General Principles to follow

If you have a heart for and see the strategic value of reaching the leaders of tomorrow, college students, then you’ll find the following principles helpful.

1. Balance developing student AND non-student leaders. When you’re attempting to significantly impact the culture of your local college campus for Christ you’ll need to keep this in mind. Nothing happens without a leader. That principle becomes especially poignant when every year you “lose” student leaders to graduation. That of course is necessary and the nature of the beast and why you exist, but you can mitigate those losses by continuing to develop a growing group of non-student leaders. Who might those be? Ideally, the Christian faculty and staff of your university is where you’ll want to invest your time. They understand the culture and have the greatest potential for influencing students and other non-Christian faculty. And, to my point, they’re the ones who will be there long after your next class of seniors say hasta luego. Beyond, the staff and faculty, there are undoubtedly many in your local churches who have a heart for college students.

2. Building a program. Creating a successful college ministry has some parallels to developing a successful college football program. Your incoming freshmen class or “recruiting class” is vital. Every college coach realizes that most freshmen don’t make much of an immediate impact. However, they’re very much aware that in a year or two they’ll be some of your impact players. Think long term and never neglect the incoming freshmen. In the first month of the school year spend a large majority of your time and effort focusing on them. What can you do to successfully recruit freshmen? We’ll talk more about that in a later post.

3. Casting vision. We tell our students that these 4 years are all about setting them up for success in the next 40 years. By the time they graduate we pray they’ll have fully grasped a few key concepts. Concepts that if applied will help ensure the Lord is glorified in and through them and that their lives were lived well.

The first is that one of God’s greatest desires is to be in union with you. He has invited you into the fellowship of the trinity with all the privileges and blessings that come with it. In fact, whether you know it or not, that is your heart’s greatest need…to be in intimate union with Him. When you understand and pursue that, the life you want, the life you were intended to live, will begin to take form.

Secondly, to stay in union with the Lord, to abide in Him, you’re going to need to a few things. One, you need like-minded, authentic, missional community. Just as He intended for us to be in union with Him, He also intended for us to be in union with one another. God didn’t design us to “go it alone”. We need each other. We need encouragement and prayer. We need admonishment and rebuke. Traveling alone in a fallen world with all it’s deception and lies is a sure ticket to destruction. Together we can speak truth in love. Together we can spur one another on toward love and good deeds. We can remind each other that this is not our home and to not store up treasure here. We can come alongside one another and fulfill the kingdom building purposes He designed for each of us. Together, by the power of the Holy Spirit we can see His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Develop that type of fellowship in college so that you know what you’re looking for when you leave. Your church won’t be able to provide that for you. You’ll have to proactively seek that out in your next context.

Thirdly, referring back to those “kingdom purposes”, learn to seek, discover and engage in the pre-ordained context(s) where the Lord would have you make disciples. That is the mission He gave us. Where does it make sense for you to invest your time, talent and treasure making disciples right now? This is a question you’ll be asking your entire life. Learn who He made you to be. What are your gifts, talents and passions? What are your strengths? What story has He written for your life that can in turn help effect the destiny of others? And here’s the thing. When you’re engaged, laboring alongside the Lord in the harvest, you’ll get to experience a deeper more intimate relationship with Him…the very thing we talked about in point one as being your greatest need and desire. You’ll feel His encouragement, you’ll see His power and you’ll want more of Him.