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Campus Ministry as an Emerging Mission Frontier The Promise of Campus Ministries: Theological Explorations, by GBHEM
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Concepts Why an emerging frontier? Why is it strategic? Shifting from traditional to missional A missional view of college students Partnering for Success – Board Strategies (FEAST)
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Sources United Methodism on Edge: Campus Ministry as an Emerging Frontier -- by Alice G. Knotts College Ministry in a Post- Christian Culture -- by Stephen Lutz
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Why Emerging? The largest college-going generation of all time. – In 2013, there were 19.5 million college students, – International student enrollment: 886,052 – In Virginia a total of 534,280 A Post-Christian Culture Only 15%the current college-going generation identify themselves as Christians. (Barna Group ) 77% of professions of faith come before or during the college years. (Barna Group)
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Why Strategic? Higher Education students make up 7% of our national population (20.5 million) They grow up to be leaders in every sphere & their impact on the world far exceeds their numbers. Also …. Because of who – when and where
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Why Strategic? Because of who comprises this people group – only the top 1% of world’s population are privileged to go – There is also a Global missions perspective – students from every nation Because of when – College years are a profoundly formative stage – they make essential decisions about their identity, beliefs, and ethics (the issue: will God have any part of these decisions?) Because of where they are: the campus is a strategic location – devoted to the exchange of ideas and figuring out what to believe.
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Why Shift? The idea that campus ministries are just a faith based student organization or a carryover from high school youth fellowship is a limited view and does not describe the challenges we face today. The choices that are made on our college campuses help set the course of society. A mission identity changes our perspective – how we view the non-Christians around us – no longer focuses on places or events
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Why Shift? Most college ministries are not breaking new ground. Many are becoming more efficient at attracting students from the increasingly smaller pockets of Christendom – i.e. competing for the same pool of previously Christianized students, instead of being a light to the world
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The Shift (1) 1.From Building a Large Group to Reaching a Large Campus In the traditional approach the greatest amount of time, energy, and resources are on the weekly large group meetings – worship teams, fun activities, etc. – meant to attract a good crowd. This shouldn’t be the primary focus.
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The Shift (1) A Missional approach invests time, energy and resources in comprehensive campus-saturating strategies There are huge segments of the campus population we will never see at our weekly large group meetings.
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The Shift (2) 2.From Head Counting to Seed Spreading – A missional approach changes our perception of success and how we measure it. The traditional metric of success has been simple – how many people are we getting? We need to go beyond weekly attendance and figure out ways to assess how well we’re doing at disciplining and equipping people for lifelong fruitfulness as missional Christians – on campus and beyond.
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The Shift (3) 3.From Bible Studies/Small Groups – to Missional Communities Missional communities are groups of students who share a burden for a particular people group and come together for the shared purpose of reaching that group together. Work best when their students are seeking to reach the people they already live, work, and study with all the time. There is no shortage of unreached groups.
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The Shift (4) 4.From Assumptions About Students to Personal Knowledge of Students We need to spend time listening to and learning about the people we have come to serve. Too much time is spent talking about the unchurched/dechurched rather than talking with them.
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The Shift (5) 5.From Presumptions About Presence on Campus to Understanding and Blessing Our Campus Missional college ministry works to understand the context – getting to know the institution – students come and go – institutions stay. We need to renew and redeem places and institutions.
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The Shift (6) 6.From Acquiescing to the Postmodern Relegation of Faith to One Compartment of the Inner Life ---- to Full-Life Engagement. Missional campus ministry constantly helps students make sense of their lives from a deeply Christian perspective. Students are helped to view sex, relationships, work, school, money, entertainment, partying, alcohol, justice – and other issues – from a Christian perspective.
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A Missional View of Students Reaching the People Groups on Campus We should view the campus in the way missionaries view their contexts. We must understand the world views of those we serve. Where do our students fall on the cultural distance/openness spectrum? How open are they to Christianity?
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A Missional View of Students M0 - Those in the Christian fold who would show up regardless. M1 - Actively spiritual, not necessarily religious. They’re on the fence. M2 - Generally silent, apathetic-toward- Christianity group M3 - Suspicious, skeptical, perhaps reacting to negative examples within the church M4 - Active in beliefs or religions very negative to Christianity College Ministry in a Post-Christian Culture by Stephen Lutz
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Reaching The Groups M0 & M1 – Those in the fold – actively spiritual – Traditional College Ministry focuses on the MO and M1 groups. – Missional College Ministry works on reaching the other groups.
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Reaching the Groups M2s – Apathetic toward Christianity – They are the only group not interested in talking. – Non-verbal witness and example become very important. – Partner in things they care about – you may win the right to be heard through the impact and integrity of your actions.
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Reaching the Groups M3 & M4s – Skeptical – Actively anti- Christian – You can reach these groups through constructive conversations – Bringing in speakers, – Social Justice – Service and missions So where do boards fit?
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Reaching the Groups Partnering for Success Board Strategies The Purpose of Today’s Forum
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Board Strategies F E A S T
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Board Strategies F E A S T Not So Much
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Board Strategies F inancial Support E valuation (CMRS) A ccountability (Audits/Reports) S ustainability (Property) T elling our Story (Outreach) The focus to today’s forum
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Partnering For Success
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