Ideas for May

By guy.chmieleski@gmail.comBig Ideas & 'Best Of'

It’s May!

That typically means the end of the academic year… (unless that came in April for you). Either way, it’s time to start thinking about saying good-bye to students and preparing for a different season of ministry life on campus — the summer.

I’ve started posting some ideas at the beginning of each month as a way of mapping out my upcoming month — and I thought some of you might need (or have) some ideas for May as well.

A few posts that might be worth checking out — if you missed them — or if you are transitioning into a season with some more space for rest and recuperation are:

  • In Search of Rest and Dare to Slow Down — a couple of posts talking about our need to intentionally seek out rest and what we might find when we do.  With the obvious change in pace that a quiet[er] campus brings, the summer can be a great time to get some much-needed rest, regain some of the lost margins in our life, and also gain some new perspective on the campus/students we serve.
  • Leaders Are [Lifetime] Learners — a post with some ideas about how to make our ongoing professional development a priority — especially over the summer — as we might find ourselves with some more space for reading, studying, attending conferences, pursuing additional degrees, etc.
  • The [Un]Scheduled Pastor — a post exploring how we might best utilize our schedules — a good thing to assess as our schedules are beginning to morph into their summer form.
Here are a few other ideas for the month of May:
Host an end of the year event for your ministry leaders — celebrate them with a big family meal or fun night out.  Celebration is so important!
Consider a larger campus-wide event — last night we hosted an end-of-the-semester event called Late Night Pancakes.  Every semester we host this pre-finals event and last night we served 1238 students nearly lots and lots of pancakes, eggs, bacon, biscuits and gravy over the course of 2 hours with the assistance of 15 volunteers and key partnerships with Sodexo (our dining service on campus), the College of Arts and Sciences, GPS (our Sophomore Transition Center) and our Alumni Relations Office.  This is a great way to tell students that you love them and are behind them as they head into finals.  It’s also a great way to get other staff and faculty involved with students in a context that is totally different from their norm.
Say good-bye to seniors — Grab lunch or coffee with some of those students we spent some special time with.  It’s important for them (and for us).
Plan to attend graduation — Again, it’s good for closure on both sides of the line.
Plan to attend the baccalaureate service — If your campus does not hold such an event, consider hosting a service that recognizes the accomplishments of the students and commissions them to go out into the world to use the gifts/passions/skills, that they have refined at their university, to make a difference in the world.
Create some space for some good assessment of our semester and year — Learning from the year that has just finished — while it is still fresh on our mind — will help to set some direction for the upcoming year.  A staff retreat might be a great place to do this. You can also click here to view a list of posts I’ve written related to assessment that might help to jump-start this process for you and your ministry.
Plan out our summer — vacation, professional development, retreats, etc.

Begin to plan for the fall — student leadership recruitment and development, reaching out to first year students and transfers, reaching out to returning students, making good use of the first month, fall break, etc.These are some of the things I’m thinking about for the month of May…

What would you add to this list?
What does your May look like?

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2 thoughts on “Ideas for May”

  1. For the group I work with, many students stay in town even if they aren’t attending summer school. We use the Summer to play ultimate frisbee or volleyball in a nearby park once each week. Many friends come and new relationships are started. We have a brief spiritual discussion after the fun. It is a nice change of pace, easy to prepare for, and provides continuity for starting in the Fall as many more are already motivated to be together than if we start “from scratch” in the Fall.

  2. Great article. The college group I lead is a little funny in this area. I’m located in a small town with a community college, so a large majority of college students go off to college elsewhere besides those not in college/out of college/in community college – until the summer. So I’m currently trying to figure out my strategy for this summer.

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