CAMPUS LAUNCH PAD

“I have never been so honored for someone to tell me to go.  Thank you for believing in me.” I was cleaning off my bulletin board above my desk and found a note with the above statement written on it. It was from a recent graduate who we’d asked to go to another campus to help a newer ministry build momentum as opposed to coming on staff on our campus.  It brought me to tears… again. Our Story In 2015, I was trying to build a staff team.  We needed more work on our campus and we could use more hands to put to the plow in the harvest field.  I was hoping that with “enough” staff I could cut back and start working a 45 work week and avoid burnout. Then the Lord asked me one of those bone-chilling, soul-tilling questions he does so well, “Clayton, are you ok having a large staff on a ministry-saturated campus when there are campuses without a multiplying gospel presence, small teams laboring while being under-resourced and under-supported, or without Gospel wor...

After ten years of working at the Tarleton BSM I'm taking a two month sabbatical this summer.  It has been on the calendar since November and I have to admit COVID is really jacking with some of my plans, but the summer is the best time to take it in campus ministry.  The more I've talked to people and planned out the summer I've gotten several questions as to what am I going to do for sabbatical.  The truth is, I don't know the specifics, but I have some general plans. Perhaps I need to define "sabbatical" before we go any further.  If you're not in higher education or ministry sabbatical can be a weird concept.  In the Bible, God's people would take a Sabbath (day of rest) every seven days.  Every seven years there was a Sabbatical year where the entire nation would take the year off (slaves set free, debts forgiven, let the land rest, etc).  It was a nation-wide reset button and a tremendous act of faith! Sabbatical comes from this concept...

Unprecedented. Unheard of. Never before. These are the words that people use to describe this COVID-19 situation. The church has gone online and families adjust to the “new normal” of social distancing and quarantine. What we’ve done before will not work wherever we are now or where we are headed.  We can crumple up the road map, because there are no maps where we are headed as a church, because no one has ever been there before! What an honor that God would allow us to steward his church during this season. We are the generation that will lead the church off the map.  The questions are endless and the answers are fluid and untested. When there are fewer knowns than unknowns there are a few things to remember: THE MISSION IS NOT CANCELLED. First, we have to realize that God knows it all and has seen it all, so when he issued his promises and commands he did it with the FULL VIEW of time.  This means that when God made promises to us and commands for us,  h...

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 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 and isolated until their time comes to move onto the next room. Next time you’re there 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 excitement and anticipation!  Every man and woman is doing...

“What you’ve heard from me in the presence of many witnesses pass on to faithful men who in turn can train others.” Paul of Tarsus “The gospel came to you on its way to someone else.” Rob Gallaty “Your church is the fruit of other people and churches whose names may have been long forgotten.  Has your church started other churches, or did history stop with you?” Steve Addison The gospel is meant to be passed on.  It was meant to saturate every pour of our being and every nook and cranny of society.  It’s what Jesus preached: “Repent the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”  What a picture!  In order to see the kingdom come near and the gospel passed on Jesus had a big vision, a focused plan, and an open hand.  EVERY AND ALL: The Big Vision Jesus had a big vision and started with the end in mind. Here are a few of God’s “vision statements”: Go and make disciples of ALL nations... - Matthew 28:19-20 EVERYONE who calls on the name of t...

2 Timothy 2:2 - What you heard from me [Paul] in the presence of others pass on to faithful men who in turn can teach others. I love this verse! If someone was to ask me what is my favorite verse I don't know if this is it, but it is close.  I love the idea of 4 generations of believers!  4G discipleship!  Paul who trained Timothy who was charged with training faithful men who would train others.  Paul >Timothy>Faithful>Others. Can I be honest though? Sometimes I find myself pushing for 2 generation discipleship.  2 Clayton 2:2 goes something like this: "Now that you've heard from me in the presence of others go and invite your friends and family and anyone you can to come back next week to hear more."  2G discipleship.  Come, hear me teach, and be fed.  I tend to make discipleship more and more about attendance to something where I can teach them, rather than radical obedience to Jesus' call to make disciples.  I mean, if I ...

Finding a church in college is hard. It's hard transition to a new place and a new church.  For most students this is the first time they've had to find a church on their own. Just because it is hard or may feel awkward at times doesn't mean it's not worthy.  In fact, most things in life that are worth it are hard and have some awkward moments. Many students don't embrace this and end of up not plugging into a church. Look at what Scripture says though. Hebrews 10:23-25 (ESV) 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. We've been given a great promise - a relationship with God through Jesus Christ and if we are going to continue to grow then it takes up meeting together.  Here are a few t...

John Worcester said, “Fill the field instead of fill the room.”  This is such a powerful statement! It’s so simple but packed with so much insight!  Instead of gathering students to hear you preach how can you send students out.  Instead of packing out the room how can you saturate the harvest field with workers.  Isn’t that what Jesus said to pray for in Luke 10:2?  Ask the Lord of the harvest for workers because the harvest field is plentiful but the workers are few.  Jesus didn’t ask us to beg God for sitters and listeners, but for goers and workers!  How many of college ministries make it their goal to gather Christians? If they can just gather enough Christians and provide a safe place for them to hang out until they pass through the dark ages of college then they’ve done their job. O friends, may it not be!  May we become so captured by God’s vision to see our campus saturated with the gospel that we begin to see the harvest field in n...

You could spend every waking hour on your campus and not get done everything you need to get done. Am I right? One friend on a huge campus said to me one time, “I haven’t finished a to-do list since I started this job!” We all have limited time. Between family, work, ministry, friends, social life, and sleep we have planned out 30 hours worth of day before we even get out of bed! With limited time on campus how do we get the best bang for our buck? Who do we engage? We’ve been planting satellite campus ministries on surrounding campuses the past three years and we’ve had to look at what engagement is when you’ve got only a day or two on a campus a week. How do you engage a campus with limited time? It’s caused us to develop a tool that has helped me think through how I’m engaging my campuses. Whether I’m on a campus one day a week or everyday there are four quadrants I need to engage consistently and intentionally. The LOST. The majority of your campus is not involv...

If I’ve got to be honest, I think my love language is numbers. Seriously. When more people show up at our events - I feel loved. I mean, numbers have to be important, right? God named a book of the Bible Numbers! But nothing can suck our souls dry or set our souls afire like numbers. When we run out of chairs and people are standing in the back we go home and have trouble sleeping we’re so excited! When we only have half the people show up who we thought would come we go home and have trouble sleeping we’re so depressed. The numbers game. Ever been asked: “How big is your ministry?” This question has a way of exposing the sin in our hearts quicker than any other. When we walk into a room and we think we’re one of the larger ministries we fight pride. When we walk into a room and we think we’re one of the smaller ministries we fight insecurity and self-doubt. Have you been there? Always looking at how many are there. Feeling like you’ve arrived because you can gather ...