CAMPUS LAUNCH PAD

College students are rich. No, not money rich, but they are overflowing with one precious resource: Time. It’s their most significant commodity. They say they’re busy but that is because they have no idea what busy actually is. Students are sendable and trainable. Once this is leveraged, collegiate ministries can be the greatest launching pads for global missions in the world. In order to reach this potential our ministries have to look at the process and the person. We have to consider the big picture of how our ministry does missions and the individual picture of how we engage particular students for missions. Borrowing some language from Matt Chandler’s Explicit Gospel , we will call this Missions from the Air and Missions on the Ground. Let me break those categories down for you and give you some key principles to consider for each. MISSIONS FROM THE AIR We need to start with the big picture first before we engage students to go. This is how we approach missions. W...

Do you remember the first time you came home after being at college for a semester? I do. I was headed out to see some friends and it was 11pm. My mom asked what I was doing and where I thought I was going at that “time of night.” You already know where this is headed, right? I casually told her that I was headed out, 11pm was a normal time to leave the house for a college student, and I would be back later. Within seconds, two things were clear: 1) both my mom and I were convinced the other had lost their mind and 2) I was not leaving the house! I had been home for a total of six hours and I had already blown my witness with my parents and been handcuffed with a curfew! I’m not sure who was more ready for the semester to start back up in January, me or my parents! The transition back home for our students, especially our freshmen, can be hard for several reasons. They are moving back under the direct authority of their parents. They may be moving home to some sin patterns that they ...

Do you spend much time at the doctor’s office? If you haven’t, just wait till you have kids! And, if you are blessed with boys, expect to spend some time at the ER as well. Just saying… I have four kids and three of them are boys and our girl is a tomboy, so I’ve seen a lot of waiting rooms. Waiting rooms are all pretty much the same. They usually have two sections to divide the well from the sick and a variety of things to keep both parties entertained until their time comes to “move on” to the next room. Look around the room. There isn’t much emotion. Each person is biding his/her time until his/her time comes to move on. Now compare that with a launch pad for the space shuttle. The cockpit is swarming with activity. Ground zero is alive with clicking and talking. All parties are frantic to make sure every detail is secure. The ground crew is scurrying about making sure everything is filled up, topped off, and packed. There is an excitement and anticipation. This is a much ...

Going home for the holidays can be a great season for our students.  It can also be awkward. Students who’ve been free to come and go as they please are force to succumb to curfews and the onslaught of parental questions like “where are you going?” or “who’s going to be there?”  It can be a real challenge to transition from living on your own to living back under your parents’ roof.  Not only do students have to readjust to life at home, they also must navigate being a different person spiritually than they were when they left.  Think about it.  What have you see God on your campus this semester?  Students have come to saving faith in Christ.  Students have been rescued from sin and addictions.  Students are learning to forgive and letting go of bitterness.  Many students have come from nonbelieving families and friends and are returning to those situations where college was the escape out of it.  With God doing so many wonderful thin...

Five years ago it was an anomaly for our students to go on mission projects.  We’d offer them occasionally, but the response was dismal and few seemed interested. We knew that had to change so we began to be more strategic and intentional about how we approached student involvement in missions.  We have seen a paradigm switch in our ministry over that past few years.  Then, the majority stayed.  Today, the majority go.  This past week I asked several of our students and staff what it was that made them become involved in missions.  Their answers confirmed that they had picked up on the shift.  Their answers were things we’d begun implementing four years ago. Here are four things that God has used to create a sending culture in our ministry: Missions is Expected We believe that if you are going to follow Jesus than you’d better be willing to be sent out because Jesus a sender to the nations. Because of that, we talk about missions ALL THE TI...