Updated 2/21/12
How are you reaching your students?
Do you know?
I found myself struggling to answer these questions toward the end of the fall semester of ’09. And what made matters worse was the fact that I had been at that ministry setting for 4.5 years by that point!
Unfortunately I had fallen into a trap that I think a lot of us in ministry are prone to… attempting to use what has worked – or is working – in other ministry contexts, in our current context.
We think, quite naturally, that if it worked “there” than it should work here… right!?
And we hope that it does. Because we know how to do “that.”
We were good at “that.”
“That” has become quite easy for us…
Sometimes, however, it goes beyond our ministry programs, to something less obvious… like our approach.
I’ve come to believe that our ministries, or the various programs within our ministries, take on one of three forms:
- Pastoral — Those programs that are geared towards our students who already believe and are bought into making faith central to their life and their college experience.We LOVE these students and ministries… don’t we?! They want what we’re there to provide.
- Missional — Those programs that are designed to reach out to those who do not know the love of Christ, or those who walked away some time ago. Depending on the kind of campus you serve on, this could take on a much larger or smaller percentage of your programming, time and attention… regardless, it NEEDS to be a part of all of our ministries! And this can be very exciting as well! Who doesn’t want to be used by God to win people in to the Kingdom?!
- Prophetical — Yep, I said. And it wasn’t until I was earnestly praying sometime last semester that God opened my eyes to this. Just as there was in the time of the Divided Kingdoms of Israel and Judah – many of God’s people had chosen other priorities… and forsaken their First Love. There is a population within our campus community that NEEDS to be awakened to their present state and lack of Kingdom priorities… but I’m not exactly sure how to best go about that… because the Old Testament I read depicts prophets who served God faithfully and were constantly met with resistance, opposition, threats, beatings and even death! They were not liked… nor were the listened to. This was not a popular ministry — but quite clearly it was a necessary one.
As we grow in our understanding of our current campus culture, I believe that we must determine how best to reach the different kinds of students we have.
Not all will be ready for a pastor.
Some will need a missionary to share the good news of Jesus…
And others will need the kick in the pants that only a prophet can bring!
What do you think?
I’d love to hear what this looks like on your campus!
