(This is a long post but it is fairly worthy…)
For 25 years my wife Liz and I worked in the Campus Ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ. During the ten years we spent in direct student ministry and the 15 years I served in a supervisory role I was frequently vexed by the demographical make-up of our campus ministries. We typically had a ton of Freshmen, fewer Sophomores, even fewer Juniors followed by a dedicated handful of Seniors. A year in which we (or any campus I was aware of) graduated over 20 seniors was a rare thing. Twelve to fifteen graduating seniors was seen as a stellar year. If we what we were doing was so good, why wasn’t the graduating senior class the largest class? Why did a diagram of ministry demographics represent a pyramid?
Perhaps the answer is found in College Guidebooks like Peterson’s Undergraduate Guide: Four-Year Colleges, 2011. One useful piece of information is the percentage of entering Freshmen who actually graduate…or even go on to their Sophomore years. It is not unusual for only 50% of Freshman students return for their second year of college. So the normal attrition can be part of the fault.
But I think there is a bigger issue at hand and it has to do with our (Liz and I are still on Associate Staff with Campus Crusade) approach to students. A long-time adage (though not value) of Crusade has been “Move with the Movers.” So if a student wasn’t interested in going deeper in his or her commitment to Christ we would move on to the next student, who perhaps would be willing to listen more or go deeper. We called this our “filter” system and illustrated it with either a funnel or a four layer wedding cake, with the smaller layer of cake and the smaller part of the funnel, representing the most committed students. I can’t help but think of my dear friends Kurt and Susie Richardson, who in a very cleaver, tongue-in-cheek jester, designed their actual wedding cake, after the figurative “Four-stage Environment” wedding cake. Pretty classic….
My observation is that movements cannot be built based on a concept that promotes shrinkage rather than growth. What could we do to invert the pyramid so that each group of students, because of the excitement and life-change they were experiencing, would be inviting their friends to be part of a movement so that each succeeding class was larger than the class before…inverting the pyramid. How could this happen?
We are always looking for the really sharp students who would make great Crusade Staff. We would love for them to join with us on our staff, investing in the eternal and not the temporal. So when we meet a Freshman and ask, “What’s your major?” (or “Do you have a major yet?”) and the Freshman responds, “I’m going to major in journalism” or “I’m planning to major in Engineering,” their answers are most likely met with a tepid response, something like, “Well that’s nice…. Hey I’m starting a Bible study next week and I was wondering if….” Thus begins the filtering process complete with new challenges to lead a group, reach a target audience, etc. (How many staff do you know that said, “Well, I really majored in Crusade when I was in college. I started as an engineer but switched my major to Communication so I’d have more time for ministry.”) In their Junior or Senior year we either invite them to a “Life Options” (Staff Recruitment) Conferences, or have a 1-1 conversation regarding joining with us. At some point we / the presenter draws a line down the middle of a sheet of paper that forms a “Pro-Con” list. On the left-side of the line we write, “ENGINEER.” On the right side we right “MINISTRY” (or some other word that expresses vocational Christian Service). This is followed with questions like, “A thousand years from now, which work will have endured?” “Where would you like to spend the most energetic and productive hours of your day?” etc., etc. Truth is the quiz is rigged. There is only one correct answer. Those that make the choice to go into Christian service love this. This exercise confirms the direction of their lives. But what of those who say, “Yea, I know but I’m still going to be an engineer.” From this point forward the relationship between the staff and student is forever altered. It’s like breaking up with a girlfriend or boyfriend. In spite of the feeble promise that “we’ll always be friends,” the relationship will never be the same. Going forward, its always a bit awkward. Students go away feeling like they let the staff down. And perhaps they find themselves thinking, “Was all that kindness and interest in me just a three-year recruiting pitch?”
Understanding this scenario, helps us interpret why, in spite of the hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of students being involved in Crusade, our alumni relationships are so minimal. It seems that those who are most committed to Crusade as alumni were least involved as students. “Yea, my Senior Year this guy came and spoke in our fraternity and I got involved in a house Bible study and went to Daytona (or Panama City) over Spring Break with Crusade and learned to share my faith. Man it was great!” He never was recruited to staff…never had the conversation…he just graduated and got on with his life.
Now let’s create a different scenario….one that takes kingdom thinking and domain thinking into our equation.
Scenario #1
“What’s your major?”
“Journalism.”
“Wow! Do you know that it is ideas that change the world and there has never been a movement of God without those are able to cast the vision and articulate a plan. I’ve got a Bible study going with students who relate to the written and spoken word—Philosophy majors, English Lit majors, Communication majors, etc. Each week we not only study the Bible and pray for one another but we also take what we are learning in school and connect it to what God wants to do in our world. We’re working on a project that…”
Scenario #2
“What’s your major?”
“Engineering.”
“Wow! Do you realize that nearly every major problem the world is facing from clean water, energy use, housing, transportation, etc. has an engineering solution? I’ve got a group of students from different environmental, design and engineering majors. Each week we not only study the Bible and pray for one another but we also are working on a two-year project to design and build a simple house, that uses renewable energy that can be built, using local materials, in nearly any country in the world for under $2,500. You want to join with us?”
Most likely students could group their majors around the 7 domains (See To Transform a City: Whole Church, Whole Gospel, Whole City. Swanson and Williams, Zondervan (2010)) of Business, Government, Education, Arts & Entertainment, Media, Family and Religion. Sometime during their Junior year (or earlier) they could be introduced to kingdom-minded leaders, from the city, from each of these domains that would serve as ad hoc mentors to these students. (Talk about building a robust alumni network!)
Students begin inviting their friends to be part of such groups. “…well the best thing I do during the week is a group I belong to that is changing the world. What are you doing on Tuesdays from 3-6?” (We also become their parent’s best friends as we are encouraging these students to excel in their majors!)
Eventually one of the students asks the staff, “Hey, what is it that you actually do?” The staff responds, “Oh, I’ve got the greatest job in the world. I connect passionate people from the different domains to fix everything that is broken in our world—everything that sin destroyed and God wants to restore—our relationship with God, with ourselves, to one another and to our planet.”
“Well, I think I’d like a job like yours…”
“No, I think you need to stick with business. You don’t want to raise your own support….”
“Yea, but I really think I do….”
Those that join with us really join with us with the majority of students graduating and figuring out how, not just to have start a Bible study for business people but how to transform business from a kingdom perspective.
Thinking in this manner reflects that we understand the difference between vocation and occupation. Vocation is our calling. Occupation is what we do to support that calling. The Scriptures tell us we have one triune calling. We are “called” to three things:
1. We are called to belong to Jesus Christ (Romans 1:6)
2. We are called to be holy—conformed to his likeness (1 Corinthians 1:2)
3. We are called to ministry (Acts 13:2)
The apostle Paul for instance had one call on his life but how he supported that call varied from time and circumstance. In Acts 18:3-5 Paul stayed with Priscilla and Aquilla and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them. Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.
[BUT] When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.
If he had to work as a tentmaker he did so and did his ministry on the weekends but when Silas and Timothy joined him he kicked up his involvement in ministry. One calling…several occupations.
The solution to the Great Commission is not more full-time laborers but rather it is teaching and helping people in every domain live out their kingdom calling.
