I’ve spent the better part of the last 10 years engaged in student ministry of some sort. In 2008, it was leading some Bible studies and gatherings with college guys. In the more recent past, it’s been with both high school and college students. It perhaps helps that I’m a high school teacher at a small private school, yet also live within walking distance of one of the largest universities in America.
Because of my context, merely being available opens up plenty of opportunities. Yet, I tend to be a strategic thinker and want to plot out a methodology. The picture you see is from an exercise we did with our executive pastor (shout-out to A-A Ron). It’s called a SWOT analysis, and that stands for:
- Strengths
- Weaknesses
- Opportunities
- Threats
As we found out in doing it with Aaron, you need to have a bit of clarity on your mission and vision before starting. Or, you have to clarify what you want to accomplish in order to analyze how you want to do it more effectively. In our case, we came up with this:
We want to pursue effective student ministry (both high school and college) in Orlando
More specifically:
We want to help mold high school and college students into whole-life disciples, equipped for various callings, and eager to engage the culture for the sake of the Kingdom
Because you’re curious, that phrase “whole-life disciples” comes from our church. It is a shorthand way of denoting that discipleship involves the whole of a person, not just their mind, or heart, or body. It’s also a way of implying that discipleship involves not just theological education, but perhaps in the case of high school and college students, lessons in “adulting.” In short, we’d like to see Christian adolescents become competent Christian adults.
In light of that pursuit, we then looked at our strengths and weaknesses for that task. We took stock of the various opportunities we had, as well as threats to achieving our mission. Once we did that, we were able to group items into areas of focus that clarify where we need to devote more time and attention to be effective to our own calling.
I’d really recommend the whole exercise, especially if you have someone to guide you through it well. We came away with a clearer sense of the obstacles we face, both internal and external.
For me, they have been two-fold. To riff on Jordan Peterson for a bit, I’ve been caught pursuing what’s expedient and not meaningful for the past few years. That meant more or less saying yes to anything that paid immediately so as to make money for bills and whatnot. But, a byproduct of that was having 5 part time jobs and my attention divided between them. I think I did each well when I devoted hours to them. But, I also think doing many things well was at the expense of doing a few things with excellence.
I’ve decided to pursue the few with excellence.
To do that, money needs to come from somewhere. And before you think this is all just a bait and switch for a support pitch, hear me out. We do need to raise more support. We are looking for 20 new monthly donor commitments before the end of the year. But, I’m more interested right now in explaining what that’s the case, rather than giving you the specifics for what we need.
I’m only passionate about a few things. But, most of those things are very valuable to building up the local church and helping expand the kingdom of God (I’m not sure how killer whales fit in, but I’ll figure it out). I want to be enabled to spend time focusing making whole life disciples among the students that God has placed in my path.
I’ve realized that a pursuit like that often requires a combination of proactive and reactive ministry. In terms of the former, I teach Bible classes at school and lead a weekly Bible study on campus at UCF for a registered student organization. In terms of the latter, I make myself available on Monday’s and Wednesday’s (the days I’m not teaching) to meet up with students. Some of these are regularly scheduled, but I try to leave slack time for the various crises that will come up and a student needs to talk. I’d like to think of it as aspiring to be a college pastor on retainer for the various UCF students that I’ve come to know through SHIFT or through ICS. A faithful presence in the life of a young adult goes a long way toward bringing them to maturity.
Toward that end, I’m hoping we can raise the funding we need to make that more possible. We’re closer this year than we’ve been before. I’m trying to cut life down to three jobs that align with passions (teaching at ICS, college ministry, and music lessons) and praying that God will provide generous donors who would make that middle job more feasible. Ali is praying the same as we are already looking toward the spring and ideas we have to help more and more students flourish toward whole life disciples equipped for their various callings. We’ll continue to stay faithful and pray that the Lord grows fruit through our ministry.