On the Journey... A new Campaign of Student Life

The Dream a lasting campaign with the aim of: – Increasing awareness of Student Life, both internally (on campus) and externally (wider community) – Creating a new and innovative avenue for engaging students in spiritual conversations – Providing an ongoing platform for spiritual conversations with students

The Campaign “Life is about the journey, not the destination.” Launching “On the Journey” campaign A widespread pioneering effort, laying the foundation for Student Life to have an ongoing impact Thongs form the “spearhead” of this campaign

The Strategy Give the thongs away to students who complete a “journey” survey AND leave contact details Use the “on the journey” thongs as a conversation starter when doing follow-up Catch up with people during the semester and ask how their journey is going Wear a pair yourself and use it to start conversations Point them to the website “What’s your walking strategy?”

The Survey

Evangelism A chance to capitalise on the message that has already been submitted to the student population and verbally continuing the dialogue of a “journey” with them. A starting point for showing how a personal relationship with God fits into a life journey Aim to engage your campus in discussion about living a holistic life...all areas affect the journey

Initiate a conversation Some things you can say to start a conversation could include… – Hey, I’m part of Student Life, the group who gave away those thongs! – Nice thongs! Where did you get them? – Sooo, on the journey hey? – I see you got some Journey thongs, mind if I ask how your journey is going?

Continue the conversation – Have you ever thought about your life as a journey? – What has your life journey been so far? – If you could describe it, has it been a “walk in the park”, a “hike in the wilderness” or “wandering in the shopping centre looking for something you can’t quite remember what it was” or something else? – What are important things to take with you on this journey through life? – What do you hope to see/achieve throughout this journey? – Where do you think it ends up? Does it have a point? Is there a particular destination you are aiming at?

Taking it further Use your Student Life evangelism skills… Some practice - share with a friend one of the following things in the context of a life’s journey. – Share your testimony (briefly) – Share the good news – Invite to relational events Hopefully, if people continue to wear the thongs, that will open up opportunities for God chats in a range of new contexts

O-week Ideas Thongs giveaway and surveys (guidelines for this later) Poster and Banners: We are looking into the design of posters and banners that you could produce for your own campuses. Website … T-shirts: We have a design, but this can be a bit expensive to produce them, so it would need to be owned and driven by a local student or group on each campus. Whiteboard markers: Student Lifers on each campus grab some whiteboard markers and write on the board before or after classes. A simple line saying ‘Live the Journey’, “How’s your journey going?” and either the website address or “Student Life” Chalking walkways on campuses where this is permitted Videos: we will be producing a few video clips for promotional use, so if your campus allows student groups to do public video presentations, let us know Conversational questions – like we talked about earlier Promotion of social activities Promotion of weekly meeting

Some Road Rules Don't give thongs away willy-nilly Don't have them sitting unattended where people can grab them Strictly ONE pair per person Only give them if you get contact details Remind people we have a limited number, they need to get in quick to get a pair Point people to the website...

Our Vision If we do it well, we could... Raise our profile and become more known Show that we are on about helping people take life’s journey well Give us a springboard to evangelism Have something in common on every Student Life campus around Australia Bring glory to God in our words and deeds