You want to start a ministry on a local campus. You’ve done your homework and gotten to know your campus, and now want to put that information to good use and see what God will do through a campus ministry.
Whether you’re a teacher sponsor for a campus club, a student leader with a heart for your school, or a youth pastor desiring to impact a local campus, you’ll need to define your vision, consider your ministry resources, and put a plan in place.
What is your Vision?
When you think about your future ministry, what do you see? What do you imagine that excites you? Do you see students coming to faith in Christ? growing in their faith? sharing their faith with other students? impacting the campus for their good and God’s glory? forming strong relationships with one another and supporting one another in the faith?
If you are just starting, you may want to consider one thing you want to see this first semester. For example, you’d love to see a group of student leaders coming together to pray for their campus weekly or encourage one another as a small group Bible study. Vision is helpful because it gives us the place we want to end up, but it also informs our first steps. And sometimes God gives a broader vision as we move forward.
What Resources do you have?
As you’ve investigated the campus, God has shown you that He has been at work even before you were, calling others to join you and providing resources to make the vision a reality.
What student leaders and adult volunteers are ready to come alongside you to impact the campus? Is the campus open to a club or is a local church ready to host your campus ministry? Lay out God’s provisions and move on to the next step – formulate a plan.
Let's make a Plan
A starting plan needs to have two elements.
- Who will you plan with and when will you meet to have regular planning times?
For example, will you meet once a semester with a few student leaders to plan out the semester? Or once a month with a leadership team comprised of students and adults to plan a month at a time? It’s up to you how you do it, but planning and giving students leadership is the first step in leading a ministry. - What will be the centerpiece or main element of your ministry?
Will a student Bible Study be your main emphasis to start or a campus club meeting, will it be a weekly meeting to gather new students? In your plan, you’ll want to put in the basics such as when you’ll meet and where. And you’ll also want to decide what you’ll do when you meet, and who will lead the time together. Remember the vision! What main element will help you reach your vision?
"When you think about your future ministry, what do you see? What do you imagine that excites you?"
After you get these primary elements in motion, you might consider these options as your ministry grows:
- Prayer can involve adults such as Moms In Prayer as well as student prayer. Ideally, your ministry will be undergirded in personal and corporate prayer from the beginning, but you can add opportunities for students to grow in prayer. Several options are:
- Concerts of Prayer
- Prayer Triplets
- Prayer experiences
- Outreach once a semester or once a month, provide an opportunity for students to hear the gospel and make a decision for Christ. It also shows our students the importance of sharing their faith and gives them the opportunity to lead others to Christ. Check out our articles on putting on a Large Group Outreach for more on this.
- Bible Study offered regularly gives students the spiritual food they need to grow in their faith. Cru has developed the Thrive Studies that provide students and volunteers with all they need to teach God’s Word.
- Community-builders are important to help students connect relationally and form solid friendships that will help them live out their faith in everyday life. Service projects and socials are great ways to build community.
- Conferences/Retreats offer time away from everyday pressures to invest in getting to know God. God often works mightily in students’ lives in camp environments. Even a day-long retreat can be useful if you don’t have the resources for an overnight retreat. Cru has conferences twice a year that might work for your students.
Planning Tools
The difficult thing about planning is taking your big vision, and making it practical with decisions about when to meet, what you’ll do, and who is responsible for what. We’ve created some tools to help you turn your vision into reality.
Ministry Planning Sheet [PDF] [Google Doc]
This is your starting point. It will help you lay out your vision and resources and plan by semester with an evaluation between semesters.
Semester Schedules [PDF] [Google Doc]
We’ve created a form you can use to plan your own semester schedule. This is a great place to write down your plans for the semester and share it with your team. We’ve even filled a few in to help you get started and to give you an idea of what’s possible (one for a weekly meeting schedule, another for a small group schedule with monthly outreach meetings). These forms are just starting points for you. You will need to adjust the dates, change the column names and make whatever changes will best serve you and your ministry. Each tab has a different schedule.
Mapping Your Campus Worksheet [PDF]
This form will help you brainstorm the different groups on campus and consider how to reach out to them. Doing this at the beginning of the year with your leaders will help you know what your next best outreach steps are.
Planning your ministry well won’t solve all of your problems but it will help you get everyone on the same page, help you feel less stressed about the year, and give you great next steps to move your movement forward.
Helpful Principles
As you plan your ministry, consider these ministry principles:
Sow broadly
It can be easy to focus on a few students that you gather at the beginning, but continue to consider other groups you can reach into. The biblical principle of sowing broadly will result in greater visibility, more students involved, and greater campus impact.
Share your faith
As with sowing broadly, sharing your faith will infuse energy and faith into your movement. Students will be challenged to step out in faith and encouraged as they see God use them to have significant conversations with others. Not only will your students grow in faith, but you will see students respond to the gospel and get involved in your movement!
Empower students to lead
We repeatedly hear students say they are thankful to hear from their peers rather than adults. As well, a diversity of student leadership provides for a well-rounded ministry and prevents one or two students from carrying the load. Student ownership results in a more dynamic ministry as students diligently promote and invest in projects they own.
Partner with the community
Involving the community gives visibility to your ministry, provides resources such as prayer, manpower and finances, and helps you network with other believers. Some ideas for community involvement include speakers, meeting refreshments, volunteers, and event partnerships.
Go to the campus
You may start small, but as you grow and have the resources, a diversified ministry offers students a multitude of benefits. Small groups provide for community, accountability and growth. Large group events provide visibility and momentum. Prayer undergirds your whole ministry and teaches students that God is the builder and we are his helpers.
