Bob's Blog

Over the past year, I have met, called on the phone, or exchanged email with a number of pastors who serve college students. One of the questions I have been asking is, “How do you start a college ministry?” What are those key essentials that make for a God-successful ministry? As I compiled the notes here, this is what I have found. I call them my “Eight Quick Tips for Starting a College Ministry.”

Eight Quick Tips for Starting a College Ministry

1. The Key is Leadership
Along with our Lord leading the group, whoever leads the ministry can either sink it or make it steam ahead. There are probably two key qualities for leading a college ministry: being relational and being authentic. Chuck Bomar, of Cornerstone Community Church, is emphatic in that, “the leader must be relational.” Brian Rottshcafer of ROCKHARBOR adds that he or she must be authentic, “ honest, and real…don’t bleed on them but show your scars.” If you are going to start a college ministry, you have to build your group through authentic, relational leadership.

2. Stick to the Word
You think it’s about the hype? At ROCKHARBOR they try to stay away from being too topical and focus on getting into the Word, “We like to do book studies because they keep us on the right track without getting into agendas,” says Rottschafer. Long Beach Grace attracts many students from the surrounding arts community with a very traditional service. When you ask the students why they come, many will tell you they like the depth of pastor Lou Huesmann’s teaching. As one student put it, “I got tired of the wishy-washy, emotional stuff I was getting. I want depth.”

3. Build Through Relationships
This was touched on in The Key is Leadership but it can’t be overstated. College –age students are relational. “It’s what drives them,” says Bob Wriedt from Grace Community Church of Seal Beach, “It helps them in forming their identity.” If you like to hang out (meaning: you are fine just sitting and drinking something caffeinated, talking about girls, sports, future, or dirty laundry) then you might be a great candidate to lead college students. Young adults want to be known and want to know if you’re in it for the “job” or if you really do care. Trust comes in inches and you need to earn it before you give insight into their lives.

4. Engage in the Culture“Culture means more to them than Church dogma,” says Greg Stump, a Resident Director at Biola and college leader at his church. College – age students don’t want to run away from their world but to wrestle with it. They desire for their Faith to help them to decide for themselves about critical life issues. When Greg’s friend was starting a college ministry at the church, he asked Greg for his help. One of the first things their college group did was to go to Borders and Starbucks to ask other college students what they thought about the Church. They didn’t get too many positive responses but it did encourage the group to seek out how they could better share their faith with others and serve their community.

5. Nurture A Community Environment
Brian Rottschaffer points out that, “Community is not about pleasing you but it’s about serving others.” ROCKHARBOR is a large church with over 2,000 in their college group and around 1,500 in their community building Life Groups but it’s not about the size. They realize like other smaller college groups that community just doesn’t happen because you get together. It takes time to develop a group of young people to see outside their own world. That is why Life Groups do local service and border ministries and support ministries at their church.

6. Identify Your Core and Influencers
Josh Rollins, young adult leader from Columbus, Ohio, notes that every group will start to have a core emerge from within the group. They’re the ones you can always count on being at any event the group puts on. But not every core person is an influencer. You need to identify your influencers in your core to help establish the group. Remember, that your college ministry will reflect those that are influencing your group.

7. Be Consistent
Hey, they’re college age. It is the first time for many new things, like making choices about their time and money, shaping their identity, and forming new relationships. So have patience. You need to be consistent with them. Do not start a midweek study and then drop it after two weeks. They need an anchor, even if they don’t say so at this point. So, be consistent, even if they are not.

8. About Programming…
It was unanimous among college pastors that to set up a “program” at the beginning was killing it before it got off the ground. College ministry is pretty low maintenance and if you like a lot of structure, multiple meetings, charts, visional graphs, etc., then you probably need to look for another place God might have for you. Those things might come later but not at the beginning. “I started with a piece of paper with four names on it and we just had them over to my house for a bar-b-q and games,” says Bomar, “We hung out with them and just got to know them and now we fill out our main sanctuary. We didn’t grow because of programming. For us, programs are death.” And that seems to be the consensus with college pastors.

These “quick tips” are not meant to be the final say in starting a college ministry. They are mostly my own thoughts and insights from observing college groups and interviewing the men and women who are involved with college students. My desire is to help churches who want to begin a college ministry but do not know where to start. I hope some of these “tips” will give you a good place to begin and encourage you to develop your own insights into college ministries.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 4, 2007 at 5:47 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.