Have you ever wondered how you might multiply the efforts of your ministry on campus? I have.

And after 6 years of hard work on the same campus I heard a colleague express something last summer that unlocked a part of the mystery for me in this area.

His statement was something to the effect of:

Student after student, when asked “what made your experience at BU so significant?,” shared a rendition of the same answer: it was the meaningful relationships that they formed.

And almost to a person, they would identify a faculty or staff person who had taken some intentional time to be with them — to be a listener, someone who asked good questions, an encourager,  someone who challenged or pushed them, a shoulder to cry on, a mentor, a teacher of life — a friend.

Yes, of course!

I’ve always known that the faculty and staff at our university (and your college or university) play this role for countless students on campus.

But my thought was:

What might happen if we were to come together and talk about our roles — specifically as someone who God might want to use to shape and form students — regardless of our specific roles or titles on campus?

I realize that a gathering like this will be easier said than done on some campuses — given the nature of the institution and its’ openness to faith-based gatherings of this kind. But I think there might be ways on just about every campus to have some sort of gathering in which we can talk with interested faculty and staff about what it might mean, or look like, to see ourselves as spiritual mentors — regardless of the title we have, or role that we play.

I recently launched another round of reading groups with some faculty and staff exploring this idea.

Using Spiritual Mentoring: A Guide for Seeking and Giving Direction as a common text, we have started reading, thinking and talking about how this might look in our specific corners of the campus.

Here’s a little about the book:

Iron sharpens iron, and one person sharpens . . . another. (Proverbs 27:17) As we seek God together we come to know him more deeply. That’s the idea behind Spiritual Mentoring. Spiritual mentoring is an age-old practice that Keith Anderson and Randy Reese introduce in a way that fits life as we know it today. Spiritual mentoring is not only for pastors or saints. Mentors are ordinary Christians who are willing to enter into a faith relationship with another person who wants to grow. Likewise, those who are mentored are not seminary candidates but simply followers of Jesus who long for guidance in their spiritual journey. In this book Anderson and Reese show you how to mentor and be mentored as they introduce, chapter by chapter, the work of a different classical spiritual writers, including:

• Augustine
• Aelred of Rievaulx
• John of the Cross
• Julian of Norwich
• Ignatius of Loyola
• Teresa of Avila
• Madame Jeanne Guyon

These writers offer timeless insights from centuries past, while Anderson and Reese help you put their teaching into practice today to grow closer to Jesus in the company of another believer. If you want to learn how to help younger Christians grow while stretching your own faith, or if you want to tap into the experience of a Christian friend who is farther along the road of faith, this is the book that will get you started.

The conversations that took place, with some diverse groups of faculty and staff, were both encouraging and life-giving!

But it did reveal to me one important reality:

Just because our campus has Christian faculty and staff (yes, on non-Christian campuses as well) it doesn’t mean that they feel comfortable and/or confident in stepping out in this role.

We have the opportunity to create a space for conversations (or series of conversations) to take place that might serve to encourage and equip our faculty and staff in ways that may transform their work — the campus we serve together — and ultimately, the world in which we live!

I’m excited to be off on another adventure with new groups of faculty and staff — and hope to continue to serve as a resource to our campus leaders in this way.

I’m curious to know what you think?

• Do you have anything like this on your campus?
• Do you host conversations with faculty and/or staff around their role(s) in the lives of students?
• What other resources have you found to be helpful in this area?

Please take a moment to share your thoughts in the comment section below.