It’s hard to believe that the BIG break that divides our ministry year in two, and celebrates the birth of the One who has called us to this great mission, has come and gone (or almost gone, for those of us who have a few more days before students return).

I hope this finds you refreshed, refueled and refocused (or refocusing) for the start of another semester of ministry.

Here are some of the ministry-related things I’m thinking about for the month of January.  I’d love to hear what additions you’d make to this list…

• Connect with transfers – For many students this will be their first semester on our campus.  For too many of these new students, who are trying to step into a new social culture mid-stream, finding our ministries might prove to be more difficult than it should be unless we take some intentional steps to help them find it… or even seek them out.
• Be mindful of returning students in need – I think we can too often assume that our returning students are going to be just as they were when they left us before the break.  But a month is a long time. There is a lot that could have happened in the lives of our students while they were back home… or off traveling.  Let’s vow to not make any assumptions.  Let’s be intentional to check-in and catch up with students we know.  Let’s be on the look out for anything unusual in the behavior of our students as they re-enter campus life.
• Double our efforts with student leaders – Our student leaders are another group that we can tend to make assumptions about.  If your process for selecting students leaders is anything like ours than it’s quite possible that your student leaders were chosen 9 or 10 months ago.  9-10 months for college students is like 4-5 years for people like you and me… there’s just so much change, transition and transformation that’s happening during this season of life.  We need to be certain that we are caring for our student leaders in the ways that they need it.  We also need to make sure that they still want to lead and are able to do so effectively.  Their experience over the next couple of months will likely dictate whether or not they’ll be back as a leader next fall.
• Map out your semester – I’m not known for my great organization, but I’m trying.  While there’s still a little time and space in our lives, before the new term pulls us in, it might make sense to attempt to map out the semester before us (if we have not already done so).  What are our plans for ministry?  What are some of the campus-wide events that we need to get on our calendar?  Are there things in the spring term that tend to sneak up on us?  If so, how can we better prepare for such things (like new leader recruitment)?  Is there a conference we want to attend?  What about special times and events off-campus — with family and/or friends?  Make plans for your semester… before it makes plans for you!
• Map out your year – While we’re at it… why not attempt to map out the next year?!  I tend to think of my year in three parts – the spring semester, the summer and the fall semester.  Taking some time now, to think about the upcoming year in totality, just might prove to be fruitful in a number of ways.  I plan to do some more writing about this in the upcoming week.
• Take some time to retreat – With all of the ‘doing’ of ministry that we will engage in this semester, it will be important for us to find ways to simply ‘be’.  In order for us to truly ‘be present’ for students, we NEED to find ways to care for ourselves.  Spending regular time in silence and solitude, with attentive spirit to God in our midst, is the only way for us to know the way forward.  This will necessitate that we get out of the office AND away from home, from time to time.

So, those are some of the things I’m thinking about.

What are you thinking about ministry in the month of January?