I’ve had the chance over the past week to spend a good amount of time at a nearby hospital with a student. Now I should confess that I’m normally not a “hospital kinda guy”… but I’ve forced myself.

This student has been a sleep most of the time that I’ve been there… which has given me a lot of time to think. And all my time spent — simply being present — has had me thinking about some of the unique opportunities we have with students… and there are a few different streams of thought that are coming together on this for me.

This first comes from a post I wrote reflecting on my time at Catalyst, in particular, hearing from Andy Stanley.

“Do for one that which you wish you could do for many.”

This is one of the phrases that has stuck in my mind over the past month, since attending the Catalyst conference.

They were shared by Andy Stanley, pastor of a mega-church down in the Atlanta area, and someone who knows about living and serving with a full schedule.

A big part of what he was addressing was the fact that the longer we serve in ministry leadership, and as our roles change to where we are leading leaders much more than we are leading others (students, lay people, etc.) that it can become easy for us to “disconnect” for those we have been called to serve.

His suggestion, his challenge, was to “do for one that which you wish you could do for many.” A simple, but profound word. We cannot do all, and be all, for everyone we have been called to serve… but we can do it for some — even one.

This, in part, is what inspired my post for last week’s blogathon: A LEADership Experiment. One of the two big ideas I was flirting with was spending more time focusing on things, as leaders of leaders, that only we can do. Because of our role as a pastor of students, we are sometimes able to do things that others cannot — and we need to take full advantage of this fact.

And then the third thought I want to tie in to this post on being with students in the hospital comes from another post from last week’s blogathon contributed from Vance Rains, pastor of the Wesley Foundation at FSU and TCC in Florida, simply entitled: Dad? In it, Vance explores the role of the campus pastor as “surrogate” parent to our students.

Every situation is different. And not every student who ends up in the hospital will need the same level of attention and/or care from someone like us.

But what if:

• the surgery is invasive and requires a long hospital stay?
• the student’s parents are not able to get into town for one reason or another?
• the student doesn’t have a large support network that can assist him/her during and after the hospital stay?
• the student doesn’t know how to let school officials know what’s going on… why they’re missing so much class… and how best can they still tend to their class work?

These are but a few of the factors that could come into play when a student gets hospitalized.

And I think that there are a few reasons why we might be some of the best people to step in (maybe not always, but at least some of the time):

• We often have the luxury of a flexible schedule and the ability to move things around and make time to be present;
• We hopefully have the kind of relationship with students (at least some of them) that makes us someone they’d like to have around;
• We’re not their peers, and as great as it can be to have friends come visit, they are not often ready or equipped to take care of someone who has just had surgery;
• And there’s more that could be added to this list.

No, we don’t have to take on the full responsibility of a student’s needs while in the hospital (or after they’ve been discharged), but we can (and maybe should) take on a good-sized portion.

Obviously the hope is that the student’s parents would be able to make it — at least at some point (depending on their situation) and play the role of primary care-giver, and that the student would have a good on- (and off-) campus community that could come around them during this unexpected time of illness and recovery… but that should not negate the role that we can play in a student’s life during this time.

What do you think?

How have you come alongside students while in the hospital?

What advice would you give to pastors who have never done this before?

What challenges have you experienced, or might you foresee, in playing this role for students?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this! Please take a moment to share in the comment section below.