Freshmen Ministry Starts Now...
We’ve all
been there: the mad dash to meet as many freshmen as possible, connect with as
many as possible, throw as many events as possible, and attend as many university
preview events as possible, all the while trying to grab a nap from 2am-6am
each night. I’m with you. We do it too.
And it’s worth it. The cost of not giving it our all during the first of
school is too high and the impact too eternal to not go all out. We are not called to what’s easy, but to
what’s worthy, and reaching freshmen is worthy! But it’s not just about meeting
freshman at events it is about having students that are in places of influence
with freshmen already. The foundation
for a freshmen harvest in August starts the October the year before.
There are
students who are naturally in positions of influence and leadership among the
incoming freshmen. They are forced into
it. It’s in their job description. It is the RAs or RLs in the dorms and
Freshmen Orientation Staff. These
students are usually the first students incoming freshmen meet and are the ones
that help them navigate the system and show them the ropes. Most freshmen will at least try out whatever
their Orientation Leader or RA suggests. For example, we threw a welcome back
event for freshmen this year that was rained out and had to switch venues twice
the day of. It’s was destined to be a
disaster. Everything was going against
us. Bad venue, not ample time to get the word out, other events planned
alongside it—I thought we were done for.
We had half the freshmen class show up!
Looking back it was because many of our upperclassmen were RAs in the
dorms and Freshman Orientation Staff.
They brought their students. They
made sure their baby ducks knew about it and personally invited them and walked
them over to the event. Our event would
have died without our RAs and Orientation Staff. It made a believer out of me about having
students serve our campus as RAs and Freshmen Orientation Staff.
October is
when many campuses begin interviewing for Freshmen Orientation staff for the
summer and Resident Leadership for the next school year. They are the greatest influence in their
lives the first couple weeks of school.
Do we want incoming freshmen to be shown the local bar or the campus
ministry first? Influence the leaders
and you influence the followers! A
healthy freshmen ministry should have a vision for having students who eat,
sleep, and breath alongside freshmen as they go to orientation and move into
their dorms. A few things to consider:
Keep the
Vision and Deadline in Front of Them - Announce from the stage when the RA
and Orientation Staff applications come out from campus. Help students see the opportunity to invest
in campus. What job has a better built-in
discipleship and evangelism process than working and living among freshmen?
Make Room
in Your Ministry Schedule for your RAs – Once your students have committed
and been hired, remember that being an RA means they will have hall meetings,
required staff trainings, and orientations to attend. This can make it hard to plan your ministry
meetings and leadership team retreats.
Try to find a schedule and a rhythm that makes it possible for your
students to lead in your ministry and serve on campus at the same time. The calendaring will give you a headache in
the short term, but the payoff will make ministry better in the long run.
Know the Heads
of Key Departments – Do you know the long-term staff in charge of Resident
Life and First Year Experience? Take
some time to know them. Drop in to their
office and see what their needs are.
Know their shirt sizes and as you make shirts for the year send them a
swag bag full of stuff. They are
constantly giving away stuff and rarely do they get anything. Drop them a note saying you’re praying for
them. Serve them and they will bend over
backwards to help you. They may even
swing by your events just to see what their students are up to!
Find Out
Their Needs – As you meet key leaders in those departments (or as your
students become key leaders in those departments) ask the question: “How can we
help y’all?” We asked that question last
year and found out that the Freshmen Orientation staff needed to eat after a
long day of orientation. Go figure! We volunteered to help and were able to cook
them dinner after every orientation. We
got to feed and pray with the Orientation staff all summer! By the second orientation the staffers were
bringing freshmen by our table saying how awesome we were. We didn’t feed them so they would give us a
shout out, but it was a pretty cool by product! Later, we found out that the
RAs were running crazy the morning before freshmen moved in and needed some
down time and a peaceful lunch before chaos broke out. We were able to feed them, share God’s word
with them, and pray for them in the midst of the most stressful moments of
their semester. We still have students see
us on campus and tell us how grateful they are for us helping them. It all started with asking the question, “How
can we help? What do y’all need?”
Let’s face
it, we need all the help we can get. We
can’t throw enough events, get enough contacts, or have enough giveaways to
draw in all the freshmen, but we can empower and influence students to live among
and have influence where the freshmen already are. The key workers in the harvest for next
August are being decided today. Let’s
put ourselves on the front lines to see God move in a mighty way next fall by the
steps we are taking now.
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