Do your students know… why you do what you do?
Do they understand your mission on campus? Have they caught your vision for how you will, together, move towards accomplishing that mission?
Does your mission fit within the larger mission and vision of the institution you serve at? Why or why not? Do your students know about it?
Can your students, especially your student leaders, iterate your purpose to others? Would you be proud, or embarrassed, if you overheard them answering questions about your ministry?
You might be surprised!
In the days leading up to the start of a new academic year, we are intentional to spend time engaged in leadership training with our new student leaders. Among many things we hope to accomplish, we have three primary goals for this our time together:
1. To begin to reconnect relationally,
2. To begin to readjust to being back at school, and
3. To begin the process of making sure everyone knows why we do what we do… and why it matters!
Notice that in all three instance I said ‘begin’. It will be a process. It needs to be.
So as we embark on a new year of ministry, with a new crop of student leaders, can there be any better way to start the year than to make sure that everyone is on the same page… looking towards our shared mission and purpose on campus… and preparing to chase hard after the goals we create together? I think you know my answer!!
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this!
5 thoughts on “Do Your Students Know?”
We’ve done the same thing at our campus. We call it reorientation, and it’s all about reminding them of the purpose and getting everyone on the same page and ready to hit the first few weeks strong.
What I’ve been thinking about though is how we set goals with no idea of what “success” / “victory” would be. I can’t seem to get much support on this, but I’ve been wondering would it not be better for students if we set goals more like, “we want to see 400 people in our large group gathering, 60% of them in groups and involved outside of large group too.” And/or for this small group “we want to have been involved in 7 decisions to follow Christ by December.”
I just feel like when our goals are more like “we want to make Jesus known on this campus” everyone is all, “YEAAA!! …ok… I’ll see if that overlaps with everything else I’ve got to do…” and there’s no real direction or focused “mission”. You get what I’m saying? What’s your thoughts?
Hey Riley! I feel you on this one… Goals are tough, because the spiritual formation of individuals is a hard thing to assess.
Numbers can indicate whether or not we’re able to attract a crowd, but as Willow Creek has taught us — that doesn’t mean much if your giant crowd is staying in the shallow end of the pool.
Measuring spiritual depth… sounds impossible.
But life change — that’s something. We can observe it in others to a certain degree. Some are able to self-assess, some less so.
I think this is one of the most challenging elements of our work. How can we really know if what we’re doing is making a difference — this side of eternity?
I wish I had more to offer — but I don’t — at least not for now.
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