Ask & receive

Group, Jul/Aug 2001

I'm a minister of youth and education who also has responsibility for college ministry-any ideas for college networking?

Steve Kagy Tallahassee, Florida

Start out by getting very familiar with email, computers, and all sources of electronics, even pagers! Think and plan on late-night events. Keep up on their school events via college publications, TV productions, radio. Sponsor an ad in these publications. Start small-offer them a deep, moving experience if you give them anything. They are ready. Get involved in the rec department at the college. Maybe you can be one of the team leaders there. Sponsor an event (for example, run, walk, climb, bike, etc.). Feeding college students is particularly successful.

Denise Goodwyn Lewistown, Montana

The campus in our town has a Protestant campus ministry, and they have a dinner that's sponsored every Monday by a local church. We took our youth band and our youth members over to feed the college students and play them some contemporary Christian music... [and invited them] to our coffee house worship service, every first and third Saturday. It was great. We have several college students who attend. I guess free food and some good music with a good news message can help you network.

Gretchen Phelps Indialantic, Florida

I have no real words of wisdom-I'm just encouraged to know that you're out there. I'm in the process of beginning a relationship with a campus organization. I don't want to pawn my responsibility off on them, but I don't want to reinvent the wheel either. And therein lies the difficulty that I'm sure you're familiar with.

Aaron Baker Greenville, North Carolina

The best thing I've discovered is to target freshmen at the beginning of the school year. According to one campus ministry's comments, the first two weeks of college are the best time to reach new students for Christ. A couple of years ago, I was in a similar situation to yours. I simply set up a table in a high-traffic area at the beginning of the year with info on our ministry. Then I just started building relationships. Out of those conversations came a Bible study and later a significant campus ministry. Start small and who knows what God could do!

Dillon Burroughs Via Internet

The first thing any college ministry in a church setting needs to do is partner with the campus ministries, such as Campus Crusade for Christ or Baptist Student Ministries. I'm the college pastor at a church near the University of Arizona, and that's exactly what we've done. It's working great .... You have to give up any worries about "turf" to do this!

Rob Gaschler Tucson, Arizona

WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

The problem I'm facing is how to best handle public displays of affection (POAs) during youth activities. Do I say no PDAs at all--or ask them to limit it to hand-holding?

Ben Hearn Brownsville, Tennessee

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