Tag: ministry leadership

Transitions

‘Stuck in a Moment’ That They Can’t Get Out Of

The beginning of the school year — it’s one of our busiest times of the year.

So many students to meet, so many to reconnect with.

It’s a season in which life seems to move at an incredibly pace — nearly impossible to keep up with — or so it would seem.

Yet I was recently reminded that while this might be true for many of us, it isn’t true for everyone.

I’ve got a friend I’ve been visiting in the hospital the past few weeks. In my visits with him I’ve been reminded that time moves slower there. Much slower.

Leadership Development, Spiritual Formation

The Power of Intentional Mentorship

Every four years, I wait with anticipation for the start of the Summer Olympic Games. This year, the world watches the Olympic triumphs of athletes around the world in London.

When I watch these athletes compete and win medals, I am reminded that their journey is a process, not only a solitary moment on the world stage.

These committed athletes train relentlessly with the assistance of coaches intentionally providing strategy, tips and pointers along the way.

As it is with the athletes preparing for their Olympic moment, so it should be with the intentional developing of college students and young adults for the rest of their lives!

Big Ideas & 'Best Of'

Making Oyster Casserole For Your Ministry: Why College Ministries Should Use Recipe Cards

Try as she might, my mother never could quite replicate my grandmother’s oyster casserole. The wisdom of fine tuning and perfecting her shellfish delicacy passed from this world when my grandmother left us. Like so many families in similar situations, we’ve asked the anguished, hungry question “Why didn’t she write that stinkin’ recipe down?!?!”

Not that a written recipe would have guaranteed success but we would have at least had a head start, something to use as a guide. It certainly would have spared my family some of mom’s less than stellar attempts at reproducing grandma’s special dish. And who knows how many countless Pinterest users might be pinning her recipe right now if we had it to put out there and share with the world?

Transitions

Against the Current: Understanding the Mindset of an Incoming College Freshman

When I was in college, I went rafting with some friends. We were coasting down a medium-size rapid when, all of a sudden, we dropped about four feet on a dip that we didn’t see coming.

Falling off my tube, I remember having to swim upstream to get back onto my float that had become lodged between a rock and a hard place.

Tired from the struggle, I remember wondering if the experience was worth it at all.

Blogathons, Spiritual Formation

From Forest to Tree: Changing our view of discipleship to value the individual

Have you ever felt like the only tree in the forest that wasn’t like the others? Like all of the trees around you have roots that suck water through huge PVC pipe while your roots are trying to suck through a coffee stirrer?

At some point I am sure each of us have felt this way.

This awkwardness is felt by many when entering a discipleship group on a week night in the dorm.

You know what I mean–you are so envious when the person next to you starts spouting off quotes from last week’s reading. They eloquently recite half the book of James while you struggle to stay focused and wade through the material in order to participate.

Academics & Vocation

Three Practices for Campus Ministers Courtesy of the Rolling Stones — Part III

One of the themes that becomes very clear, very quickly, when reading Life by Keith Richards is that the Rolling Stones never set out to be an epic, culture changing rock n’ roll band. They were deeply influenced by the Chicago blues (Muddy Waters, etc), and that is, in many ways, how they still view themselves to this day: a Chicago blues band from London.

Not that they didn’t have ambition. They wanted to be a great band. But they had no idea what they were getting themselves into.

When students show up on campus as freshmen there are some who just want to party, and a few others who are there to get a degree and get on with it, but the majority of students come with significant dreams and aspirations.

Spiritual Formation, The Campus Minister

Three Practices for Campus Ministers Courtesy of the Rolling Stones — Part II

At the heart of Christian theology lies the idea that God is one. And if God is one (Deuteronomy 6:4), then the implications are astounding, with, perhaps, the largest being (to borrow a phrase from Richard Rohr) that “everything belongs”.

Many of us live with a bifurcated (or muti-furcated…just made up a word) world. College students are bombarded with this constantly. Whether it be sacred vs. secular, personal vs. public, on-line vs real-life, dualism abounds.

Big Ideas & 'Best Of'

Top Posts for June 2012

It was another BIG month at FaithONCampus.com!

In case you missed it, I made a couple of BIG announcements this past month:

2 Books, the Month of July, & My Attempts at Keeping Things Sane
Announcing the Faith ON Campus Summer Institute
The writing will have a significant impact on my month of July — so you can expect some of the “best of” from the Archives, as well as some guest posts that will totally be worth checking out!

The Summer Institute will not take place until NEXT June — but is something you need to find out about NOW, so be sure to check out that link!

And in case you missed any of these — here are the Top 10 posts for the month of June!