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?
Preparation for the next Blogathon are now underway!
The Art of Self Leadership Blogathon will be a chance for us to talk together about our need to lead self — while faithfully living out our call to lead others. As leaders, we often put our own needs aside in order to focus on those around us. But in order for us to be the effective, healthy, and durable leaders we desire to be, we need to be wise, intentional, and strategic with regard to how we manage our time, establish and protect different boundaries, approach our work, and faithfully live out our call to serve others.
This time will be a chance to explore new ideas and best practices as it relates to our service as faithful leaders, as well as to engage in online conversation about some of the challenges or struggles we face in this area of Self Leadership.
Does visibility equal influence with college students?
Not necessarily.
But given the pace of life most college students live at, visibility makes a HUGE difference.
If you don’t work on campus — meaning you are employed by the institution — you obviously start at a bit of a disadvantage.
You need to make extra effort to get yourself in the path of students.
Happy Labor Day!
For most of us — a new academic year is now well underway.
For some of us — it’s just about to begin.
Either way — I hope that this extended weekend serves as a great chance for you to refuel and recharge as we prepare to push on into a fall of ministry with college students.
Below are the Top 10 most viewed posts from the month of August!
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
It started today — for us.
It may have already started for you. If not, it will soon.
I’m talking about the return of students to campus!
It’s time for another academic year to begin — which likely means that there will be a trip (or two — or more) made to the mall, the grocery store, and/or the local Walmart in order to get everything they’ll need to be successful in the year ahead!
And as new and returning students prepare to move to campus, and we prepare to help them lug their belongings from car to room, here’s some insight into what we might be carrying (not to mention the kind of money students — or their parents — will be spending):