How Do You Decide?

By guy.chmieleski@gmail.comLeadership Development

How do you make decisions that shape your ministry with students?

More specifically, how do you decide what to speak on from week to week?  Semester to semester?  Year to year?

Is there some method to the madness?

Have you developed a ‘rotation’ of sorts that maps out a 4-year cycle of topics/themes that you hope to expose students to during the course of their years on campus.  Or do you take a more flexible, let’s see how the Spirit is leading – or the campus is trending – kind of approach?

Although I’ve been engaged in campus ministry for 13 years now, I’m pretty much a rookie when it comes to speaking in front of large groups of students…

To be honest with you, I’ve actually been on the run from this aspect of ‘the job’ for a number of years now. Not feeling ‘equipped‘ or ‘gifted‘ in the ways I thought I needed to be.  But a couple of years ago I sensed God asking me to ‘step up to the plate’ and into this important role on our campus.  That’s actually how I got into blogging and tweeting… a way of beginning to find my voice and put my thoughts out there for others…

So last year I took my first stab at it and it seemed to go OK.

As I begin to look at the years ahead, and how God might want to work over the course of a student’s stay with us, I find myself wondering which direction to go.  How do I decide what to speak on — not just this semester, but for the next several semesters to come?

What do you think?

  • How do you make decisions about what to speak on?
  • Do you have a 4-year plan or cycle?  Or do you prefer to ‘check the pulse’ of the campus from semester to semester and plan your speaking schedule accordingly?  Or is it some combination of these two?
  • What are some of the themes that you want your students to be exposed to during their time with your ministry?
Thanks, as always, for joining the conversation!

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6 thoughts on “How Do You Decide?”

  1. We are actually in the process of deciding right now about our weekly large group gathering topics right now. This process takes me personally hours upon hours. We use a jumbled sort of approach. I look back over what we have preached over the past year, what God is teaching me in the past three months and talk with the staff about what is going on in the small groups and from their groups. We tend to mix in books of the bible with different topical series along the way. Nothing too profound just how we do it… little bit of everything

  2. Hey Michael,

    How has this approach worked for you? Good? OK? A little frustrating???

    How about for your students? Do they sense a flow? Do they care?

    Do you have any thoughts about what you might like to expose them to over the course of their time with you, or are you more concerned with sharing with them what God is teaching you about?

    I would be willing to bet that most of us operate of your 'little bit of everything' approach.

    Guy

  3. we are working on an “irreducible minimums” sort of list of some things we want to make sure to cover every year. we have decided that not everything gets covered in our main weekly meeting but some of those must talk about points are covered in our small groups. over the past 4 years we have made a point every year to cover “religion vs relationship”, drunkenness, personal responsibility of walk with the lord, sex and sexuality, missional living, and across generation discipleship.
    i have not noticed our students care about the flow. the planning for us has been all about vision and preparation. to continue to operate at a highly creative level I have learned so much more about the preparation and planning. In course of a school year we have always covered some of the minimums through large group and also a book of the bible. my apologies for the vagueness. nowhere near a solution still learning so much

  4. Hey Michael! Sounds like good stuff. Your 'learning on the fly' seems to be very Spirit-led, needs-based and intentional. How often do you, and your team, assess your students needs and plan ahead?

  5. hey man,
    we are trying definitely far from anything perfect. we try to stay a semester in advance. we are wrapping up fall plans right now and starting to talk a little spring. in those meetings we talk about past series, current students, their prayers on their connection cards and what we are learning in our own “walks” it has been beneficial for me to open up the planning to the staff and some key leader students. enjoying the conversation. would love to visit up your way some time

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