How do you decide who to bring to campus?  Who do let speak to your students?

Whether we are trying to fill a chapel schedule, with guests coming to campus as many as five times a week, or simply considering a new face (and voice) for our weekly large group gathering, the reality is that we will likely extend more than a few invitations for guests to come to our campus or church — and speak with our students — this year.

Inviting guests to speak in your place, from time-to-time, is a healthy and necessary practice.

• It gives you the space to catch your breath in the midst of a busy semester
• It gives students the chance to hear from someone with a different perspective, style and approach to things.  You never know how this might impact a student (or community) and how that might move your ministry into a whole new realm.
• Guest can often bring up needed conversations about topics that we, as the in-house resident, cannot — and students will receive it from them in ways that they would not from us.

But who do we bring to campus? I guess it depends on what we’re trying to accomplish.

• Do we want to re-affirm certain truths and/or practices in our students?
• Do we want to challenge our students to think beyond the ‘finally constructed’ theological box that they work out of?
• Do we want to scare our students away from faith, while attempting to  scare them into it?

Whatever our reasoning, whatever our hopes, exposing our students to a wide variety of Christian thought and expression is — I believe — an important part of the work that we do during these formative years. If we fear someone coming in and ‘stirring the pot’ for a day or two, we should rest assured of the fact that we, ultimately, will have the ‘last word’ after our guest has gone.

For me, I love to see and hear students all abuzz after being confronted with something that they don’t know what to do with… the kinds of conversations that happen as a result a passionate, challenging message are often some of the richest I engage in.

What about you… what do you think?

• How often do you bring guests into your ministry to share with you students?  Why do you bring them?
• How do you decide who to bring?  What are you hoping to accomplish?
• Do you have any ‘horror’ stories to share from guest visits gone wrong?  Or just really awkward?

Thanks for adding to the conversation!