Conversation between Benson Hines and I Relating to First Week of School Campus-Based College Ministry

first week of school
Between Benson Hines and You

Chad Logan
August 22 at 6:10pm
one thing you feel is the most important thing to for campus-based ministry to do on the first week of school would be?...


I want to dodge saying 9 months from now " I wish i knew then what I know now"


Benson Hines:

It all depends on the ministry. :) Do whatever you need to do NEXT.

But, here are some first-week dealies that could be really, really important at a lot of campuses:

One piece of "best advice" might just be to attack the week (whatever you happen to have going on) with full gusto - unbalanced, hard-running, little-sleeping, ridiculous gusto that doesn't end 'til late Friday afternoon.

Watch for what God shows you He's up to NOW. Hopefully you have a finger on the pulse of your campus tribe in general - but each new year means tribal changes. So the first week is a great time to be alert for - and even investigate for - any hint of "climate change," as it were.

Do the same with individual students - especially leaders. It's possible there are students who God impacted this summer in ways that prepared them for a surprising role this year. Likewise, there are some students who plan(ned) to lead but, for whatever reason, need to step back now. Alertness to either possibility is pretty key.

Wrap up anything that's absolutely necessary that didn't get finished this summer. Have you outlined the outcomes the ministry is aiming for? Have you had any tough conversations that are needed to start the year right? Have you updated your supporters? Anything else? While in some cases things can be put off a few weeks, if there are loose ends that shoulda been done last week and shouldn't wait a few weeks, just get 'em done now. Even though it stinks to feel like you're looking backward.

Get core students and/or student leaders "leaning into" the front of the semester with you. That "gusto" idea should apply to them, too - help them join you in being college ministers, especially in the first couple of weeks.

Start like you want to be. Don't let this first week be SUCH a radical departure from what you're doing the rest of the semester that returning students or recruited students get a false vision of who the ministry really is. Obviously, programming may be different. But from vision-casting to recruiting to interactions with campus staff, be realistic and be real.

So... those are some thoughts off the top of my head. If I think of anything major, I'll let you know. But I'm also going to use what I just wrote as the blog tonight, so it's possible I'll get some comments there - you might want to watch for that. (But it's Sunday before the school year starts for many college ministers... so we'll see if people read it.)

Here's a post that I thought was really good, from the Univ. Minister at Belmont:

http://campusministryguy.blogspot.com/2009/08/starting-with-end-in-mind.html

And finally, you're serving with one of the masters of all this, anyway. If HE's got other thoughts on essential first-week activity, I would love to hear what he thinks. Really - if you get a chance to ask Arliss, add it to my blog post or send it to me, at least.

Hope it's an awesome week. Thanks for staying connected!

benson