Tag: big questions

Student Culture, Trends & Issues

In Christ Alone

This is a guest post I did for one of my new blogger friends, JR Forasteros. He’s a pastor in Dayton, OH and this post is a part of his ‘After Happily Ever After’ series. His blog is a great resource on faith and pop culture. Check out his blog and follow him on Twitter!

In the mid 1990s, the movie Jerry McGuire romanticized the notion of a soul mate — that one person that exists to “complete” us. Maybe you remember these infamous words that still conjure up feelings of desire, destiny, and fulfillment:

Big Ideas & 'Best Of'

How Will You Talk Faith & Politics With Students this Election Year?

Two months from today, most of our students will have their very first chance to vote in a Presidential election.

This is one of many “firsts” that they’ll have the chance to experience while on campus — away from home, and away from those who have been their most trusted voices and advisers for much of their lives.

With such a big decision looming, who will step in and offer some assistance in the decision-making process?

Leadership Development

If You Can Only Do A Few Things Well, What Will You Do?

How do you deal with your own limitations?

How do you struggle with the notion that you are called to be “all things, to all people?”

How do you live in the tension of wanting to be measured, peaceful, and sane — when expectations (both internal and external) seem to dictate that you do more, be more, and give more?

I think one of the challenges of being a good leader in our noisy culture is the ability to sense what we are called to do and be — and then focus primarily (if not solely) on those things.

The Campus Minister

We Are NOT Professionals

We are not professionals.

We’re not.

At least I’m not.

You see, I was reminded this past weekend — at an Ordination Service of all things — that those of us in full-time ministry positions are NOT professionals. We can’t be.

To be a “professional” is to imply a level of expertise — which is attainable in a number of fields — but not in ministry.

Student Culture, Trends & Issues

5 Reasons Why the ‘Sex Before Marriage’ Conversation Is Such A Big Deal

I started this blog — in it’s original form — three years ago.

On January 11, 2011 I wrote I post entitled Is Sex Before Marriage Really A Sin? for the 1st Annual Sex & the Soul Blogathon.

Since that post went live, it has far and away received the most traffic on my site — accounting for 13,000 views.

Daily — DAILY — I’ll get numerous visits to my blog from people who have used the following terms in search engine searches:

Leadership Development

7 Things I’ve Learned From Being on the Same Campus for 7 Years

You may have caught my post last week, reflecting on 15 Things I’ve Learned from 15 Years of College Ministry. If not, you should check it out!

Those 15 years have unfolded on four different campuses — but the last seven have been in the same place. And truth be told, I’m surprised that I’ve made it this long.

It’s not that I’m a bad employee — often at risk of getting fired. Nor is it that I dislike the place I work (or that I’ve previously worked) — all have been great! It has more to do with me — and my propensity for change.

In the past, I’ve enjoyed starting on a new campus, making new relationships, assessing what’s working — and what’s not, and then discerning how God wanted to use me in that place.

Student Culture, Trends & Issues

Prescription Drug Abuse and The Good Grade Pill

You may already know this, but prescription drug abuse on campus is on the rise.

It’s hard to get an accurate read on just how rampant the problem is, but some reports suggest as high as 40% of students misuse prescription drugs just to aid in their studies.

And that doesn’t account for students who are misusing drugs for the sake of getting high or “taking the edge off” in order to have less anxiety in different social settings.

With a generation of students that were more heavily (and quickly) medicated as youth, now arriving on campus, the amount of prescription drugs on campus shouldn’t surprise us.

Big Ideas & 'Best Of'

The Mindset List for the Class of 2016

They’re here, but are we ready for them?

And what I mean by “ready” is — have we sufficiently done our homework in order to know who, exactly, the students that make up the Class of 2016 are?

If your answer to that question is “no,” — know that you’re not alone.

And thankfully there’s a resource that can help to quickly get us up to speed on this year’s incoming class of college students.

It’s known as The Mindset List and is put out yearly by Beloit College.

Leadership Development, Student Leaders

Failure is NOT Fatal; Perfection NOT a Requirement

It’s one of the biggest messages are student leaders need to hear this year:

Failure is NOT fatal; Perfection NOT a requirement.

Because the truth is that — for fear of failure — many of our students will struggle to really give themselves fully to their leadership roles this year.

Of course, this sounds counter-intuitive at first — but when we give less than our best, less than 100%, we’ve then got an excuse for when things don’t go well.

Student Leaders

5 Lies (Student) Leaders Believe

Yesterday was our day of campus-wide leadership training.

It’s a time when we bring together all of the students leaders of varying student groups across campus for some shared training and team building.

For the day, we set aside the planning and preparation for our specific areas to recognize that we — as leaders — are not alone on campus. There are others who aspire to similar heights, and face many of the same challenges that we do.

From year to year it’s never quite the same — and I think this year might have been one of our best efforts!

Personally, I had the chance to co-present to our student leadership population of 350+ about the lies many leaders believe. Many of these lies were identified by different student leaders who have seen them — in some shape or fashion — played on within the student leadership culture on our campus.