Super Party Idea

Yesterday the Saints defeated the Colts in a less-than-epic Super Bowl, but we had a great party at the BSU and students were glued to the game until the final snap. Is that because we are loaded with football fanatics? Not at all. We've simply discovered the best way to watch the big game: by incorporating fantasy football!

We tried this idea out last year and had so much fun we knew we would be doing it over and over. It wasn't until some friends from other ministries asked for the details that I realized I should share this idea with everyone else. One of our seniors (you rock, Austin!) put it together last year and, even though he has graduated and moved on, he gladly helped us out again this year.

As participants show up at the party, they randomly pick a player from each team. We had them printed on colored slips, blue for the Colts and gold for the Saints. The slips were folded in half so people couldn't see who they were getting. The slips themselves (which I'll link to at the end of this) gave all the necessary info for playing the game: the player's name, number and position, as well as how they scored points for you. Peyton Manning, for example, got you one point per completion and bonus points depending on how long the completion was. He also got six points for a touchdown and two for completing a two-point conversion.

Each time a participant's two players scored a total of ten points, that person entered their name into a drawing for prizes. Everyone also got to enter their name into the drawing once for free before the game began. It's up to each person to pay attention to the game and keep track of their points. Prizes were given out at the end of each quarter by randomly drawing names. By the way, anything that shoots (think Nerf) works great for prizes!

Since everyone has a player from each team, there is a chance you'll score points no matter which offense is on the field. And a few obscure players also gave the chance to score points on field goals and PATs.

Watching the game this way makes each play exciting regardless of how the game itself goes. And it's a lot of fun to see four or five people let out a huge cheer when Jeremy Shockey makes a catch for 20 yards!

You can download the Word doc here.

Who Are They Learning to Follow?

One of my favorite Bible characters has always been John the Baptist. There's something fun about a guy who lives in the desert, eats locusts and honey, wears clothes made of camel's hair and addresses at least some of his crowd (who came all the way to hear him, by the way) as "You brood of vipers!" Come on John, tell us how you really feel!

His appearance was foretold in the Old Testament, and he himself could point to Isaiah 40:3 and say, "See there? The Voice? That's me." He was filled with the Spirit before his birth and of him Jesus said, "Among those born of women there is no one greater than John" and "He is the Elijah who was to come." More could be said, but without question John was an important figure.

Despite all of these great things about him, or perhaps because of them, what amazes me most is the humility of John. Nowhere is this better displayed than in John 3:30, "He must become greater; I must become less." I want to analyze the context of this statement and what's going on, because I think it has profound implications for those of us in ministry today.

John said this in response to some critics of Jesus. Their comment was that "he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him." This hits me as, "Hey John, Jesus is cutting in on your action! People used to come to you, now they're going to him!" But this doesn't faze John. In fact, it's already stated in John 1:29-39 that after John repeatedly told his disciples Jesus was "The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" that they left John and began to follow Jesus. It was his goal that they become followers of Christ.

It's this mindset that is expressed in John's statement, "He must become greater; I must become less." The "must" here is very intriguing to me, because it's the same word Jesus used when He said He "must suffer... must be killed and after three days rise again." This isn't simply something that should be done - it must be done. There's no other way. And for John, it must be that anyone who follows him is ultimately learning to follow Christ.

The very simple reality is that your students will not always be your students. They'll transfer or graduate (or drop out!) and will move on in life. If their walk with God is dependent upon you then they will be in trouble. However, if by following you they've learned to follow Him, then they'll be prepared to continue following wherever He leads for the rest of their life. While you will (hopefully?) always have a special place in their heart, their allegiance must be to Jesus.

This truth has collided with my life on more than one occasion. I had a student leader who decided she needed to step down because she didn't have time to lead and also be faithful with the outreach opportunities God had given her. Another student stepped down from leadership in order to follow God's direction in being a leader somewhere else. In both cases it didn't fit in with my plans, but it was an instance of Jesus calling away one of "my followers" to pursue Him and His plan.

How about you? Are you preparing students to follow Jesus for the long haul? Are they simply relying on you, or are they diving deeper in their relationship with Him? And how will you respond when He calls one of them away from you? Will you rejoice like John, thankful that you were able to point them to the Lamb of God? After all, that's the way it must be.

Play to Your Strengths: Finale

So far in the first three posts on playing to your strengths, I've only talked about personal strengths. In this final post, I want to challenge you to do the same within your ministry. Just as each individual is different and has his or her own unique strengths and giftedness, so does each ministry.

Just as we can more easily identify our weaknesses than our strengths, you can probably more readily see things that are not going well in your ministry rather than things that are. And while we want to grow and do all things with excellence, I wonder if you've taken the time to really consider just what the strengths of your particular ministry are?

Going back to our tendency to compare with other ministries, it's easy to forget that they are working with a different set of variables than you are. The campus doesn't need you to be carbon copies of each other! What it needs is each of you playing your part in the Kingdom, making the most of the unique strengths and ministry opportunities you possess.

When I stop and consider what we have that makes us unique, I quickly see that I haven't even begun to tap into all the possibilities to fully play to these strengths. One strength for us is that we have a building. It's easy to see how that can be a weakness (certainly meeting on campus would be more accessible to on-campus students) but it presents us with a lot of opportunities as well. It allows us complete control of the environment we want to create for our worship gatherings. It gives us unique opportunities to serve students - through meals, laundry facilities, computing services and just a place to hang out. It also makes us more accessible to students that live off campus. I think we could still do a lot more with what we have.

Historically, ours is a ministry that has been around for over 70 years. That means a lot of people have been connected and have served here. Many have been marked by the Lord during their time in college and recognize the value of this ministry. That gives us a great group of people to partner with - in both prayer and financial support. We could do so much more in utilizing this strength.

Denominationally, wearing the name "Baptist" certainly doesn't endear us to all students. And while we don't make a big deal about it or check anyone's denominational preference at the door, we're also not ashamed of who we are. That same label gives us a great starting point with a lot of students - and also allows us to show that loving Jesus is far more important than whatever "brand" of Christian you happen to be.

Locally, we're supported by an association of Baptist churches. This is yet another strength that we could build on so much more. Here is perhaps our greatest wealth of resources - and far too often I give it very little of my time. Through these churches we have access to missions and service opportunities, discipleship, connections with older believers, the list goes on and on.

Within our ministry, the list of strengths is ever changing because the students involved constantly change. At times we've had great ministries to certain parts of the campus, only to see that door close when one or more people of influence moved on. However, as new students have emerged with a passion to reach the campus, new doors have opened as well. These, too, are strengths we must play to.

Are you considering the particular strengths that your ministry has? Are you seeking to develop those to the fullest? Do you think Reggie's quote could be directly applied to your ministry as well? Is it true that "Our best chance at making our biggest contribution is to get better at what we're already good at?"

What do you think?

Play to Your Strengths: Part 3

If you've been following along, we've already covered the importance of playing to your strengths and working to figure out what those strengths are. The quote we've been working with challenges us to "get better" at what we're already good at. That's the topic of conversation today. How do we go about developing our strengths?

First of all, you have to decide you're going to be intentional about doing it. Because it's easy to just float by in your areas of giftedness, it's easy to stand pat with where you are and not seek growth. If you don't have a plan to develop it, it won't happen on its own. That means it has to be a priority. And that means it's going to take TIME. Yes, that one resource you probably already feel that you don't have enough of.

How does this time need to be spent? In the aggressive pursuit of learning. This means having a heart of humility and a teachable spirit. Just because you're good at something doesn't mean there's not a whole lot more out for you to learn! And you need to be willing to learn from anybody and anywhere that learning is available.

One great resource is books. Are there any books out there that you could latch on to and soak up? I know when I first started in my job, my insecurities actually kept me from doing something like this. I felt that since I was hired to do the job, they expected me to already know everything I needed to know.* So to go seeking out more information was a sign of weakness - a sign that I didn't know. And my insecurities brought into question in my own mind whether or not I should've had the job in the first place.

*In hindsight, if today I was on the committee that was hiring someone for my job, I would hand them a copy of The Fuel and the Flame on day one and tell them they were not allowed to do anything else until they finished the book. Then we could discuss what was next.

Talking about books is easy and all, but how many books do you own that you've never opened? I have dozens.* Why have I never opened them? Because reading takes TIME! Once again, you've got to put your schedule where your mouth is if you really want to build on your strengths.

* In fact, I just ignored the offer to receive Mark Batterson's new book for free because I already have plenty of other books that I haven't read yet! I'm hopeful that the copies that are distributed freely actually get read.

If you don't know what books to read, just ask around! I feel that teaching and preaching is one of my strengths, and I would recommend Andy Stanley's book Communicating For a Change to anyone seeking to grow in that area. A few weeks ago I started (ahem: STARTED...) reading Spirit, Word and Story which was highly recommended, and last night I was encouraged to read Christ-Centered Preaching. There are good resources out there if you're humble enough to seek them out and willing enough to commit the time to investing in them.

Aside from books, another great way to grow in your giftedness is to observe others with the same gifts. Preaching is easy to observe, and through that process I've picked up a lot of helpful ideas along the way. Depending on your strengths, it might take a little more work to find a way to observe it in action. But it's a great way to learn and, incidentally, I think it's how the disciples got a great deal of their education from Jesus.

Along the same lines, you could consider seeking out a mentor. That same person that you could observe might be willing to give you some of their time. If they have the same giftedness that you do then they're going to be passionate about it as well. And if they're passionate about it, they're probably not afraid to talk about it with someone else who loves it too!

The last thing I want to toss out for personal growth is feedback. A friend once told me, "Experience is good. Evaluated experience is better." We certainly need to practice our craft, but we also need to be willing to ask honest questions about how it's going and what we could do better. We should constantly be practicing self-evaluation, but there are challenges involved there. At times we can be far too harsh, and at other times much too lenient.

The answer is to seek out those you trust who can give you honest, constructive criticism. Of all the things I've mentioned so far, this is definitely the hardest. Even when it comes from someone who loves you dearly, there's nothing fun about hearing what you did wrong or could have done better. However, if you really want to build on your strengths, you've got to embrace this idea.* A good friend visited with me last night and shared some things I could've done better while preaching. Even though each comment was a shot to my pride, I appreciated his candor and agreed with every word that he said.

* It's becoming somewhat cliche, but even Tiger Woods has a coach!

At times you may also receive some unsolicited feedback! In fact, you can probably count on it. In those times you want to be sure and respond with grace and try to step back and honestly consider what they have to say. As I said before, we need to be teachable and receive instruction in all different forms, even ones we never would have sought out on our own.

As Reggie McNeal said, your best chance at making your biggest contribution is to get better at what you're already good at. Do you believe that? Are you willing to be intentional about it? To take steps to put it into your schedule and to seek out the people and resources necessary to make it happen? I think it would cheating the Kingdom if you chose not to.