At CollegeLeader we are giving away a 4-part teaching series for free to the first 100 people.  It’s called, “Our Creator” and you can get that by clicking here.  This series is about God and is a series I recently did in my church.  This is downloadable and comes with messages on mp3, my personal talk notes (the exact ones I used to teach from), and handouts for students.  So, either way hopefully it can be of some assistance to you in your ministry.  The series covers:

• God, as He’s Distinct From Us
• God, as He Relates to Us
• God, In The Flesh
• God, In The Spirit

Anyway, no catch.  Just free.  Hope it’s of help to you.

Almost a year ago now I did a message on the sin of envy in my church.  It’s deep rooted in all of us.  But there seems to be a whole other level for women.  Jealousy and envy is a huge issue – for some reason more so than most guys.  I’ve tried to talk to numerous women about this issue, all say it’s a massive problem, but few have answers or can articulate the issue in their own life concisely and with complete honesty…until I read this article.  If you’re working with college age women, you have to read this article entitled, The Sneaky Trick of Envy.

Ok, it’s not new news that social networking is a major deal – unless you have lived in a cave for the last 10 years.  And, we’re not breaking new waters if we discuss how social networking and the church work together.  Or, if they should at all.

But, it could be new to hear how others in college ministry are using social networking sites for their ministry. I’m sure most of us use it in the same general sense, but I wonder if there’s anything “newer” that you have found that works…?  How has sites like Facebook or MySpace or Twitter or LinkdIn helped you stay connected to students that went away to college? Has it helped at all, or did you just initially think it was a good idea? How do you use it to communicate for events, random gatherings, or gathering people for the holidays? Anything new(er)?

In light of this discussion I saw this video with some stats on social networks.  Now, stats can sometimes be deceiving and I don’t know where they get the stats for this video, but I think it’s very interesting – and probably not far from reality. After watching, please throw out your thoughts/experiences on the above questions so everyone can learn from your successes and “learning opportunities…”

I’m currently writing a chapter on characteristics found in churches that are embracing college age people.  This isn’t a chapter about characteristics in college ministries specifically, it’s about churches as a whole.  I currently have 8 characteristics and am looking for a few more.  So, this is where your thoughts would be welcomed!

• If your church (as a whole) is engaging with college age people, what do you think it is about your church that is attractive?
• Or, if your church isn’t engaging college age people (as a whole), what characteristics in your church are hindering that engagement?
• In your time with college age people, what do you hear them say they like about their church (as a whole).

Again, I know it could be easy to talk about an individual ministry, but this needs to be broader than that.  Would love your insights, suggestions, thoughts…

First Baptist Church in Dallas just announced plans Sunday to build a $130 million state-of-the-art campus in the middle of the downtown Dallas arts district.  For more info and to watch a news cast of this, click here.

The reason I’m posting this here is to find out how you think college age people might respond to this.  College age people in Dallas might think one way and those living in a different region could think differently.  Church culture is vastly different in different parts of the country.  And I think this is necessary to some degree.

So, would this be a turn-off for college age people in your area?  Or, would this get them excited?

To be clear, I am not interested in your opinions on whether or not you think this is a good idea – that can quickly become a fruitless discussion.  I’m only asking what college age people might think.  So, what do you think?  Potential turn-off or turn-on?

I recently read an article called, “Nature Refreshes Student Spirituality” that is about a subset of Campus Crusade called Lifelines.  I was intrigued, and frankly impressed, with the values their embracing and modeling for all of us.  It’s not rocket science, it’s just focused.  Their program is described in this way:

“Students are at odds with so many things during this phase of their lives,” three-year Lifelines facilitator Jon Ayers said. “Lifelines is a rope for students to grab onto, a resource to help them navigate these waters.”  In another place the article says, “The vision of Lifelines is to raise up spiritual leaders who will meet the pressing needs of the world and offer true hope.”  A sophomore in college said this about being involved, “You can allow yourself to be totally vulnerable.”

This is perfect.  This is exactly what college ministry ought to be about.

One of the facilitators of the program said, “We want students to learn about themselves…We want them to relate the things we talk about in our programs back to their lives, so each trip we talk about a different virtue …  hope, courage, trust, teamwork, communication.”

Interesting how she breaks down what the students are struggling with at home.  I’m not sure if this is something the organization has articulated formally or if this was off the top of her head, but it’s interesting for sure.  I boil things down to identity, intimacy, meaning, pleasure and truth as the core issues college age people are sifting through.  I’m not entirely sure what they mean by the words they use (hope, courage, trust, teamwork, communication), but I like the practicality of the words.

Anyway, the article points out a few other things that stood out to me.  And if this article is accurate in regards to the organization, we see the following things modeled for us:

1. college ministry is specifically about helping people navigate the waters they are in.
2. college ministry is about helping people discover who they are, uniquely
3. college ministry is about preparing people for a life of mission – interesting to note that the article states that 80% of the people involved in the program do NOT come from church backgrounds.
4. college ministry is about allowing people to discover who they are and providing a safe place for them to express what they are finding – good, bad, or ugly

I think if our college ministries could embody these things we’d be successful.

I’ve been in Atlanta the last couple days, writing a new book – The Slow Fade.  It’s set to be out early summer, but will pre-release in late April at The Orange Conference.  It walks leaders through principles that need to be embraced if we are going to halt the fade away of college-age people in churches.  The thing I love about it is that it’s about solutions and extremely practical.  Abbie Smith, Reggie Joiner and I are bringing three perspectives to it that really rounds off the book.  Over the last couple days we’ve gotten a ton done and we’re more excited than ever.   Can’t wait for it to be in print.  Here’s one of the boards we have for the general flow…

There is a new training series I did that has just been released through SimplyYouthMinistry.com.  It’s a 7 part seminar series that talks through the role of a college ministry, major discipleship areas pertinent in college ministry, teaching/discipleship philosophies that work – and those that don’t, and how to truly connect college-age people to the life of your church.  The series is filled with practical examples and illustrations from my ministry and gives an overall vision for college ministry in the local church context.  The series is divided into the following sessions:

• Session 1 – Role of College Ministry
• Session 2 – College-Age Pursuits: Identity
• Session 3 – College-Age Pursuits: Intimacy
• Session 4 – College-Age Pursuits: Meaning & Pleasure
• Session 5 – College-Age Pursuits: Truth
• Session 6 – Teaching & Discipleship
• Session 7 – Ingraining College Ministry Into the Fabric of Your Church

Each seminar is about 20-25 minutes long, it comes with handouts (PDF and Word doc) as well as additional Q&A sessions for each topic.  These are designed to: help you create a healthy college ministry that prepares students for the transition into adulthood; you can show it to new leaders to help them understand your ministry’s focus and potential impact; or maybe even watch it with your senior pastor to share the vision for the ministry.

You can purchase each session individually, or purchase the bundle at a discounted rate.  Click here for more info on these, to view a sample, or to purchase and receive 10% off all College Resources from SimplyYouthMinistry.com.

Here is a brief introduction video I did as well:

College Ministry Training by Chuck Bomar from Kristen Giesenschlag on Vimeo.

There is  a lot of talk around college campuses – from the administration side of things – about the possibility of requiring students to have a laptop or a Netbook.  Some of the arguments being thrown around for such a requirement are:

• With good wifi on campus, students could do work just about anywhere, not just in dedicated labs.  This could save money on repairing library computers, managing the time spent on them (especially on community college campuses where the # of students attending is sky rocketing), and could open up square footage for classes currently designated for computer labs.
• If they’re required they would then be covered by financial aid.  This then would give lower-income students a more even playing field with their more affluent peers.
• It encourages “portable academic study” which these skills will obviously be more and more necessary moving forward.
• All books could be purchased in soft-copy format, ultimately saving money for students – potentially a LOT of money.

Some of the questions being posed are:

• Netbooks often don’t have enough memory.
• What about students that only take one class?  Would they have to pay for a laptop (if they don’t have one) and pay more for it than they did the class?

But, for me, I’m wondering if students would pay attention in class.  My hunch is their Facebook profile would get much more traction than their Word doc or excel spreadsheet.  Aren’t cell phones a distraction enough?

Any thoughts on this?  Have you heard of this happening on campuses near you?  Is this a good thing?