Nor Cal / Nev College Ministries

This is a synthesis of an interview Glen Davis conducted with Steve Shadrach, founder of Student Mobilization along with highlights from Steve's packet titled "Heart of the Campus."

Launching Transformative Campus Ministry

1. Your students will do to others what you did with them. If all you do to start up is find all the loose Christians on campus and get them in a room, don't expect an evangelistic powerhouse to result. Win them to Christ, don’t just invite Christians.
2. You will attract students like those in your core: focus on mainstream influencers (as opposed to interested or isolated students).
3. Don’t start a large group meeting until you have 15-20 mainstream students who have primarily been won to Christ who are all sharing Christ with their friends. It takes a year and a half to two years to reach that point.
4. The three key components of a campus ministry are momentum, multiplication, and management.
5. Do discipleship in the context of evangelism, and not vice-versa. Frequently we teach people to do evangelism as one component of our discipleship strategy and then get back to 'real discipleship'. What we need to do instead is help students share their faith and in the context of ministry do on-the-spot discipleship.
6. Spend all your time on campus, hold all your meetings on campus—don’t even have an office! Grab your suitcase/backpack in the morning, get on campus, and don't leave until the day is done.
7. The beginning is hard, exhausting work. You have to take the initiative in everything, meet people like crazy, and follow up on those meetings.

Reaching The Heart Of The Campus

• "All people are equally important, but not all people are equally strategic." Dr. Bill Bright
• The most strategic people on campus are the key leaders of the key groups.
• They comprise only about 5% of the campus, but their influence is huge.
• Win the chief, win the tribe--this is a basic missiological principle.
• The heart of the campus is the most unreached segment.
• Focus on influencers and you will indirectly effect more interested and isolated students.
• If you want influential staff down the road you must focus on influential students now.

Do We Want FAT Or FAITH?

We often say we're looking for FAT student-faithful, available, and teachable, but for an interested or isolated student, FAT may mean this:

• FAITHFUL: they don't have many friends, so they will surely respond to any attention you give them
• AVAILABLE: they really don't have anything else better to do, why not hang out with you?
• TEACHABLE: their self-esteem is so low that they know they have a long way to go
• Clearly, FAT is not enough! We need to add:
• INITIATIVE: they are willing and able to take what you give them and pass it on to others
• HEART FOR PEOPLE: they have the social and emotional maturity to care about others and reach out beyond themselves

Why Greeks Are Crucial

• Less than 1% of the U.S. population has been Greek
• 80% of all Fortune 500 companies are led by Greeks
• 85% of all Presidential cabinet members since 1900 are Greeks
• 80% of all Supreme Court Justices since 1910
• 78% of all lawyers in the U.S.
• 75% of all U.S. Congress representatives
• 70% of all people listed in "Who's Who in America"
• 65% of all doctors
• Implication: the Greek system attracts and produces leaders!

The First Three Years

1st Year

• Saturate the campus with prayer
• Spend the first 9 months surveying the 100 key leaders on the campus
• During survey time, share the gospel and get their response (at least 3-4 of these per week)
• Have pledge meetings at each of the Greek houses (fall and spring classes)
• Start a Presidents Club (weekly study on leadership with the key Presidents on the campus)
• Start a Pledge Class Presidents Club (weekly study on leadership)
• Meet as many people as I can. Record them on cards, memorize and pray over the cards daily
• Out of all of this contact work try to start 5-8 investigative groups (I-Groups)
• Try to share the gospel 5-8 times per week and follow up new Christians
• Start no large group meetings
• Have random one-to-ones presenting "The Vision" of the Great Commission
• Recruit to Christmas Conference and Summer Training Project

2nd Year

• Saturate the campus and students with prayer
• Start up the Presidents Club and Pledge Class Presidents Club
• Start 2 Discipleship Groups of the FAITH students from year 1
• Do all the pledge and team meetings (seeking to begin 3-4 I-Groups)
• Have regular one to ones with D-Group members who have embraced "The Vision" of disciplemaking
• Meet as many people as I can-record, memorize, and pray over daily
• Share the gospel 3-4 times a week (Have D-Group member with me every time). Follow up new Christians
• Survey each of the new leaders on the campus that were not there the year before
• Have a hand picked fall leadership retreat with discipleship group members to build vision and identity
• Utilize D-Groups to recruit to Christmas Conference
• With D-Groups and I-Groups as core, hold 3 large group rallies in the Spring
• Recruit to Summer Training Project

3rd Year

• Saturate campus and students with prayer
• Hand pick a ministry team of key leaders (4+) and meet one on one weekly with each for equipping
• Hand pick a D-Group of key leaders (5+) and meet one on one every other week for establishing and equipping
• Start 2-3 I-Groups (pledge class is one)
• Share gospel 3-4 times a week (always with a ministry team or D-Group member)
• With agreement of all the key leaders, hold 10 weekly large group meetings that fall. Either call it "Late Nite" or give it a non-spiritual title without a ministry label on it. You might call the weekly meeting "Leadership U" and focus on building areas of life and leadership in any and all students that want to come. It would be a university within a university. Try to channel every student that comes into small groups that ministry team and D-Group members would be leading.
• Use the core students to recruit the students to Christmas Conference and Summer Project.
• Have a key student retreat the spring semester with the ministry team and D-Groups coming and each brining the key students they are working with.

SOME SCRIPTURAL PRECENDENTS

• 2 Timothy 2:2
• Moses (Heb 11:23-26, Acts 7:20-22)
• Paul (Phil 3:4-6)
• The Conversion of Cornelius (Acts 10)
• Matthew 9:36-38