Tag Archive: College

Student Ministry Conundrum

April 13, 2021 0 Comments

Student leaders run out of steam for a lot of reasons. But what if our system is failing them!?

Our staff team read through Tim Casteel’s insightful article, Turning Drowning Students into Christ-Centered Laborers, back in February. Ever since we have been working out how we might adapt his idea for students here at UBC.

Tim highlights the need for sustained growth in personal formation that yields leadership and service on campus over the long-haul. We resonated with his observations and concur that students in our church do indeed run out of steam. Many want to be able to do more, but may have neglected the formation of habits and perspectives that will carry them through not only the last year of University, but also into their careers. The transition starts in their “third year” and seems to be eating their lunch and their bandwidth for making spiritual leadership investments in new relationships.

Maybe our system is the problem. We know we need to adjust to a different student reality.  Many of the students involved at Origin Church have professional work experiences (we call them “co-ops”) throughout their degree. They may leave campus and work with companies for 3, 6, 9 and even 12 months at a time. So, the average undergraduate at UBC may take as many as five and half years to complete their degree.

As they enter into the last years we know they are changing gears and are often looking beyond our community and church. But we have always been thinking longterm about their life with Jesus even if they were not . Our hope is to keep “doing stuff together that sparks a life journey with Jesus.” We keep hoping they will make significant contributions into the spiritual life and development of other students. Read: relationships!

We have been equipping upper year students to make significant investments with first years and their peers. But we think Tim may be onto something about this generation and the need to give them keys for unlocking sustainable habits in multiple areas of their lives. We like the idea of giving attention to multiple areas of formation: spiritual, personal and missional.

Here’s our plan at the moment. It’s definitely a work in progress! We have been taking time in our weekly staff meeting to generate ideas for the next session. This next week I will be writing the session: Develop Friendship Capacity.

Equip our core team of students during the summer term to implement this plan Fall 2021.
9 Keys and 9 Meetups with sessions of about 45 minutes. Provide a printed guide or pdf doc which can be viewed on their phone.
Provide a 15 minute video that they can watch together.
Provide suggestions on how to take this “key” and unlock this area of growth.

Here are the topics we are proposing:

Here’s a little more about the topics:

  1. Live loved —An exploration of The Gospel of Jesus  & A life full of the Holy Spirit
  2. Develop a Growth Mentality: An exploration of research related to the Growth Mentality.
  3. Increase Friendship Capacity An exploration of the different realms and dimensions of friendship.
  4. Meet Jesus in Prayer:  Getting started; in solitude and in community
  5. Develop Executive Function Skills and introduce becoming “a non-anxious presence”
  6. Curiosity: Rock Philippians 2:3-4; Initiate conversations & and take an interest in their spiritual life.
  7. Meet Jesus in Scripture. Develop a plan. Use the Hand Illustration. 
  8. Become a Giver (instead of a Taker): An exploration of Adam Grant’s work.
  9. Point to Jesus and Make Invitations: missionary ID and evangelism as a lifestyle.

We’d love to hear from you. Like I said: Literally this is a work in progress!

Students:
If you are an upper year student, what do you wish you had given some more energy and focus to in terms of growth in your first and second years?

If you are a first or second year student, which of these are you most interested in?

Ministry Leaders:
As student ministry or church leaders do you have similar concerns for this generation?

All:
Are there other topics you might propose for each area of formation?

Discipleship, Leadership

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Six Confessions of Successful University Graduates

May 19, 2016 0 Comments

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With all the ongoing talk about whether or not a college degree is worth the expense, it seems like good sense to ask college graduates how they are doing. Gallup has done that and more. Gallup now has collected loads of data on what healthy thriving people look like. And then, in a project called the Gallop-Purdue Index, Gallop asked  30,000 graduates how they were doing, what they did during college, and then referenced their answers to a health or well-being index.

It turns out, that what you do in the extra-curricular realm during college, is what may make the difference once you are graduated and living real life. The thriving graduates had six confessions in common. The more of these confessions in their assessment, the better they were likely doing in their career, finances, physical health, community engagement, and friendships. So what were these thriving graduates up to during college or university?

Here are the six confessions of graduates thriving after graduation:

  1. I had a professor who made me excited about learning.
  2. I had professors who cared about me as a person.
  3. I had a mentor who encouraged me to pursue my goals and dreams.
  4. I worked on a long-term project.
  5. I had a job or internship where I learned to apply what I was learning at school.
  6. I was extremely involved in extra-curricular activities.

Are you enrolled as a college student or hoping to be one? Going to college is expensive. Not making the most of the time may be more costly in the long-run. The issue here goes way beyond your grades. So what’s in your control as a student? You can research your professors and choose accordingly. You can look for mentors. You can volunteer for long-term projects in clubs and community organizations. You can participate in paid internships and co-ops. You can get involved in organizations where you have interests in order to grow and develop relationships.

Want to learn more about the study?

Follow these two links for articles on the Gallop-Purdue index:
http://qz.com/384713/college-is-worth-it-if-you-have-these-six-experiences/

http://www.gallup.com/opinion/gallup/182312/college-worth-depends.aspx

Are you a college graduate? How did you do more than follow the “academic” path laid out for you? Do any of these six confessions apply to you?

Career, Education, Graduation

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