It’s week 2 of campus and I’ve got a question for you.
Have you solved the freshmen vs. leaders formula?
How do you manage the tension between reaching new students and continuing to invest in your current leaders? Both are important so how do you decide?
It’s a delicate balance every fall semester.
Week 1 is easy, right? You set up a few tables, go to the cafeteria, and meet people. Rinse and repeat every day.
But now in weeks 2 and 3 you’ve got new people you want to meet, you want to follow up with new students you’ve already met AND, you can’t forget, you have a core group of leaders you care about deeply.
How do you prioritize? What’s most important in this season?
You know how crucial it is to spend time sowing new relationships, but you also can’t let the fruit God has already brought into your ministry spoil!
While I don’t believe it’s either/or in this scenario, both are crucial. I do believe Paul makes a dramatic statement in 2 Corinthians 2:12-13 that should be an important consideration for us in this period. He says,
12 When I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, even though a door was opened for me in the Lord, 13 my spirit was not at rest because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I took leave of them and went on to Macedonia.
2 Corinthians 2:12-13
Can you imagine this?
A door was opened for Paul to preach the gospel. He had prayed and hoped for opportunities like this time and time again in his ministry (Col 4:2-3, 1 Cor. 16:8-9, Acts 14:27).
It would be like the pledge trainer saying you can come in and start a Bible study for the new freshmen class on week 1! It’s the ultimate green light.
But Paul was uneasy. And he turned it down.
WHAT?
The man who said, “Woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1 Cor. 9:16) decides to not keep preaching the gospel there!
Whether or not he preached at all in Troas is not the point. The point is he was compelled to stop when he could’ve continued. Why?
“…my spirit was not at rest because I did not find my brother Titus there.”
Confronted with a crucial window of opportunity for ministry, Paul discerned that spending time with his co-laborer was worth a significant investment. For Paul, it was better to go check on Titus than it was for him to continue laboring alone.
Your co-laborers are just as crucial as the freshmen in this season. In the rush of fall, you can’t leave them behind in an effort to reach new people.
So how do you get your leaders going while still maintaining time to reach new students? These 4 tips can help.
1. Define the win
A lot of times your leaders come back from a summer project with a big, bold vision to reach the entire campus with the gospel! While that dream is admirable, it’s not tangible. Leaders can become overwhelmed and not know where to start.
You need to help simplify that vision into smaller, clear, tangible wins.
Remember! They aren’t staff. This isn’t their job. They have tons of other responsibilities and worries on their plate. If they don’t have clear expectations of what to do, it’s easy for ministry to get put on the backburner for a couple of weeks.
This is also new to them. If they’re coming back as a sophomore all they’ve ever known in college is a ministry geared toward their needs. They didn’t have to initiate! They just showed up! It’s a drastic shift to now have to prioritize a schedule around giving and serving rather than consuming.
Your job is to make it simple for them.
This win will likely need to look very different for different students based on capacity, area of campus, influence, etc.
Give them a “win” for how many new students to meet. What Bible study to start and for whom? Is it a freshman study? Sophomores & up?
Another big area is what to do with students once they’ve met them and shared the gospel with them.
That’s great they shared the gospel with a student one time. Now what? A lot of your student leaders know how to do the initial evangelism conversation but then are lost to know what to do after that.
That uncertainty slows them down. Will you map out a process evangelism strategy to help them keep those conversations going?
When students know what to do it empowers them to get started and knowing they are making progress towards the right goal.
2. Take them with you
Starting a ministry can feel daunting to a new student leader. Maybe they came to faith last semester and now feel the weight of doing ministry on their own.
One of the best things you can do to get their ministry going is to take them with you. DICE (Discipleship in the context of evangelism) is one of our ministry principles. This is one of the best seasons to live that out. Let them watch you meet people and get their phone numbers. Usually, they’ll see it and think, “Oh that’s all it takes?”
Modeling each aspect of ministry is so important. There are things you, as a staff member, take for granted like picking an exact time and location for Bible study that can easily be overlooked by students just starting out. When they see you kick those off its great training for them and builds confidence for them to do it on their own.
Not to mention, you’re getting great time with them in the trenches. This is one of the best solutions to manage this tension.
3. Go with them
Don’t just take them with you, make sure you go with them to get them some “wins.“
In rowing, the coxswain’s job is to sit on the end of the boat to guide & direct the rowers. They call out cadence, correct when the boat strays off the lane, and encourage the rowers to keep pushing hard.
Your students need a coxswain for their ministry!
You are a powerful voice in their life to guide them, correct them, and encourage them.
They need feedback. I’ve seen students start strong out of the gate but fade off quickly because they make common mistakes that could’ve been avoided with a little bit of coaching.
Most of all, they need encouragement! You can be wind in their sails to celebrate their wins. Without you, they might be like Paul, “distressed in spirit” because their co-laborer is not there with them.
Make sure you are present. This is multiplication! When you go with them and teach them to do the ministry you’ve doubled your efforts.
4. Pray with them
Finally, you can’t forget the importance of prayer to kickstart a student leaders’ ministry. There is a spiritual battle going on and Satan will do everything he can to hinder their labor.
Prayer is where you take that battle to the Lord.
It’s important to remember your student leaders are dealing with stress levels that are at all-time highs right now across the country. If they aren’t feeling it, their friends are and it is affecting them.
They have responsibilities in the classroom. When they come back as student leaders their classes are a lot harder now than they were when they were freshmen. That weighs on them.
Not to mention, by choosing to labor they are, by definition (2 Tim 3:12), going to face more pushback and opposition from some of their friends or family.
All of those factors added together can be a major weight that holds students back from kicking off their ministries.
Praying together is where you remind your disciples who is ultimately responsible for this ministry.
Remember, our only job is to plant and water. God brings the growth. Prayer removes the pressure to produce and reminds us to look to the One who does.
One of our campus teams had a great idea of having group prayer and Bible reading times for their student leaders two or three days a week. Since they’re all on the same Bible reading plan, it was open for any leader to come any day. They built this window in the afternoon slot (2:00-3:30 pm) when things on campus are a little slower. That’s a great use of time to invest in your leaders’ spiritual growth during this busy season.
Put it into Practice:
Your student leaders are much more likely to quit if you never help them start. This is a key role for you over the next few weeks.
Your student leaders are crucial for ongoing multiplication on your campus. Don’t overlook them.
So how is your schedule looking next week? It’s time to do some planning.
When will you the following for your leaders this next week?
- Define the win
- Take them with you
- Go with them
- Pray with them
Until those get done you should, like Paul, be “distressed in spirit” because you’re missing your co-laborer God has entrusted you to develop!
Discuss:
- What are some other hindrances for student leaders getting started in the first few weeks?
- How are you doing managing the tension of meeting new students and investing in your current leaders?
- Which of the 4 helps do you need to do with one of your leaders this week?
